Analysis on men`s and women`s sentences in Peter Billingsley`s Couples Retreat.

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ANALYSIS ON MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SENTENCES IN
PETER BILLINGSLEY’S COUPLES RETREAT
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
FRANSISCA DESI NATALIA ARYANTI
Student Number : 084214109

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

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ANALYSIS ON MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SENTENCES IN
PETER BILLINGSLEY’S COUPLES RETREAT
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
FRANSISCA DESI NATALIA ARYANTI

Student Number : 084214109

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This thesis entitled “Analysis on Men’s and Women’s Sentences in Peter
Billingsley’s Couples Retreat” is purely made by the thesis writer. In other words,
all ideas, all phrases, and all sentences, unless otherwise stated, are ideas, phrases,
and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences
including degree cancelation if she took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or
sentences without proper references.

Yogyakarta, June 6th, 2013

FransiskaDesi Natalia Aryanti

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For everyone who asks receives,
Those who seek find,
And to those who knock,
The door will be opened
- Matthew 7:8

It’s always too early to quit –Norman Peale

Good things come to those who believe,
Better things come to those who are patient,
And the best things come to those who never give up

-Anonymous-

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I dedicate this undergraduate thesis to
my beloved parents and my only brother

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I realize that I will not be able to finish this undergraduate thesis alone.
I am very glad because there are so many supports, helps, and guidance for me
in finishing this study. Therefore, I would like to dedicate my gratitude to
particular names below.
First of all, I really thank Jesus Christ for giving me great blessing in
doing this study from the beginning until the end. My deep gratitude is for Dr.
Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A as my advisor for guiding and giving advice and time
to consult this thesis even in his busy time. My deep gratitude also goes to my
co-adviser, Dra. A.B Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D, I thank her for giving me
suggestion to revise this thesis. I would like to thank Mbak Ninik for her
helpful administration and all the lecturers of English Letters Department at
Sanata Dharma University.
My special gratitude is addressed to my beloved parents, Agustinus
Singgih Nugroho and Bernadetta Yuliani Pangestuti, and for my only brother,
Alexander Chrisna Kurniawan, who never stops giving me supports in
everything. I also thank all families for their prayers during my study at Sanata
Dharma, Yogyakarta.
I thank Michael Rigel Diaz for giving me advice, support, solution and

for every single time to share and discuss. I also thank my lovely friend Hadi
Wahono for never ending speech which is full of motivation, spirit, and
suggestion for my thesis.
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Finally, I thank all of my friends; Epy and family, Andika, Julius, Ryan,
Rana, Susan, Anna, Cindy, Tante Lia, Cici, Farel, Ifa, Rina, Sisil, Sita, Sari,
Topan, Nico, Daniel, Prayudi, Dame, Yoyo, Febri, Gabby, Yanti, Neng Anna,
Asti, Hilaria, Dewi, Lia, Piuz, Agung, and for all members in English Letters
Department 2008, thank you for every moment of being together for the past
few years. It is very nice to know you all guys, may God bless us in every step
we take.
Fransisca Desi Natalia Aryanti

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………….
APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………...
ACCEPTANCE PAGE…………………………………………………..
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI…………..
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ……………………………………
MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………………..
DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………….......

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………...
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………
ABSTRAK………………………………………………………………...

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………….
A. Background of the Study…………………………………………..
B. Problem Formulation………………………………………………
C. Objectives of the Study……………………………………………

D. Definition of Terms………………………………………………..

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CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW……………………………
A. Review of Related Studies………………………………………...
B. Review of Related Theories……………………………………….
1. Types of Sentences…………………………………………….
a. Declaratives/Statements …………………………………..
b. Interrogatives/Questions …………………………………..
c. Imperatives/Commands …………………………………...
d. Exclamatory/Exclamations ………………………………..
2. Communicative Functions …………………………………….
a. Representatives ……………………………………………
b. Directives …………………………………………………
c. Commisives ……………………………………………….
d. Expressives ………………………………………………..
e. Declarations ……………………………………………….
3. Art Criticism …………………………………………………..
C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………...

