GENDER LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF TWITTER PARTICIPANTS OF DIFFERENT CULTURES

This research deals with the way of male and female participants of different cultures in delivering status and comment on twitter. The objectives of this research were to investigate the language characteristics of male and female on twitter, to describe how the cultures affect the way male and female use language on twitter, to explain why males and females on twitter use language in the way they are. This research was conducted by applying descriptive qualitative research. The data of this study were 60 tweets and comments of Bataknese and Sundanese male participants and 44 tweets and comments of Bataknese and Sundanese female participants which selected from about one month period. The findings show that male participants tend to use report talk in delivering their idea in commenting and updating statuses, while female participants tend to use rapport talk in commenting and updating statuses. Bataknese tend to use phatic expression in Bahasa Batak, rude or not polite, egoistic, and like to help.But, phatic expressions were not found in Bataknese Female statuses or comments. Meanwhile, Sundanese tend to also use phatic expression in Bahasa Sunda, cageur,bageur,singer, and pinter characters. Cultures affect the language by transmitted through traditions, generations, social traits, adaptation, influenced by environment. The reason why male participants use report talk whereas female participants use rapport talk is because males treat the language as a way to give factual information, whereas females use the language as a way to negotiating closeness and intimacy.