On the verbal characteristics of the story characters different from the gender of the author: Focusing on “Zan-e ziyadi” And “Shab-e Sarab”

The present study investigates the effect of the authors’ gender on the speech features of the characters with different genders. In so doing, two stories were selected in which the genders of the authors were different from those of the main characters. The theoretical framework used in the present study was Lakoff’s (1975) theory of gender language which was more in historical harmony with the two corpuses under study. The verbal characteristics of the main characters of the two stories show that despite the authors' awareness of gender differences in language, they have left traces of their gender in the speech of their characters. A comparison of the two stories shows that Al-Ahmad is more successful in using appropriate language in the speech of the main character. The feminine linguistic features in the speech of his main character are: swearing, prayers and cursing, hesitations and doubts, direct quotations, as well as emotional attributes. On the other hands, the same features in Raheem’s speech is not in accordance with his masculinity. Based on the findings of this research it can be concluded that gender language is inevitable and completely cultural-bound.