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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………….
A. Object of the Study ………………………………………………..
B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………….
C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………

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CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS……………………………………………..
A. Data Finding and Discussion on the Types of Sentences are Used
by Men and Women Characters …………………………………..
1. Statement ……………………………………………………...
2. Question ………………………………………………………
3. Command ……………………………………………………..
4. Exclamations ……………………………………………….....
B. Data Finding and Discussion on the Communicative Functions
Of Each Type of Sentences ………………………………………..
1. The Function of Using Statements/Declaratives ………………
a. Statements as Representatives ……………………………..
b. Statements as Directives …………………………………...
c. Statements as Expressives …………………………………
d. Statements as Commissives ……………………………….
2. The Function of Using Questions/Interrogatives ……………...
a. Questions as Directives ……………………………………
b. Questions as Expressives ………………………………….
c. Questions as Commisives ………………………………….
3. The Function of Using Commands/Imperatives ………………
a. Commands as Directives …………………………………..
4. The Function of Using Exclamations/Exclamatory …………...
a. Exclamations as Expressives ………………………………
b. Exclamations as Commisives ……………………………...

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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION………………………………………….. 58
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………… 60
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………. 62

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ABSTRACT
Fransisca Desi Natalia Aryanti. ANALYSIS ON MEN’S AND WOMEN’S
SENTENCES IN PETER BILLINGSLEY’S COUPLES RETREAT.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2012.
In its social context, language relates with several things, one of which
is gender. The concept of gender is the division of people into two categories,
men and women (Borgatta and Montgomery, 2000:1057). The existence of
pros and cons about the distinction of men and women in using a language
brings this study to focus on the sentences that are used by men and women.
In this study, there are two objectives to be achieved. The first objective
is to find out the types of sentences that are used by men and women. The
second objective is to identify the communicative functions used by the two
sexes in each type of the sentences.
In this analysis, the writer used two kinds of approach. The first
approach was sociolinguistic approach for discussing the relation between
gender and the sentences being used by men and women. The second approach
was pragmatic approach that identified the meaning in a sentence. The theories
that were used were theories about type of sentences and communicative
functions. This study used several related books in doing the analysis. Besides,
there are some articles, journals, and other related data from the internet are
used to complete the discussion.
In this analysis, there are 120 sentences spoken by men and 80
sentences spoken by women as the data. From those sentences, there are 80
sentences of men and 49 sentences of women are included to
statements/declaratives, 26 sentences of men and 16 sentences of women are
included to questions/interrogatives, 4 sentences of men and 2 sentences of
women are included to commands/imperatives, and 10 sentences of men and
13 sentences of women are included to exclamations/exclamatory as the rest.
Both men and women also have similar communicative functions. Men’s
statements consist of 38 sentences as representatives, 18 sentences as
directives, 13 sentences as expressives, and 11 sentences as commissives,
whereas, women’s statements consist of 23 sentences as representatives, 8
sentences as directives, 11 sentences as expressives, and 7 sentences as
commissives. Men’s questions consist of 18 sentences as directives, 6
sentences as expressives, and 2 sentences as commissives, whereas, women’s
questions consist of 9 sentences as directives, 3 sentences as expressives, and 4
sentences as commissives. Men’s commands consist of 4 sentences as
directives and women’s commands consist of 2 sentences as directives as well.
The last is men’s exclamations consist of 10 sentences as expressives only,
whereas, women’s exclamations consist of 11 sentences as expressives and 2
sentences as commissives. From the analysis, the writer concluded that in this
particular study the concept of gender which refers to men and women has no
influence to the use of sentences because in this study men and women used
the similar types of sentences with the same communicative functions.
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ABSTRAK
Fransisca Desi Natalia Aryanti. ANALYSIS ON MEN’S AND WOMEN’S
SENTENCES IN PETER BILLINGSLEY’S COUPLES RETREAT.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2013.
Dalam konteks sosial, bahasa mempunyai keterkaitan dengan beberapa
hal yang salah satunya adalah gender. Konsep gender sendiri merupakan
pembagian orang menjadi dua kategori, pria dan wanita (Borgatta dan
Montgomery, 2000:1057). Banyaknya pro dan kontra yang timbul mengenai
adanya perbedaan pada pria dan wanita dalam menggunakan bahasa,
mengantar studi ini untuk focus pada kalimat-kalimat yang digunakan oleh pria
dan wanita.
Terdapat dua permasalahan yang dibahas dalam penelitian ini.
Permasalahan pertama adalah untuk mencari tau tipe kalimat apa saja yang
digunakan oleh pria dan wanita. Permasalahan kedua adalah untuk mengetahui
fungsi-fungsi komunikatif yang digunakan oleh pria dan wanita dalam setiap
tipe kalimat tersebut.
Dalam analisis, penulis menggunakan dua jenis pendekatan. Yang
pertama adalah pendekatan sosial karena membahas keterkaitan penggunaan
kalimat oleh pria dan wanita. Kedua adalah pendekatan pragmatik untuk
mengidentifikasi arti dalam kalimat.Teori yang digunakanya itu teori mengenai
tipe kalimat dan fungsi komunikatif yang ada dalam kalimat. Selain buku-buku
terkait, studi ini juga menggunakan artikel, jurnal serta data dari internet yang
mempunyai keterkaitan dengan topik.
Dalam analisa ini, terdapat 120 kalimat pria dan 80 kalimat wanita yang
digunakan sebagai data. Dari kalimat tersebut, terdapat 80 kalimat pria dan 49
kalimat wanita termasuk dalam bentuk pernyataan, 26 kalimat pria dan 16
kalimat wanita termasuk dalam bentuk pertanyaan, 4 kalimat pria dan 2 kalimat
wanita termasuk bentuk perintah, dan sisanya adalah 10 kalimat pria dan 13
kalimat wanita termasuk dalam bentuk seruan. Baik pria maupun wanita juga
mempunyai fungsi komunikatif yang sama. Bentuk pernyataan pria terdiri dari
38 kalimat berfungsi sebagai representatives, 18 kalimat berfungsi sebagai
directives, 13 kalimat berfungsi sebagai expressives, dan 11 kalimat berfungsi
sebagai commisives, sedangkan dalam bentuk pernyataan wanita terdiri dari 23
kalimat berfungsi sebagai representatives, 8 kalimat berfungsi sebagai
directives, 11 kalimat berfungsi sebagai expressives, dan 7 kalimat berfungsi
sebagai commisives. Bentuk pertanyaan pria terdiri dari 18 kalimat berfungsi
sebagai directives, 6 kalimat berfungsi sebagai expressives, dan 2 kalimat
berfungsi sebagai commisives, sedangkan dalam bentuk pertanyaan wanita
terdiri dari 9 kalimat berfungsi sebagai directives, 3 kalimat berfungsi sebagai
expressives, dan 4 kalimat berfungsi sebagai commisives. Bentuk perintah
priater diri dari 4 kalimat berfungsi sebagai directives dan bentuk kalimat
wanita terdiri dari 2 kalimat yang juga berfungsi sebagai directives. Yang
terakhir adalah bentuk seruan pria yang terdiri dari 10 kalimat yang hanya
berfungsi sebagai expressives, sedangkan bentuk seruan wanita terdiri dari 11
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kalimat berfungsi sebagai expressives dan 2 kalimat berfungsi sebagai
commisives. Dari hasil analisis, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa dalam studi ini
konsep gender yang mengarah pada pria dan wanita tidak mempengaruhi
kalimat yang digunakan, karena dalam studi ini baik pria dan wanita
menggunakan tipe kalimat yang sama dengan fungsi komunikasi yang sama
pul a .

