Gender and the use of pragmatic particles in Indonesian

Abstract

Studies of male and female conversational styles in several cultures have shown differences in a number of areas, including the use of pragmatic particles. In most studies, women have been shown to behave more cooperatively, and men more competitively. This paper presents a study of two pragmatic particles in Indonesian conversations, kan ;and iya/ya, which cover a range of functions similar to English tag questions and the pragmatic particle you know. Given these similarities, parallel differences in usage might have been expected. However, differences occur much less frequently than has been the case in these other studies, and although the direction of such gender biases as were observed was generally in the same direction as found in other studies, on the whole Indonesian usage by both genders was facilitative. This result is then seen as a reflection of Indonesian cultural values, which place a premium on maintaining the appearance of cooperative behavior.