THE COMPARISON OF ELLEN DEGENERES CONVERSATION STYLES TO MALE AND FEMALE CELEBRITY GUESTS. Mega Wati. Almodad Biduk Asmani, S.S.,M.

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1 THE COMPARISON OF ELLEN DEGENERES CONVERSATION STYLES TO MALE AND FEMALE CELEBRITY GUESTS Mega Wati Bina Nusantara, Jl. Kemanggisan Ilir III No. 45, , Almodad Biduk Asmani, S.S.,M.Ed ABSTRACT Communication is an activity of expressing ideas and feelings or a way of giving people information. Conversation is one form of communication which at least should consist of a speaker, a hearer, and information that aim to be discussed. Pragmatic theory, discussing about conversation, is conversation analysis which analyzes about turn taking strategies such as pauses, overlaps, backchannel, conversation style, and adjacency pairs. This thesis investigates about the similarities and differences of linguistic conversation characteristics of Elle s speech in Ellen Degeneres show when she converses with male and female guest of celebrities and find out the Ellen s conversation pattern. This thesis uses the qualitative research method to analyze the data. The result shows that there are some similarities and differences of Ellen s conversation characteristics when conversing to her guests in pauses, overlaps, backchannel and adjacency pairs. Moreover, Ellen s conversation style is high involvement style with the characteristics of active and fast speaking rate, almost no pausing between turns, and some overlaps. Furthermore, her conversational pattern when conversing with male guest is mostly orderly mannered of speaking while whereas with female is more interrogative way of speaking style. Keywords: Communication, Conversation, Conversation Analysis ABSTRAK Komunikasi adalah suatu aktivitas yang mana menampilkan ide-ide dan perasaan atau suatu cara untuk memberikan informasi kepada orang lain. Komunikasi telah menjadi salah satu hal yang terpenting bagi manusia untuk bertahan hidup karena pada umumnya manusia adalah makhluk sosial. Percakapan merupakan salah satu bentuk dari komunikasi yang mana paling sedikit harus terdiri dari seorang pembicara, seorang pendengar, dan informasi-informasi yang hendak didiskusikan. Theori Pragmaric yang membahas perihal percakapan adalah Analisa Percakapan (CA) yang mana menganalisa tentang turn taking yang terdiri dari pauses, overlaps, dan backchannel, conversation style, dan adjacency pairs. Skripsi ini menginvestigasi tentang persamaan dan perbedaan dari karakteristik percakapan dari Ellen dalam acara Ellen Degeneres pada saat dia berhadapan dengan tamu selebriti pria dan wanita dan penelitian ini juga ingin mengetahui pola gaya percakapan Ellen. Skripsi ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dan perpustakaan untik menganalisa data-data penelitian. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat beberapa persamaan dan perbedaan dari karakteristik percakapan Ellen ketika berhadapan dengan tamu-tamunya dalam hal overlaps, backchannel beserta adjacency pairs. Selain ini, gaya percakpaan dari Ellen adalah High Involvement Style yang mana berkarakterisitik sebagai pembicara aktif dengan laju bicara relati cepat, hamper tidak ada jedah antar giliran bicara, dan melakukan beberapa tumpang tindih. Selain itu, pola [ercakapan dari Ellen adalah 1

2 tipe pola cara percakapan yang teratur dan sedangkan pada saat bersama tamu wanita, pola percakpan dia lebih mengarah pada cara pengintrogasian. Kata Kunci: Komunikasi, Percakapan, Analisa percakapan INTRODUCTION Communication is a basic need of human in their life. Even kids have started to do communication such as cry when they were born. To do communication, people need to interact each other to get information. It makes people wide their knowledge and improves their skill. The part of communication is conversation. Conversation is an activity which consists of a sender, a message, and a recipient to share some opinions or knowledge. Language is a media of communication to do the interaction. According to Holmes (2008), the language used by man and woman is different. He said that the language which is used by woman is more gentle and polite than man. But there is also a contradiction that man can speak better because sometimes woman like to use wrong vocabulary. Moreover, the differences of man and woman s language can be analyzed in talk show. It can be seen from the way they deliver the messages aimed to be delivered. Nowadays, it has been one of popular TV s programs which it can wide people s knowledge. It has been easier to access talk show around the world by internet today. According to Yule (2008), during the discussion, everybody should control their conversation but sometimes they can t do it. Having control of this scarce commodity at any time is called turn. In all situation in conversation people should control themselves to get the message which aim to be delivered from the speaker, it is called turn-taking. There are many western talk shows in TV s program. This thesis uses The Ellen Degeneres Show as the media. This talk show has 4 programs which are celebrity, music, kids, and inspiring program. Besides a good talk show, the host also has good and interesting personality. She is funny and she can make her guests feel relaxed and it makes her show enjoyable. Furthermore, she brings her humor and talent for tackling topical issues into viewer s live with her distinctive style touching every aspect of the show. This show always brings refreshing perspective and updating information occurred in public. In this research, the writer is interested in investigating the art of conversation because the writer wants to get some lessons and informations neccesary for succesful conversation especially for public speaking preferences. Moreover in this thesis, writer also investigates how the host deals with guests that different in gender. The writer chooses it because young people almost always get interested in discussing about gender and in addition the writer is also interested to investigate about it. During the conversation activity people often speak concurrently and as a result, the messages which aim to be delivered cannot be accepted perfectly. Besides that, some speakers make some pauses in conversation which make silence happens in conversation. It is occurred when they need time to think the idea or they don t have any idea. To make the conversation become success, both speakers should give responses to each other. The way to respond to the interlocutor can be also done by gestures, nods, smiles, and other facial expressions. It is commonly called backchannel signal. Some people have discussed this topic before such as one of English Department of Binus University students, Christine (2009). Her thesis entitled Conversation Analysis in News Interview with Barack Obama: A Pragmatic Approch. This thesis analyze about how the conversation style of Barack Obama as interview and interviewer in news interview with Bill O Reilly. In this thesis, the writer is more focus on analyzing the structures of the host s conversation and exploring her conversation pattern found in the Ellen Degeneres show. 2

