Unveiling Women's Language Patterns in Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

Abstract

Women’s language refers to a sociolinguistic structure that encompasses various unique and distinctive linguistic features predominantly used by female speakers, including hedges, intensifiers, tag questions, polite forms, empty adjectives, and emotional expressions.This study aims to analyze the linguistic features used by women as revealed in the dialogues of female characters in the animated film Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006).Using a descriptive qualitative approach, data were collected through an analysis of the film’s transcript, focusing on the dialogue spoken by ten female characters: Genevieve, Lacy, Fallon, Blair, Courtney, Dia, Edeline, Janessa, Kathleen, and Duchess Rowena.Robin Lakoff's (2004) theoretical framework, enriched and reinforced by Holmes (2013), Coates (2015), and Tannen (1991), served as a reference for identifying and classifying linguistic features in the dialogues.The findings indicate that hedging emerged as the most dominant feature, followed by emotional expressiveness, relational language, superpolite forms, intensifiers, and apologies.Genevieve, as the main character, exhibits the broadest and most complex range of feminine language features.This reflects Genevieve’s crucial role in relational negotiation and emotional mediation.