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Directive forms Expressed by Male and Female Respondents in Different

Situational Contexts

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DOI: 10.21512/humaniora.v10i1.4984

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Humaniora, 10(1), March 2019, 35-40 P-ISSN: 2087-1236
DOI: 10.21512/humaniora.v10i1.4984 E-ISSN: 2476-9061

DIRECTIVE FORMS EXPRESSED BY MALE AND FEMALE RESPONDENTS

IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONAL CONTEXTS

Euodia Inge Gavenila1; Yohanes Arsa2; Truly Almendo Pasaribu3

1,2,3
English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University
Jl. Affandi, Tromol Pos Jl. Mrican Baru No.29, Caturtunggal, D. I. Yogyakarta 55002, Indonesia
1
euodiainge@gmail.com; 2yohanes.arsa@gmail.com; 3tr.almendo@gmail.com

Received: 18th September 2018/ Revised: 21st January 2019/ Accepted: 31st January 2019

How to Cite: Gavenila, E. I., Arsa, Y., & Pasaribu, T. A. (2019). Directive forms expressed by male and female
respondents in different situational contexts. Humaniora, 10(1), 35-40.
https://doi.org/10.21512/humaniora.v10i1.4984

ABSTRACT

This research intended to explore the relationship between language and gender by answering two research questions. First,
it was how male and female respondents expressed directive forms. Second, it was what the social factors that influenced
the choice of directive forms were. The two issues were considered urgent because gender was a variable that determined
how people used language, including directive forms. Data were collected by distributing offline open-ended questionnaires
to 18 students from the 2015-2017 batch of the English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) of Sanata Dharma
University. The results show that to some extent females and males express directive forms differently. Men tend to be direct
in expressing directive messages, while women use interrogative and declarative forms in delivering the messages since these
forms are considered as more polite and less direct. Women tend to save their faces by using more indirect or polite forms
because they avoid being considered impolite. Then, social class, the relationship between participants, and formality also
influence the use of directive forms.

Keywords: directive forms, gender expression, situational contexts

INTRODUCTION the groups under study on the use of hedges, (2) There is no
significant difference between the groups under study on the
There are some beliefs about how men and women use of intensifiers, and (3) There is no significant difference
behave or should behave in terms of their psychology, between the groups under study on the use of tag questions.
physical dominance, and culture. One major behavior that To carry out the observation, the researchers gather data
is observable is the way men and women speak with their from six English film scenarios: Out of Sight, Taxi Driver,
interlocutors. Holmes in Mustapha (2013) added that these American Beauty, China Town, My Beautiful Launderette,
differences encompassed the language dialect differences, and Blood Simple. The Persian film scenarios are From
uncertainty and politeness, conversational interaction, speech Karkheh to Rine, The Apple, Children of the Heaven, The
functions, attitudes to woman’s talk, and sexist language. This Tenants, The Bus, Bread and Vase, The Wedding of the Nice
result means that uttered languages by men and woman have People, and The Sable’s Night. The statistical analysis proves
some differences to the extent of the situational contexts. that none of the findings could reject the null hypotheses. It
The relationship between language and gender shows that there is no difference between English males and
has been extensively explored by D’angelo (2008), Matei females in the use of the three linguistic categories (hedges,
(2011), Seyyedrezaie and Vahedi (2017), Subon (2013), intensifiers, and tag questions).
Waskita (2008), Yeganeh and Ghoreyshi (2015). Nemati and Taking the degree of politeness into account means to
Bayer (2007) has focused on determining whether men and take many aspects of linguistics forms including the directive
women are different in using intensifiers, hedges, and tag forms. According to Shahidzade (2016), directives act as
questions in English and Persian. The researchers adopt the illocutionary acts which provide the hearers with a reason to
difference theory and dominance theory to distinguish the act and bring about the truth of propositional contents. People
social differences between men and women language. This often use many various strategies to give directives like
research is a quantitative research, so there is a hypothesis using modals to soften the strength of the directive, hedged
formulation. The null hypotheses that the researchers structures to make the statement less strong, and the pronoun
formulated are: (1) There is no significant difference between ‘we’ instead of ‘you’ to soften the impact of the directive.

