THE ANALYSIS ON CONVERSATIONAL TOPICS SELECTED BY MEN AND WOMEN IN LEGALLY BLONDE’S MOVIE SCRIPT WRITTEN BY KAREN McCULLAH AND KIRSTEN SMITH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND GENDER (ANALISA PADA TOPIK-TOPIK PERCAKAPAN YANG DIPILIH OLEH LAKI-LAKI DAN PEREMPUAN DALAM NASKAH FILM LEGALLY BLONDE DITULIS OLEH KAREN McCULLAH AND KIRSTEN SMITH: STUDI SOSIOLINGUISTIK TENTANG BAHASA DAN GENDER

Abstract

In the study of language and gender, men and women have different characteristics in the use of language. It creates gender differences in the amount of talk and the topic selections. In reality, most of people know that women tend to talk a lot than men. This phenomenon is not only found in daily life, but also happens in the movie script. This research analyzes the conversational topics selected by men and women in Legally Blonde's movie script. This research applies the theory of gender differences in the amount of talk by Talbot (1998) and Tannen (1993) and the theory of gender differences in the topic-selections by Moore (1922), Landis and Burtt (1924), Kramer (1974), Tannen (1993) and Aries (1996). Moreover, this research also applies the Difference theory proposed by Tannen (1990). This research uses quantitative and qualitative methods. The methods of data analysis are selecting the dialogues, counting the number of words and analyzing the dialogues. The results show that there are 7 kinds of conversational topics. It is divided into 3 kinds of conversational topics selected by men, such as job, share activity and legal matter, and 4 kinds of conversational topics selected by women such as talking about themselves and another women, life's trouble and personal feelings. The main reason why men are more talkative than women in talking about particular conversational topics because they want to share information. While the main reason why women are more talkative than men in talking about particular conversational topics because they want to maintain the interpersonal relationship, create closeness and intimacy.