Women and Her Language
Gender Perspective Through Speech Features Dialogue
Used by Najwa Shihab and President Joko Widodo
Ratna Susanti, Sumarlam Sumarlam and Tri Wiratno
Postgraduate of Sebelas Maret University Surakarta, Jl., Ir. Sutami No. 36A Kentingan, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Language, Women, Gender, Utterance.
Abstract: Discussion of women and their language, or language and women's issues usually leads to the exposure of
language differences between women and men. Many things underlie the emergence of differences between
women and men from language use perspective. Previous studies described that the male language is more
assertive, mature, and men like to speak openly with the right vocabulary. On the other hand, the language
spoken by women is not firm, not overtly, and careful when expressing something, and often uses a more
polite words or gestures. One way to learn women language is by examining their utterances while
communicating, including interviews. This study aims to describe the features of the speeches of Najwa
Shihab and President Joko Widodo from gender perspective. The data source in this study is an interview
between Najwa Shihab as presenter, and Joko Widodo as a political figure as well as seventh Indonesian
President, in a television program called "Mata Najwa". The results showed that in the interview, Najwa
Shihab’s emotions were very influential when interviewing President Joko Widodo and gave impact on the
features of the speech she used when giving questions to the President.
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays respect for women is a necessity. Female
figure is still discriminated from the male figure.
Research on language and gender emphasizes the
focus of his study on the influence of gender on
language use. Research on the diversity of the
language of men and women has revealed the
characteristics of differences in the use of language
between men and women. One of them is the
difference in communicative ability that is common
feature of language usage.
In Sociolinguistics, the talk of language
differences between men and women is still
interesting to talk about, although various works
containing various theories about the condition have
emerged. Female and male language terms are often
found in language and gender research. Research on
language and women or women and language refers
to the exposure of language (way) differences
between women and men. Kent (1923) states that
women are somewhat shy when referring to their
limbs openly, unlike young men who call them
shamelessly. Jespersen also reveals that women use
adjectives more often than men in language, for
example, women often use adorable, charming,
sweet, or lovely compared with neutral words, such
as great, terrific, cool, or neat.
Lakoff (1973) as a linguist who pioneered the
research with a focus on the study of the relationship
between language and gender on the theory of the
existence of the female language argues that there
are some things that underlie the emergence of
differences between women and men in the
language. Men are described speaking more firmly,
maturely, and like to speak openly with the right
vocabulary. As with the language of women who are
not firm, not openly (using figurative words) and be
careful when expressing something, and often use a
more polite and polite words or through cues (meta-
message). In the field of morphology, Lakoff states
that women often use words for colors, such as
mauve, beige, aquamarine, and lavender that are
rarely used by men. In addition, women also often
use adjectives such as adorable, charming, divine,
lovely, and sweet. Viewed from diction, women
have certain vocabulary to show certain effects on
them, for example, words and phrases like so good,
adorable, darling, and fantastic.
Susanti, R., Sumarlam, S. and Wiratno, T.
Women and Her Language - Gender Perspective Through Speech Features Dialogue Used by Najwa Shihab and President Joko Widodo.
DOI: 10.5220/0007174907750779
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 775-779
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
775

Men in the eyes of women at the time of speech,
said that they are more impressed linear, simple, not
comprehensive, do not show emotions, usually in
short sentences, and in the form statement and
hierarchical orientation. In contrast, women in the
eyes of men are usually those at the time of
unstructured speaking, sentence construction usually
in passive form, many use conditional expressions to
show modesty, are more questionable, and tend not
to be focus on the subject. Women are also said to
be good listeners and easier to interact.
Furthermore, through their speech women are
indirectly inclined to show hidden messages or
wishes. For example the use of question tags by
women is not only used to ask questions, but also as
an expression of hope for answers to these questions.
In addition, women also often use high intonation in
declarative sentences to show their emotions or
empathy toward something. Based on the above-
mentioned characteristics, it can be concluded that
men speak more directly to the point and are clear,
while most women usually speak indirectly.
