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A question is used to reduce sounding too direct and dogmatic, as well as to seek approval or invite others to participate in the conversation. In the following example, Charlotte’s use of a question ties all these purposes together. Carrie has just introduced a new topic about her boyfriend who doesn’t want to get married again. Both Miranda and Samantha do not appear shocked or particularly bothered by it. However, Charlotte does not agree with them. “Charlotte: Am I the only one who thinks this is a major bummer? (To Carrie) what if you spend five years with him and in the end you have nothing to show for it?” Instead of directly disagreeing with her friends, Charlotte again phrases her statement like a question, which weakens her opinion. At the same time she encourages the girls to take part in the conversation, not only for the sole purpose of keeping it going, but also make them approve of what she has just said.
Emphatic stress, boosters and attention-getters
One gets the impression that Charlotte has her unique way of putting extra stress on some of her statements, by the use of emphatic stress. In the following example, Charlotte tries to stop her friends talking about sexual topics in public area. “Charlotte: Oh, please stop! This is so sad!” As previously discussed, women use emphatic stress mainly because they are not being taken seriously enough. Charlotte stresses the word “stop”, in order to show how serous she is about her statement. What’s more, she also makes use of the booster “so” to intensify her explanation. By doing all the additional explaining, Charlotte never seems too offensive or direct.
Another simple example is enough to show the function of stresses. “Charlotte: I think that a relationship has to be based on honesty and communication if it has any chance of succeeding.”
Charlotte stresses “I”, obviously, which indicates the fact that the opinion is hers and hers only. Out of the four girls, she might be the one who is the least certain that her opinion will be taken seriously by the other girls. Moreover, it also shows that Charlotte is not confident in acting as the expert, instead of presenting her statements as universal truths (as Samantha tends to do), she carefully makes it clear to everyone that this is the starting point she is taking, and that they are “allowed” to have different ideas.
Charlotte’s use of the attention-getter in the following almost has the same purpose as her use of emphatic stress. She has just told the girls that she is seriously considering becoming Jewish because her boyfriend Harry practices this religion.
Samantha: Isn’t that a lot of hoop jumping for a man?
Charlotte: Look, Harry’s not who I expected to fall in love with, but I did. And he makes me laugh. And he says what he means. And I feel like I can be myself around him.
In this instance, Charlotte clearly feels that she has to stress the fact that her statement is to be taken seriously, for she uses the attention-getter “look” to let others know that her utterance should be considered as an explanation.
3.2 Carrie Bradshaw
Carrie, a newspaper columnist, is the main character in Sex and the City. She is a newspaper columnist in her 30s who writes about love, sex and relationships in New York City. Her writings are inspired by the life experiences of her friends and herself. In the series, Carrie has several long and short relationships in her search for Mr. Right. She meets her big love, who is only referred to as Mr. Big, in the beginning of the series. He, however, is unwilling to commit himself to a serious relationship but finally make up his mind to settle down in the very last episode. Carrie is the center of the girls, because she often takes the initiative to gather the girls and frequently asks her friends for advice.
Linguistic analysis of Carrie’s language