NAMA: RATNA SUMINARTI LORENS

NIM : 161201009

PAPER : FINAL SOCIALINGUISTIC

ABSTRACT

This thesis discusses the use of language with social perspective such as age, gender, and
social status used by the characters in the movie The Princess Diaries. Data is collected by
watching, observing, and analyzing all the main character conversation with the other person. Data
already collected later analyzed using Romaine's (1994) theory of social factors such as social
status, age, and sex.

The theory is also supported by Crystal (1997) theory such as U and non-U, social status
and role, and language and respect. The results of data analysis using word choice by main
characters related to age, gender and status social. The most dominant factor that uses language
usage is age and status social. The language of lower class youth differs from the language of
upper-class adults or royal family.

Keywords: Language use, age, gender, and social status.

 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Research

Human being use language as a tool to communicate with other people in daily life. People
can express their language in many ways, such as, to communicate, to share feelings and ideas
that reflecting to their social behavior in society. Language and society are inseparable. It can be
seen from of social function in the society. The relationship between social functions and its
language are studying in sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics concern on language and society, the
relation between society where people live and the language used. Beside language, people life
is also influenced by culture. Culture describes manners, customs, arts, and skills. Hudson
(1996:04) said that sociolinguistics is the study of language and its relation to society. Society
using language in different way.
On the other hand, Hudson (1980: 24), added that every language has its own variation. The
term of language variation is related to different language in communication by creating new
word to make it easier to understand by a certain group of people. Speakers may create the
pronunciation (accent), word choice (lexicon), or grammar by themselves. Language variation is
used by certain groups or a society which are very limited, and may not be known by the other
group. Language is not only for human communication, but also for expressing the cultural
reality. Two or more people meet for the first time may realize that they come from different
culture, known from their languages.
This research was designed by using sociolinguistic approach because the writer tried to
relate the use of language with three social factors. According to Romaine (1994:67),
sociolinguistics has five dimensions, namely; social class, age, sex, style, and network. Many
sociolinguistic studies have started by grouping people into social classes based on education,
occupation and income. In this study, the writer chooses some factors, such as; social status,
age, and gender. Then relate it to the use of language that is used by the characters. Language
use in social factors is also reflected in literary works, such as movie. One of the movie is The
Princess Diaries (2001). In conducting this research, the writer chooses The Princess Diaries
(2001).
This movie has a lot of different language used by the characters in this movie. It is seen
from the social factors in each character. This movie sets in two different cultures, that is
American and British culture. In the conversation found the main character uses many impolite
languages to speak with her environment before she becomes a real princess. Thereby, the
writer names this study: The Analysis of Language use in Relation to Social status, Age, and
Gender of the Characters in The Princess Diaries Movie.
The Princess Diaries (2001) is a movie about a young girl whose name is Mia. She lives
with her mother and has grown up in American. Her father is a king of Genovia but he had
passed away. Amelia or Mia grown up in ordinary family, because her mother is not from a
kingdom like her father. One day, her grandmother, a Queen in Genovia invited Mia to be a
 Princess. Mia cannot learn a British manner perfectly because her behavior comes from her
belong to, like a teenager in American. In this movie, Mia used an American language and her
grandmother used a British language. It looks different in their language because Mia comes
from different background when she faced her new place with her grandmother. Here is the
example in the conversation between Amelia and her Grandmother (Queen) from that movie:
Grandmother (Queen): Amelia, I am so glad you could come.
Amelia : Hi. You’ve got a great place.
Grandmother (Queen) : Thank you. Let me look at you. You look so....young.
Amelia : Thank you. And you look so....clean.
From the example of the language above, we can conclude that they have different use of
language each other. And we can see the differences between Amelia’s language, who is an
American teenager when speaking with her grandmother, and the Queen uses British. Actually,
Mia’s language is also formal when she is using it in America. While, in Britain Mia’s language
is included to informal language. It means that Amelia’s Grandmother who is a Queen, use a
formal language and speak politely. Mia who is an American teenager speaks ordinary like
talking to her friends, seeing from the factors of age. In that conversation, we can also see other
social factors in using language, but, from the conversation above, the writer has chosen a factor
of age between Mia and her grandmother. We can see from Mia’s grandmother expression,
when she looks at Mia, she has long space to say that Mia is so...young, and also from Mia’s
expression, she also has space when she said her grandmother so...clean. In the first time she
meet, Mia didn’t realize that her grandmother is a queen, and her grandmother also didn’t
realize that Mia have an old and casual style.
From the conversation above, we can divide that they are using language in different factor.
They have different culture each other, from American and Britain cultures. So, the reason why
I am interested in writing this topic is because the main characters in this movie used different
language that is related to social status, age, and gender. Each main character is from different
culture. Because of that, the writer found the language use from each main characters and the
using of their language.
1.2 Identification of the Problem
The focus of this research is based on the following questions:
1) What are the variety of language used that reflect the age, gender, and social status by
the main characters in The Princess Diaries movie?
1.3 Objectives of the Research
This research was to identified the use of language that reflect the social factors of the
characters in the movie. Language use found in the characters that related to social status, age,
and gender.
The aims of this research were to describe the relation between language use and social
factors by Romaine (1994) that is represented by main characters in The Princess Diaries
movie.
1.4 Scope of the Research
 This research dealed with sociolinguistics studies as the part of linguistics. In language use
and social status, age, and gender case which occured in one society movie, The Princess
Diaries (2001). This research focused on how the use of language reflected to the social factors,
which concerns on social status, age, and gender in the movie. This research also related to the
language and society, such as; U and non-U, social status and rule, and language and respect.
 Chapter II

