语文学刊・外语教育教学 2014年第1期 A Comparative Study of Gender Bias in Chinese and English Proverbs o Li Qian Lu Zhihong Wang Yanfei ( Unwe ̄ity ofPosts and Telecommunication,Bering,100876) [Abstract]Proverbs reflect people’s values and social system and gender bias towards women must reflcte in pro- verbs.Thus it is representative and persuasive to explore gender bis ian proverbs.The thesis has explained and analyzed the phenomena throngh tt comparative study of the Chinese and English proverbs from three aspects:socil staatus,mar- riage。speech and behavior.These ̄mples show wonlen’s bias images:humble,stupid,evil,talkative,and frail.The thesis analyzed the caIlses of gender bis farom two aspects:historical and cultural factors,socil rolae.It aims to expose gender bias in language,enhance people’s awareness and understand the relationship between lnguage aand society wel1. [Key words] gender bias,Chinese proverbs,English proverbs [中图分类号]H313 I.Introduction [文献标识码]A 【文章编号]1672 ̄610(2014)01-0021-04 0f all things on earth and the dominator ofthe world.From that. 1.1 Topics and pu .oses he co矗cluded that women are inferior to men.and all the ine— Gender diference is a basic character of human society. Human are the users and creators of language.so gender difer- qualiits ein alnguages are absolutelyjust. To early 1970s,research into language and gender hesln in a systematic or serious way.During that period,one ofthe most influential scholars is Robin Lakoff.She dealt witlI te ihssue of ence reflctes all kinds of aspects during the process of cremig nnd uasing language.Actually,human’s language contmns com— plex gender awareness which tun8 through the whde process of he develtopment of human language.The study of gender and language is a popular issue in linguistics.According to their em・ phasis,these linguists are divided into two groups:one stresses he speech ditference between men and women and aware that language and gender,both in terms of gender bias in language nd ian tenets of diferences betwen the speech of men and women.Her book,Language and Women’s P/ace,has essentil aimpact on he tsystemaitc sudy tof gender nd alanguage nd aplays 肌important role in the struggle against gender bis ian the Eng- men’s and women’s ways of speech are diferent;the other thinks that people’s ways of talkig aboutn men and women are diferent and that women aIe discriminated in language.Lan— uage igs a mirror which reflctes socil cuastoms and values.As essence of language,proverbs contain the condensed culture. ilsh society.In the 1980s,feminism activated fuYther research on gender bis in language.Dale Spender,a faeminist,claimed that ErI sh language is biased approving of the male and opposig nhe fematle.She spoke oflanguage as beig眦n—made.n Since the late 1980s,many linguists have made a further hus iTt is representative and persuasive to explore gender bis ian proverbs.As a female,writig tnhe thesis that emphasizes the study on te gender bihas in language.Jenny Cheshire has a de— tailed descriptionandanalysis ofthe genderlanguageandthe so- cial and cultural factors of it.Research on gender bias in lan- study of gender—-biasd ephenomena in Chinese nd EnOiash lan- uagge in women’s view. uaggc relates to many subjects such as psychology,culturla stud- ies,and sociology,etc.. 2.Gender—language studies in Chinese In China,people began to be aware of gender bis ian the Chinese language quite late.For example,it was the first time 1.2 A review on studies of gender bis ian language 1.Gender—lngauage studies in English Language and gender is a popularissue in the area of socio- ilnguisitcs,a young subject in het linguisitc field,which did not come into beig nuntil the end ofthe 1960s.Actually,people had shown concenl for language and gender long before sociolinguis— granting to woman an independent identiy in languatge since the Chinese character(她)was then invented by Liu Bannong in 1918.However,serious and systematic studies on gender bias in  ̄hinese language have only been found in recent years. tics appeared as a diciplsine.In the eighteenth century. relsh ilnguist Rowland Jones claimed in public that the key to the rays・ tery oflanguage is the Old Testament from the B/b/e which says tllat man is the first treature that God created.Man js the sonrce Shi Yuhui’s A Sociolinguistic Study of Gender Diference in the Chinese Language is considered as the earliest work ever done [作者简介]李茜,女,内蒙古呼和浩特人,北京邮电大学人文学院硕士研究生,研究方向:外国语言学及应用语言学; 卢志鸿,女,北京邮电大学人文学院教授; 王燕斐,北京邮电大学人文学院硕士研究生,研究方向:外国语言学及应用语言学。 