Positive politeness strategies in women's language of transgenders on YouTube interviews & TV shows

Gender is a social identity that affects many aspects of life including language. As a communal notion, gender influences the way people interact with each other. Men and women, due to their differing values, have different speech features. This leads to a distinction in linguistic expressions used by both genders especially women. However, as gender is no longer bound to its binary nature, transgenderism arises. It allows people to transition from one gender to another, which may also change their linguistic expressions. In this research, the transition from male to female is the main focus. Hence, the utterances of Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner taken from YouTube videos and TV shows are analysed using women's language theory proposed by Lakoff (2004) and positive politeness strategies by Brown & Levinson (1987). Furthermore, this study applies descriptive qualitative method to approach the linguistic phenomenon. The research found that Laverne Cox uses 11 lexical hedges, 1 tag question, 4 emphatic stresses, 3 empty adjectives, 12 intensifiers, and 1 avoidance of swear words along with 1 notice/attend to H, 11 exaggerations, 4 use in-group identity markers, 3 avoid disagreement, 8 presuppose/raise/assert common ground, 1 give (or ask for) reasons, 3 assert/presuppose S’s knowledge of and concern for H’s wants, and 2 jokes. On the other hand, Caitlyn Jenner incorporates 20 lexical hedges, 30 emphatic stresses, 7 empty adjectives, 13 intensifiers, and 3 rising intonations. She also applies 1 notice/attend to H, 12 exaggerations, 1 use in-group identity markers, 8 avoid disagreement, 21 presuppose/raise/assert common ground, 7 give (or ask for) reasons, 8 seeking agreement, 2 offer or promise, and 1 include both S and H in the activity