The study examines the women’s language features in the utterances of 12
selected female public figures featured in beauty tutorial videos from the "Beauty
Secret" program on the Vogue YouTube Channel using Robin Lakoff’s theory. The
research aims to identify the specific women’s language features and explore their
functions within the context of beauty tutorial videos. Two primary research questions
guide this study: (1) What are the women’s language features used in the beauty tutorial
videos on the "Beauty Secrets" program? (2) What functions do these language features
serve in the videos? The study employs a content analysis method to analyze the data,
which consists of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences from the selected videos. Data
were collected through YouTube transcriptions, which were carefully reviewed by the
researcher to ensure accuracy. The identified data were then categorized and analyzed
using Robin Lakoff’s theory of women’s language features and Pearson's theory of
language functions. The findings reveal that all 10 women’s language features
proposed by Lakoff were present in the selected beauty tutorial videos. These features
include lexical hedges or fillers, tag questions, rising intonation, empty adjectives,
intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, superpolite forms, precise color terms, avoidance
of strong swear words, and emphatic stress, with lexical hedges or fillers being the most
frequently used. Additionally, five language functions were identified: expressing
uncertainty, get a response, soften an utterance, start discussions, and express feelings
or opinions. The implications of this study include understanding language use on
digital platforms, inspiring students' interest in sociolinguistics through beauty videos,
and offering a unique perspective on women’s linguistic features and their role in
language variation.