《欲望都市》中的女性语言分析(6)
3.1 Charlotte Yorker
Charlotte is an art dealer in her 30s living in New York. Among the four characters in the series, Charlotte seems to be the only one whose social background is mentioned throughout the show. It appears that she comes from an upper-class family with an upbringing education background. Having been raised in that environment, Charlotte has kept conservative values in her views on life in general. Despite being a very feminine character, Charlotte is quite certain of what she wants in life, especially when it comes to relationships. She appears to be almost hopelessly romantic, being in constant search for that perfect “one”. Her view on marriage is very conventional, and getting married almost becomes the only goal in her life. Charlotte felt disappointed and disillusioned after she porced his ex-husband. However, she soon falls in love with her porce lawyer and lives happily ever after. Charlotte is not very open about her sexuality among the four characters; she is the one who feels most uncomfortable talking about sex.
Linguistic analysis of Charlotte’s language
Cooperative speech—minimal responses
Charlotte appears to be a very cooperative speaker. She rarely goes into direct confrontations or disagreements. In her cooperation, she is more likely to use one supportive strategy, namely minimal responses. That’s why the minimal responses are discussed here in the cooperative speech section. If one of her friends introduces a new topic, she always reacts by using minimal responses to show her support. In her words, ignoring someone’s utterances or topics would be considered rude. For instance:
Charlotte: But that’s what’s great about New York. There’s always a new neighborhood, a new restaurant…
Carrie: ….a new man.
Charlotte: Ooohh.
Charlotte clearly supports Carrie’s introduction of a new topic. Her “Ooohh” invites Carrie to tell more about her forthcoming date with her new boyfriend. “Carrie: Sweetie, listen… You need all the girl support you can get, and I’m late for drinks with Big. Charlotte: Ooh, that’s great...” Even when Charlotte is preoccupied with another topic, if some of her friends change the subject by bringing up the topic of romantic relationship, she always welcomes the topic and reacts in a supportive manner, using minimal responses “Ooh”. The above is evidence that she needs Carrie to back her up, but instead she ends up supporting Carrie. As mentioned in the previous chapters, active participation is a very typically female trait. Women tend to show their participation in conversations more often than men. They do so to be polite and considerate towards the speaker and to show support.
Topic development
As previously mentioned, Charlotte is an active participant in almost any conversation. She not only keeps the conversation going by minimal responses, but also by questions. When she tends to change a topic, she does so in a very subtle way by connecting her topic with the previous one. To speak of the spirits of the group, she always keeps it being optimistic rather than negating. In the example shown below, the girls are eating at a new restaurant. Compared Miranda and Carrie’s being very negative towards tasting the very alternative food of the restaurant, Charlotte does keep a positive attitude. Even when she realizes that she dislikes the soup, she has a very subtle way of showing it.
Waiter: I ’d like to get you started with a little amuse-bouche.
(setting soups in front of everyone)
Charlotte: Well, this just looks delicious.
Miranda: And the soup is not.
Charlotte: What is this?
Miranda: Bad. This is bad. It’s like lawn in a bowl.
Unlike Miranda, who gives a direct statement about the soup, Charlotte phrases her opinion like a question. It is clear that she barely likes the soup, but by asking a question instead of making a direct statement, she is weakening her critique. In addition, her question invites the rest of the girls to participate in the conversation.
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