The Structure and the Means of Expression in the Conversational Speech of Women in the Southern Region of Albania

Abstract

The aim of this article is to give a modest contribution in the description of the structure and the means of expression of the feminine speech in the Southern region of Albania. Communication between the sexes has been an area of interest of sociolinguists that have suggested that we come from different planets, that we have different ways of talking, thinking, different brain organizations, etc. Research on language and gender has increasingly become research on gender and discourse. A movement toward the study of language within specific situated activities reflects the importance of culturally defined meanings both of linguistic strategies and of gender. The study of gender and discourse not only provides a descriptive account of male/female discourse but also reveals how language functions as a symbolic resource to create and manage personal, social, and cultural meanings and identities. We have analyzed the everyday language of men and women, in everyday situations as well as in the public communications, in the cities and in the small villages. We have used some examples from the artistic literature of feminine writers of this region. The present paper tries to point out some of the male/female differences in communication and to find the answer to the question: in which way men and women in this region speak differently?

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p167