3 The problems that the thesis tries to investigate are to find the similarities and differences of linguistic conversation characteristics of Ellen when conversing to male and female celebrity and to explore the conversational pattern of Ellen as the host in The Ellen Degeneres Show. Besides that, this thesis uses pragmatic adoption since it is one of linguistic studies which is closer to allow human to analysis. Pragmatic study is too broad, so this thesis focuses on conversation analysis study (CA). All theories in CA are analyzed by using Ellen Degeneres talk show as the media. There are many types of guest that Ellen invites in her show. This thesis is limited in celebrity guest and focuses in one male celebrity (Simon Baker) and one female celebrity (Katy Perry). Later on, the writer analyzes how the conversation style and pattern of Ellen when conversing to those different guests in gender. This thesis aims to investigate Ellen s conversation characteristics in The Ellen Degeneres Show and to explore the pattern of Ellen s conversation style in The Ellen Degeneres Show. Moreover, this thesis function to tell readers about how to perform the good conversation styles by reflecting on Ellen s use of conversational styles as the language model for them to develop and to improve theor speaking ability. RESEARCH METHOD The method which is used in this thesis is the qualitative research method. This thesis uses two videos from youtube.com as the instrument to be analyzed. Besides that, this thesis is started on February until July. For data collection, the writer downloads and watches The Ellen Degeneres show videos from youtube.com to see the similarities and differences of Ellen s conversation when conversing to different celebrity guests in gender. Moreover, the writer reads some books related to theories of conversational analysis and pragmatic approach to provide scholarly foundation for this research. For data analysis, it is continued by analyzing her linguistic conversation characteristics related to the theories.. ANALYSIS AND RESULT In this thesis, writer uses a talk show as the instrument to be analyzed because it is one of popular TV programs among young people. This show gives many advantages for the three sides who are the host, guests, and audiences. The host and audiences who are listening to guests experiences can widen their mind and learn about something in which the guest feels relieved after the sharing session. Conversation is an activity which minimal consists of two people and a topic to be discussed. A theory in pragmatic which discuss about conversation is Conversation Analysis (CA). According to Cutting (2002), CA studies about the way of a speaker say which later will determine the answer or response from a hearer. If the speaker speaks clearly, it means the message can be delivered well too so the hearer can give expected responses. During the conversation, that speaker should take turn when they are interacting. There are many conversation types can be analyzed with this theory such as talk show, everyday conversation, interview activity, and etc. This thesis analyzes the conversation structure of Ellen as the host in Ellen Degeneres show. It takes two videos in which Ellen converses with the guests who are different in gender, Simon Baker and Katy Perry. The research analyzes three things related to conversation analysis theory which are turntaking consists of pauses, overlaps, and backchannel, conversation style, and adjacency pairs. All of them are analyzed based on the theory and compared between genders. In this article, the writer takes one of each data as the representative to be analyzed. 3

4 1. Linguistic Conversation Characteristic A. Turn Taking - Pauses People tend to do some breaks even stops for few seconds during the conversation. This analysis is divided into two parts in which the first analyzes Ellen s conversation style while interacting to male celebrity (Simon Baker) and the next part is to female celebrity (Katy Perry). This thesis shows how many pauses that are made by Ellen and analysis type of the pauses based on the context and lastly writer analyzes the reason of the similarities and differences of the pauses which are made by Ellen when conversing to these two different guests. Simon Baker These are the pauses that are done by Ellen in her show with Simon Baker on September 23, The result shows there are 3 micro-pauses, 3 brief pauses, no pause, and 2 longer pauses in 62 turn taking in Ellen Degeneres show. a. Micro-pause [Ellen DeGeneres]: So (.) so you are on the lot because we had you on the show (.) the other day to do a tiny (.) bit of your show and, and do you like being on the lot here? The context of pauses which occurs in this part aims to take a breath. Every time people need to take a breath and it s also occurred in conversation. When Ellen is talking, she needs a short time for taking breath. Actually, the length of time to take breath is depended on people s respiration. Ellen s respiration can be categorized as fast respiration which she does not need a long time for breathing. b. Brief pause [Ellen DeGeneres]: //ya,ya// ((nods)) that is right, well you pretend to (..) you kind of do. The context of pauses which occurs in this part shows uncertainty. They are talking about water which Simon gave to a woman there. It is only kind of small talk before they go to the discussion. She seemed like a little hesitant when she wants to asses Simon, so she tried to think for a while by doing brief pause and then she continue to her next sentence. c. Long Pause [Ellen DeGeneres]: Ohhhh you arse. You know it sounds (2s) like a sweet thing to say to somebody. The context of pauses which occurs in this part aims to show host s authority. Ellen and Simon are talking about the difference pronounce of arse in Australian accent and ass in American accent. In the first time Ellen did not understand the meaning of arse, then Simon explains it to Ellen and she finally gets the meaning which actually has a positive meaning. After that all audiences are laughing that make Ellen suddenly stop her sentence at that time for a while to get calm situation again. Katy Perry These are the pauses that are done by Ellen in her show with Katy Perry on September 13, The result shows there are 1 micro-pause, 3 brief pauses, 4 pauses, 2 longer pauses and 1 attributable silence in 37 turn-taking in Ellen Degeneres show with Katy Perry as the female guest. 4

