The study of the Representation of Feminine words in Khosro and Shirin and Veys and Ramin by language and gender approach

The relationship between language and gender attracted the researcher's attention in different fields of study such as sociolinguistics and literature. Unfortunately, this kind of studies is very rare in Classic Persian literature. The representation of gender is very important in Persian love literature. Two lyrics Khosrow&Shirin andVeys&Ramin are selected for the investigation of feminine words. These two stories investigated by two approaches; Dominance and Difference. For achieving best results, these words studied qualitatively and quantitatively. The results represents that feminine words applied more in Veys&Ramin and these words arranged by Difference approach more than dominance approach. But Difference approach applied more by Nezami in Khosrow&Shirin.
   
The study of language and gender has attracted many scholars in different fields such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and literature. Two main approaches have been developed in area of gender linguistics since 1970s, namely, dominance and difference approaches. In the former approach (Lakoff, 1975), some pre-established characteristics such as speaking indirectly, rapport talk, and cooperation are attributed to women's talk. By contrast, characteristics such as speaking directly, report talk, and competitiveness are attributed to men's talk. In the latter approach, the differences between men's and women's talk are treated as a result of different subcultures and different ways of socialization. In a sense, gender is not a predetermined factor as it is considered in dominance approach; rather, it is constructed in the process of socialization and in interactions. In addition, there are two kinds of feminist criticism; the first is "women's effect" which focuses on the women in men's books by their roles. The second which is called "women's criticism" focuses on women writers. In the second one, the critics focus on women's literary books to understand their psychological activities (Payande, 2007:122). This research is about women's speech style in Khosro and Shirin and Veys and Ramin by focusing on lexical items. So the research questions are as follows:a. How the lexical items attributed to women in Khosro and Shirin and Veys and Ramin are applied?
b. Which poet was more successful in applying feminine language?
c. Which approach is dominant in these two lyrics? The research methodology is qualitative – quantitative analysis. First the research theoretical framework is explained which focuses on two main gender approaches, dominance and difference approaches. Then two lyrics, Khosro and Shirin and Veys and Ramin, studied carefully to extract feminine lexical items. Then they are categorized in different groups under two main approaches and other effective factors such as contest are also considered. They analyzed qualitatively. In the next stage these words are analyzed quantitatively to reveal the better answers to the research questions . Two works studied carefully to extract feminine lexical items. According to the speaker status, context, co-text and other factors, the research data is investigated by dominance and difference approaches. For instance words like dream, waiting and regret are very frequent which can be analyzed by dominance approach. In contrast, the credibility of superstition and magic by women can be analyzed by difference approach. The quantitative analysis reveals that the representation of feminine lexical items is more in Veis and Ramin (296 vs 117). The outstanding point is that both poets apply difference approach more than dominance approach. In other words Asade G organi apply difference approach in 60% of cases whereas Nezami in 78% of cases. This also reveals that even in ancient time and literature, they disapproved the dominance approach which represents, to some extent, women's situation on that time.
  As it is said two main approaches have been developed in area of gender linguistics since 1970s, namely, dominance and difference approaches. In the former approach (Lakoff, 1975), some pre-established characteristics such as speaking indirectly, rapport talk, and cooperation are attributed to women's talk. By contrast, characteristics such as speaking directly, report talk, and competitiveness are attributed to men's talk. In the latter approach, the differences between men's and women's talk are treated as a result of different subcultures and different ways of socialization. In a sense, gender is not a predetermined factor as it is considered in dominance approach; rather, it is constructed in the process of socialization and in interactions.  This research also considered the interactional situation and context and speakers status. In result of this research and after investigating  and categorizing feminine lexical items and in response to the first question, it can be said that in Veis and Ramin, the women'd discourse is based on crying,   moaning, shame, scandal, noticing on details, love, praying, cursing, promising, waiting, faithfulness and unfaithfulness and envy. But in khosro and Shirin, women's discourse is based on reason and in comparison to Veis and Ramin used less feminine words (117 vs 296). Words related to magic have the most frequency,and the other words related to feminine lexical domain are very rare.it can be said that their speech style became masculine which is the response of the second research question. In other words it can be said that Asade gorgani apply these lexical  items more artistically than Nezami. In response to the third question which focuses on the most used approach, it can be said that the difference approach is applied more in both works and Nezami applied this approach more than Asade gorgani.  Since both artists denied the dominant approach to some extent. For better investigation, women's social status can be studied in these two outstanding lyrics.
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