TY  - JOUR
ID  - 247556
TI  - Gravestones as Texts: A Genre Analysis of Tombstones through a Gendered Lens
JO  - Journal of Edulingual Studies (JES)
JA  - JES
LA  - en
SN  - 
AU  - Karimnia, Amin
AU  - Varzeshi, Reza
AD  - Department of English Language, CT.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
AD  - Binaloud Institute of Higher Education, Mashhad, Iran
Y1  - 2026
PY  - 2026
VL  - 1
IS  - 2
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
KW  - Commemorative Practices
KW  - Discourse Analysis
KW  - Gender Disparities
KW  - Genre Analysis
KW  - Iranian Culture
KW  - rhetorical moves
KW  - Tombstone Inscriptions
DO  - 10.22034/jes.2026.592064.1012
N2  - This study applies Swales’ (2008) genre analysis framework to Iranian tombstone inscriptions, drawing on direct observation of 1,400 gravestones (750 male, 650 female) and integrating qualitative and quantitative structural-semantic move analyses. Linguistically, the findings reveal a striking predominance of Persian poetic metaphors (82.86% of epitaphic content) over direct Quranic verses (4.8%), underscoring cultural-literary traditions rather than strictly religious rhetoric. Syntactically, the Persian ezafe construction encodes paternal lineage on 84% of men's tombstones, while maternal names are entirely absent (0%), grammatically materializing patriarchal descent. The rhetorical structure comprises nine distinct moves, two of which are obligatory: the deceased’s particulars (name/titles) and lifespan (birth/death dates). Additional gendered markers include photographs (44% on men’s stones, 0% on women’s) and explicit paternal name mentions (84% for men, 58.5% for women), further reflecting Iran's male-dominated social norms. By positioning tombstones as communicative artifacts, this study bridges a gap in genre analyses of non-academic texts, offering a nuanced, gendered perspective on how death, identity, and socio-cultural values are discursively memorialized in Iranian society.
UR  - https://www.jesjournal.com/article_247556.html
L1  - https://www.jesjournal.com/article_247556_d619ff0ebba8525c18fa47ced0b7bc9b.pdf
ER  -