5 a. Micro-Pause [Ellen DeGeneres] : oo (.) Really The context of pauses which occurs in this part shows surprised respond. Ellen is surprised when she knows the things that they are talking are talked in the night. oo respond means she understand of what Katy s talk and really respond shows the surprise feeling. Because she is surprised, she just does pause for very little time and continue to her surprise word. b. Brief Pause [Ellen DeGeneres]:, she was nominated for two VMA s tonight, please welcome (..) the lovely Katy Perry The context of pauses which occurs in this part aims to show honor. This is Ellen s first conversation in her show and in this condition she wants to welcome the guest, Katy Perry to come in. To make the guest is welcome by the host; Ellen uses high tune, give emphasis, and do this type of pauses. c. Pause [Ellen DeGeneres]: Alright (.) after having the biggest song of the summer it was no surprise that our next guest CD debuted at number 1 The context of pauses which occurs in this part aims to get attention. In this condition Ellen has just started her show so she gives emphasis on her beginning word to get attention from audiences. Because of audiences welcome the show either by giving applause; Ellen should wait for a moment to make them calmed so that she does the pause. d. Long Pause [Ellen DeGeneres]:. with the lovely lovely Katy Perry (2s) here s the thing about you Katy Perry The context of pauses which occurs in this part aims to show host s authority. This is her beginning sentence after having break for advertisement. Here, Ellen says lovely two times to Katy which shows how she really like Katy. After that, all audiences are laughing and shouting because of that. Then, Ellen does this kind of pause to show her authority to make the audiences aware of the situation. e. Attributable Silent [Ellen DeGeneres]: We do love you Katy and I heard The context of pauses which occurs in this part is unintentionally interruption. Before Ellen says above sentences, Katy greats audiences who are her fans. After that, Ellen says that sentence above and she wants to tell something. But suddenly, Katy does overlap which actually aim to respond. Because of that, Ellen stops her sentence and doesn t continue it again and it gives bad impact to conversation. After analyzing Ellen s conversation when conversing with her different guest in gender, Simon Baker and Katy Perry, the result shows some similarities and differences. Some functions of pauses which were done by Ellen are similar although the guests that she conversed were different. The similarity is in the function of brief pauses which is used to think and long pauses to show host s authority. Besides that the result shows differently in the number used of micro-pause and pause type. Ellen is really good host who usually adapt to her guest. It is proved in this research which Ellen does more micro-pauses with male guest. Micro-pause is the shortest pause according to Levinson (1983) which is less than 0.5 second. Ellen does this type of pause more to her male guest because basically men are focus people and hard to get distract with atmosphere around them. So that, Ellen adapts with this by trying to think faster 5

6 accordance with her guest and she is succeed. It is proved in this video which writer used for this research, Simon baker as the male guest. Meanwhile, she does more pauses which duration between 1 second until 1.5 seconds with female guest, Katy Perry. It s because Ellen adapts to women characteristic which usually women think longer than men and it s affected to Ellen. - Overlaps Simon Baker Some overlaps that Ellen did during her show with Simon Baker are: a. [Simon] : I lie for a living (.), that's what I do for a living. [Ellen DeGeneres]: //ya,ya// ((nods)) That's right, well you pretend to (..) you kind of do. b. [Simon] : I haven't had a ticket yet, I'm dying to get a ticket. I m dying* [Ellen DeGeneres]: //Oh really? are you//* trying to get a ticket? c. [Simon] : I say arse [Ellen DeGeneres]: //Arse doesn't sound dirty at all// In the data a, the type of overlaps which occurred there is intended to respond. When Simon is telling about something and at that time Simon s sentences have not finished yet, Ellen gave her respond at the same time to show that she paid attention to him. This type of overlaps doesn t give bad impact in conversation because the hearer still listen to the speaker and the speaker doesn t feel get interrupted so he can continue his next sentences. Besides that, in the c, Ellen does overlaps which actually it can be categorized as the surprising respond. They are talking about getting a ticket and Simon feel really hard to get it. Then Ellen responds it surprisingly by speaking at the same time although at that time Simon still hadn t finished her sentence. He still laugh and seems want to speak. But because Ellen interrupts it, so he just responds what Ellen asks to him again. In the e part, the type of overlaps is contradiction. They are talking about the different pronounce of one vocabulary ass in American and arse in Australian. Both of them have different meaning of that word. In Simon s mind, he thinks the meaning of that word is negative whereas Ellen thinks it s positive. ass have many meanings based on Dictionary.com, the positive meaning is a long eared, slow, patient, surefooted domestic mammal, Equus asinus, related to horse, used chiefly as a beast of burden whereas the negative meaning is a stupid, foolish, or stubborn person. Here Ellen tries to understand that word and then Simon gives an example to her. During Simon is giving his explanation, Ellen suddenly interrupted to his sentences which intend to make sure of what she is thinking is true. Fortunately, Simon does not get interrupted and he still could continue his explanation. In this case, the bad impact of overlaps doesn t occur too. 6

