The Influence of Translators’ Gender Ideology on Translating Me Before You base on Lakoff’s (1990) Theory of Women’s Language

Authors

  • Mahdi Dehghani Firouzabadi Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Tolou-e Mehr Non-profit University, Qom, Iran
  • Mahdi Ohadi M.A. Graduate in English Translation, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Tolou-e Mehr Non-profit University, Qom, Iran
  • Mohammad Sadegh Kenevisi 📧 Assistant professor, Department of English Translation, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Jahrom University, Jahrom, Iran

Abstract

The present study investigates the influence of translators’ gender ideology on the translation of Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (2012). To this end, Lakoff’s (1990) theory of Women’s Language is applied to analyze selected sentences from the Persian translations of the book by Maryam Meftahi (1401) and Mohammad Reza Kamali (1402). Accordingly, gender-based differences in the translations are discussed through the lens of the linguistic features of women’s language set forth in the theory. The findings revealed the employment of a greater degree of emotional and affective language by the female translator. Moreover, she made a conscious effort to remain faithful to the source text. In contrast, the male translator tended to be emotionally more neutral as well as to lack the linguistic nuances of the female translator. Notably, approximately half of the analyzed sentences display significant differences between the two translations. Although the differences may be attributed to the translators’ gendered ideologies in many cases, the textual features of the source language have also proved to be significant. Therefore, it can be argued that the gender of the translators may serve as a determining factor in the linguistic and stylistic choices of translation process.

Author Biographies

Mahdi Dehghani Firouzabadi, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Tolou-e Mehr Non-profit University, Qom, Iran

Dr. Mehdi Dehghani Firouzabadi, is a faculty member of Tolou-e Mehr University. He holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from USM University, Malaysia. He specializes in comparative literature, postcolonial studies, and translation theories, and his research focuses on Rumi, William Blake, and translation criticism. Dr. Dehghani has taught at prestigious universities in Iran, including the University of Religions and Denominations, Jamia al-Mustafa, and Islamic Azad University. He has taught a variety of courses, including translation, literary criticism, and Technical English. He has translated several books, including “Adoption in Islam” and “Fundamental Teachings of Ethics,” and has worked as a contract translator with UNICEF. He has published numerous articles in prestigious domestic and international journals, and is a member of scientific associations such as IBACS in Spain. Dr. Dehghani is the founder of the Eideh Language Academy. He has also supervised and reviewed numerous theses.

Mahdi Ohadi, M.A. Graduate in English Translation, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Tolou-e Mehr Non-profit University, Qom, Iran

Mehdi Ohadi holds a Master's degree in English Translation from the Translation Department of Tolou-e Mehr University. He completed his Master's thesis on Gender in Translation. His areas of interest are literary translation and the sociology of translation.

Mohammad Sadegh Kenevisi, Assistant professor, Department of English Translation, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Jahrom University, Jahrom, Iran

Mohammad Sadegh Kenevisi is a faculty member at the Department of English Translation, Jahrom University, Iran. He has published a number of scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals including Forum: Revue Internationale d’Interpretation et de Traduction (published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, Netherland), TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies (Published by University of Alberta, Canada), Other Modernities (published by University of Milan, Italy), International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature (published by the Australian International Academic Centre) and Language and Translation Studies (published by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad). His areas of interest are sociology of translation, intercultural studies and audio-visual translation. 

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Published

2025-10-13

How to Cite

Dehghani Firouzabadi, M., Ohadi, M., & Kenevisi, M. S. (2025). The Influence of Translators’ Gender Ideology on Translating Me Before You base on Lakoff’s (1990) Theory of Women’s Language. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies, 23(90). Retrieved from https://journal.translationstudies.ir/ts/article/view/1249

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 90 (2025): Iranian Journal of Translation Studies

Section

Academic Research Paper

DOR

https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.17350212.1404.23.2.3.5

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Copyright (c) 2025 Mahdi Dehghani Firouzabadi, Mahdi Ohadi, Mohammad Sadegh Kenevisi

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Copyright Licensee: Iranian Journal of Translation Studies. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0 license).