The Study of the Impact of Gender on the Language of some Iranian Contemporary Male and Female Authors

Subject Areas : فصلنامه تخصصی زبان و ادبیات فارسی

ali akbar bagheri khalili ¹ , zahra moghaddasi ²

1 - دانشیار زبان و ادبیّات فارسی دانشگاه مازندران
2 - دانشجوی دکتری زبان و ادبیّات فارسی دانشگاه مازندران

Received: 2017-01-31 Accepted : 2017-01-31 Published : 2016-01-21

Keywords:

Abstract :

Many theoreticians on language and gender believe that language is a mere reflection of gender and acknowledge the existence of some differences between male and female authors in grammatical areas in terms of linguistic units such as words, phrases, and sentences. From their point of view, men and women differ not only in terms of physiology, behavior and gestures, but also in linguistic behavior. Although some scholars blame the patriarch culture for the emergence of a kind of male language in literature and have turned to female language and literature in order to break the male hegemony, male and female verbal differences can be due to their social status and roles. The study of the impact of gender in four novels by male and female writers of the sixties suggests that men violate grammatical rules more boldly than women. This shows that the female mind is more systematic, but this reduces women’s boldness in literary creativity and innovation. Violent words are more frequent in male writers’ works, which can result from men’s physiological features. It can also be the result of their social and political roles. The frequency of direct questions in male language and rhetorical questions in female language may suggest that there is more ambiguity, complexity, and mysteriousness in women’s worlds. The presence of emphatic sentences in female works can be due to their being neglected in social interactions.