7 Katy Perry The overlaps that Ellen did during her show with Katy Perry are: a. [Katy Perry] : //Never a dull moment.// [Ellen DeGeneres]: Ah, ya, I m wearing him on my nails. He couldn t be heard tonight so I asked //Where is he?// b. [Katy Perry] : You know I met him before this past VMA. I met him the year before when he was when he was still being very deborturous. I was the good girl next door creeping in the window, stuff, but, ah, ah, I have met him a year prior and we had filmed something for his movie Get Him To The Greek, that didn t end up on the actual movie*, and I met him for five. [Ellen DeGeneres]: //Wow//* c. [Katy Perry] : I think there s a time Um hmm (..) in your life that everything unravels perfectly, and you ready for something that really impact to you [Ellen DeGeneres]: //Um hmm ((nods))//, if you have met him at another time, obviously d. [Katy Perry] : Here, come over and sit with us for one second. She said she, she said that I was the soundtrack to her life. That s amazing. You re so sweet. [Ellen DeGeneres]: //That s what I was going to ask you// The overlaps that Ellen does in her show with Katy Perry on September 13, 2010 are less than with Simon. She only does 4 overlaps during the show. In the first condition, Katy is telling about her beyonce which she metonymy it with art in her nail. When she is still telling about it, Ellen suddenly asked a question to her. This interruption makes Katy stop her sentences and answer Ellen s question. Because of that, she does not complete her sentence before that make the conversation missed information which intended to be delivered. This is the bad impact of overlaps and can be categorized as interrupted condition. In the second and third part, this type of overlaps is similar to most Ellen does in her section with Simon which are intended to respond. These types of responses will be explained more detail in Backchannel. The last, in the fourth part, Ellen does overlaps similar to the first case. But the condition is different in this part. In this section, Ellen gives opportunity to one of Katy s fans to join on the stage and talks with her. After that, both of them take control in the stage that make Ellen out from the stage. This is only a joke that they make in this show. After that, Ellen tries to join again by interrupted their conversation suddenly, so it make overlaps occur. After analyzing these both conversations in Ellen Degeneres show, it shows Ellens s characteristic of conversation that seldom does overlaps. All overlaps that Ellen does never make her guest become silent and awkward to her. The similarity and difference is showed in type of overlaps that Ellen does when conversing to these both different guests in gender. The similarity is showed in type of overlaps which is intended to respond. Since the percentage data result in female guest is same (50:50) so it can t be determined which one is more. But in male guest, the percentage data result shows Ellen does 80% in reasons of intended to respond. So Ellen does this reason of overlaps in male and female guest. This reason is purposed to show Ellen s attention to her guest which can be categorized as responses in conversation. This reason of doing overlaps does not give bad impact in the conversation because the speaker still can focus on his sentences and can complete them. Meanwhile, Ellen also has different reason to do overlap when she converses to male and female guest. In male guest, Ellen does surprising respond and contradiction reason while in female she does 7

8 interrupted reason to overlap. Actually surprising and contradiction reason can be occurred in male and female because this reason is determined more according to the situation and the topic discussing. The interrupted reasons appear more when Ellen converses to female guest and the data shows 50%. It is because basically woman tends to speak a lot and irregularly so Ellen should control the conversation by asking question to make important information can be answered all by Katy. In addition, the theory from Coates (2004), women often break off their sentence without finishing is proved in this research and it gives bad impact to information which aims to be delivered. It makes some information missed because the speaker hasn t finished the sentences but suddenly submitted question which made the speaker answer the question and forget to continue the before sentences. - Backchannel Simon Baker The types of responses that Ellen did in her conversation with Simon Baker are agreement. They are nods to show agreement or understanding, uh huh to show agreement or understanding, ohh to show surprising response about something, yeah to show agreement or understanding, laugh to show understanding and paying attention, and smile to share the same feeling or emotion. a. Nods [Simon] : I lie for a living (.), that's what I do for a living. [Ellen DeGeneres]: //ya,ya// ((nods)) Nod is an activity which is used to show understanding or agreement to something. In Ellen s show with Simon Baker, she does this activity three times. First, she agrees when Simon tells her about the way of his living. Since Simon is a movie actress who live based on script when he acts for a movie, sometimes he does that things also in his real life. Second, Ellen continues her show by asking next question to him. Here, she asks about Simon s family and Simon tells a lot about her daughter, Stella. In this part they are talking about technology which both of them agrees that youth are smarter and this opinion also happened to Stella. It s proved when Ellen responds it by saying right, right and followed by nods. Third, they are talking about Simon s daughter (Stella) who is pretty fantastic, intelligent, and very smart. Here, Ellen gives her opinion that Stella must be happy and grateful having cool dad. After that, Simon asks something which aims to make sure about Ellen s statement and this action makes him is not looked arrogant. b. uh huh [Simon] : it's like I never went to college, but (.) there's always stuff going on, there's people sort of walking around in different costumes and stuff (.) I get to ride my bike everywhere. [Ellen DeGeneres]: uh huh, oh you have a bike? Most of uh huh respond that Ellen used in her show with Simon Baker are aimed to show that she agrees or understand to Simon s talking. She uses this type of response 13 times in this show. All of the conditions are similar where Ellen opens some topics which are going to be discussed by asking some questions then Simon answers them by telling his experiences as well as related to the topic. After that, Ellen shows her understanding by using this response. c. Ohh [Simon] : noo (::), seem like not sure, don t want to tell the truth I got a little thing that says Baker. [Ellen DeGeneres]: Ohh? 8

