Language

and
Gender:
Gender Language of
Commentators in D2 Academy
Indosiar TV Program 2015
A3 LTBI
P O S T G R A D UAT E P R O G R A M E
S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F
MEDAN

NURUL
I N AYA H
H U TA S U H U T

ABSRTACT

Gender Language of Commentators in D2 Academy Indosiar

TV Program 2015
NURUL INAYAH HUTASUHUT
NIM: 8146111047
Gender and language are one of major isssues in sociolinguistics, some researcher belief
that male and female have different way in communication. Each of male and and have
their own way in communicate each other. Based on Tannen theory, Report and Rapport
Talk are patterns of male and female in communication. Male use report talk in
communication to communicate factual information and female use rapport talk in
communication to build and maintain relationships. This paper discusses the differences
of talk type that used by male and female juries on D2 Academy Indosar 2015 in giving
comment to one of contestant. The juries consist of five juries, two males, Syaiful Jamil
and Benigno. and three females juries, Inul Daratista, Rita Sugiarto and Iis Dahlia. It is
necessary to focus on the gender differences in communication patterns in that program.
Overlooking the differences between the two gender roles. There were 25 utterences that
used by juries in this program, each juries used their own charateristics in
communication, male juries tended to use report talk in delivering their opinion in giving
comment to the contestant. While female juries tended to use rapport talk in giving comment
to the contestant. For male juries, they showed their communication behaviors by Reason,
logic, power, rank, status, compete, winning, team, think. hey also told more stories and
made jokes in their communication to show their status and power. While female juries
showed their feeling, empathy, harmony, closeness, relationships, sharing. cooperation
group, intuitive. Male juries also used rapport talk in their uterances, by contrast female
juries also used male charateristics way in their utterances. It happened because of juries
background as top artists.
Keywords: Gender, Language, Report Talk, Raport Talk

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I.

INTRODUCTION
Human being is a social creature. In fact, man is a receiver and sender of

messages who assembles and distributes information (Greimas, 1970). Sapir (1956)
insists that every cultural pattern and every single act of social behaviour involves
communication in either an explicit or implicit sense. The tool for this communication is
language. Language is important for human being. Language is used by man and woman
to share information each other through communication. It means that language as the
communication is a central to all human existence and social process. Communication is
one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few can define satisfactorily
(Thompson, 2003). Communication is necessary because communication has important
role to express some ideas, feelings, thoughts, and intentions. Tannen(1990) states that
male and females brain are structured and process information differently. Men process
information analytically while woman tend to process things abstractly. There are some
factors that can influence the way people communicate with others. One of the factors is
gender.
A major issue in sociolinguistics has been the close affinity between language and
gender (Weatherall: 2002). Common people known that gender and sex is similiar, but
actually they are different. According to West and Zimmeran (1987), gender is not
something we are born with, and not something we have. But something we do. Male and
female can do different or same. Added by Eckert (2003), sex is a biological
categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, whereas gender is the sosial
elaboration of biological sex. So gender is human beings made, where gender is not
something that we are born with and something we have. But something that we made
and we do.
Gender and language are very interesting to be discussed because in general most
people beliefs that male and female speak differently. Actually it is based on the
condition, environment and culture. Usually female boundry with certain norm, such as a
female should use polite words, or cannot use certain words traditionally, male and
female are believed to communicate in different ways. In the study of language and
gender, there are many studies that have described about the differences between males
and females in their way of speaking. Theoritically, man and female use different way of
communication (Tannen: 1992). She says traditionally, a male usually uses his logic to
tell something and female usually use felling.

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Tannen(1990) also distinguishes male and female communication patterns.

According to her, the male communication is considered report type. Male use report
talk to communicate factual information, while female communication pattern is
considered rapport type talk. Male use rapport talk to build and maintain
relationships,. Male use conversation as a means of establishing status and power, while
female use conversation to make connections and establish intimacy and community,
conversation of male is more competitive, while conversation of female is more
cooperative. Men focus on power and status, while women focus on feelings and building
relationships. Male displays a higher percentage of providing information, direction, or
answers, and direct disagreement that female do.
the phenomenon above also occurs to male and female in Indonesia. It can be in
many forms including in program of television. One of these television programs is D2
Academy in Indosiar TV Program. D2 Academy is a talent show that aired on Indosiar TV

