Gendered Language in Lucy M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Abstract

This dissertation attempted to study gender differences in using language in two selected works: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery and ―The Snows of Kilimanjaro‖ by Ernest Hemingway in order to answer the following research questions of how male and female characters use language differently and how male and female authors present women and men in their works regarding language use. We opted for the descriptive qualitative research in which data were classified based on Robin Lakoff‘s presumptions such as hedges, tag questions, empty adjectives, intensifiers, and swear words. We explained the context of the selected data which are in the form of words and statements, and then we analyzed them according to Robin Lakoff‘s theory of gender. Based on the analysis, women‘s speech differs from men‘s speech. The results of the study found clear support for Robin Lakoff‘s theory which claims that female characters use more tag questions, hedges, empty adjectives and intensifiers, whereas male characters tend to use more swear words and taboo language.