Difference(s) between Male and Female Speakers of Turkish Regarding Politeness Norms

Abstract

This study was an attempt to explore the possible differences between male and female speakers of Turkish language as far as politeness norms in speaking was concerned. To achieve this end 20 male and 20 female native speakers of Turkish language were chosen, and their speech was analyzed in different settings. These observations included their speech with different individuals in two settings, namely, formal and informal settings ones. That is to say, in one setting their speech was analyzed when speaking with close friends, and in the other one it was analyzed with more formal individuals, say, their teachers. To explore the differences and similarities, code-switching was selected as a criterion, and the number of code-switchings was counted. These observations were made within 20 sessions. The findings showed a drastic variation in observing politeness norms between male and female speakers of Turkish, especially code-switching from English to Farsi. Besides there were other differences noticed between male and female speakers, for example male speakers used much more taboos, but the most noticeable difference was female speakers’ excessive use of code-switching to Farsi.