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study
According to Wardhaugh (2010:12), sociolinguistics concern with
investigating the relationship between language and society with the goal
being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages
function in communication. There are some relationships between language
and society, one of which is linguistic structure or behavior that may either
influence or determine social structure. This view will lead us to what we call
Language and Gender.
Wardhaugh said that a major topic in sociolinguistics is the
connection, between the structures, vocabularies, and ways of using particular
languages and the social roles of the men and women who speak the
languange. He argued that gender is something that can not be avoided. It is a
part of the way in which societies are ordered around us, with each society
doing that ordering differently (Wardhaugh, 2010:333). Wardhaugh added that
the possible reason that men and women use language in different ways,
whether it is because of the structure of the language itself or it is a kind of
reflection of the ways in which the sexes relate to each other in the society.
Dealing with the possibility, that the difference between men and
women in using the language because of the relation of the sexes themselves,
this study is to focus on the sentences using by each sex. Therefore, this thesis
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analyzes men and women language in terms of types of sentences in order to
find whether any difference that related to the relation of men and women in
the society. Besides, talking about language in relation with gender is still
create some pros and cons. Many sociolinguists believe that men and women
use language differently. They argued those diffences in different
explainations.
Jennifer Coates, in Women, Men, and Language (1991), analyzed
gender differences in communicative competance which include their
conversational styles. Coates found that there are some differences occured in
conversations among men and women. She categorized the differences into
seven parts, those are verbosity or conversational dominance, minimal
responses, hedges, tag questions or yes-no questions, commands and directives,
swearing and taboo language, and compliments (Coates, 1991:116).
Another idea came from Lauri P.Arliss, having an anylisis on sex
differences in communication as it is explained in her book Gender
Communication (1991), she argued that there are some aspects included. One
of those aspects is verbal aspect communication which explore about topics,
vocabulary, and grammatical constructions used by men and women. Arliss
agree that men and women use language quite different, but she also explained
that there were some changes as the change of time (Arliss, 1991:49).
In this research, the conversations were taken from a source that had
been chosen as the data, which was a movie directed by Peter Billingsley
(2009) entitled Couples Retreat. In this movie there are some men and women