program. This event is a dangdut singing talent competition. This event began on
February 3, 2014. D2 academy is presented every day for a minimum 180 minutes and
maximum 270 minutes. For the final concert stage is presented only on Monday-Friday
and for the Grand Final concert is presented every Thursday and Friday, while in the
sixth major final concert performed is every Friday.
In this talent competition there are five juries: two male juries; Syaiful Jamil and
Benigno, and three female juries; Iis Dahlia, Inul Daratista and Rita Sugiarto. All the
juries are dangdut singer and they have experience in singing. In this talent competition
all the juries should give comment for the contestants performance. After contestants
show their performance, the juries give their comment directly about the performance of
the contestant to increase the contestants performance in dangdut singing. It could be pro
and cons, praise or critics and advice. In giving comment, every jury has different way in
delivering their opinion for the contestants. It is include to the talk type, report and
rapport talk.
Based on explanation above, the writer focusses on gender charateristics of the
juries of D2 Academy Indosiar TV Program in giving comment and the writer also just
focusses to analyse the utterances of male and female juries in giving comment to one of
contestant of D2 Academy which is play in Indosiar TV station on March, 12 th 2015. The
contestants name is Endah from Banjarmasin. In this study the writer use the only

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Tannens theory where she believed that women and men have different speech styles,
and she defined them as rapport-talk and report-talk respectively.

II. DISCUSSION
1. Language and Gender
Crystal (1971) state language as the systematic, conventional use of sounds,
signs or written symbols in a human society for communication and self expression.
Chase (1969) declares that the purpose of language use is to communicate with others, to
think, and to shape ones standpoint and outlook on life. Indeed, language figures human
thoughts. Its meant that Language as one element of culture has a very important role in
human life. Language allows a person communicating with others in meeting their needs.
Thus, it can be said is the main function of language as a communication tool
Language as a social value loaded practice reflects in intricate network of social,
politic, cultural and age relationship within a society (Mackay and Hornberger:1996). For
instance, in community where male and female are only example of more extensive
differences having to do with the social structure of the community, for example, woman
is more talk active then men, it means that man always kep on his words because it gives
his high prestigate. Eckert and Ginet(2003) stated that male and female can be
distinguished between two terms: sex and gender role. Sex is a biological categorization
based primarily on reproductive potential, whereas gender is the social elaboration of
biological sex. Sex is based in a combination of anatomical, endocrinal and chromosomal
features
Gender is embedded so throughly in our institutions, our actions, our believes,
and our desire, that it appears to us to be completely natural (Eckert and Ginet: 2003).
Gender and sex is different, gender is the result of nurture and hence fluid while sex is
simply given by biology. According to West and Zimmerman(2003) gender is not
something we are born with, and not something we have. But something we do. it is
concluded that gender describe what men and female do. How male and female express
their though in doing interaction . therefore male is believed to be power and status in
due to conversation, above all when they discuss in public context. Whereas, female is
believed to be closeness in due to interaction, they are closeness in discussing the
personal problems, so that they talk too much in private context than public context.
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In interaction, men appear to be organized in hierachical way, it is conducted men

grow up in large group: morever this situation will make them to be power and hierachy
in speaking especially in public context. Where as woman tend to use back channel to
support their listeners utterances, this expression is expressed by them to ask for listener
to keep the conversation going on.
Then Trudgil(1983) suggest that female are more closely involved with child
bearing and transfering of culture and therefore more aware of the importance for their
children of the acquisition of prestigate norms. It means that male in our society has
traditionally been rated socially by their occupation, their earning power and perhaps by
their abilities in other words by what they do it may be, therefore, that they (female) have
had to be rated instead to a greater extend than male on how they appear.
2. Talk Type (The charateristics of Male and Female Speech)
Tannen(1990) suggests that women and men talk in different genderlects, or

gender-specific dialects, and she defined them as rapport-talk and report-talk. Women
tend to engage in rapport talk, or relationship-oriented talk, whose primary function is to
build understanding and empathy within a wider group. By contrast, she argues, men tend
to engage in report talk, or task-oriented talk, whose primary function is to produce
solutions to problems
The Features of Report and Rapport Talk in Communication
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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REPORT TALK
Direct Request
Longer Talk in Public
Context
Speech Includes Slang or
Swear Words, Teasing and
Banter
Giving Advice to Solve
Problems
Mixing Business and nonbusiness Talk
Rarely give praise or
compliments
Showing Authority

