Language Features of Female and Male Characters in Avatar The Legend ofAang’s

Universe
Language in Society
Final Paper
EG 302

1. Salsabila Ghina Octaviani Putri (1705432)

2. Tasya Maharani Ramadhini (1701015)
3. Zalinda Salsabilla Firdausyiah (1702332)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS PENDIDIKAN INDONESIA
2020
 ASSESSMENT COVER SHEET

Students’ Name 1. Salsabila Ghina Octaviani Putri

2. Tasya Maharani Ramadhini

3. Zalinda Salsabilla Firdausyiah

Students’ Number 1. 1705432

2. 1701015

3. 1702332

Course Name & Code Language and Society EG 302

Title of Assignment Language Features of Female and Male Characters in Avatar

The Legend of Aang’s Universe

Lecturer(s) 1. Ernie D. Ayu Imperiani, M.Ed.

Due Date June 12th, 2020

Word Count 3148

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

We, Salsabila Ghina Octaviani Putri, Tasya Maharani Ramadhini, and Zalinda Salsabilla
Firdausyiah, hereby declare that the work we are submitting is our own original work and that
we have read and used a number of texts for my assignment. We declare that in our
assignment:

● We have acknowledged all ideas and words that come from other authors and cited
appropriately,
● We have quoted directly or indirectly from those authors and cited appropriately,
● We have not copied whole sentences, sections, words, or phrases from any other
author, book, internet source, journal or student,
● We have made an accurate List of References for our paper with regard to proper
referencing system such as APA style,
 ● We have discussed and analyzed the sources I have used and expressed my own
opinions,
● We have not had any outside help in writing this assignment.

Signed:

….…………(Salsabila Ghina Octaviani Putri), ….…………(Tasya Maharani Ramadhini),

….…………(Zalinda Salsabilla Firdausyiah)

Date: June 12th, 2020

Language Features of Female and Male Characters in Avatar The Legend of Aang’s
Universe

Tasya Maharani Ramadhini

tasyaramadhini@upi.edu
Salsabila Ghina Octaviani Putri
salsagop@upi.edu
Zalinda Salsabilla Firdausyiah
zalindasf@upi.edu
English Language and Literature Program, Department of English Education, Faculty of
Language and Literature Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

ABSTRACT
In this research, the researchers investigated the way two characters of different gender from Avatar:
The Legend of Aang use language features. The writers analyzed the use of men and women’s
language features, as well as the character’s pattern in using the language features. There are six
dialogues from selected episodes of the first and second season of Avatar: The Legend of Aang that
the researcher took to complete this research. The dialogues were then analyzed by using Coulmas’
theory of Sociolinguistics (1997), Lakoff’s theory of Women’s language features (1975), and Coates’
theory of Men’s language feature (2004). In analyzing the data, the writers used a descriptive
qualitative method from Nazir (1998). The writers found that the women’s language features that are
used by the characters are rising intonation on declaraties and emphatic stress, while the men’s
language features that are used by the characters are swear words and taboo language.The language
features that are used by the characters are not according to their genders and do not always follow the
pattern.

Keywords: Consistency language and gender; Language features; Men’s language;

Pattern;Women’s language.
I. Introduction
Children, both male and female, have a tendency to copy adults in many
aspects, including how they speak and use language features. Because of this, we
became interested in conducting this research by taking Avatar: The Legend of Aang,
which is an animated series that is targeted to children. In this series, children may
copy their favorite characters' language use that could define them being what person
they would become.

Our research is on the different uses of language features on different genders

that are reflected in Avatar: The Legend of Aang cartoon series dialogue. The
language features that are used by the 2 chosen characters reflected the truth of the
stereotypes on how men and women talk. The writers believe that men and women
used different language features, like how they express their thoughts or how they
react to something. Therefore, the writers would like to know the truth of the
differences.

The writers chose the dialogues from Avatar: The Legend of Aang series to
analyze language features in the conversation on selected episodes of two characters
that have different genders. The Last Airbender: The Legend of Aang is an American
animation serial that first aired on February 21st 2005 in Nickelodeon. This series is
nominated in some nomination category: there are Best Action Adventure TV Series,
Best TV Series, Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production in 2005;
Character Animation in a Television Production, Directing in an Animated Television
Prediction in 2006; Best Animated Television Production for Children, Best
Animated Television Production, Outstanding Children’s Programming, Outstanding
Individual Achievement in Animation, and Favorite Cartoon in 2007.

The reason why the writers chose Avatar The Legend of Aang cartoon series
as the subject of the analysis is because from the early observation, the writers found
the use of language feature use of the two chosen characters interesting.