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characters followed by many conversations among the characters. From the
conversations there are various utterances show how men and women use the
language, so that it is possible to use this movie as the data. The analysis was
based on the conversations happened between the characters, and it was taken
from the script of the movie itself.
The reason of choosing a movie as the data was because a movie can
have a representative of the society. M.H Abrams (1993) in his book A
Glossary of Literary Terms stated some literary theories, one of them is the
mimetic theory. In mimetic theory the word ‘imitation’ becomes the focus
because of the meaning of mimetic orientation itself. It is the explanation of
arts as essentially an imitation of aspects of the universe. Plato adds that all
artistic creation is a form of imitation. It can be said that movies are included to
the work of arts which imitate something from reality. Therefore, a movie can
be a kind of reflection of social life, since it is an imitation of the real one.

B. Problem Formulation
In this study, there are two problem formulations to be analyzed in
order to focus on the analysis.
1. What types of sentences are used by men and women characters in making
enquiries as seen in Couples Retreat?
2. What communicative functions are performed by each type of the
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C. Objectives of the Study
This study is expected to give benefits for the readers and other
researchers. Based on the problem formulations, this study has two objectives.
The first objective is to find the types of sentences are used by men and women
in making enquiries. The second objective is to find the communicative
functions are performed by each type of sentences. It is expected to offer the
readers more understanding on language and gender in society and to help the
other researchers, especially sociolinguistic researchers to study further about
languange and gender. Besides, it also might become a source or a reference to
do further research related to language and gender study.

D. Definition of Terms
In this study, there are some definitions of terms used to avoid
misunderstanding.
1. Gender
Gender is the division of people into two categories, “men” and
“women.” It refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and
attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
(Borgatta and Montgomery, 2000:1057).
2. Sentence
Sentence is the largest independent unit of grammar. It begins with a
capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. The
sentence is traditionally defined as a word or groups of words that express a

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complete idea and that include a subject and a verb. (Nordquist, Richard.
Grammar and Composition. Sentence – Definition and Examples of Sentence.
http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/senterm/htm. 31 March 2013)

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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part is review of
related studies, which contains the other studies previously done by other
researchers that still related to this study. The second part is review of related
theories, which contains some theories that was used to analyze the data. The
last part is theoretical framework that concerns with the contribution of the
theories and the way they were applied to answer the problems in this study.

A. Review of Related Studies
A study on the analysis about languange in relation with gender also
done by Susan Jones and Debra Myhill, students of University of Exeter, UK.
In the thesis entitled Gender Differences in Linguistic Characteristics of
Writing (2007), Jones and Myhill present research that explores gender
differences or similarities in linguistic competence in writing. In doing their
analysis, they focus on the product of the writing made by secondary-aged
writers, children about thirteen to sixteen. Two pieces of writing were colected
for the data, the first is a narrative based on personal experience and the second
is persuasive, making argument or expressing the writer’s opinion. Jones and
Myhill do the comparison between gender at the text level and sentence level.
The following quotation concludes the discussion of Jones and
Myhill’s research about gender differences in terms of writing.
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The most apparent conclusion to be drawn from these data is that only
limited evidence supports the argument that, in terms of the linguistic
characteristics of the written outcomes, boys and girls are differently
literate. The statistically significant differences at sentence level were
small, and at text level, though more differences emerged, these were
considerably fewer than those identified by achievement level.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that text type had no impact on the
level of difference, contrary to expectations that boys prefer non-fiction
and therefore write better in this genre. (2007:473-474)
The above quotation is taken from Canadian Journal of Education
(2007) where the thesis of Susan Jones and Debra Myhill was include. The
quotation tries to say that the argument about gender differences in writing
cannot be proved from the data because there were only limited significant
differences which are not enough to support the argument.
It is not only Susan Jones and Debra Myhill who did the study on the
analysis about language and gender, Rety Ardiantika also did the same thing
but

on different focus. In her thesis, A Case Study on The Relationship

Between Gender and Vocabulary Used by Native English Speakers (2005), she
analyzed whether gender influence the vocabulary used in speaking English or
not. To do the research, she used questionnaires and interviews to the
respondents who were native English speakers. She divided her analysis into
two parts, those are the discussion on the relationship between gender and
vocabulary used in speaking English and the discussion on the factors
influencing the vocabulary used in speaking English.
Rety Ardiantika said that the changing of society had influence the
changing of language. In her discussion, she proved that there was no relation
between gender and the vocabulary used.

