ABBREVIATION PATTERNS AND GENDER (A CASE STUDY OF POST GRADUATE STUDENTS FROM EAST NUSA TENGGARA)

Gender difference in language use is always emphasized in any study of language and gender. Various different characteristics between men and women in the use of language are explained in many researches on the diversity of language, sorted by this social construction. This study examines the abbreviations used by men and woman in maintaining their words' meaning. The objective is to describe the distinctive patterns of abbreviations used by women and men in maintaining their words' meaning on the conversations in a WhatsApp group. This study based on the theory of from Lakoff which implies that women and men have difference variation in using language. The result of the finding analysis shows that there is a differentce in the abbreviation patterns used by the men and women in maintaining their words' meaning in the conversation. Men tend to use constractions and acronyms. On the other hand, women tend to use abbreviation patterns of syncope and apocope. In addition, both of women and men are involving number pattern in the conversation.