The objectives of the study are to find out whether male and female characters
from the same nation/culture in this story can use different language features in
interacting with other characters in the series based on the context and event that
triggers them. The result of the study would be useful for those who are interested in
studying language features of different genders for a deeper understanding and give
some information for further research.

There are some studies that also talk about women’s and men’s language features.
They are “The Differences between Men and Women’s Language in The Devil Wears
Prada Movie” by Tri Puspa Juwita, Dyah Sunggingwati, and Nita Maya Valiantien in
2017. The research aimed to know the features of men and women’s language which
was used in The Devil Wears Prada movie and to analyze the consistency of men and
women’s language features used by the characters in the movie.The second studies is
“Woman Language Used by The Main Characters of Mockingjay Movie” which is
 conducted by LisdaMiftahulAini in 2016.It investigate the major features of woman
language used by the main characters of Mockingjay movies.Those previous studies
tend to only focus on the language features. To fill the gap, this research not only
focuses on the features of men and women’s language but it also focuses on the
pattern and function of the utterances. Therefore, this study aims to know the features
of men and women’s language used by the characters chosen in some scenes of
ATLA series. Another aim of this study is to see the consistency of men and women
language features usage.

II. Literature Review

The literature review of this research focuses on Women’s language features
and Men’s language features, which are the theories that our research is based
on“The Differences between Men and Women’s Language in The Devil Wears
Prada Movie” (Tri Puspa Juwita, Dyah Sunggingwati, Nita Maya Valiantien,
2017), “Woman Language Used by The Main Characters of Mockingjay
Movie”(Lisda Miftahul Aini, 2016) and some related previous studies.

Women’s Language Features

Based on Lakoff speech (1975). She concludes that women’s speech sounds
much more polite than men’s sound in terms of linguistic forms (p.17-19). The
women’s speech was characterised by linguistic features such as lexical
hedges or fillers, tag questions, rising intonation on declaratives, empty
adjectives, precise colour terms, intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, super
polite forms, avoidance of strong swear words, and emphatic stress.

Men’s Language Feature

According to Coates (2004), men use swearing and taboo languages. Other
than them, language features that are also used by men are minimal responses,
command and directives form.

Related previous studies

A previous research that is related to this research is The Differences Between
Men and Women’s Language in The Devil Wears Prada Movie which was conducted
by Tri Puspa Juwita, Dyah Sunggingwati, and Nita Maya Valiantien in 2017. This
research aimed to know the features of men and women’s language which was used in
The Devil Wears Prada movie and to analyze the consistency of men and women’s
language features used by the characters in the movie. Another related research is
Woman Language Used by The Main Characters of “Mockingjay” Movie by Lisda
Miftahul Aini which was published in 2016. This study aimed to investigate the major
features of woman language used by the main characters of Mockingjay movies.

III. Methodology
 This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative design.
Descriptive qualitative method according to Nazir (1998:34) is “A method which is
used to make description of situation, events or to accumulate the basic data.”. It
means that this research does not intend to find a new theory but to find new evidence
to prove the truth of a theory. The writers used qualitative design because the data that
the writers had compiled and collected are in words form, and because the writers
intended to look in-depth at two chosen characters (subjects).
The sample of this study are dialogues from selected scenes of Avatar The
Legend of Aang series. In this research, the writers took some dialogues from some
scenes in the series because the writers themselves were not capable of analyzing the
whole conversation of this series due to a lot of episodes. Thus, the writers chose the
best conversations and analysed whether there are male and female characters from
the same nation/culture in this story that possibly have different language features
used in interacting with other characters. The conversations were collected from
episodes: The Boy in The Iceberg, The Firebending Masters, The Tales of Ba Sing Se,
Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters, The Runaway, and The Drill.
Before analyzing the data, the steps to collect the data were done. First, we
browsed on the internet to find web pages related to Avatar The Legend of Aang
series. After we found and watched some episodes of Avatar The Legend of Aang, the
writers chose scenes in the series. Then, we took the dialogues and transcribed them
into text.
The data was analyzed descriptively. After we obtained the data, we marked
and identified the conversations based on Lakoff’s theory of Women’s Language and
Coates’ theory of Men’s language. Afterwards, we discussed and explained the
language reasons along with the reasons why the chosen characters used the language
features.

IV. Findings and Discussion

The findings indicate that there are differences in how men and women
communicate. Women and men have roles and different styles in their
conversations that are constructed by society. From the data, we found several
features of women's language, men's language, and the patterns in the usage of
those language features by the characters in Avatar The Legend of Aang.

Women’s language
Women have their own characteristics in their speech. it is shown from their
use of language features. There are lexical hedges or fillers, tag questions,
rising intonation on declaratives, empty adjectives, precise colour terms,
intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms, avoidance of strong
swear words, and emphatic stress. The women language features we found are
positive connotation, rising intonation, and emphatic stress. The evidence can
be seen in the following selected scenes.