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From the questionnaire data and the interview data, the findings
showed that female respondents used strong expletives as often as
male respondents. Male respondents used mild expletives, empty
adjectives and intensifiers as often as female respondents.
(Ardiantika, 2005:64)
As stated on the above quotation, it can be concluded that based on her
findings, there was not enough evidence shows that gender has relation with
vocabulary used. Besides, based on her finding, Rety Ardiantika also stated
that there were some aspects influence the vocabulary used in speaking
English. It is explained in the quotation below.
There were three factors influencing the vocabulary used in
speaking English. The first factor was the situations faced by the
speakers. The second factor was the communitywith whom the
speakers usually interact. The last factor was the personalities of the
speaker. (Ardiantika, 2005:64)

The terms language and gender still create some pros and cons in the
society. Some believe that men and women use language differently, but some
others believe that the differences occur among them are not significant and
are not enough to say that there is gender differences in language as what had
been discussed by Susan Jones and Debra Myhill from University of Exeter,
UK and Rety Ardiantika, a student of Sanata Dharma University.
The two above have similar topic with this study, which is about
language and gender. The difference is on the focus of the study. The previous
studies talk about gender differences in writing and about the vocabulary used.
In this study the focus is on the types of sentences and its communicative
functions are performed by men and women, with a movie as the data.

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B. Review of Related Theories
This chapter presents several theories that was used to do the analysis
of this study. The first theory is the theory about types of sentences. The
second theory is about the function of communication or usually called
communicative function, and the last theory is theory about literary criticism.

1. Types of sentences
In this study, the use of theory about types of sentences helps the
writer to distinguish and analyze the sentences produced by each character on
the movie. The theory about types of sentences provided by Randolph Quirk
and Sidney Greenbaum in their book entitled A University Grammar of English
(1983). Quirk and Greenbaum stated that sentences may be divided into four
major classes, which use correlates with different communicative functions.
a. Declarative/Statement
The declarative sentence is the sentence containing a statement which
gives the reader or the listener some information about various events,
activities or attitudes, thoughts and feeling. Statements are sentences in which
the subjects is always present and generally precedes the verb (Quirk and
Greenbaum, 1983:191).
b. Interrogative/Question
The interrogative sentence is the sentence containing a question.
Questions are sentences marked by one or more criteria such as the placing of
the operator immediately in front of the subject, the initial positioning of an

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interrogative or wh-element, and the rising intonation. Questions can be
divided into three major classes according to the type of answer they except,
those are;
i. Yes – No questions: those that expect only affirmation or rejection, as in
Have you finished the book?
ii. WH – questions : those that expect a replay supplying an item of
information, as in What is your name?
iii. Alternative questions: those that expect as the reply one of two or more
options presented in the question, as in Would you like to go for a walk or
stay at home? (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1983:191-192).
c. Imperative/Command
The imperative sentence is the sentence which expresses a command
which conveys the desire of the speaker to make someone (the listener)
perform a certain action. Those are sentences which normally have no overt
grammatical subject, and whose verb is in the imperative (Quirk and
Greenbaum, 1983:191).
d. Exclamatory/Exclamation
The exclamatory sentence is the sentence which shows strong or
sudden feeling. It is a sentence which has an initial phrase introduced by what
or how, without inversion of subject and operator (Quirk and Greenbaum,
1983:191).

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2. Communicative functions
In this part, the theory about the functions of communication or usually
called as communicative functions is used to explore the functions of each type
of sentences in the conversations. According to John R. Searle (1969), there are
five types of general functions when we communicate to each others. Those are
explained below;
a. Representatives
The point or purpose of this function is to commit the speaker in
varying degrees to the truth of something. A speaker expresses his/her belief
that the propositional content of the utterance is true. He/she may express an
attitude of belief using several types of acts such as; asserting, predicting,
describing, advising, claiming, hypothesising, and insisting.
Example: The fact that girls have been outstripping boys academically has
been acknowledged for the past 12 years.
b. Directives
The class of directive includes all speech whose primary point is that
they count as attempts on the part of the speaker to get the listener/hearer to do
something. Here, the speaker wants to make the listener/hearer to perform an
act. Therefore, some expressing words can be used for this category such as;
commanding, requesting, inviting, forbidding, and suggesting.
Example: Better remain silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and
remove all possible doubt.

