A STUDY OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE USE OF URDU DISCOURSE MARKERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how gender affects the use of Urdu discourse markers. Taxonomy of Discourse Markers by Fraser (2009) has been used as theoretical frame work. 12 Urdu newspaper articles written by male and female writers have been purposively selected to identify the gender differences in the use of Urdu discourse markers. 06 articles were taken from male writers and 06 articles were from female writers. The newspaper articles have been taken from daily Urdu newspaper ‘The Jung’ and ‘The Express’. The mixed method research design was used to analyze the data. To achieve above stated objective, the use of Urdu discourse markers were explored and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results of the article show a significant gender difference in the use of Urdu discourse markers. Urdu male writers use DMs more frequently. This accounts that Urdu male speakers might depend upon argumentative use of language, while female speakers are inclined towards more cooperative and compromising attitude in the use of language. Furthermore, it can be suggested that on the basis of the themes of the articles, there might be a gender variation in the use of DMs. So, to make the generalizations more reliable and authentic, a large scale study should be done