RAPPORT TALK
Using Qualifiers
Apologizing
Taking Blame
Thanking
Maintaining an
Appearance of Equality,
Downplaying Qualification
Establishing Relationship
Downplaying Authority

According to Tannen, men are more likely to engage in what is referred to, as
report talk, which is primarily characterized by focus on content. Men talk about affairs
that are public matters, such as sports or politics. During report talk, men demonstrate
their knowledge about a subject and will give general information about the topic. She
further says that rapport talk, on the other hand, is designed to establish relationships
and make people in relationships feel closer to each other. Women are engaged in this
kind of talk more often than men. Rapport talk deals with more intimate matters than
report talk hence includes topics such as family and marital relationships
The male communication pattern and traits tend to be honest, direct, and factual.
It is considered report type talk. The communication behaviors men tend to possess
are: Reason, logic, power, rank, status, compete, winning, team, think. Men view
conversation as a means to exchange information and problem solve. Men stay away
from personal topics and discuss events, sports, news, and facts. They tell more stories
and jokes than women as a way to show status and power. Men are direct, blunt, and
speech includes slang or swears words. Men get straight to work on a task and build
relationships while working on the project. Men reflect and process information for
decision making internally.
Women avoid using aggressive and threatening language irrespective of their
position. They exhibit their subordinate status by being polite and soft spoken and
demonstrate their authority in the same way but with a little bit of discipline and straight
face. In both the cases they avoid direct and threatening communication. Women want to
be with their families, help others, feel respected and cared about, be a part of a
community, be proud of the company they work for and be trusted. All of this reflects
their need for connection and relationship, which is also the main reason why women are
so well-suited for business their natural ability to develop and maintain relationships.
Women talk to build rapport and make connections. They discuss personal topics like
relationships, feelings, and past experiences. Women take turns communicating. Women
tend to be indirect, tactful, and use more courtesy words. Women accomplish tasks by
building relationships first. Women talk out loud to others, processing information
externally for decision making. The female communication pattern and traits tend to be
nurturing, indirect, and respectful. It is considered rapport type talk. The
communication behaviors women tend to possess are: feeling,
closeness, relationships, sharing. cooperation group, intuitive.

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empathy, harmony,

Considering nonverbal communication women gain an upper hand over their

male counterparts Women interpret nonverbal communication better than men. Men are
less comfortable with making eye contact than women. Apparently, it has something to
do with dominance, power and status. Direct eye contact is a sign of emotion. So, the less
eye contact shared the less emotion. In terms of gestures, postures and facial expressions,
results appear to be mixed. But, basically, men and women use gestures, postures, touch
and facial expressions differently. For example, women tend to smile and use facial
expressions more than men do. Men appear more relaxed in posture while women appear
tenser. Men and women communicate on different levels.
3. The Use of Report and Rapport Talk by Juries in D2 Academia Indosiar
March, 12th 2015
1. Report Talk
From the transcriptions of comments by male and female Juries in D2 Academy
Indosiar there were 25 utterances and the talk type that used by male and female
juries are in the table below:
Report Talk
Direct Request
Longer Talk in Public Context
Speech Includes Slang or Swear Words,
Teasing and Banter

JURIES of D2 Academia Dangdut Indosiar

Inul
Benigno
Rita
Iis
Syaiful
Daratista
Sugiarto
Dahlia
Jamil

Giving Advice to Solve Problems

Mixing Business and non-business

Talk
Rarely give praise or compliments
Showing Authority

From the table above we can see that the utterances of both male juries (Benigno
and Syaiful Jamil) of D2 academy in giving comment used the report talk. But not the
only males jury that used report talk, two of female juries ( Rita Sugiarto and Iis Dahlia)
also used report talk in giving comment to one of the contestant, Endah.
1. Direct Request
Benigno : Endah di lagu janji ini jangan terlalu di seret-seret...