9 Ellen uses ohh response once in her show with Simon Baker. It represents Ellen s surprise feeling to what Simon s told which he said that he is able to get a license plate which is able to show his family s name, Baker. This response shows uncertainty whether she agrees or not to Simon s statement. Furthermore, this type of response is followed high tune voice and surprise expression. d. Yeah [Simon] : Which is a mistake? [Ellen DeGeneres]: //Yeah// ((smile)), she doesn't think you re cool? The other agreement response is yeah. Ellen uses this respond two times in her show. She uses them to show she agrees to what Simon s said. The context here is they are talking about Simon s daughter, Stella to him as her daddy. In Ellen s mind, Stella should be proud of her daddy who is cool and Simon also thinks so. But in truth that, Stella does not think so, she likes her dad care to her with asking something about herself to show the care of his daddy. e. Laugh [Simon] : Uhh But I think you should do it because I really think you should do a movie that I can go and see with my friends. Ehmm something that you're not having sex in or dying in. [Ellen DeGeneres]: yep ((laugh)) Laugh is kind of feeling when people feel something is funny. Moreover, it is also able to represent joyful, happiness, and relief. Ellen uses this expression twice in this show. The first context, she feels Simon s story is funny which he tries to get a ticket from cops where usually people get rid off of it. The second context, they are talking about Simon s daughter and at that time Simon is talking about the event when they were in Australia. He told about the situation which Stella felt bored and he gave a book to her. Then he asked about what her opinion about the book is and then Stella told about the characters in that book that was a bit ass. And then, Simon remembered about their discussion about ass words before then he suggested Ellen to use it when she is in a movie. After that, Ellen responded him by laughing. When Ellen laugh, it means she get the information which aim to be delivered by Simon. In addition, it also show Ellen gives her attention to him because this also part of response. f. Smile [Simon] : They're smarter then you [Ellen DeGeneres]: uh huh ((smile)) Smile is feeling expression which has many meanings. Smile can be used for greeting, to show happy feeling, to share the same emotion, and etc. Here, Ellen uses this response aimed to share her same feeling or to show her understanding. She uses it four times in her show. The first context, they are talking about Simon s daughter and he told that she is smarter than him, then Ellen agreed with that statement by saying uh huh and followed by smile to show she had the same thinking with him. The second, Simon produced his American accent in argue words and he repeated it twice. Ellen felt happy and she is looked interested so it showed her agreement to Simon s idea. The third is in condition which they were also told about Simon s daughter that Ellen thought, she should be proud of her daddy who is cool. Simon also thought so at that time, but in truth it was wrong. Then Ellen responded it by saying yeah followed by smiling to show her same opinion to him. 9

10 Katy Perry The number of backchannel that Ellen did in her show with Katy Perry is less than with Simon Baker. It is because most of Katy s conversations are shorter than Simon s so Ellen should respond it by giving some questions and told her experiences about the topics that are discussed to make the conversations still going on. Ellen s backchannel responses are nods to show agreement or understanding, uh huh to show agreement, ah ha to show agreement, and smile to share the same felling. a. Nods [Katy Perry] : Weird, ah, no, (..) you know, it s funny everybody asks me about ahhhh, how did you tame him, oh, no, no, no, I didn t take him, it was about timing, you know [Ellen DeGeneres]: Um hmm ((nods)) Ellen does nods responses once in her show with Katy Perry. Here, Ellen shows her agreement to what Katy is told about. The context which appears here is when Katy is talking about how her beyonce who can be so nice to her. Ellen at that time said that she tamed her man, and then she explains to Ellen that she doesn t tame her beyonce but that s all about time which can make him nice to her. After that, Ellen agrees which shows when she said um hmm and it is followed by nods gesture to make it surer. b. Uh huh [Katy Perry] : He s actually in New York filming Arthur which is a movie [Ellen DeGeneres]: //(uh huh) That s right//, Ellen uses uh huh response once in her show with Katy which show her agreement to Katy s story and show her attention to Katy. Here, Katy was still telling about her beyonce. Ellen asked where her man is then Katy answered it by adding her opinion too. After that, Ellen agrees with her opinion and says uh huh response and it is reinforced with that s right statement. c. Ah ha [Katy Perry] : I feel like this is one of those (.) ah.. drunken tattoo type dresses that you will regret [Ellen DeGeneres]: Ah ha This script conversation appears in the beginning of this show when Katy has got in the show. Ellen uses Ah ha response once in her show with Katy to show her agreement and understanding. In this part, Katy showed her dress that Ellen has ever regretted before. Then, Ellen showed her agreement by using Ah ha response. d. Smile [Katy Perry] : We were honored [Ellen DeGeneres] : Ah, ya, I was honored [Katy Perry] : // It was the talk of the night // [Ellen DeGeneres] : oo (.) ((smile)) Really 10

