A SEMANTIC IMPLICATION OF GENDER ASYMMETRY OF DYADS IN FULFULDE LANGUAGE

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyse the gender asymmetry of Fulfulde language dyads. Gender asymmetry refers to unequal treatment or representation of genders, often stemming from societal norms, cultural beliefs, and historical legacies, resulting in disparities in opportunities, resources, and power Suganda, (2020). In language studies, a “dyad” refers to a group of two people who relate to each other, often used to describe kinship terms or interactions between two individuals, such as in dyadic communication or dyadic learning. Dyad constructions denote relationally-linked groups of the type ‘pair/group of brothers’, ‘mother and child (ren)’, ‘Husband/Wife’, and ‘teacher/student pair’ (Evans, 2003). The principal aim is to examine gender discrimination in the usage of dyads. The research adopts an ethnographic method collection and critical discourse analysis as a theoretical framework. The findings reveal gender asymmetry of dyads in the Fulfulde language. Dyads involve masculine and feminine gender pairs, such as superiority, containment, importance, mismatch and sequence. Asymmetry is manifested syntagmatically as the order of the components from an irreversible perspective. It also shows that contrary to the claim made by Moser (1997), there are different factors which lead to different constructions of Fulfulde language.