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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 10:4 (2019) ► pp.512–537

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Interactional metadiscourse of gender in Persian

The case of conference presentations

 | University of Isfahan | Sun Yat-sen University
 | Jahrom University
Published online: 14 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16049.amo
Abstract
The present study sets out to investigate an important aspect of gendered performance, namely, the presence of interactional metadiscourse in conference presentations delivered in Persian. The study pursues two primary objectives: firstly, to compare the quantity and quality of interactional metadiscourse markers as expressed by male and female academics; secondly, to investigate some other factors influencing the phenomenon under investigation. The data include twenty-four conference presentations by twelve males and twelve females. The quantitative analysis showed a statistically significant difference in the use of interactional metadiscourse by male and female presenters. However, the qualitative analysis helped the authors to identify more similarities than differences. In point of fact, such factors as academic status and nativeness had caused the speakers to use different metadiscourse strategies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Preliminaries
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Analysis of the data
    • 5.1Hedges
    • 5.2Boosters
    • 5.3Attitude markers
    • 5.4Engagement markers
    • 5.5Self-mentions
  • 6.Gender and non-gender factors in interactional metadiscourse
    • 6.1Gender, conference presentation style and interactional metadiscourse
    • 6.2Gender, non-native presenters and Interactional metadiscourse
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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