Reflection of Gender in the Use of Female and Male Language Features:

A Case Study of the Translation of Roald Dahl's Works

Abstract

Researchers in linguistics, such as Lakoff, Thorne, and Coates, constantly emphasize the connection between gender and language, believing that women's language differs from men's. Given the strong and unbreakable relationship between language and translation, gender differences in the use of language features may also be reflected in translation. This research aims to examine the impact of gender on translators' performance, focusing on the translation of female and male language features in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Matilda," and "The Witches" based on Lakoff's (1975) and Coates's (2004) theories. To do this, female and male language features present in the original version of the mentioned works were first identified and extracted. Next, the features translated by male and female translators were compared. The findings show that the female translator rendered 82 percent of women's language features, while the male translator rendered 57 percent. For the men's language features, the male translator rendered 74.5 percent, and the female translator rendered 80.5 percent. The results indicate that not all translator choices are necessarily influenced by their gender. The findings of this study, emphasizing the socio‑cultural nature of gender differences, underscore the necessity for scholars and translators to reconsider their approaches to analyzing translated texts in terms of the inherent gender oppositions.