隐喻视角下的英语语言性别歧视

A Study of Sexism in English Language from the Perspective of Metaphor

认知语言学认为,隐喻在本质上是人类思维和认知的一种方式。它普遍存在于各种语言中,并且与社会文化紧密相关。因此,作为西方国家一种由来已久的社会现象,性别歧视不可避免地会反映在隐喻的使用上。通过分析英语中大量的动物隐喻、植物隐喻以及食物隐喻,不难看出:虽然隐喻具有认知普遍性,但它也具有文化相对性,与特定社会文化中最基本的思想观念相一致;这些隐喻的例子都清楚地表明西方社会存在着较严重的贬低、轻视女性的现象。

Cognitive linguists argue that metaphor is, in essence, a way of thought and cognition. Metaphor is omnipresent in languages and closely related to society and culture. Sexism, as a longstanding social phenomenon in western countries, is thus inevitably reflected in the use of metaphors. Through the analysis of a large number of animal metaphors, plant metaphors and food metaphors in English, this paper argues that although metaphor is characterized by cognitive universality, it carries the feature of cultural relativity and accords with basic concepts in a specific cultural context. Besides, all these metaphorical expressions clearly show that there exists in western society a serious phenomenon of disparaging and belittling women.