One way to learn the language of women is to
look at the features of female utterances she uses in
communicating and one of her real examples
through interviews. Najwa Shihab (abbreviated as
NS) is one of the female reporters in Indonesia who
is famous for the choice of firm and straightforward
words when conducting interviews with resource
persons.
Najwa Shihab interview is interesting to
investigate because therein there are features of
women's speeches proposed by Lakoff (1975) so it is
known which features are used by Najwa Shihab. In
some of the spoken dialogues, NS uses the features
of speech commonly used by women. In addition to
being known as a straightforward, firm, and spicy
reporter in every speech, NS also still has a feminine
character which is shown by the use of female
speech features when NS responds to answers from
the interviewees it interviews. In the interview can
be seen features female utterances that are used
based on Lakoff's theory of female speech features.
Women’s language indicates the characteristic of
women’s behavior. Because someone’s language
shows their role in the society, women should have
certain speech features to be shown in their society.
Lakoff said that women experience linguistic
discrimination in the way they are taught to use
language, and in the way general language treats
them. Both of them are related with the function or
the role of women in their society. So women have
to choose their best language when they interact
with other people. Women have to talk like a lady, if
they refuses it they are ridiculed and subjected to
criticism as unfeminine (Lakoff, 1973).
According to Holmes (1995), women’s linguistic
behavior can be seen mostly when women used
more standard forms than men. In many speech
communities, when women use more of a linguistic
form than men, it is generally the standard form
which overtly prestigious form that women favor.
Holmes adds that women used more standard form
because of four reasons, they are appeals to social
class and its related status, refers to women’s role in
society, relates to women’s status as a subordinate
group, and relates with
The function of speech expressing masculinity.
Women have role as guardian of social’s values. The
fact that women use more standard forms than men
points to the way society tend to expect better
behavior from women than from men (Holmes,
1995).
Standard forms are commonly associated with
more formal and less personal interactions so the
society expects women to use them because women
are serving as models for children’s speech. Women
are also designated the role of modeling correct
behavior in the community. Women’s language
forms are associated with female values and
femininity. In the other hand, women don’t use
vernacular forms because they don’t want the
society looks their masculinity than their femininity.
Lakoff (1975) suggested based on her intuitions
and observations than women’s speech was
characterized by linguistic features such as the
following: lexical hedges or fillers, tag question,
rising intonation on declaratives, ‘empty’ adjectives,
specialized vocabularies (precise colors terms),
intensifiers, ‘hypercorrect’ grammar, ‘super polite’
form, avoidance of strong words, and emphatic
stress. Lakoff also divided those features into two
groups. First, there are linguistic devices which may
be used for hedging or reducing the force of an
utterance. Hedging devices are lexical hedges, tag
questions, question intonation, super polite forms,
and euphemism. Secondly there are features which
may boost or intensify a proposition’s force. They
are intensifiers and emphatic stress. Lakoff claimed
that hedging devices explicitly signal lack of
confidence, while boosting devices reflect the
speaker’s that the addressee may remain
unconvinced and therefore supply extra reassurance.
So, women use hedging devices to express
uncertainty, and they use boosting devices to
persuade their addressee to take them seriously.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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2 METHODS
In analyzing women’s speech features that used by
character Najwa Shihab as a presenter, descriptive
qualitative method is used by the researcher since
the data are in forms of the words and descriptively
based on Lakoff’s theory of ten types of women’s
speech features.
Flick et al. (2004) said in that qualitative
research claims to describe life worlds ‘from the
inside out’, from the point of view of the people who
participate. By so doing it seeks to contribute to a
better understanding of social realities and to draw
attention to processes, meaning patterns and
structural features.