Scene 1
 Aang: “Well, if you guys are stuck Appa and I can give you a lift.”
(Aang airbends himself onto Appa's head, then to the top of his back where
rests an enormous saddle. Reigns are attached to both of Appa's great homs.)
Katara: “We'd love a ride! Thanks!”
(She gets on Appa.)
Sokka: “Oh, no... I am not getting on that fluffy snot monster.”
(Season 1, Episode 1: The Boy in The Iceberg)
Rising intonation on declaratives is the feature of women's language. (Lakoff, 1975).
In this dialogue Katara used this feature in positive connotation showing how grateful
she was to meet a new friend who was an airbender and thought it would be great to
befriend him. Plus, she wouldn't mind getting a free ride using a flying bison since her
canoe just crashed.

Scene 2
Toph: It’s okay. One of the good things about being blind, is I don’t have to
waste my time worrying about appearance. [Cut to close-up of Toph’s face] I
don’t care what I look like. I’m not looking for anyone’s approval. I know
who I am. [she stops walking. And she cries a bit.]
Katara: That’s what I really admire about you, Toph. You’re so strong, and
confident and self-assured [Toph sniffs] And I know it doesn’t matter, but…
[keep her palm on Toph’s shoulder] you are really pretty.
(Season 2, Episode 15: The Tales of Ba Sing Se)

Within this conversation, Katara used empathic stress which is a part of women's
language feature. (Lakoff, 1975). This emphatic stress is used in the adjective
"strong", "confident", "self-assured". Katara said this to Toph not only to comfort her
after Toph getting bullied by a group of girls, but said it with her heart out to
appreciate Toph's positive qualities that Toph and others can't see.

Scene 3
Toph: So let me guess. You brought me out here to tell me your sister's not as
annoying as I make her out to be.
Sokka: Nah, she's pretty much a pain. (Katara scowls.) She's always got to be right
about everything, and she gets all bossy, and involved, and in your
business.
Toph: Yeah, I don't know how you can deal with it.
Sokka: Actually, in a way, I rely on it.
Toph: I don't understand.
Sokka: When our mom died, that was the hardest time in my life. Our family was
a mess, but Katara, she had so much strength. She stepped up and took on
so much responsibility. She helped fill the void that was left by our mom.
 Toph: I guess I never thought about that.
Sokka: I'm gonna tell you something crazy. I never told anyone this before, but
honestly, I'm not sure I can remember what my mother looked like. It
really seems like, my whole life, Katara's been the one looking out for me.
She's always been the one that's there, and now, when I try to remember
my mom, Katara's is the only face I can picture.
(Season 3, Episode 7: The Runaway)

For this scene, Sokka used empathic stress that is part of women’s language feature
(Lakoff, 1975). The way Sokka put a stress on “Katara” in “Our family was a mess, but
Katara, she had so much strength.” Showing that there were no one but Katara. Which
meant that Katara is the one that helped him come out from his hardest time. He tried to
convince Toph that Katara had a reason why she acted so motherly and wanted Toph to
understand about that.

Scene 4
Pakku: (Bowing in return) It is respectful to bow to an old master but how about a
hug (opens his arms) for your new grandfather? (Cut to a close up of
shocked Katara with an equally dumbfounded Sokka behind her. Katara's
expression changes into happiness)
Katara: That's so exciting. (She opens her arms and embraces Pakku) You and
Gran Gran must be so happy to have found each other again.
Pakku: I made her a (He touches an area below his collar bone) new betrothal
necklace and everything. (Sokka comically enters the screen and hugs
Pakku by the neck)
Sokka: Welcome to the family Great Gramp.
Pakku: You can still just call me (He pushes Sokka off him) Pakku.
Sokka: (Cut to Sokka who smiles goofily) How about Grand Pakku?
Pakku: (Cut to a serious Pakku) No. (Camera pans out to show a disappointed
Sokka)
(Season 3, Episode 19: Sozin’s Comet Part 2: The Old Masters)

In this scene, Sokka used rising intonation on declaratives which is included as a women's
language feature (Lakoff, 1975). It is shown when Sokka said "Welcome to the family
Grand Gramp". The reason why Sokka used this language feature is because Sokka was
as happy as Katara that Pakku now were married to his Grandmother. Pakku, who was
once his grandmother's fiance, could live the rest of his life living with his loved one.
Sokka and Katara would now worry less about their Grandmother because they believed
that Pakku who was a master in waterbending would take care and protect their
grandmother at all cost.