一2l一 LANGUAGE Li Qian Lu Zhihong Wang Yanfei/A Comparative Study of Gender Bias in Chinese and English Proverbs on the language and gender issue in the standard Chinese.In her cook and so on which are arranged by the male—dominated soci. article,she analyses various forms of gender differentiation eom— prehensively in the Chinese language including the derogatory terms for women in proverbs.She chims that the writing system ety.In the old days,women had no right to keep houses,such s天字当头夫做主;Iafthe husband be not at home,terhe is no. body.,I'}Ie only fight that women had was doing housework.It is hus clear tthat the status of females is very insigniicant.In tfhe is a signiifcant part of linguistic encoding of gender bias in the Chinese language.At last,she comes to a conclusion that the gender bias in the Chinese lngauage have close relationship wih tBibh,women are made from the rib of men,which means that women belong to men as their attachments.Women are iust men’s propertylike clothes,furniture,horses and are oftentrea. the patriarchal bias in the Chinese culture,and it will continue to exist until women gain an equal status w men in society. td ebadly,such s娶到的妻,a买到的马,任人骑来任人打.z B/b/e also says that man was£lle ifrst creature that God made and hey werte the source of all things on earth and the master of the Ⅱ.‘I11e Gender—biased Phenomena in Chinese and English Proverbs If language is a mirror that reflects socil laife.proverbs are world.It is thus obvious that God made men the fistr place when he creatd tehem. Chinese Confucian ideology is also a philosophy of male power.Three Obedience and Four Virtues comply with requie— rentms of male domination and the idea that men眦superior to the ilving fossils oflanguage.In ShuoWenJieZi(《说文解字》), Xu Shen mentioned that proverbs were passed down generation to generation.An English writer,Pain also said hat tthe wisdom of a nation lies in their proverbs.Proverbs]3G: ̄x)me an encyclopedia which helps people to understand llfe,explore the world outlook nd ianspire people.Succinctness.1iveliness and implication aI he maitn characters of proverbs.As a specil faorm of language, proverbs reflct such gender—biesed phenomena:men are supe-a women into social value system firmly.Thus wonlcn are always einbg discriinatmed. 2.2 Women’s marrige aMariarge is one aspect ofculture.As the product ofcultural irortowomen;women are subordinatetomen;menwork outside while women are in charge of housework;men are stronger than concepts,proverbs must be with the necessary brand of history. Both in the past and at present,marriage status does mean more to women than to men because to some extent。marriage deter- ines how welml a woman could live.The proverbs in this section reflct deep—roeotd tehought that wives belong to husband and he tendency to commerteilize women ian the marrige in botah women.TheseChinese proverbs show strongdiscrimination dero- gationtofemales. n botIh Chinese and English proverbs.females aI℃men- itoned in the sanle breath with animals,gossip,articles food and scourge,while males are described as power,spiit,moralitry nd staatus,etc..Itis easyforusto seethe discriinatemdimages f owomen.Women are labeled as“idle chatterbox”.“weak or frail”,“without wisdom”,“capricious”and evil. 2.1 Women’s socil staatus Many proverbs in Chinese and English are put on a coat of Chinese and English. Chinese proverbs: 1.男当下配,女望高门。 2.骏马常驮蠢汉走,巧妻偏伴拙夫眠。 3.呆郎娶巧妻,美男得丑妻。 4.大家闺女小家妻。 5.丑是家中宝,可喜惹烦恼。 6.一女不吃两家茶。 English proverbs: male chauvinism.Women have been inferior to men for a very long time.And they have always been the images of being op— pressed.bullied and belittled:women are men’s coats which can be worn and thrown away feelry;women are also the animals 1.Daughters and dead ifsh are not keeping wares. 