In qualitative research, the data is gotten from
the form of words or sentences then describing the
phenomenon that found in the data. Qualitative
method helps the researcher to study things in
natural setting, and then interpret the phenomena in
terms of the meaning people bring to them. The use
of qualitative research also involves the study used
in variety of material and case study in people’s live
such as their personal experiences. This research
analyzed the conversation that used by Najwa
Shihab as a presenter in Mata Najwa as the data
source. The data are from the words,
Phrases, clauses, or sentences that found in the
dialogues of Najwa Shihab with President Joko
Widodo in her conversation. The source of data is
taken from the dialogues in Mata Najwa then it is
subscribed. The data which is used by the researcher
is taken from the conversations or dialogues of
character Najwa Shihab where it can be found the
use of ten types of women’s speech features based
on Lakoff’s theory.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
There are differences in language characteristics
used by men and women in community life. Some
language characteristics are often used by women,
but rarely used by men. The characteristics are color
words, empty adjectives, question
intonation/intonational pattern, hedge, intensifier,
hypercorrect grammar, super polite form, question
tag, avoidance of strong swear words, and emphatic
stress.
The results of the research on the transcripts of
interviews between presenters Najwa Shihab and
President Joko Widodo, there are interesting
findings in which the linguistic characteristics put
forward by Lakoff (1975) are used by male
informants and female presenters.
The following is the use of linguistic
characteristics according to Lakoff found in Najwa
Shihab's speech during an interview with President
Joko Widodo in the "Mata Najwa" in Metro-TV on
Wednesday, 21 October 2015, at 20.04-21.28 WIB
downloaded from YouTube with a total time
duration of 55 minutes 46 seconds.
3.1 Color Words
Women are considered to have more detailed and
meticulous properties than men. This can be seen
from the number of vocabulary possessed by women
in terms of interest, for example in terms of color
mention. When mentioning the color of an object,
women not only mention the colors commonly used,
such as red, yellow, black, blue, and so on. Women
prefer to divide colors into smaller classes, such as
grey, pink, salem, blue tosca, lilac, and so on. These
types of color vocabularies are rarely or even never
used by men. From the source of data transcripts
speech Najwa Shihab in an interview with President
Joko Widodo not found the selection of vocabulary
on the mention of color.
3.2 Empty adjectives
According to Lakoff, there are adjectives that tend to
be more widely used by women. Empty adjectives
are adjectives used by women to express acceptance
and admiration for something.
"Can you sleep soundly at night?"
3.3 Question intonation
Sentence intonation patterns used by women in
answering a question with a statement using a high
pattern of intonation. The reason is because they are
unsure of their own statements. In the data transcript
of dialogue between Najwa Shihab and President
Joko Widodo not found the characteristics of the
language in the form of question intonation. Because
Najwa Shihab as presenter still hold firm ethics to
ask the informant, who incidentally is a president.
3.4 Hedge
According to Lakoff (1975), women often use a
phrase that shows that they feel less confident with
what is said, that's called hedge. When a person uses
a hedge, the speaker actually avoids saying
Women and Her Language - Gender Perspective Through Speech Features Dialogue Used by Najwa Shihab and President Joko Widodo
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something definitively and letting the options remain
open.
3.5 Intensifier
The intensifier is also called the term "warmer", i.e.
The word, especially the adverb used to emphasize
adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs.
"If the Palace in Jakarta is too noisy, then, sir? Too
much interest?"
The word too is used by Najwa Shihab as an
intensive form that aims to emphasize the word it is
attached to and it is used by the speaker to convince
his or her partners to believe what has been said.
3.6 Hiper-correct Grammar
Women are more likely to use standard language
than men. There is a presumption that women have a
more polite speech than men. In this study found the
consistency of the use of formal form in the speech
Najwa Shihab.
Welcome to Mata Najwa.
I am Najwa Shihab, the host of "Mata Najwa”
It's been a year Jokowi lead this country.
Become the nation's skipper.
There are still many who praise, but critics also
come barrage.
Many things are not publicly known.
Because work does not always have to be noisy.
From crucial policies to unimportant noise.
Let's see the palace kitchen.
From seeing the chefs working up to unusual
decisions.
This is Mata Najwa, "Behind the Palace Wall"
The above speech was revealed by Najwa Shihab as
the opening of the "Mata Najwa" show aired by
Metro-TV and was ministered by Najwa Shihab
herself.
3.7 Super Polite Form
The use of a very polite form of speech is considered
as something that women should do. Women should
also often use phrases, such as please and thank you,
to keep the social conventions.
