Expressing Gender Opposition in Kazakh Proverbs Through Metaphor

Despite the growing interest in gender differences reflected in proverbs, little attention has been paid to binary oppositions in the proverbial discourse. The paper aims to explore metaphorical gender representations in Kazakh proverbs. It focuses on how the gender oppositions in proverbs reflect the socio-cultural perceptions of gender relations in the Kazakh culture, and what new information about gender can be gained from the study of gender oppositions in proverbs. The research material was drawn from the dictionary The Ancestors' Words by purposive sampling. The study used a qualitative research design and focused on proverbs based on binary gender oppositions involving man- and woman-specific social actors. The cognitive representations of gender oppositions were examined using the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. As a result, proverbs containing binary gender oppositions are shown to reflect a typical patriarchal worldview based on the image of a man as a provider for the family, warrior and defender possessing physical strength and higher social status, and the image of a woman as a guardian of the family hearth having a subordinate status. At the same time, they reveal the complementarity of the metaphorically expressed male and female binary oppositions. Thus, gender metaphors placed in opposition in proverbs highlight the multifacetedness of gender relations in the Kazakh family and society and the inseparability and importance of both genders in the family union. The paper suggests a fresh line of investigation into the metaphorical meaning of proverbs based on binary oppositions

Kazakh · Linguistics · Metaphor · Political science · Politics · Cultural and Sociopolitical Studies · Education, Innovation and Language Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Turkish Literature and Culture

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