Title of the paper: Gender Differences in Fictional Text: A Saudi Perspective
Name of the Student: Maryam Juda
Name of your instructor: Dr. Amel Shoaib
Name of the course: Language & Computer LANE 603
Date: 17/9/2014
Body of the paper:
Introduction
The paper is a sociolinguistic research that looks into language and literature and its
relation to Saudi society views of gender and language. The purpose of this paper is to
identify gender differences when it comes to fictional written text. The researcher is
highly interested in literature and gender studies and the main topic of the research
addresses these two areas from a sociolinguistics perspective. Female and male writing
styles differ in many ways such as in the use of lexical items and tone. Of course
misconceptions about gender features can occur and cause confusion in identifying
gender. For that we must consider context and the writer’s speaking style (Tannen,
2009). This paper uses critical discourse analysis to indicate gender differences in
fictional text. The paper will commence with the research hypothesis and project. It
will also explain the method that is used in as a tool in conducting the study. It also
discusses ethical considerations and study limitations. Finally the paper will conclude
with data analysis and findings.
The Research Hypothesis
It is easy for Saudi females to indicate gender differences in written English
fictional text based on what they have studied during their time in the Department of
European Languages and Literature and based on what they know from their own
society.
The Research Project
Critical discourse analysis was conducted to examine if stereotyping a text
according to gender by Saudi female English students is easy and how these students
view gender based on their educational knowledge and their societal norms.
Methodology
The paper uses critical discourse analysis. Discourse analysis views language as a
form of social practice which it is tied to particular historical contexts, and by which
social affairs are repeated or disputed and different interests are assisted (Janks, 1997).
The paper will use critical discourse analysis to analyze fictional text while distributing
questionnaires either via email and/or by hand to see what society thinks of language
and gender. The participants were female students of King Abdulaziz University,
whose ages range between eighteen to thirty years old. The students are proficient in
English; as they study English at the Department of European languages and literature.
They were asked to identify the gender of the author in each text and to give a reason
for their belief. The response rate was twenty-five out of Seventy-five.
Ethical Considerations
This paper was able to consider three of the four of Cameron’s maxims when it
came to ethical considerations: research relevance, respect the informant’s views, and
accessibility (Stockwell, 2002). The paper is relevant to the informants because they
are students of the Department of European Languages and literature so they are able
to understand the texts and analyze it as it relates to their education as future linguists.
The paper took into consideration the personal views of the informants and did not
neglect those assumptions as they were embedded in the data analysis. On the subject
of accessibility, the researcher used terms that are relatively easy and comprehensible
for the participants who study literature and linguistics. Unfortunately, accountability
could not be reached as the researcher was not able to interact with the participants due
to certain limitations.
Limitations of the Study
This study, similar to other research studies, has a few limitations such as are lack
of time, participants and response. The study was conducted during the summer
semester, which is short in time unlike the regular semester. There was also difficulty
in finding participants for the study as the study is directed to English literature and
linguistics students who were mostly on vacation. Thus, the researcher could only pass
the questionnaire to summer students or classmates who could reply via email, which
resulted in the lack of immediate response between the researcher and the participants
because of weak Internet connection and late feedback.
Data Analysis
The data were collected and calculated manually and they gave each text an
accuracy percentage. Four out of the eight passages are written by male authors and
the other four are written by female ones. Passages one, three, five and seven were
written by male authors while passages two, four, six and eight were written by female
authors.
Findings
The findings show how many people were able to tell the difference between
genders through written material. It appears though that half of the passages were
misidentified. The participants could barely identify gender related linguistic features
because of lexical item choice or tone and empathy.
Lexical Item Choice
Some participants, who could successfully identify male authors, used what they
had observed from their society. As they reported that men would use rough, violent
words because they think that it reflects their nature. Harsh words are indeed found in
the first passage by Jeff Lindsay in his novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter when he used
words such "roaring wind" and in the third passage Peter Carey in his novel Oscar and
Lucinda had used the word "crashed". While a recent study by Winn and Rubin (2001)
argued that women tend to avoid using assertive words while writing and they use
words such as "maybe" "sort of" as a politeness. As the participants had noted that they
feel that women are considerate and polite in using words because women are
expected to be pleasant and dutiful toward their families while men are expected to
take the lead socially. The rough words represent male gender role, while hedges and
soft words represent female gender role.
Tone and Empathy
The participants also noted that men are creative in using sarcasm as it is apparent
in the fifth passage from Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami when he described a
boy with a "sluggish voice" while women seem to be more empathetic than men which
is shown in the fourth passage from the novel Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard when
a girl was describing her friend and how her friends were trying to consider her
feelings and by not mention her weight. It is noted that Saudi men are initiate and they
do not hesitate in expressing their thoughts even if they were hurtful while Saudi
women use indirect ways to express their thoughts and they not express them at all to
save face.
In Living Language (2008), George Keith and John Shuttleworth reported the
following:
women - talk more than men, talk too much, are more polite, are
indecisive/hesitant, complain and nag, ask more questions, support each other, are
more co-operative, whereas men - swear more, don't talk about emotions, talk
about sport more, talk about women and machines in the same way, insult each
other frequently, are competitive in conversation, dominate conversation, speak
with more authority, give more commands, interrupt more. (p. 222)
Those reasons were also mentioned by the participants as they stated their
assumption based on their social atmosphere. Of course when it came to misidentified
passages some participants may for example choose female for a passage written by
male and attribute the reason for word choice even though other participants choose
male and they also attribute their answer for word choice. Descriptiveness is another
stereotypical stigma for females though males use it too which was the main cause for
gender misidentifications in the study. The misidentifications came from the
participants' assumption that a certain passage belongs to male because they related
masculine gender role to it though it was written by a female, passage six got twentyeight percent which is the lowest score because participant reported that detective
stories are what men are usually interested in. It appears that the participants’ gender
identification associates with value judgment which is a social stigma rather than a
linguistic point of view.
Finally, gender differences can be pointed out by examining the text linguistically
from the use of lexical items and tone, and not depending entirely on value judgment.
However, there is still confusion between what is attributed to female / male writing
styles due to a prior belief of how gender is expressed in writing. Thus, identifying
gender differences in a text is not as easy as it sounds because participants use value
judgment to differentiate between genders.
Conclusion
To conclude, the paper investigated if it was easy to identify gender differences and
it is found that there is possibility, but it can be confusion depending on the text and
the social belief of Saudi society of how language should be used for each gender. It is
recommended to conduct further longitudinal studies on language in regard to gender
on the Saudi community to reach full awareness of linguistic features depending on
gender and ethnicity in a social domain.
References:
Janks, H. (1997). Critical discourse analysis as a research tool. Discourse: studies in
the cultural politics of education, 18(3), 329-342.
Keith, G., & Shuttleworth, J. (2008). Living language (3 ed.). (J. Bluett, & J.
Shuttleworth, Eds.) London: Hodder Murray.
Stockwell, P. (2002). Sociolinguistics: A resource book for students. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tannen, D. (2009). He said, she said: Instructor’s package. Retrieved 15 July, 2014,
from http://www.evgonline.com/Downloads/Hesaidshesaidinstr.guide.pdf
Winn, L., & Rubin, D. (2001, December). Enacting gender identity in written
discourse responding to gender roles bidding in personal ads. Journal of Language and
Social Psychology, 20(4), 393-418.