Some examples of highly polite phrases in which
this phrase is spoken by women, for example the
expression to say hello (call to someone), indirect
speech (indirect speech).
 "What is the most frequent way, which the
Mister President did to find out, what the
people really wanted, what are the ways to get
close to them?";
 "In principle ... anyone can have lunch with
President Jokowi.";
 "But that looks just sometimes as if President
Jokowi let it lho, sir, do not set, not make the
strains that so melodious;
 "President Jokowi ... thank you so much for
Metro-TV this afternoon, sir."
3.8 Tag Questions
Tag questions are phrases contained at the end of a
sentence to emphasize. This usually aims to get
approval or confirm an information. Tag questions
are also used when a speaker states something, but
he is not sure what he has said.
In an interview between Presenter Najwa Shihab
and President Joko Widodo, many Najwa Shihab
sayings use the linguistic characteristics of tag
questions.
"E ... the keroncong style, the pop style, the
dangdut style, the style of the skirt, sir. It's his
hope of one, president, is not he? "
"So does Pak Jokowi's strategy let the difference
of opinion, right?"
"To find that certainty then the style is made
more informal, more relaxed?"
"Feeling rushed in time, right?"
Najwa Shihab uses a lot of statement in the form
of question tag which aims to get the approval of his
partner that is President Joko Widodo.
3.9 Avoide of Strong Swear Words
Swear words are words used to emphasize what to
say and become a way to insult something or
someone.
In an interview between Najwa Shihab and
President Joko Widodo there was no speech from
Najwa Shihab who used the word curse.
3.10 Emphatic Stress
According to Lakoff (1973), emphatic stress has a
function to give emphasis to a speech when the
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
778

speaker is not sure what is being said. This feature
provides the definition of an expression of
uncertainty by using the expression of the speaker
himself, although this expression can be seen
otherwise.
"Are you disappointed to see, read, hear that people
then question e ... see why his performance is not as
expected?"
4 CONCLUSIONS
Character Najwa Shihab in Mata Najwa uses many
types of women’s speech features that can reflect her
personality. It is found in the dialogues that each of
features that she uses reflects her own figure as a
woman. It is also found that in different settings,
Najwa uses different speech features as she needs to
complete her utterances. There are nine speech
features that are used by Najwa Shihab, they are
lexical hedges or fillers, tag question, rising
intonation on declaratives, ‘empty’ adjectives,
intensifiers, ‘hypercorrect’ grammar, ‘super polite’
form, avoidance of strong words, and emphatic
stress. But, there is one speech feature which is not
used by Najwa Shihab, that is specialized
vocabulary (precise colors term).
Furthermore, Lakoff’s theory of women’s speech
features is suitable to be used for this research
because the researcher can analyze the character of
women especially Najwa Shihab. This research also
proves the good personality and attitude of Najwa
Shihab as observed on her speech features.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the
financial support of the Politechnic Indonusa
Surakarta. I am especially indebted to Mr. Singgih
Purnomo and Mrs. Suci Purwandari, who have been
supportive of my career goals and who worked
actively to provide me with the protected academic
time to pursue those goals. I am grateful to all of
those with whom I have had the pleasure to work
during this and other related projects.
Nobody has been more important to me in the
pursuit of this project than the members of my
family. I would like to thank my little family. Most
importantly, I wish to thank my loving and
supportive husband, Indri Purwanto, and my
daughter, Aulia Zahra Tasyarasita, who provide
unending inspiration.
REFERENCES
Flick, U., Von-Kardoff, E., Steinke, I., 2004. A
Companion to Qualitative Research, SAGE
Publications. London.
Holmes, J., 1995. Women, Men, and Politeness, Longman.
London.
Kent, R. G., 1923. Language: Its Nature, Development,
and Origin.
Lakoff, R. T., 1973. Language and Woman’s Place.
Language in Society. 2(1), pp.45-80.
Lakoff, R. T., 1975. Language and Woman’s Place,
Harper & Row Publisher. New York.
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