Copyright©2019 35
Directive forms are intended to soften the strength of the directive forms? To answer these research questions, this
directive form itself. For example, it can be “what we might research reviews some related research and theories.
to do is sending down a confirmation note to our lecturer”
instead of “send down a confirmation note!” Thus, directive
forms also intend to make the statement less strong like “I
wondered if you would not mind spending some of that
METHODS
time in contacting people for their interviews” and to soften The researchers employ survey research to obtain
the impact of the directive like “If we just tell them exactly men and women language usage in expressing directive
where Simon is” rather than using “if you just….” forms. Survey research is used to gather information about
Basically, there are several types of directive forms, the characteristics, actions, or opinions of a large group of
namely: imperative, interrogative, and declarative. An people. It is suitable to use a survey because the researchers
imperative sentence is the most, compared to declarative can elicit information which is difficult to measure using
and interrogative, impolite form of directive forms. Usually, observation. Questionnaires are one of many major means
imperative sentences consist of verbs only. For example, of data collection in survey research. In this research, the
there are “Sit down!”, “Go!”, or “Talk!” However, in some researchers distribute open-ended questionnaires to the
cases, the subject can be included in the sentence to clarify respondents because it allows them to give answers in their
the direction. For example, it can be “You sit down!” An words. The respondents in this research are 18 students from
interrogative sentence is way more polite than imperatives. English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) of
The characteristic of the interrogative sentence occurs in the Sanata Dharma University. They are from batch 2015-2017
punctuation. because the researchers adopt the stratified random sampling,
Usually, the interrogative form of directives will end which means the research randomly involves three male
in a question mark. There are three types of interrogative students and three female students as the representatives
sentences. First, it is the interrogative with the modal verb from each batch. Questionnaires are directly administered
like “Could you sit down?” or “Can you do this?” Second, to the subjects of the research because the researchers can
it is the interrogative with tag such as “Sit down, will you?” present accurate instructions so that the researchers get high
Last, it is the interrogative with negative modal like “Can’t response rates.
you do this for me?” or “Won’t you sit down?” Declaratives The questionnaires are open-ended questionnaires.
are directive forms which are also considered more polite Open-ended questionnaires allow the respondents to answer
than the imperatives. The characteristic of declarative forms from their frame of reference. Researchers highlight one
is its construction which looks like a common sentence. single area where participants address their opinions using
This kind of directive form has a clear and more complete directive forms. The respondents fill out their opinions
subject compared to the imperative forms like “I want you and attitudes using English and Indonesian based on the
to sit down.” or “I want you to clear your table.” situational contexts provided in the questionnaires. The data
These examples show that the interactions of gender are analyzed qualitatively based on the types of directive
and the use of command or direction may cause women to forms, namely imperative, you imperative, imperative with
be less direct and favor politeness more than men. Conrick modal verb, interrogative with modal verb, interrogative
(2000), Crosby (2000), Wallmann (2000) and Moore (2002) with negative modal, interrogative with tag, and declarative
as cited in Shahidzade (2016) have reported that women (Holmes & Wilson, 2017) to portray how gender and other
tended to soften criticism and showed more gratitude. In social factors influence directive expressions.
short, gender does determine the speech forms in language
usage. However, Pasaribu and Kadarisman (2016) and
Nemati and Bayer (2007) have discussed that low status of
women and the social pressure on them to talk like a lady, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
women use more hedges, intensifiers, super polite forms,
and question intonations. On the other hand, men use rough The numerical data in Table 1 display types of
language, less polite, and careless about question intonations. directive forms expressed by male respondents. They
In short, gender to some extent does determine the speech are interpreted by considering other findings and other
forms in language usage (Pasaribu & Kadarisman, 2016). social factors. From the open-ended questionnaires, the
However, Tse and Hyland (2008) as cited in Pasaribu (2017) researchers find that men use more imperative sentences to
have pointed out that gender does not directly determine the express directive forms.
linguistic features that male and female used. Seeing the Table 1 illustrates the results of how men of ELESP
gap in those studies whether gender has a direct influence express directive forms. As shown in Table 1, seven items
over the use of language, further research on gender and represent the directive forms. Men express the imperative
language is required. Accordingly, this research explores the sentences to express directive forms. In Figure 1, the
difference in the language usage between men and women biggest percentage is ranked by imperative expressions
in the boundary of politeness, primarily the directive forms which are 58% of all the directive forms. From this result,
in some situational contexts. it can be interpreted that men of ELESP use imperative
This research shares some similarities with the to express the directive forms based on some situational
research on gender differences in speeches that have been contexts that are provided in the questionnaires (see the
conducted by Nemati and Bayer (2007). However, this appendix). Compared to the results in Table 2 and Figure
research limits the discussion only on the directive forms 2, women use less imperative than men. Based on Holmes
of men and women in some situational contexts with two and Wilson (2017), in a study involving doctors’ use of
research questions. Those are (1) how do men and women of imperatives, male doctors tend to use imperatives, while
English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma female doctors use less direct forms. Male respondents
University batch 2015-2017 express directive forms? (2) express imperative forms because it is assumed that there is
What are the social factors that influence the choice of a power relationship between men and their masculinities in