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c. Commissives
The function of commissives here is to commit the speaker to do
something. The speaker here commits him/herself to future action and express
what the speaker intends. This includes acts with the words such as; promising,
offering, threatening, refusing, vowing, and volunteering.
Example: I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.
d. Expressives
The point of this class is to express feelings and attitudes about states of
affairs. They are utterances that have an expressive function, stating what the
speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of
pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. It includes acts with the words
such as; apologising, praising, congratulating, deploring, and regretting.
Example: A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
e. Declarations
Declarations or declaratives are words and expressions that change the
world by their very utterances. The defining characteristic of this class is that
the performance brings about the correspondence between the words and the
world. When it is uttered, it brings about a new state of being and the person
who utters must have the power to do so. The words such as; declare, baptise,
pronounce, resign, and bet are included to this category.
Example: I baptise this boy John Smith.

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3. Art Criticism
The theory of art here will explain about the movie that is used as the
data in this study. According to M.H Abrams (1993), in his book’s part about
orientation of critical criticism, he explained four elements of a work of art as
following;
First, there is the work, the artistic product itself. And since this is a
human product, an artefact, the second common element is the
artificer, the artist. Third, the work is taken to have a subject which,
directly or deviously, is derived from existing things – to be about, or
signify, or reflect something which either is, or bears some relation
to, an objective state of affairs. For the final element we have the
audience: the listeners, spectators, or readers to whom the work is
addressed, or to whose attention, at any rate, it becomes available.
(1993:6).
To make matters easier, he has arranged the four elements in
convenient triangular with the work of art, the thing to be explained, in the
centre.
UNIVERSE
WORK
ARTIST

AUDIENCE

Figure 1: Orientation of critical theories (M. H. Abrams, 1993:6)
In order to make deeper understanding of the relationship of those four
elements, M.H Abrams defines several theories of the literary criticism
according to the above triangle. It is divided into four major classes namely,
mimetic theories, pragmatic theories, expressive theories, and objective
theories.

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Each theory has different view and explanation. First, mimetic theories
interested in the relationship between the work and the universe. It sees a work
of literature as if it is reflectingthe universe and imitating life. The second is
pragmatics theories, interested in the relationship between the work and the
audience. It sees literature as designed to achieve its effects on the audience.
Third, expressive theories interested in the relationship between the work and
the artist. It sees literature as expression of inner world which can be the
perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of the artist. The last is objective theories,
which focus on the work itself. It sees literature from the internal elements of
the work such as plot, characters, conflict, theme, and diction.
In this study, the use of movie as the data in doing the research is based
on one of M.H Abrams’s theories, mimetic theories, which explain the
relationship between the work of art and the universe/nature. As stated in the
previous paragraph, mimetic theories see art works as the representation or
imitation of life.
Movies are included to the work of art that reflect and imitate the social
life. It represents the universe or life through the story and things happen in the
movie.

C. Theoretical Framework
This study provides some theories in order to support in analyzing and
answering the questions on the problem formulation that are mentioned in the
previous chapter. The theory about the types of sentences is used to answer the

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problem number one which concerns with types of sentences are used by men
and women characters. By using Randolph Quirk’s explanation about
sentences, the writer can identify kinds or types of sentences are used on the
conversations in the movie.
The theory about communicative functions by Searle is used to analyze
the second question about the functions of the sentences. This theory provides
the specific functions of each type of sentences, so that it helps the writer to
analyze the second problem. The last theory is about literary criticism, which
focuses on mimetic theories that is used to explain about the movie as a
representation of life.

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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

Chapter III of this thesis covers three parts. First is object of the study,
it shows a brief summary of the movie which is used as the data and its records
concerning the movie Couples Retreat by Peter Billingsley (2009). Second is
approach of the study that presents the linguistic approaches were used to
analyze the data from the movie. The last is method of the study, it provides
the steps that were taken in doing the analysis in this study.