11 Smile is also one way to respond speaker s talking. Here, Ellen uses smile once to respond Katy. The meaning of smile here is to show how Ellen agrees or has the same feeling to what Katy s talking. These types of response also can be used to show closeness and reverence. The first condition, they were talking about the condition occurred in one night event. Both of them are in the same place. After that, they told back about what they were talking about in that night and Ellen surprised when knew the truth of Katy s story; oo with high tune represented it and she show her agreement by giving her smile. After analyzing Ellen s respond in her show with two different guests in gender, Simon Baker and Katy Perry, all of the responses that Ellen did are positive type of responses and they are agreement responses. There is not any contradiction respond from Ellen with her guest. It is occurred in both male and female guest. The difference of the response in these two different guests is Ellen does more type of responses in male guest, Simon Baker. There are 6 types of response which are nods, uh huh, ohh, laugh, yeah, and smile whereas in female guest, Katy Perry, she does 4 types which are nods, ah ha, uh huh, and smile. So the different type of responses are ohh, laugh, and yeah that she does not use it in female guest. Besides that, she only uses ah ha type of response in female guest. Actually the type of response can be different every time because it is influenced to the situation at that time or things which are discussing about. So writer thinks it can be changed anytime according to the condition. B. Conversation style Ellen s conversation style is more incline to high involvement style. The characteristics of this style are active which speaking rate relatively fast, almost no pausing between turns, and some overlaps or even completion of other s turn. According to Official International Speech Topic Library, slow speaking rating is scored words per minutes (wpm), average talking frequency of human being is 120 wpm, and fast is wpm. (retrieved April 14, 2013 from So after calculating Ellen s speaking rate in a show, it can be categorized as fast with 187 wpm. Moreover, her fast speaking rate is influenced by some factors such as family environment, natural talent and extensive experiences. In that brief biography above, it tells that she grew up in the strongly American environment which most Americans speak fast. Moreover, family is always the most influential of a person s personality. Based on the in biography data, Ellen father s occupation is a salesman. A salesman is usually good in speaking and often speak fast to convince customers. In addition, Ellen s speaking characteristic is also supported by her mother s occupation as agent who often socializes with many people. Besides that, her natural talent which is as a presenter is proved when she started her first career in standup comedy and she has ever won 15 Emmy Awards in the first three seasons and becoming the first talk show in TV history to win the Emmy Awards. (retrieved April 14, from: Being a good presenter is supported by her extensive experiences too. She has ever toured nationally where during that time absolutely she met many types of people with different ways of speaking which lately influence to her way of speaking. C. Adjacency Pairs Simon Baker a. Greeting Response (G R) This type of pairs appears once in the show to welcome someone in the beginning of the conversation. 11

12 b. Blame Denial (B D) This type of pairs is found once during the show to share someone opinion in the way which seems like judgment and the other speaker deny the statement. c. Blame Acceptance (B A) This type of pairs is found once during the show share someone opinion in the way which seems like judgment and the other speaker accept the statement. d. Question Answer (Q A) This pair appears thirteen times during the show which is the most common which almost always appears during conversation activity to get information. e. Assessment Agreement (A A) This type of pair occurs twice during the show to show solidarity and closeness. All of the assessment that Ellen used in her show with Simon Baker is in positive meaning. There is not any data which purpose to mock or underestimate others. f. Investigation Answer This type of pairs occurs three times during the show. This type is almost similar to Q A type. The difference is showed in the way of asking questions which seems like a speaker wants to get more information or it can be called as investigation. This activity is usually started by asking some related questions and only focus on the information that want to get. g. Proposal Agreement (P A) This type of pair appears once during the show. Proposal is an activity to give an idea or some to someone else. h. Orders Acceptance (O A) This type of pairs appears once during the show to ask someone to do something as well as to speaker s wish. Katy Perry a. Greeting Dispreferred Response (G D) This type of pair appears once during the show to welcome someone to get in the show and the dispreferred responses tend to be refusal or disagreement b. Praise Acceptance (Pr A) This type of pairs appears once during the show to say that admires somebody or something. c. Assessment Acceptance (A A) This type of pair appears twice during the show to show solidarity and closeness with the interlocutors. d. Question Answer (Q A) This type of pairs appears twice during the show to get information. e. Proposal Agreement (P A) This type of pairs appears once during the show to give ideas or opinions. f. Opinion Agreement (O A) This type of pair appears once during the show to show someone idea and give further information about something. 12