Related theory

2.1 Introduction

Language is one of the most powerful emblems of social behavior. In the normal transfer of
information through language, we use language to send vital social messages about who we
are, where we come from, and who we associate with.

Since the 1960s, a number of sociolinguistic studies have been carried out to reveal the
significance of the interplay between language variation and language change and the effects of
social factors on the language of different speaker groups within a speech community.
Regional variation and variation due to social class and gender differences have been much
discussed in those studies.

To a lesser extent sociolinguists have focused on age, ethnicity and networks as social
factors. In the following, I will try to describe such differences and the effects of age on the
language of speaker groups, namely children and adolescents. I will deal with the linguistic
characteristics of both age groups as a steady and continuous development rather than
comparing both stages of life with each other.

2.2 Linguistic behavior in childhood

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “childhood” is –

very obviously - “a time or state of being a child.” Although there are children around in
everyday life, people don’t seem to place great importance on their linguistic behavior. But
indeed, the basis for future linguistic or communicative competence is set during those first
years in life. And, as I will discuss later, this development has its peak during the period of
adolescence. Children normally go through several important stages: the preschool years,
mainly surrounded by family members, the time they spend at a kindergarten, and the school
years, where peer relations and other factors gain huge importance, not only socially but also
linguistically.

2.3 Family and social class

 It is important to find out “how language assists the child to become a full fledged member
of society” (Cook and Gumperz 37). Sapir explains that “language is a great force of
socialization, probably the greatest that exists,” (Chambers 152). Speech acts in early
childhood are mainly formed by the influence of the family. As regards sociolinguistic
variation, young children acquire the vernacular of their local area mainly due to influence
from the caregiver models and the influence from outside the family is relatively limited
(Romaine 1984). The term "vernacular” could then be defined as “forms, [that] tend to be
learned at home and used in informal contexts” (Holmes 146).

Children grow up in different surroundings, in different social environments. Rogers

mentions the first important factor that has huge influence on an individual’s speech which is,
from her point of view “Without a shadow of doubt [the most formative influence upon the
procedures of socialization, from a sociological viewpoint, is] social class”(332). And this
certainly holds true. Social class is hard to identify, but generally one could say that it is
determined by differences in income, education and/or social prestige.