2.Marry your son when you will,your daughter when you which can be hit and abused;women are considered as the at- tachmentandpropertyofmen.Itis obviousthatmendominate o. ver women and occupy domination in society. The following are some famous proverbs reflcteing women’s status in English and Chinese. Chinese proverbs: 3. ere the needle goes.the thread follows. 4.A woman of no birth mav marry into the purple. 5.A daughter marrid ies like water spild.e 6.Every groom is a king at home. Proverbs reflect culrural concepts that have rooted in peo- 1.三朝媳妇,月里孩儿。 2.骒马上不了阵。 3.打老婆,骂老婆,手内无钱卖老婆。 ple’s ind mfor thousand of years.For example,女大不中留,留 来留去结冤仇;丑是家中宝,可喜惹烦恼.These proverbs ex- pose tlle remained feudalism of traditional Chinese culture.Be. 4.菜刀不磨成死铁,女人不打成妖孽。 5.娶到的妻,买到的马,任人骑来任人打。 English proverbs: 1.A good w and health is a man’s best wealth. 2.A man is a man though he has but a hose on his head. 3.A g0od husband makes a good wife. sides,men can emarrry and that is houghtt to be rihtg and prop— er.However.ifwomen remarry.they wiII be loked at with dif- ferent eyes and blamed.A woman who took a risk in remarrying was considered as secondhand,remarried woman and so on. TheY were belitlted.despised and disgusted.“Brilliant scholar 4.A vi ̄uous woman is a crown to her husband. nd abeautiflwomaun are goodmatch”(才华横溢的学者和美丽 的女人是很好的匹配).“Old husband and young wife are go0d match”(年纪大的丈夫和年轻的妻子很相配).These two types of marriage were thought to be perfect in old times.Thus good looks determine how much a woman worth is.In some sense.these women were subordinate to their husbands,as their 5.A whistling maid and a crowing hen is fit for neither God normen. These proverbs which are full of strong male chauvinism re— Sect women’s oppressed and bullied status during some speciifc period.Traditionally,unmarried females have to learn to sew, 一22一 语文学刊・外语教育教学 positions and careers took precedence in their relationship.So it is obdous that women’s status in marriage is inferior to men. 2.3 Women’s speech and behavior Verbal communication is the common behavior among peo- pie and verbal status should be equa1.But when we refer to women’s verbal behavior,it is widely considered as gossip, prattling and big mouth.Besides,when we describe one person who is loquacious,we will say him in Chinese“婆婆妈妈”. Women talk too much and misfortunes occurs out of the mouth of a talkative woman.Sometimes,they make themselves into trou— ble unconsciously.But there is not much limit for men’s verbal behavior.田Ie following proverbs reflect such opinions. Chinese proverbs: 1.女人舌头上没有骨头。 2.一个姑娘小喘气,十个姑娘一台戏。 3.三姑六婆,争少嫌多。 4.两个婆娘一面锣,三个婆娘一台戏。 5.男子饶舌一日,女子饶舌一年。 6.婆婆嘴碎,媳妇耳歪。 7.妇人口大舌长,男人家败身亡。 8.女人的舌头像把剑。她是不会让它生锈的。 9.妇有长舌,唯厉之阶。乱匪降自无,生自妇女。 1O.雷鸣多的云不下雨。说话多的姑娘嫁不出。 English proverbs: 1.Long—tongued wives go long tll bairn. 2.Silence is a woman’s best garment. 3.A woman conceals what he knows not. 4.Gossips are fmgs,they driIlk and talk. 5.He that tells his wife news is but newly married. 6.It is merry when gossips meet. 7.Women get the last word in every argument. 8.A woman has never spoiled any bad tlIiIlg through si- lenee. 9.It is a good home that never stumbles and a good wife .htat never grumbles. 10.The only secret a woman can keep is that of her age. hTese proverbs are all the extreme thoughts that women are stupid,short—sighted and narrow—minded.Though sometimes htey express their thoughm or views.they are only women’s ad- ivces.such as A啪,,啪’s advi ̄is, r to seek.Men drive women away from mental labor and knowledge field and they would rather bear women’s ignorance than bear women’s intelli— gence・ Ⅲ.Causes of Gender Bias in Chinese and Engnsh Proverbs 3.1 Historical and cultural factors Gender bias shows in the form of lnaguage and originate from society and culture.Thus cultural factor is an important cause of gender bias in language. In ancient China,women were fettered by the feudal eti. quette seriously and always in a lower posiiton.Thus Chinese lnaguage was influenced deeply by the feudal ideology.Men’s absolute domination to women is the basic law in society.In the old days,Confucina ideology was the dominating culture.Confu— eian Yin—Yang cosmology advocates taht the Yin represents the