A. Object of the Study
This thesis is discussing sentences are used by men and women on their
conversations. The data that are used for analysis is a movie script entitled
Couples Retreat directed by Peter Billingsley (2009). The reason of choosing
this movie as the data is because in this movie there are several men and
women characters. From those characters, there are many conversations
happened between them. So that from the conversations, it can be analyzed
whether men and women use language differently as what some linguists
belief, through the sentences they used.
The movie Couples Retreat is still relatively new because it was
released by Universal Picture on October 9, 2009. This movie was produced by
Vince Vaughn and Scott Stuber, directed by Peter Billingsley, and written by
Vince Vaughn and Dana Fox. The genre of this movie is comedy, starring

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several artists such as Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, John Favreau, Kristin
Davis, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, Jean Reno, and
other supporting characters.
The public acceptance toward this movie is good enough. Most people
rate this movie in three stars for the whole story including Reger Ebert, one of
film critics who won The Lifetime Achievement Award of the screenwriter’s
Guild. He thinks the story is good overall, he only criticizes on some things as
he said, “It contains little comedy, except for free-standing one-liners, and no
suspense, except for the timing of the obligatory reconciliation”. Despite all the
critical views, Couple Retreat movie was a box office success. It was ranking
first for its opening weekend and becoming Vince Vaughn's highest box office
success.
Couples Retreat is a movie about some couples with different problems
and stresses on their relationships. Realizing the condition of the relationship
getting worst, Jason and Cynthia, one of the couples suggest to have couples
therapy to make their relationship better and to avoid the divorce. Knowing the
package of the couples therapy is relative expensive, they ask the other couples
to go with them so that they will get half of normal cost. After having a little
disscussion, they finally decide to go to the therapy resort named Eden. In
Eden resort, all of the couples have to follow and to do the list which had been
made for them to make their relationship better. Finally, at the end of the story
all the couples passed the therapy successfully.

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B. Approach of the Study
The topic about language and gender is closely related to
sociolinguistics. According to Wardhaugh, “A major topic in sociolinguistics is
the connection, if any, between the structures, vocabularies, and ways of using
particular languages and the social roles of men and women who speak these
language” (Wardhaugh, 2010:333). Since this study deals with the connection
between language and gender in terms of sentences and its functions,
sociolinguistic approach is a relevant approach to be used.
Sociolinguistic approach is very usefull to help the writer to prove the
idea that men and women use language in different way. Besides, by using
sociolinguistic approach, the writer can explore the relation of men and women
through their sentences. In this case, language, society, and gender are relate to
one another, that is why sociolinguistic approach is the most appropriate
approach to analyze the problems.
Not only sociolinguistic approach, this study also use another approach
to support the analysis. In order to find the functions of sentences are used by
men and women, the pragmatic approach is chosen as the most relevant
approach. This approach can help the writer to make deeper understanding on
the topic and the focus, so that the problems which are stated in this study can
be answered based on the theories and the approaches.

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C. Method of the Study
The writer used library research in order to collect the data. In this case,
the method was divided into two parts, those are primary and secondary data.
The primary data was taken from the script of Peter Billingsley’s movie
entitled Couples Retreat. The secondary data was taken from some books,
journals, and other references related to the topic discussed in this study.
Since this research analyze about language inrelation with gender, there
were some sources were taken from books such as, An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics by Ronald Wardhough (2010), Women, Men, and Language by
Jennifer Coates (1991), Gender Communication by Lauri P. Arliss (1991),and
Feminist Stylistics by Sara Mills (1995).
This study also used some references and supporting books related to
the focus on this analysis which is about types of sentences and communicative
functions, those are A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and
Sidney Greenbaum (1983), Functional English Grammar by Graham Lock
(1995), Language and Communication by Jack C. Richards and Richard
W.Schmidt (1984), and Language its Structure and Use by Edward Finegan
(2004).
In doing the research, there were two main steps included. The first was
the data collection, and the second was the data analysis.
1. Data Collection
The topic of this study is about language and gender with the focus on
the sentences and its functions. The data that is used in this study was a movie

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entitled Couples Retreat by Peter Billingsley (2009). There were several steps
taken in collecting the data.
First of all, the writer watched the movie to see whether the movie is
appropriate or not to be used. After watching the movie, there were many
conversations happened in the story of the movie between men characters and
women chararters. From the conversations there were found some utterances
that can be analyzed further, so that the writer decided to choose this movie as
the source of the data.
Then, after ensuring the data, the writer found the script of the movie and
read it to several times in order to make deeper understanding and detail. The
next step, the writer found the theories related with the topic in order to get
brief explanation from the source books and found other references related to
the study.
The first thing the writer did to the script was separate the conversations
between men and women, then put it into a table and numbered it. In order to
get more focus and efficient in doing the analysis, the writer used twenty
percent of the whole sentences on the movie script. The writer did random
sampling in analyzing the data by doubling the sentence numbers specifically.
The sentences were used in analyzing amount to two hundred sentences that
consist of a hundred and twenty sentences are spoken by men characters and
eighty sentences are spoken by women characters.