A study, carried out by Reid on 11-year-old schoolboys in Edinburgh showed, that “(...)
there are features of their speech which relate in a systematic way to their social status and to
the social context in which their speech is produced” (Chambers 155). Their speech was
recorded to examine the use of the variable (ng) and its variants; the results showed that their
vernacular correlated with the social class they came from. The most innovative and non-
standard forms were used by lower classes, while middle-class boys used more standardized
speech. When you compare those results with the linguistic features of adult speech, it is
obvious that this is somehow the same. Women, especially in middle class, tend to use
stigmatized forms and are “more sensitive than men to overt sociolinguistic values (Chambers
129). Babies and small children are often categorized as babblers, not yet able to communicate
appropriately. Surprising results were brought up in 1989 by Wolfram, who examined that
already 36 months-year-old infants use socially significant variables (Chambers 157).

The above mentioned studies were only two out of a few that could help to modify one of
the first sociolinguistic theories which was published in the 1960´s, the six stages of language
acquisition by Labov. In his opinion, language acquisition is a mere process of acculturation,
which means that children, as they grow older, adopt their language to the one of their parents,
towards standardization. It also basically explains that pre-adolescent children do not control
the full resources of sociolinguistic variability until adolescence.
 Chapter III

Methodology

3.1 Methods of the Research

This research was descriptive qualitative study of language use and social status, age, and
gender. The data is in the form of utterances that was taken by main character in The Princess
Diaries. This study applied library research that used a movie as the source of data. This
research was conducted by applying the following steps, there are collecting data, analyzing
data, and displaying the result of analysis.

3.2 Collecting Data

The data is in the form of utterances collected from the movie. The writer conducts the research
by watching the movie, taking notes, then classified the data by social status, age, and gender.
The writer collected the data in the form of utterances which is uttered by the characters in The
Princess Diaries movie. The data collected about twenty one conversation. Each conversation
has explained social status, age, and gender.
3.4 Analyzing the Data
The data was analyzed based on social factors by Romaine (1994). In this study, the writer
analyzed each social factor that is used by the characters. Then, the writer find the language use
related to social status, age, and gender by the characters. The total number of language use was
divided into three social factors and gave the explanation from each conversation in order to
make the analysis more comprehensive.
3.5 Displaying the Result of Analysis
In displaying the research, the writer found twenty one conversations of social status,
age, and gender. The conversations were grouped into three factors, such as; social status, age,
and gender. Each factors reflected by main characters in The Princess Diaries movie.
 CHAPTER 1V
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, the writer presents the result of the study, entitled The Analysis of Language
Use in Relation to Social Status, Age, and Gender of the Characters in The Princess Diaries Movie.
After analyzing the conversation between participants in the movie, the writer grouped the social
status, age, and gender that widely used by the speaker and hearer. In analyzing the data, the writer
applied the theory of social factors by Romaine (1994).
In analyzing the dialog of “Princess Diaries (2001)”, the writer found three groups of social
factors in using language utilized with social status ( six expressions), then factor of age as the most
used strategies ( ten expressions), and the last factor of gender (five expressions). And the most
used of social factors is factors of age (ten data). The choice of those social status, age, and gender
was influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer. If they are from the same
status and know each other well, they tend to use the factor of age. Whereas, when there is a high
distance between them or they are from different status, they tend to use the factor of social status
and gender. The character who uses the factors of age is Mia.
There are other characters who have the conversation with Mia, such as; Mia and her
grandmother, Mia and Lilly, and Mia and her mother. So, there are eight conversations between
Mia and her grandmother that used social factors of age. It is belongs to factors of age because the
distance between Mia and her grandmother so close, but in factors of age, they are so different.
Mia’s language should polite when speak with her grandmother, even her grandmother is a queen.
Because of the different culture, Mia used her own language in the wrong way. She used her own
language in the very formal situation. She speaks to older like she speaks to her friends.
In social factors of gender, there are four characters uses the factors of gender in the conversations.
They are; the queen and Joseph, and Mia and Joseph, and the queen and Paolo. They use language
politely when speaking to the hearer, because they didn’t want to hurt the hearer’s feeling. In the
conversation, women languages are more polite than man language.
Lastly, in the factors of social status, there are six conversations used by six characters.
They belong to the factors of age because the speaker speaks to the royal hearer. In the
conversation, they have different status each other. Their social classes are different, such as; the
queen and Mia, the queen and Mia’s Mother, and other characters. They use language in factors of
social classes to each other by seeing each status.