Open AccessGender-Based Language Usage in Facebook Comments
Author(s) -
Komang Pramanta Gerinata,
I Nyoman Aryawibawa,
Yana Qomariana
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
humanis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2302-920X
DOI - 10.24843/jh.2019.v23.i01.p25
Subject(s) - linguistics , politeness , vocabulary , context (archaeology) , meaning (existential) , intonation (linguistics) , psychology , pragmatics , computer science , history , philosophy , archaeology , psychotherapist
This paper is concerned with gender study in the form of linguistic features in connection with the use of language as a means of communication on Facebook. The aims of this research project were to investigate the types of gender-based linguistic features in Facebook comments and the conveyed meanings related to the gender-based linguistic features. The data consisted of male and female comments with their subsequent replies posted on a post on John Lennon’s and Adele’s official Facebook page. The theory of women’s linguistic features proposed by Robin Lakoff (1975) and men’s linguistic features proposed by Mulac (2001) were used to analyze the comments in order to find the linguistic features which both belong to men’s or women’s language. And Leech’s (1981) theory of meaning was used to analyze the conveyed meanings related to the gender-based linguistic features. In men’s language, the linguistic features are quantitative references, judgmental adjectives, commands, and elliptical sentences. In the women’s language there are hedges, super polite form, speak in italics or intensive adverbs, special vocabulary and question intonation in declarative context. The conveyed meanings related to the gender-based linguistic features reflect the characteristic of men’s and women’s language.