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2. Data Analysis
The analysis was based on the theories mentioned in the chapter II. There
were two points of problems to be analyzed; to find types of sentences used by
men and women characters, and to understand its communicative functions as
shown in the movie.
After separating the conversations between men and women, to analyze
the first problem, the writer used table which was already divided into four
types of sentences according to the theory to identify each sentence was
produced by the characters. For the second problem about the communicative
functions, after knowing the types of each sentence, the writer also used table
which was divided into five classes of functions by using the theory about
communicative functions to classify the functions of using those types of
sentences. Then, at the end of this study, the conclusion would be drawn based
on the analysis of the two problems.

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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the obtained data are analyzed and interpreted. By using
the conversations of men and women characters in the Couples Retreat movie
script as the data, the analysis is divided into two main parts concerning to the
problem formulations in the previous chapter. The first part is data finding and
discussion on the types of sentences are used by men and women characters in
making enquiries in Couples Retreat and the second one is data finding and
discussion on the communicative functions of each types of sentences.

A. Data Finding and Discussion on the Types of Sentences are Used by
Men and Women Characters
As stated before, this study used a movie script as the data to be
analyzed. A movie script entitled Couples Retreat was written by Vince Vaugh
and Dana Fox. In Couples Retreat movie there are several men characters, they
are Dave, Jason, Joey, and Shane as the main men characters and some other
supporting characters such as Marcel, Sctanley, the therapist and the staff in the
hotel. Women characters here are presented by Ronnie, Cynthia, Lucy, Lacey,
Trudy and Jennifer as the main women characters and also supported by other
women characters whose names are not mentioned on the script.
Since the study concerns with sentences, the analysis on the types of
sentences is based on men and women conversations on the movie script. The

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movie script itself consists of forty nine pages. The amount of the sentences is
about a thousand and eighty two sentences; consists of men’s sentences to the
number of six hundred and thirty seven and women’s sentences to the number
of four hundred and forty five sentences. In order to get deeper understanding,
the writer used random sampling in doing the analysis. The data used in this
study are about twenty percent from the whole data, which means twenty
percent of each men’s and women’s sentence. Therefore, men’s sentences
amounted to a hundred and twenty sentences and women’s sentences amounted
to eighty sentences.
In this first part the writer discusses types of sentences concerning to
the first problem formulation. The theory that is defined by Randolph Quirk
and Sidney Greenbaum in their book entitled A University Grammar of English
is the most appropriate one to be used in analyzing the data. According to
Quirk and Greenbaum there are four types of sentences, those are
declarative/statements, interrogative/questions, imperative/commands, and
exclamatory/exclamations. By using that theory, there were found some types
of sentences are used by men and women characters in this movie as below.
Sentence

Statement

Question

Command

Exclamation

Total

Men

80

26

4

10

120

Women

49

16

2

13

80

Table 1: The types of sentences of men’s and women’s sentences

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1. Statement
Statement or usually called as declarative sentences mostly found in
men’s and women’s sentences in their conversations. As Quirk and Greenbaum
stated in their theory, in this case declaratives give the listeners some
information through the sentences that is produced. A statement can be seen
from the falling intonation of the speakers when they produce that sentence,
therefore this kind of sentence usually ends by a period.
In using statements, both men and women often use some words such
as okay, well, listen, well listen, look, you know, see, yeah, and oh in the
beginning of the sentences. Those words usually come up when the speakers
try to cut someone’s talk. The use of those words also has some purposes of the
speakers.
Some words like look, listen, or well listen are used by the speakers to
get attention from the listeners. The listeners are expected to focus on the
speakers when he or she talks. As the example, when Ronnie talked on the
phone with her kids and she said “Well listen, when we get back next weekend,
we’ll go to Medieval Times and we’ll get some big drumsticks and lots of
meat.” The situation there is Ronnie’s kids were very happy to hear their
mother on the phone so that they were cheering loudly. The word well listen
there is used by Ronnie to make the kids quiet and to make sure that they listen
to her.
The words