The Study of Gender Differences in the Use of Linguistic Forms in the Speech of Iranian Men and Women: A Comparative Study of Persian and English

Abstract

This research intended to determine whether English and Persian men and women were different with respect to the use of intensifiers, hedges and tag questions. To conduct the study, R. Lakoff's (1975) ideas concerning linguistic differences between males and females were taken into account. In order to gather the most natural-like data, 6 English and 8 Persian film• scripts with a family and social theme were randomly selected from amongst all the scenarios available in two libraries of Shiraz University. In all, 9280 utterances were studied. The data were then divided into four major groups: (1) cross sex, same culture, (2) same sex, cross culture, (3) cross sex, cross culture and (4) cross culture data. The results of the 21 Chi• squares computed showed no significant difference between the groups on the use of intensifiers, hedged and tag questions. The findings of the study strongly rejected Lakoff's opinionregarding gender-bound language at least in the three areas inspected in this research

Keywords

• linguistics
• gender-bound language
• gender differences
• hedge
• tag questions
• intensifiers
• persian
• english
• difference theory
• dominance theory