feminine and the Yang represents the masculine;the Yin is hum- ble and the Yang is noble.The Confucian ideology is Yang——— 2014年第1期 oriented by nature,and diferentiates men and women through a base opposition.Two thousand of years ago,Confucisu said, “Women and petty people are hard to get along with.”He put women and petty people in the sanle position.In the oldest book fo odes(《诗经》),it recorded such sentences:If a boy is ebrne,he will sleep in bed,wear beautiful clothes and play the jade article;ifa西disberne,shewill sleep onthe gronud,wear coarse clothes and play the tiles.A general treaty for women’s words and behavior was the Three Obediences and the Four Vir. tues in Song Dynasty.nIe Three Obediences were that a woman should obey her father before her marrigae,her husband durign marirage and her son in iwdowhood(在家从父,出嫁从夫,夫 死从子).And the Four Vitrues were that a woman should be loyal to her husband,proper in speech,physically charming and efficient in needlework.Women’s loyalty is to keep,moral integ- riyt;women’s proper in speech requires women to talk politely and modestly and never to say vulgar words;women’s physical charm requires women to be elegant to please their husbands; women’s effieient in needlework refers that women should learn to weave,to sew。to embroider and so on"to show tlleir clever nad skil眦 tlltheir hands.Womenwerefixedunderthe domi- nation of men through the Three Obediences and the Four Vir- tues.They had no position in family and had to obey their hus— bands totally. The feudal rule in ancient China relide on the n'min culture ——Confucina culture.Moreover,Confucisu andMenciusadvoca- ted the Confucianideology sothatitbecame systematicinthe de- velopment fo ihstory.Dong Zhongshu(董仲舒)inheritde Con— fueina ideology and advanced in ihs book,the Exuberant Dew of teh Swing and Autumn(《春秋繁露》)the doctrine fothe htree cardinal guides,taht is:Monarch guides minister;father guides esn;husband guides wife.From that we can see that a wife’s loyalty is the same with a minister’s fealty to his monarch and a son’s filila obedience to his father being the requierments of the ruling clsas.In the old days,husband had hte irhgt to terminate a marriage while a wife could not.These examples all show that women are discriimnated,bullide and belittled in society.And htese cultural factors cause the gender bisa in language. In western countrise,reliigon is an importnat part fowestern cluture.Women’s images in erilgious mythologies can help us to nuderstnad the gender—biased phenomena wel1.Linguist often mentionedtheilfnuenceofBiblewhentheytracethe cultrualfac— tors of gender bias because Bible plays a decisive role in western culture.According to Bible,man canle to the world fisrt while woman made from one of man’s rib was created just sa a help to men.The Bible said.“So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upontheman,and he slept;then hetook oneofhisribs and closed up its place w1‘th lfesh.And the rib that the Lord God had taken from tlle man he made into a woman nad brought herto tlle man.Then the man said.‘This at last is borne ofmy bones and lfesh of my flesh;this one shall be called woman,because she was taken out of marI’.”Thus men are the dominat0rs of t壬le wodd.women are oIllv men’s derivatives and anachIIIents. In a w0rd,tbe tradi£jonal ide0】o and I on in Cl1ina and westem countries have unc10ubtedly caused the gender bias in English arId Cl1inese. 3.2 Socia】l es flactors 一23— LANGUAGE Li Qian Lu Zhihong Wang Yanfei/A Comparative Study of Gender Bias in Chinese and English Proverbs Fleminists assert that we now llve in society which is domi. nated by men and women serve for men.Men usually are consid. sciously and form the concept that men are superior to women which reflects in the form oflanguage.This further influences the concept of gender bias towards women. ered to be perfect while women are incomplete.It is just because ofthe different social roles that cause women’s inferior status. Women’s unequal status in society forms the gender bias in Inn- guage and this gender bias has deeply historical roots. IV.Conclusion A new proverb“妇女能顶半边天”shows us women’s new images——being