SOCIAL FACTORS AND SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN MEAN GIRLS (2004) MOVIE: SOCIOLINGUISTICS STUDY

Abstrak

This research entitled “Social Factors and Social Dimensions in Mean Girls (2004) Movie: Sociolinguistics Study” analyzes sociolinguistic aspects of the film Mean Girls (2004) directed by Mark Waters, focusing on social factors and social dimensions in character conversations. Using a descriptive qualitative method, and the study analyzes purposively selected dialogues based on Holmes’ (2001) theory, which includes participants, setting, topic, and function, as well as the social distance scale, status scale, formality scale, and two functional scale. From 31 data samples, the findings show that all social factors consistently appear, with dominant participants being the main characters; Cady, Regina, Janis, Gretchen, Karen, and Damian, while conversations mainly occur in school settings and revolve around friendship, gossip, romance, reputation, and teenage social hierarchy. Utterances function to build, negotiate, maintain, or damage relationships while expressing solidarity, power, and conflict. All four social dimensions were identified, with the social distance scale as the most dominant with 13 data (42%), followed by status scale with 3 data (10%), formality scale with 5 data (16%), and two functional scale with 10 data (32%). Overall, the study concludes that language in Mean Girls functions not only as communication but also as a representation of social relationships, closeness, and status structures in teenage social interactions.