Linguistic features of women in public lecture settings

Abstract

Women and men, in some ways, apply different strategies to convey information in a conversation. Such difference may represent their position or social status in society. This happens because women are considered to have no strength in society, so their viewpoints are often discarded and irrelevant due to the powerless figure of women. However, in today’s society, the presence of women who hold important and powerful positions is more widespread and prominent. Hence, this research aims to analyze women’s language features based on Lakoff’s theory in giving a public lecture ‘Hanbando Jongsewa Gellobol Wegyo’ (한반도 정세와 글로벌 외교/ Korean Peninsula Situation and Global Diplomacy) delivered by Minister Kang Kyung Hwa. This research applied a descriptive qualitative method. Data analysis techniques comprised data collection, reduction, presentation, and conclusion. The results revealed that five features appeared more prominently than the others. The five features were lexical hedges or fillers, intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms, and emphatic stress. These features were closely related to Kang’s choice of words during a public lecture in her position as the Korean minister of foreign affairs. Such a position made her try to avoid making mistakes in making public statements.