36 Humaniora, Vol. 10 No. 1 March 2019, 35-40

language usage (Lakoff in Hedenmalm, 2012). A possible interrogative with modal verbs that are 10% of all directive
reason why men are using imperatives dominantly as shown forms expressed by men of ELESP batch 2015-2017. Then,
in Figure 1 is that they prefer to express straightforward declarative ranks fourth place with 8%, and you imperative
message to the addressee. ranked in fifth place with 2%. On the other hand, women
Some expressions that are used by men in expressing use more varied directive forms as seen in Table 2.
imperatives are: “Heeeeey! Try to open it slowly!”, “Hey! Table 2 illustrates that women express various kinds
Knock first!” and “Oh god you are so disturbing, go away!” of directive forms. Only one kind of directive forms is
They are likely to be upfront on what addressees should do. rarely used by women in ELESP Sanata Dharma University
It can be seen that the imperatives directly begin with verbs. which is the you imperative. This may occur because the
For example, the words are “try”, “knock”, and “go”. subject of the directive form is always the word “you” or
The second largest data is imperative with modal the person who is listening. Therefore, the you imperative is
verb sentences that are 22% from all directive forms not frequently used because the subject is considered clear.
expressed by men of ELESP batch 2015-2017. This number Mostly, women use directive form in imperative sentences
is smaller if the researchers compare it to the numbers used with 51% or about 35 expressions from all. The second place
by women. Factors like the lack of politeness strategy may is the interrogative with modal verb with 18 expressions or
influence this phenomenon. The third place is ranked by 26% from all the directive expressions. Then, it is followed

Table 1 How Men of ELESP Express Directive Forms

Name
Types of Directive Forms 2015 2016 2017 Total
Z S A WA AD FJ SD NS SA
Imperative 1 1 6 4 5 5 3 5 4 34
You imperative 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Men
Imperative with modal verb 6 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 3 13
Interrogative with modal verb 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 6
Interrogative with negative modal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Interrogative with tag 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
declarative 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 5

Figure 1 Percentage (Largest to Smallest) of How Men of ELESP Express Directive Forms

Table 2 How Women of ELESP Express Directive Forms

Name
Types of Directive Forms 2015 2016 2017 Total
C D N C YP SRD F V RSA
Imperative 5 3 4 7 6 3 1 3 3 35
You imperative 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Men
Imperative with modal verb 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 7
Interrogative with modal verb 2 4 6 1 0 2 2 1 0 18
Interrogative with negative modal 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3
Interrogative with tag 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
declarative 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 5

Directive forms Expressed..... (Euodia Inge Gavenila, et al.) 37

 Figure 2 Percentage (Largest to Smallest) of How Women of ELESP Express Directive Forms

by imperative with modal verb (10%), declarative (7%), The varied responses happen because of the respondents’
interrogative with negative modal (4%), and interrogative perceptions of politeness. The respondents are disturbed
with tag (2%). when someone cuts the queue. Moreover, situations (7) and
Even though the imperative is the most widely (8) show unusual findings. The respondents use imperative
used (51%), compared to men in Table 1 and Figure 1, expressions to the addressee who is in the same level of
this number is still 7% below men. This can be interpreted social class (situation 7) and non-directive expressions to
that women can be direct, although the data show that the the addressee who is inferior (situation 8). The level of
occurrences are still less frequent than male respondents. danger and the sense of urgency in the situation may also
According to Conrick (2000), Crosby (2000), Wallmann affect the language choice of the speakers. Finally, situation
(2000) and Moore (2002) as cited in Shahidzade (2016), (6) shows that imperatives are dominant in teacher-student
women use fewer imperative forms and more indirect relationships. The power relationship and intimacy among
directives. Moreover, Hill (2009) also found out that women them may cause respondents’ tendency to use imperative
tend to use more polite speech to allow them to save more expressions.
face. This is strongly associated with the politeness strategy Moreover, when expressing directive forms, the
since women take the addressees’ feeling into account more respondents’ answers in directing somebody may be
than men. triggered by their emotion. According to Culpeper (2011),
The most common expressions that women use to anger is one frequent emotional reaction that may cause
perform imperative based on some situational contexts from impoliteness. Besides addressee, social distance, relative
this research are the sentences like “Language please!” to status, and formality of the contexts, how people choose
direct students when the speaker pretends to be the teacher. their directive forms is determined by their degree of
Others are expressions like “Please, wait in line next time!” anger as seen in situation 6, “You are a lecturer. Your class
or “Safe your phone, please!” are also used to express consists of various kinds of students. When you teach your
imperatives with strangers. Women, when expressing students, there is one student (your opposite gender) who
imperatives, usually will also say the word “please”. Lakoff says something inappropriate to you. What will you say to
in Hedenmalm (2012) stated that this “please” word made your student in order to change him/her bad attitude?” (See
such non-masculine sound, so the data confirmed that appendix)
women used this word more often than men. In this context, the respondents are annoyed by
Other factors may affect how people choose their rude or inappropriate expressions stated by the students. It
directive forms. According to Holmes and Wilson (2017), provokes emotion, so they express an imperative sentence.
factors like the social distance between participants, their In addition, most of the respondents said that they will
relative status, and the formality of the context are three remain silent to those situational contexts (1, 5, 8, and 9).
relevant conditions. In this case, the reason why the respondents remain silent
Table 3 displays that most used directive forms by is because of three reasons. First, they do not really see the
respondents are imperatives. The imperative forms are urgency of uttering the directive forms. For example, it is in
mostly used for the situations (2), (3), (4), (6), (7), and (10). situation (1). The situation is as follows:
It can be seen that case 1 and 2 have a similar situation with
different responses. The factor that probably affects the “You are meeting your old friend when you were
difference is the urgency of the situation. Situation (1) refers in middle school. She does not change. She is still
to someone’s style, but situation (2) refers to someone’s shabby. She cannot style up her fashion at all. When
health. Situation (2) is considered more urgent than situation she was meeting you, she wore a baggy-torn shirt
(1), so more imperative forms are used to respond to the latter and tucked it into her oversized purple culottes. What
situation. Situation (3) and situation (5) have almost similar will you suggest in order to change her appearance?”
social dimensions, but those have different responses. The (See appendix)
differences may result from the intimacy of the speakers.
Family members are considered closer, so the speakers may In this situational context, the researchers barely see
have more freedom in expressing imperatives. It is also the urgency of whether people direct this particular someone
interesting to compare situations (4), (9), and (10). These or not. Even if the respondents express the directive forms,
situations share similar social dimensions: same level of he/she will not be affected, or it will not violate any
social class, distant relationship status, and informal setting. consequence. Therefore, some of them will remain silent