13 After analyzing the type of pair that are made by Ellen and her guests, Simon Baker and Katy Perry, the result shows some similarities and differences. Ellen and her different guests in gender do the same type of pairs which are question answer and proposal agreement and assessment - acceptance although the numbers are different. This type of pairs the most common appears because during the conversation both speakers absolutely do question answer activity to make the conversation alive and during that time they will give some proposes and assess about something which are related to topic that they are discussing. The differences are shown in number of pairs appear in the show. Ellen s show does more types of pairs with Simon than with Katy. It does eight types of pairs with Simon and six types with Katy. Type of pairs that the most appear in the show are different when Ellen with male and female guest. When Ellen with Simon Baker, question answer is the most amount whereas if Ellen with Katy Perry show, assessment extension is the most. It is caused when woman converses with man, the conversation will live if both of them apply some questions to be discussed. So the host, Ellen should prepare more questions when she converses with male guest. Moreover, it is also influenced by male characteristic who are not too talk active and they talk something regularly base on the context. Whereas when woman with woman have conversation, assessment acceptance is the more. Women basically tend to speak more than men. They like to share what they are feeling and thinking, so in this show, the host just needs to start with one topic in and the show will continue indirectly (Gray, 2004). During the conversation, women like to assess about something and it has been women s characteristic. 2. Conversation Pattern The pattern of Ellen s conversation style when conversing with male and female guest is analyzed in this part. First, the writer shows the analysis in paragraph and then it continues in chart to make the readers of this thesis easier to understand. Pattern Ellen is one of good presenters in America. Her unique characteristic who can adjust to whom she speak is really great. This thesis analyzes the pattern of her conversation when conversing to male guest (Simon Baker) and female guest (Katy Perry). Based on the result that this thesis has analyzed above, it shows differently. Ellen has orderly manner way of speaking when conversing with male guest (Simon Baker). It is caused biologically men are focus people who do something one by one. This statement is proven from the analysis above that Ellen does many of micro-pause type in the part of pauses analysis to make the shows run well because men think faster than women so Ellen should adjust it. Moreover, she does intended to respond type in overlaps to show her attention to her guest. Lastly, in adjacency pair part, she does more in question answer types to make the conversation keep going. Meanwhile, when Ellen converses with female guest (Katy Perry), her conversational pattern is more interrogative way of speaking style. It is caused women are usually more talk active than men. It is proven in overlaps part which is interrupted types is used more with female guest. Furthermore, women tend to speak a lot, so Ellen should control it to make all information that she wants to ask can be answered all by Ellen. Besides that, Ellen does more assessment extension types in adjacency pairs because it is effected to women biologically who like to assess something. Furthermore, Ellen s way to respond to her guest is always positive. She does it in both male and female guest which is proven in analysis above in backchannel part. Even when she wants to investigate something about her guest, she still uses comfortable ways that does not make any debating or any contradict perception. This thing makes her show so fun and interesting to be watched because of her nice personality, funny and her comfortable way to run the show. 13

14 Conclusion The result shows some similarities and differences when Ellen converses with male and female guest. The similarities are, in turn-taking part there are similar function of type of pauses that Ellen does in her both guests which brief pauses (>0.5s<1.0s) is used to think and long pauses (2s) to show her authority to control the situation in her show. Moreover in overlaps, the result shows that the highest percentage is in function of intended to respond. But, this type does not give bad impact to conversation because it does not disturb the conversation and the speaker still can deliver the information wanting to send. In backchannel part, the type of the respond is agreement such as uh huh, yeah, ohh and the same type of response that Ellen uses with her both guest are nods, uh huh, and smile. Last, in adjacency pairs, Ellen and her different guests in gender do the same type of pairs which are question answer and proposal agreement although the numbers used are different. These types of pairs are the most common appear because during the conversation both speakers absolutely do question answer activity to make the conversation alive and during that time they will give some proposes which related to topic that they are discussing. The differences are, in turn-taking part, the different number used of type of pauses is showed in the result. Ellen does more in micro-pauses (<0.5s) with male guest. It is because basically men are focus people and hard to get distract with atmosphere around them. Meanwhile, she does more pauses (>1.0s<1.5s). It s because Ellen adapts to women characteristic who usually think longer than men and it s affected to Ellen. Moreover, in overlaps part, Ellen does surprising respond and contradiction reason with male guest while in female she does interrupted reason to overlap. Actually surprising and contradiction reason can be occurred in male and female because this reason is depended on to the situation and the topic that they are discussing. The interrupted reasons appear more when Ellen converses to female guest because basically woman tends to speak a lot and irregularly so Ellen should control the conversation by asking question to make all need information can be discussed. While in backchannel part the difference shows in the number used of type of the respond where Ellen uses more in male than female guest and the different types of the responses are ohh, laugh, and yeah with male guest and ah ha with female guest. Last in adjacency pairs part, Ellen s show does more types of pairs with male guest (8) than with female (6). When Ellen with Simon Baker, question answer is the most amount that appear in the show whereas in Ellen with Katy Perry show, assessment extension is the most. It is caused when woman converses with man, the conversation will alive if both of them apply some questions to be discussed. So the host, Ellen should prepare more questions when she converses with male guest. It is also influenced by male characteristic who are not too talk active and they will talk something regularly base on the rule. Whereas when woman with woman do a conversation, they prefer to tell story. So the host just need to open one topic in the beginning and it will continue indirectly. Moreover, basically woman likes to assess about something than woman and it has been one of women characteristics. Ellen conversation style is high involvement style which characteristics are active with speaking rate relatively fast, almost no pausing between turns, and some overlaps or even completion of other s turn. Ellen s speaking rate can be categorized as fast with 187 wpm and it influenced by some factors such as family environment, natural talent and extensive experiences. Furthermore, Ellen still does pauses during the show but they aren t many. The result above about pauses shows Ellen does more micro-pause type in male guest which is 3 times whereas in female is more in pause type which is 4 times. In addition, she does 10 times overlaps in male guest and 4 times in female guest. Most of these overlaps are intended to give respond to her guest to show her attention to the guests. Moreover, Ellen s conversational pattern is different when conversing with male and female guest. Ellen has orderly manner way of speaking when conversing with male guest which is caused by the biologically character of man who is focus people that do something one by one. Meanwhile, when Ellen 14