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In this utterance, the male jury ask the contestant to jangan terlalu di seret seret..
(dont change the tone of the song..).This statement indicates that Benigno makes a
direct request by asking the contestant to keep the tone of the song

2. Longer Talk in Public Context

Benigno : ..tapi yang saya mau kasih tau tadi kalo saya tutup mata saya ngak
dengar Endah, saya mendengar Iyeth Bustami yang nyanyi gitu. gini cengkok
yang Endah bawa memang Endah ini saya lihat bunglon, penyanyi yang serba
bisa tapi untuk di lagu ini kamu ngebunglonya malah bagi saya, kalo bagi saya
pribadi Eeeh.. ngelihatnya itu seperti Iyeth Bustami lagi bernyanyi di cengkokcengkoknya, cengkok-cengoknya Iyeth Bustami banget
Longer talk in public context means that men demonstrate their knowledge about a
subject and will give general information about the topic. In this case, male as a jury
gave the information based on her knowladge about if Endah sing the song like
that, she looks like Iyeth Bustami
Syaiful J : Karena lagu ini ada versi banyak, versi A rafiq almarhum, ada versi

Siti Nurhaliza, and than me all friend Beniqno dan kamu sama sekali walaupun
melayu saya tidak melihat kamu mirip dengan siapa-siapa tidak.. mulai malam
hari ini siap-siap kamu menjadi bintang dangdut Indonesia tetap pakam kamu
harus di jaga kalo uda dapat pakam uda basic mau di India-indiain, mau di
Arab-arabin, mau di bule-bulein, mau di Melayu-melayuin Endah is Endah itu
yang susah di dapat oleh penyanyi baru dan itu semua ada di kamu
Longer Talk in Public Context was also indicated from the statement above. Syaiful
also as a male Jury gave the information about that song.
3. Speech Includes Slang or Swear Words, Teasing and Banter

Benigno : yang Endah bawa memang Endah ini saya lihat bunglon
Iis D

: jangan ya itu yang harus di pelajari kalo yang lain-lain uda oke
tawetong apalah-apalah cucok

Syaiful

: Endah.. Endol.. jadikan nama kamu Endah suara kamu malam ini
endol

All the statement above used the utterances by speech includes Slang Endol and
tawetongand teasing word Bunglon

4. Giving Advice to Solve Problems

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Benigno : jadi walaupun musiknya selow tapi tetap harus ada takatonya jadi
jangan terlalu di seret
In the statement above it can be seen that male jury give an advice to the contestant.
The same with the statement above, syaiful as a male jury also gave an advice
to the contestant ingat pesan bang Iful jangan gede kepala jangan bangga

belajar terus okey. ( remember my advice, dond be arrogant, dont proud and
keep learning
In this case, not the only male jury used the charateristics of male
communication report talk but two of female juries ( Rita S and Iis D) also used
report talk. The statements below are kind of report talk that used by two of female
juris

Kalo menurut saya si kurang tepat kalo menurut aku lebih bagus itu dihilangkan
aja dengan improve-improvenya yang natural aja. In this statements female jury
gave an advice to the contestant to sing with the natural improve only
Endah bagus tapi Endah harus tau ini lagu janji kamu lagi kesal cowok kamu
melupakan janji yang uda di kasih ke kamu jadi harus ada rasa kecewanya juga
gitu
This statement also give an advice to contestant to show the contestants
dispointed in her face
5. Mixing Business and non-business Talk
pembaharuan reformasi, inovasi, serasi, penuh kreasi
This statement is not related to the topic, and male jury mix this statement with
the topic
In this case not only male jury used it. Female jury also used it with the statement
ngak ada yang melarang sah tidak sah ni masalah kenikmatan aja. Selera dan
kenikmatan
6. Rarely give praise or compliments
basiknya dia uda dapat ciri khas dia uda dapat kalo orang sudah dapat ciri
khas lagu mau di Melayu di melayuin, mau di arab-arabin itulah yang benar
seperti itu
7. Showing Authority
Both of males jury in this case showing their authority by the utterances
pertahankan seperti in Endah (keep like this, Endah) and also belajar terus okey
(keep learning, okay) From the statement, males jury showed that they have a
power, authority and status as the jury to give an advice for the contestant.
So based on data above we can see that both of male juries used the report
talk features, except Mixing Business and non-business Talk, one of male jury did
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not use it. And also in this features Benigno as one of male jury did not use it in
giving comment, and also in direct talk Syaiful as male jury did not use it in his
comment.
2. Rapport Talk
Rapport Talk
Using Qualifiers
Apologizing
Taking Blame
Thanking
Maintaining an Appearance of
Equality, Downplaying
Qualification
Establishing Relationship
Downplaying Authority

