Critique of the Two Treatises Ta'dib al-Nesvan and Ma'ayeb al-Rejal with a Lakoff's Linguistic Approach
Document Type : پژوهشی اصیل
Authors
1
Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
2
Ph.D. Student of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabatabaʼi University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The issue of language and gender emerged as a pivotal subject in gender studies during the second wave of feminism in the 20th century, primarily focusing on language's role in perpetuating patriarchal structures and discrimination against women. Adopting an inductive approach and grounded in Robin Lakoff’s theoretical framework of "Language and Woman's Place," this research conducts a comparative analysis of the impact of authors' gender on the language used in two extant treatises from the Qajar era: Ta'dib al-Neswan (Discipline of Women) as a male-authored text, and Ma'ayeb al-Rejal (Vices of Men) as a female-authored text. To achieve this, researchers examined linguistic components at both lexical and structural levels. Lexical analysis included color terms, dysphemisms, and expletives, while structural analysis focused on imperative sentences, hedges, and intensifiers. The findings indicate that the male author of Ta'dib al-Neswan utilized masculine linguistic stereotypes to reinforce his superior position over women. Conversely, the female author of Ma'ayeb al-Rejal predominantly employed feminine linguistic variables, which could suggest an acceptance of traditional gender roles. However, in certain instances, the female author attempted to attract a male audience and assert linguistic power by adopting masculine language. These findings suggest that the female author faced challenges and obstacles in breaking linguistic boundaries and achieving an "independent voice", occasionally resorting to masculine language. These dynamics reflect the complexities of the interplay among gender, power, and discourse in historical texts.
Keywords
Subjects
Anonymous. (1899). Disciplining women. Manuscript. Library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, No. 2812.
Arbab, S. (2012). A survey and classification of common Dysphemisms in Persian colloquial language. Comparative Linguistic Research, 4, 107-124.
Bahmani Motlagh, Y., & Najafi Arab, M. (2014). The use of vocabulary in the novel prince Ehtejab from the perspective of language and gender. Interpretation and Analysis of Persian Language and Literature Texts (Dehkhoda), 20, 121-142.
Bahmani-Motlagh, Y., & Bagheri, N. (2012). A comparison of women's language in the works of Simin Daneshvar and Jalal Al-Ahmad. Women and Culture, 11, 43-59.
Borji, Z., & Zakeri, A. (2023). Analytical critique of disciplining women and men with a focus on the book Ta'dib al-Niswan. Interpretation and Analysis of Persian Language and Literature Texts (Dehkhoda), 57, 187-207.
Estarabadi, B. (1992). Ma'yeib al-Rijal (Vices of Men). Negaresh va Negaresh-e Zan.
Ghazi Moradi, B. (2018). A critical re-reading of the concept of gender and the boundaries of the body in the book Ta'dib al-Niswan. Journal of Women's Studies ,9, 101-129.
Jan-Nejad, M. (2001). Language and gender; differences between male and female Iranian speakers in conversational interaction. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Tehran.
Ka'edi, S. (2003). Feminism: origins and attitudes. Children's and Adolescent Literature, 32, 36-42.
Khosronejad, A. (2007). The role of gender on content analysis of English and Persian short stories. Tarbiat Modares University.
Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman's place. Language in Society, 2(1), 45-80.
Modarresi, Y. (1989). An introduction to the sociology of language. Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies.
Momeni, M. (2007). Language and gender. Reflection of Thought, 96, 66-71.
Nemati, A., & Bayer, M. J. (2007). Gender differences in the use of linguistic forms in the speech of men and women-A comparative study of Persian and English. Glossa, 3 (1), pp. 185-201.
Tayefi, sh. (2021). A research on language and gender in Shabhaye Tehran (Nights of Tehran) and Azadarane Bayal (Mourners of Bayal) novels based on Lakoff's theory. The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances, 9 (1), 227-241.
Trudgill, P. (1997). Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society (translated by M. Tabataba'i). Agah.
