Differences inSiminDaneshvar'sSavashun and Jalal Al-e-Ahmad's Setar, Considering Male and Female Syntactic Styles

Gender differences are of great importance in issues associated with language use. Most scholars agree that there is considerable difference in style of using language between male and female writers. The present study aims to assess gender differences from the viewpoint of syntactic style. Style refers to the selection of a specific manner for applying language to be able to pragmatically produce the desired effects. This article intends to examine whether syntactic categories differ between male and femalewriters. For that matter, two works have been investigated: SiminDaneshvar’sSavushun and Jalal Al-e-Ahmad’s Setâr. Systematic random sampling has been applied to select 10 pages from each book have been selected through systematic random sampling and various syntactic elements in each work have been extracted and analyzed. Considering the findings, it can be said that Daneshvar uses more sentences; furthermore, her sentences are simpler and shorter. In both texts, the frequency of declarative, interrogative and emotional sentences has been the same, while more imperative sentences have been observed in Daneshvar’s book. The application of compound-complex, kernel and subordinate sentences has been similar too.However,Daneshvar has omitted verbs and subjects more than Al-e-Ahmad. Examining both novels, a conclusion that can be drawn is that syntactic violations, and simple and short sentences are mostly seen in the female writer’s book, while more grammatical and systematic sentences are observed in the male writer’s book.