Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Male and Female Register in CMC

Male and Female Register in CMC
Marschall Eirence Metekohy
Satya Wacana Christian University

Abstract

The different social values men and women hold lead to the different ways
men and women communicate in the society. Studies suggest that female register
(Lakoff, 1973) is different from male register (Karlsson, 2007). Halliday (1998)
proposes that a register is determined by the Tenor, Field, and Mode of the
interactions. Furthermore, human communication has evolved since the era of the
internet and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has become a new mode
in communication. Therefore since language is dynamic, the language used by
men and women might evolve as well. This study was aimed at investigating the
male and female register in CMC. In the attempt to accomplish the objective of
this study, 30 members of online discussion forum participated. The language
they used in the discussion in the forum was analyzed. The result indicated that
most of the features of the male and female register from previous studies were
observed. However, not all the characteristics of male and female register were
found in the conversations. Moreover, it was also observed that there were
occurrences of cross-gender register. This study suggested that due to the different

nature of CMC communication, the features of male and female register might be
different from the Lakoff‟s (1973) hypothesis.
Keywords: Male Register, Female Register, CMC