Men’s language
Men have characteristics in their own speech that can also be seen from their
language features. There are swearing, taboo languages, minimal responses,
 command and directives form. The men's language features found are harsh
words and taboo language. The evidence can be seen in the following selected
scenes.

Scene 5
Aang: “Well, if you guys are stuck Appa and I can give you a lift.”
(Aang airbends himself onto Appa's head, then to the top of his back where
rests an enormous saddle. Reigns are attached to both of Appa's great homs.)
Katara: “We'd love a ride! Thanks!”
(She gets on Appa.)
Sokka: “Oh, no... I am not getting on that fluffy snot monster.”
(Season 1, Episode 1: The Boy in The Iceberg)
Sokka didn't like Aang’s offer to give them a ride to their home and call Appa,
the flying bison, as a monster. He said it bluntly because he didn't have a nice first
impression of this animal when Appa licked him. Sokka thought it was disgusting.

Scene 6
Sokka: Hey. jerks! Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerkbending?
Zuko: [Frustroted.] Get out of here!
[He lashes his arm and points to a side.]
Sokka: Okay, take it easy. [He drops his half-eaten apple.] I was just kiddin'
around. [He gets up and turns around, laughing as he adjusts his shirt.]
Jerkbending, still got it. [Zuko drops his head. dejected, and moans.]
(Season 3, Episode 13: The Firebending Masters)
In the dialogue, Sokka used harsh words and taboo language which are parts of
language features. (Coates, 2004). Sokka was explicit and blunt with his words,
calling Zuko and Aang using the word ‘jerk’ and said they were doing ‘jerkbending’.
This scene is interesting because the word ‘jerk’ is used to express two different
emotions—annoyance and playfulness. Sokka called Zuko by using taboo language as
he hasn't forgiven him entirely for causing him, Katara, and Aang to suffer for
months. The term ‘jerkbending’ is used by Sokka to show his annoyance towards
Zuko further, making fun of him for losing his firebending ability. In contrast, Sokka
used the taboo language to address Aang to express playfulness since they are close
friends.

Scene 7
Katara: (Annoyed) You know, I am just about sick and tired of you telling me
what to do all day. You're like a chattering hog-monkey!
 Sokka: (Angrily) JUST BEND THE SLURRY, WOMAN!
[Katara bends a wave of slurry into Sokka's face, knocking him over]
(Season 2, Episode 13: The Drill)

In this scene, Katara used harsh language, which is a part of men’s language feature
(Coates, 2005). She called Sokka a chattering hog-monkey when he gave her unnecesarry
commands and annoyed her when she tried to do waterbending. In the Avatar Universe, A
hog monkey is a cross between a hog and monkey. Hog-monkeys are known as a wild
and troublesome animal. Thus, Katara used chattering hog-monkey as a harsh insult to
Sokka, who kept disturbing her at that time, to show her anger and annoyance.

VI. Conclusion
In conclusion, characters of different gender in Avatar: The Legend of Aang
shows the difference in how they interact with other characters. Katara’s
utterances that we analysed use the features of women’s language, namely rising
intonation on declaratives and emphatic stress when she conversed with other
characters. In comparison, Sokka was more blunt with his words; using swear
words and taboo words which are included as features of men’s language.
However, the usage of harsh words has two intentions: to show closeness with his
friend and to show dislikeness to his former enemy. The language features that are
used by the characters are not according to their genders and do not always follow the
pattern.

VII. References

Juwita, T. P., Sunggingwati, D. Valiantien, N. M. (2018) The Differences Between Men And
Women’s Language In The Devil Wears Prada Movie. Retrieved from:
https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/240556-the-differences-between-men-and-
womens-l-89557469.pdf

Aggslanguage (2009) Janet Holmes & Politeness in men’s and women’s conversation.

Retrieved from: https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/janet-holmes-politeness-in-
mens-and-womens-conversation/
Essays, UK. (November 2018). Gender Differences in Politeness. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/gender-differences-in-politeness-in-
conversations-english-language-essay.php?vref=1

Acastus, Pandora. (n.d.). Transcript for 101 - The Boy in the Iceberg. Retrieved from
http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=101

Isidorios, Avatar_Mom, Aangster. (n.d.) Transcript for 213 - The Drill. Retrieved from
http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=213
Avatar_Mom, Force. (n.d.) Transcript for 215 - The Tales of Ba Sing Se. Retrieved from
http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=215

Avatar_Mom, dragonofthewest. (n.d.) Transcript for 307 - The Runaway. Retrieved from
http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=307

Avatar_Mom, Icy_Ashford. (n.d) Transcript for 313 - The Firebending Masters. Retrieved
from http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=313

Icy_Ashford. (n.d) Transcript for 319 - Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters. Retrieved
from http://atla.avatarspirit.net/transcripts.php?num=319