15 converses with female guest, her conversational pattern is more interrogative way of speaking style It is caused basically women are more talk active than men. Furthermore, Ellen s way to respond to her guest always positive. She does it in male and female guest which is proven in analysis above in backchannel part. Even when she wants to investigate something about her guest, she still uses comfortable ways that doesn t make any debating or any contradict perception. Suggestion Conversation analysis is one of pragmatic theories which focus on social interaction in everyday life. Conversation can be one of media to be investigated with this theory. There are many examples of conversation activity that can be analyzed and the writer of this thesis chooses talk show as the example of conversation. The writer suggests if a researcher who is interested to do research by using this topic, can use another examples of conversation activity to compare with this thesis. Furthermore, the writer hopes to other researchers can give more benefits to readers to improve their communication ability. Moreover, this thesis also explains how the conversation characteristic of Ellen is, so people who are interested in Ellen can read this thesis to get more information. In addition, the writer hopes after readers read this thesis; it can help them to be a good public speaker by reflection on Ellen as the host role in English context. The writer also hopes other researchers who are also interested to Ellen can investigate more about Ellen to widen readers mind. REFERENSI Christine. (2009). Conversation Analysis on News Interview with Barack Hussein Obama: A Pragmatic Approach. Thesis S1. English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Binus University, Jakarta. Retrieved (February 10, 2013) from: IG. Coates, J. (2004). Women, men, and language: a sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language. United Kingdom: Harlow. Retrieved (Febuary 12, 2013) from: Conner, M. G. (2000). Understanding the difference between men and women. Clinical & medical psychologist. Retrieved (May 12, 2013) from: Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse. New York: Routledge. Free dictionary. Retrieved (Febuary 17, 2013) from: Gray, John. (2004). Men are from mars, women are from venus. Retrieved (August 28, 2013) from: Grundy, P. (2000). Doing pragmatics. (2 nd ed). Paperback: Hodder and Stoughton. Halavais., Patric, J., et al. (2004). Communication theory. Wikibooks Contributor. Retrieved (February 8, 2013) from: Have, P. (2007). Doing conversation analysis. Netherlands: University of Amsterdam. Retrieved (February 15, 2013) from: &dq=doing+conversation+analysis+paul+have+ten Holmes, J. (2008). An introduction to sociolinguistics. (3rd ed.). Diana Eades: University of New England. 15

16 Jespersen, O. (1992). Gender Language Interruption and Overlapping: how to interpret the two categories of simultaneous speech. p.1. Retrieved: (February 10, 2013) from: Kamenskaya, E.,& Kukharev, G. (2008). Recognition of psychological characteristics from Face. Methody informatyki stosowanej, vol (03), p Retrieved (April 5, 2013) from: Neuage, T. (2004). Conversational analysis of chat room talk. Phd Thesis. School of Communication, Information and New Media, University of South Australia, Australia. Retrieved (May 24, 2013) from: Oxford learner s pocket dictionary (3 rd ed.). (2003). New York: Oxford. Retrieved (February 10, 2013) from: Ritzer, G (ed). (2007). Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology. Retrieved (March 28, 2013) from: _ss1-134 Susilo, A. (2012). Conversation analysis and the structure of conversation presentation paper. Retrieved (July 13, 2013) from: Taguchi, N (ed.). (2009). Pragmatic competence. Germany: The Deutche Nationalbibliothec. Retrieved (Febuary 10, 2013) from: =false Tannen, D. (2005). Conversation style analyzing talk among friends. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved (September 20, 2012) from: Yule, G. (2008). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford. CURRICULUM VITAE Mega Wati Pekanbaru, December 29, 1991 English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, graduated in 2013 Job and organization experience: 1. Private English teacher for IPEKA Elementary and Junior high school students and university students. 2. Marketing Team of Binus University. 3. Binus representative in Binus open house event in Jakarta and Bangka Belitung 4. Leader of community cell Abbalove Ministries - Jakarta. 5. Freelance job as English translator. 6. Participant of leadership training, Excellent Service Camp, Abbalove Ministries - Jakarta. 7. Involved in Ministries as usher in Abbalove Ministries Jakarta. 8. Organizer in The Shortcut of Your Life seminar 16