great v8lue to society.The establishment of women’s new images indicates that women’s status has been im. proved and there have been great advances in society.Thus,as Human society experienced two stages of development in early phase,that is matrilineal society and patrilineal society.In ma ̄lineM society,because of the bad natural environment,ex- istenee is an important part in human life.To exist,people did the further progress of society and improvement of women’s sta- tus,more and more new images of women’s will be set up and reflect in language.Meanwhile,the old words which reflect all kinds of manual labor.At that time,men and women had the fixed labor division:men mainly conducted hunting,fishing, building and so on and although they took risks,they often got nothing;women mainly fanned,raised animals,made clothes, gave birth to children and so on,they had steady income and be— cause ofwomen’s dominant status in social and economic life, hey werte superiorto men.But.because ofthe dificulites in exo istential envionrment and the backward mode of production in primiitve commune,physical power b ̄._.anle the method ofliving gaainst nature.In physiology,men’s strong physical power sui— women’s bad images will be eliminated.Gender—bised phe—a nomena in language wil be improved gradually.Women’s status illw be equal as men’s. 【References】 [1]Hudson.Sociolinguistics[M].外语教学与研究出版社, 2000. ted farm more.With the development of social productive force, primitive commune passed from matrilineal society to patriilneal society gradually.Women needed much time and energy to raise children and do housework.So。men’s work changed from fish- ing and huntingtofarmingand raisinganimalsandmen gradually [2]Jenny Chesirhe.1993.Stil a Gender—biased Language? [J].English Today,24(1). [3]Nilsem,A.P.S ̄ ̄sm in English[EB/OL].http//facul- yetd.umue.2007—8—17. [4]w叭lllaugh,R.An Introduction to Sociolingistnies[M].外 语教学与研究出版社,2000. [5]H由Bible[M].中国教三自爱国运动委员会和中国 教协会,2000. ecame the maibn wor ̄oree and undertok mo social responsi— bilities than women.As time passes,men became more and more important in social economic life and got tlle right of domi- nation.Women becamethe subordinateandwere dominatd.Af-e ter entering patrilineal society,inequality in gender was systema- tized:men are superiortowomen;women are subordinatetome; [6]Maclysaght,Edward.1998.The Deifniitve Book of Iirsh Family Names[M].Oxford Universiyt Press. [7]Spender D.1985.Man Made language(2th ed.)【M]. London:Routledge and Kegan Pau. men work outside while women ordinarily stay at home. These historical evolutions inevitably reflect in language. [8]1.akoff Robin.1975.Language and Women’s Place[M]. New York:Haper&Row Publishers. The Chinese characters“男”and“女”reflect the diference in sciol aolrs end asocila satust in style fwroiitg.“男”ins made up with“田”and“力”which mensa workig nin farmland.Wllile [9]谢欣希.英语中的性别歧视现象及其根源[J].湖北经济 学院学报,2o ̄o(5). [1O]郭敏.英汉谚语中的文化差异及其翻译[D].西南大 学,2008. “女”,in sytle of wriitng in inscriptions on bones loks like a man kneeling on the ground.Thus we call see that women have een dominatbed in Shang Dynasty.In English,breadwinner par- ticularlyreferstoman;housewife particularlyreferstothewoman who attends to her husband,does housework and raises children. [11]荣楠楠 英汉谚语中的性别歧视[D].黑龙江大学, 2007. [12]陈明华.英文谚语精选[M].科学出版社,2007. [13]李玮.常用英文谚语[M].华东理工大学出版社,2007. Men represent power,status,dominance and so on;women re— present coquetry,emotionality,frailty,inconsistency and so on. [14]任耕耘.新编谚语[M].安徽出版集团,2007. [15]王福祯.英语谚语荟萃[M].中国国际广播出版社, 2007. Thus we can see that just because of diferent socila olres,men radualgly dominate he sotciety and women become men’s attach- ments.In the development of language,men explin aand stand- ardize language,fuse male chauvinism into lngauage macon- [163王风华.社会性别文化的历史与未来【M].中国社会科 学出版社,2006.・ [17]许慎.说文解字[M].中国戏剧出版社,2010. 汉英谚语中性别偏见的对比研究 李茜卢志鸿王燕斐 100876) (北京邮电大学人文学院,北京[摘 要] 谚语反映了社会体系以及人们的价值观念,社会中包含着对女性的偏见.必然会在谚语中体现出 来。所以,从谚语中探索性别歧视更具代表性和说服力。本文采用对比方法,分别从女性的社会地位、婚嫁、言行 三个方面对汉英谚语中的性别歧视进行阐述。这些例证体现了女性的负面形象:卑微、唠叨、愚昧、柔弱、。本 文还从历史文化因素和社会角色因素两个方面进行分析。目的是通过对谚语的分析以揭示语言中的性另q偏见现 象,从而提高人们对这一歧视现象的认识,更好地理解语言与社会的关系。 [关键词] 性别偏见; 汉语谚语; 英语谚语 一24—