38 Humaniora, Vol. 10 No. 1 March 2019, 35-40

 Table 3 Detail Information of the Situational Contexts in the Open-ended Questionnaire

Case Addressee Class Relationship Formality of Context Highest Number of Responses

1 An old friend Same level Intimate Informal Imperative (8)
Non-directive (8)
2 An old friend Same level Intimate Informal Imperative (10)
3 Older brother Superior Intimate Informal Imperative (9)
4 Stranger Same level Distant Informal Imperative (14)
5 Lover Same level Intimate Informal Non-directive (10)
6 Student Inferior Intimate Formal Imperative (15)
7 Stranger Same level Distant Informal Imperative (8)
8 Stranger Inferior Distant Informal Non-directive (8)
9 Stranger Same level Distant Informal Non-directive (9)
10 Stranger Same level Distant Informal Imperative (9)

towards the situational context. Second, another factor Hedenmalm, L. (2012). Language and gender in Disney: A
that may affect this silence is that the respondents think study of male and female language in Walt Disney
the addresses’ behavior will not disturb them continuously. movies (Unpublished bachelor thesis). Luleå,
This reason is particularly suitable for the situation (5) and Sweden: Luleå University of Technology.
(9). The last reason is that the respondents fear of rejection. Hill, E. (2009). Do mothers and fathers differ in their
Rejection is one of the reasons why people remain silent speech styles when speaking to their children? Are
and do not speak up. These social dimensions affect how the there speaker gender effects on parents’ language
respondents react to the given situation. behaviour? Innervate: Leading Undergraduate Work
in English Studies, 2, 163−182.
Holmes , J., & Wilson, N. (2017). An introduction to
sociolinguistics. New York: Routledge.
CONCLUSIONS Matei, M. (2011). The influence of age and gender on
The result shows that men and women who come the selection of discourse markers in casual
from the same speech community with different social conversations. Philology and Cultural Studies,
classes may use different linguistic forms in expressing 4(53), 213−220.
directive messages. The data also suggest that men are more Mustapha, A. S. (2013). Gender and language education
straightforward in delivering directive messages. Another research: A review. Journal of Language Teaching
noteworthy finding is that women dominantly express the and Research, 4(3), 454−464. http://doi.org/10.4304/
use of interrogative and declarative forms. Interrogative and jltr.4.3.454-463.
declarative forms are considered more polite and less direct. Nemati, A., & Bayer, J. M. (2007). Gender differences in
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because they do not want to be considered impolite. This women: A comparative study of Persian and English.
is strongly associated with politeness strategies which are Language in India, 7(9), 1−16.
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are grounded in social-cultural narratives involving different mechanism and stereotyping in gender cyber humors.
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the link between language and other social dimensions Pasaribu, T. A. (2017). Gender differences and the use
because this research is limited to the small number of metadiscourse markers in writing essays.
of participants and contextual settings. The interested International Journal of Humanity Studies
researcher can investigate the relationship between (IJHS), 1(1), 93-102. https://doi.org/10.24071/
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