Animal Fixed Expressions in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese: Gender Differences
| Autor: | Gui-li Sun, 孫桂里 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 97 Various languages may imply semantic derogation toward different genders. Animal fixed expressions describing people reveal gender biases with metaphors. This study aims to investigate metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese animal fixed expressions, and further uncover semantic derogation in them by means of Lakoff and Turner’s (1989) Great Chain of Being Metaphor (Lakoff and Turner, 1989), theories of semantic derogation (Schulz, 1975; Pauwels, 2003; Wareing, 2004) and central mappings (Ruiz de Mendoza, 1998; K�屴ecses, 2002). Chinese data in this study mainly came from Hsieh’s (2006) corpus, while Taiwanese ones were classified from online and published dictionaries (Chiu & Chen, 2002; Chen, 1997; Zhuang, 1993). The result shows that (1) animal attributes indicated in these two languages are about characteristics, appearances, intelligence, eating habits, and sounds. The last feature is a significant one in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese that rarely considered in other languages. (2) Animal species describing males and females in both languages are different. For example, men are usually compared to four-legged animals, whereas women are described as smaller birds or insects with wings. (3) It is also noteworthy that human relations and body parts are frequently collocated in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese animal fixed expressions. When body parts are collocated with animal terms, many-correspondence mappings are applied. (4) Divine animals like dragons and phoenixes are believed superior to humans; therefore, the hierarchy of the Great Chain in both languages has to be modified. Divine animals should be added above the level of humans and below that of god. In this sense, when humans are compared to divine animals, the implications are usually positive. (5) Most important of all, though both genders may be abused when compared to animals, more negative animal fixed expressions toward females were found. Also, semantic derogation is demonstrated in different ways in these languages. In Mandarin Chinese, gender bias is presented by different animal species, while the suffixes po5 婆 ‘female’ and bo2 母 ‘female’ are frequently attached so as to indicate the mark form in Taiwanese though the animal species mentioning males and females differ sometimes. Therefore, semantic derogation was found in both languages, which can be understood as physical differences and part of Chinese traditional discipline. Men are considered as the head of a family and stronger figures traditionally, so animals mapped into the metaphors with different genders diverge. Similarly, the expressions were created according to males as well since males are unmarked to Chinese people. The semantic derogation in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese animal fixed expressions is culturally affected. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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