Gender Differences In Language Use: An Analysis Of Simin Daneshvar’s Savashun

Language is an inherently social phenomenon which provides insights into how men and women‟s language use can affect their social worlds. Their meaningful words reflect differences in the way they think about the world. Men‟s and women‟s language use are considerably different in some languages, for example different pronunciations of certain speech sounds or grammar structures. The inquiry into the relationship between gender and language and the existing differences in the way men and women use language have been a major focus of interest since long ago. In this research, gender differences of language use in Persian society were examined in an Iranian social novel named Savushun by Simin Daneshvar. The study was conducted on the basis of eight differences put forward by Robert Lawrence Trask which were proposed in his Language the Basics in 1995. Examining Simin daneshvar‟s Savushun demonstrates that men‟s and women‟s language use differ from each other in accordance with most of the differences mentioned by Lawrence. In addition, some of the novel gender differences such as promising, praying and cursing are transparently evident in this novel which have roots in Iranian culture and religion and can be regarded as a new category.