Reflection of gender in the feminine and masculine styles of speech in the eyes of Robin Lakoff (A case study on the sermons of Imam Sajjad (`a.s.) and Lady Zaynab (`a.s.) in Kufah)

Language is one of the fundamental elements in stylistics. A major discussion in the study of language is to consider the gender and its relation and pertinence with the language of the literary text. Some of the researchers believe that there is a differentiation between the masculine and feminine languages. As the first theorist of the field of linguistics of gender Robin Lakoff has propounded her viewpoints about the feminine speech model in the dialog. In her opinion the distinguishing between feminine and masculine languages appears more in the speech rather than in the writing. Lakoff mentions fourteen general characteristics to distinguish the feminine speech from the masculine one. Her 14 characteristics can be classified under the three titles of textual signs, phonemic signs and phonetic signs. In this article the sermon of Imam Sajjad (`a.s.) and that of Lady Zaynab (`a.s.) in Kufah, due to their topical and positional similarity (i.e. that of place and audience) have been selected and compared on the basis of Lakoff's theory with descriptive-analytical method and by presenting tables and charts. The comparison between the two sermons did not show an  outstanding meaningful difference, thus it could not seriously prove Lakoff's theory in full. Even in some cases, a linguistic contradiction between Lakoff's theory and text of the sermon was seen, for instance, application of taboo words or interrogative sentences, etc. Nevertheless, the above comparison could indicate to some extent, the relative conformity of Lakoff's standpoint with the linguistic elements of these two sermons. The results showed that appropriate application of the phone making elements at the phonetic levels of the sermons, has clearly transferred the intended emotional message and as a result has put a remarkable impression on the addressee. The difference is that these elements, compatible with Lakoff's theory were more frequent in Lady Zaynab's sermon and enjoyed a bigger variety. At the lexical level, more frequent usage of adverbs, adjectives and words of oaths in Lady Zaynab's sermon makes it distinct from Imam Sajjad's sermon. However, contrary to Lakoff's standpoint the sermon of Lady Zaynab includes more taboo words than that of Imam Sajjad. More than the factor of gender, this difference originates from the subject of speech and the approach of the two orators in their speech to the people of Kufah. Among the results at the syntactic level mention can be made of the more frequent application of oaths and interrogative sentences, that conforms – from the aspect of statistic – to Lakoff's standpoint, however, it is not harmonious with it semantically.