Male/Female Linguistic Practices and Miscommunication in Chlef

Abstract

Females and males seem to encounter frequent problems of communication and their conversation typically falls prey to miscommunication. They find it, most of the time, tiresome to fathom the mind of the other. Male/female miscommunication has been interpreted in a number of ways, most notably as an innocent by-product of different socialization patterns and different gender cultures. Wishing to unearth the scientific explanation of male/female miscommunication, we have tried to examine gender performances and women's agency (Their creative use of language and the choices available to them) in the Algerian social culture with a tremendous belief that they need to be examined in relation to some factors such as the larger power structures that constitute Algerian culture, Islam, multilingualism and social organization. It is in this interaction of these factors which influence generic gender perception, gender subversion and language use reveal that the social and individual differences of Chelifian women and men can be understood solely within the social cultural context of the community under study.