JURIES of D2 Academia Dangdut Indosiar

Inul
Benigno
Rita
Iis
Syaiful
Daratista
Sugiarto
Dahlia
Jamil

Based on tabel of Rapport Talk above we can see that females jury used their
charateristics in communication, but not the only females juryboth of males jury also
used the rapport talk, each of males jury used one of females charateristics in
communication.
1. Using Qualifiers
All of the juries, males and females used this in their communication, the
utterances are sukses banget, cantik banget, very.. very.. kagum sama kamu
Banget=very: Qualifiers
2. Apolozing
In this case the only male jury that used one of features of female charateristics in
communication
Maaf, tapi kita ngak mau kehilangan dia kan? (Sorry,.......)
3. Thanking
In this case also the only benigno used thanking in his comment with the
utterances Thank you Endah
4. Maintaining an Appearance of Equality, Downplaying Qualification
One of the features of rapport talk is downplaying qualification. In this utterance, two
female jury downplayed qualification with the statement lagu janji ini dengan

kamu kemas ala ala sedikit melayu bagi saya tidak ada masalah selagi di not
terakhir semuanya sampai and also suara sundanya itu kalo bisa dihilangin

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malah bagus lagi. Karena kamu nyanyinya uda bagus, kamu improvenya uda
bagus
One of male jury also used this feature in his comment walaupun musiknya selow

tapi tetap harus ada takatonya jadi jangan terlalu di seret. Kamu suaranya uda
keren tapi Endah malam ini cantik banget lo kamu. Kamu cantik banget
perubahanya drastis, keren.. keren..
5. Establishing Relationship
In rapport talk, females always produce the statement contained establishing
relationship. In this utterance, female show it by stating saya tepuk tangan buat

Endah bagus
From the data above we can see that females jury used the features of rapport talk
as their charateristics in communication but not the only females jury used it. Male juries
also used rapport talk in their communication.

III. CONCLUSSION
Male and female used the way in communication differently because male and
female speakers have different charateristics in social life. Based on Tannen theory
women and men talk in different genderlects, or gender-specific dialects , and she defined
them as rapport-talk and report-talk. Rapport or talk relationship-oriented talk for
Woman and report talk or task-oriented talk for men. Woman tend to engage in rapport

talk, whose primary function is to build understanding and empathy within a wider
group. By contrast, men tend to engage in report talk, or task-oriented talk, whose
primary function is to produce solutions to problems.
In this study the writer found that male and female juries in D2 Academi Indosiar TV
Program 2015 used rapport and report talk in their way of communication, Thus male and

female juries communicate with each other in their own communication styles. male
juries used report talk more in delivering their comment for the contestants performance.
Meanwhile, female juries tended to use rapport talk more in delivering their comment for the
contestant. Each juries have their own way in delivering their utterances in giving comment.
For male juries, they showed their communication behaviors by Reason, logic, power,

rank, status, compete, winning, team, think. They also told more stories and made
jokes in their communication to show their status and power. While female juries showed

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their feeling, empathy, harmony, closeness, relationships, sharing. cooperation group,

intuitive.
But it is possible also that woman use report in their communication and also male
use rapport in their communication as the writer found in this study. Both of male juries also
used some features rapport talk in their statement in giving comment to the contestant. Male
juries are able to communicate by female-like strategy. and for female juries also, they not
only used rapport talk in their communication but also used some of features of report talk.
both of males jury used the report talk features, except Mixing Business and non-business

Talk, one of male jury did not use it. And also in this features Benigno as one of male
jury did not use it in giving comment, and also in direct talk Syaiful as male jury did not
use it in his comment. Male juries also used some features rapport talk in their
communication when giving comment. The features of rapport talk that the used are
using qualifier, apolozing, thanking, and Maintaining an Appearance of Equality,
Downplaying Qualification. For females juries the also used their own charateristics
Rapport Talk in giving comment. But they used also some features of males
charateristics Report Talk in giving comment. The features are Speech Includes Slang or
Swear Words, Teasing and Banter, Giving Advice to Solve Problems, Mixing Business and

non-business Talk. It happened because of juries background as top artists. and they showed
it when they giving comment to the contestant.

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