The Study of Certainty in Kurdish Women and Men’s Speech in Eslam Abad-E Gharb Based on Lakoff’s Dominance Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Literature Faculty. Razi University. Kermanshah. Iran

2 Razi University. Iran

Abstract

The present study is an investigation in sociolinguistics, aimed to study linguistic differences in certainty in the speech of Kalhori Kurdish (one of the basic west-south speeches, common in west of Iran) speakers. One of the related outstanding approaches in gender linguistics, is Lakoff’s Dominance Approach (1975, 2004), in which 9 linguistic features are introduced to entitle women’s speech as “powerless speech”. Lakoff believes that it occurs because of some social inequalities. According to her, the speech and writing of women and men seem to be different in using rising intonation in declarative sentences, exact color terms, empty adjectives, hyperpolite forms, weak qualifiers, fillers, indirect requests, tag questions and emphatic stress. The present study tries to show if the mentioned approach can be confirmed in Kurdish community or not. For this purpose, based on field research and using questionnaire, 8 different social groups, including thirty two women and thirty two men were interviewed in two different age and educational groups. The findings of this investigation shows that women are more likely than men to use the linguistic variables of powerless speech. Therefore, the Dominance Approach was confirmed in this study.
 

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

حق‌شناس، علی‌محمد (1384). آواشناسی. چاپ دهم. تهران: آگاه.
سارایی، ظاهر (1388). زبان کردی و گویش­های آن. فرهنگ ایلام، شمارۀ پنجم و ششم.
شریفی مقدم، آزاده و آناهیتا بردبار (1389). تمایزگونگی جنسیت در اشعار پروین اعتصامی (پژوهشی زبان‌شناختی). فصلنامۀ علمی– پژوهشی علوم انسانی زبان­پژوهشی دانشگاه الزهرا (س)، 2 (2)، صص 125-151.
محمودی بختیاری، بهروز و مریم دهقانی (1392). رابطه زبان و جنسیت در رمان معاصر فارسی: بررسی شش رمان. نشریه زن در فرهنگ و هنر، 5 (4)، صص 543-556.
مهدی­پور، مرجان (1378). بررسی قدرت در گفتار زنان و مردان فارسی­زبان. پایان­نامه کارشناسی ارشد. تهران: دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی.
Bucholtz, M., & K. Hall (1995). Introduction: twenty years after language and woman’s place. In: M. Bucholtz, & K. Hall (Eds.) Gender articulated: language and the socially constructed self (pp. 1-24). New York: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (1995). Rethinking language and gender studies: some issues for the 1990s. In: S. Mills (Ed.), Language and gender, interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 31-44). London: Longman.
----------------- (1998). The feminist critique of language, London: Routledge, 225-241.
----------------, F. Mcalinden & K. O′ Leary (1989). Lakoff in Context: the social and linguistic functions of tag questions. In J. Coates, & D.Cameron. (Eds), Women in their speech communities. London: Longman.
Erickson, B., E. Lind, B. Johnson & W. O′ Barr (1978). Speech style and impression formation in a court setting: The effects of “powerful” and “powerless” speech. Journal of experimental social psychology. 14, 266-279.
Freed, A. F., & A. Greenwood (1996). Women, men and type of talk: what makes the difference? Language in society, 25, 1-26.
Ghafarpour, H. (2012). Venus and Mars encountering earth by language. The Asian conference on arts and humanities. Official conference proceedings. 92-101.
Haas, M. R. (1944). Men’s and women’s speech in Koasati language. Reprinted in D. Hymes (Eds) (1964), Language in culture and society (20, 142-149). New York: Harper & Row.
Holmes, J. (2013). An introduction to sociolinguistics (Fourth edition). London: Pearson.
Labotka, L. (2009). Language and woman’s place in drag: power, femininity and gay speech. Texas linguistic forum, 53, 18-28.
Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman’s place. Language in society, 2, 45-80.
------------ (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row.
------------ (1990). Talking power. New York: Basic books.
------------ (2000). The language war. Berkeley: University of California Press.
------------- (2004). Language and woman’s place, text and commentaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
O’Barr, W. & B. K. Atkins (1980). Women’s language or powerless language? Women and language in literature and society, 93-110.
Romano, A. w. (1998). Gender and language: A Goodwin look at Lakoff. doctoral dissertation. University of New York.
Sapir, E. (1929). Male and female forms of speech in Yana. In: S. W. J. Teeuwen (Ed.), Donum Natalicum Schrijnen. Nijmegen: dekker and van de vegt.
Tannen, D. (1993). Gender and conversational interaction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wardhaugh, R. & J. Fuller (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics (seventh Edition). Blackwell: UK.
Weisi, H. (2015). Language endangerment among Kurdish speakers in Iran. Lambert academic publishing.
White, A. (2003). Women’s usage of specific linguistic functions in the context of casual conversation: analysis and disscussion. (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Birmingham. England.
Research in Western Iranian Languages and Dialects
Volume 6, Issue 22
November 2018
Pages 41-60

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics