Gossip among Women Friends in the TV Series Sex and the City:
A Conversational Analysis
The objective of this study is to find out about the characteristics of language used in gossip among women friends in the TV series Sex and the City. This study also finds out about the settings, participants, topics, functions, formal features of these conversations among women, and formal features as collaborative devices in these all-female talks.
The study is done by using a qualitative method on 16 conversations considered gossip among women friends in 12 episodes of the first season of this popular TV series. By referring to the research conducted by Jennifer Coates, the data are analyzed in terms of the relations between settings, participants, topics, forms, and functions.
The gossip among four single, white, middle class women friends aged in their mid 30s and early 40s mostly occur in an apartment, restaurant, or bar. The topics are single women, love, dating, marriage, and sex. The conversations function to maintain their friendship. The formal features found in this TV series are topic development, minimal responses, simultaneous speech, and epistemic modality, and they serve as collaborative devices. |