Speech strategies and gender roles in Abdurauf Fitrat’s family discourse: a linguopragmatic analysis of “Oila”

Abstract

This article examines the linguopragmatic representation of gender communication in Abdurauf Fitrat’s treatise Oila. The study identifies strategies presenting marital roles, respect, responsibilities, and normative expectations. Materials comprise passages from the 2000 second edition concerning marriage, spousal relations, and child upbringing. Contextual analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and functional pragmatic interpretation are applied. Advisory, argumentative, ethically evaluative, and cautionary strategies are identified as means of influencing the intended reader. An analytical model links social role, normative expectation, communicative position, speech strategy, and pragmatic effect. The discussion distinguishes the author’s normative educational discourse from records of actual conversations between spouses. Historically situated assumptions are also differentiated from contemporary concepts in gender linguistics. The findings highlight the importance of genre, intended audience, and ethical reasoning when interpreting representations of family communication. Conclusions derive from a qualitative examination of selected passages and do not imply statistical representativeness. The proposed framework supports further comparative research on historical and contemporary family discourse.