Image of a Woman in Chineese and Russian Paroemiae

Abstract

Paremiological comparative studies are a relevant area of modern linguistics, since the corpus of paroemiae of a particular language reflects the peculiarities of the worldview of an ethnos, its value guidelines, established social connections, prohibitions, priorities, and traditions. In this regard, it seems interesting to compare the language signs and the meanings behind them, which coincide in two different Chinese and Russian linguistic cultures. The similarity that underlies our comparison is due to universal human values, the foundations of traditional society and the biological nature of family relationships. The result of the study was the recording of eleven coinciding meanings of paroemiae about a woman: daughter as a beloved female child; daughter as an extra mouth in the family; daughter as a potential member of another family; daughter as a family member opposed to daughter-in-law; qualitative description of a bad wife; qualitative description of a good wife; wife-partner; tradition of wife beating; mother as the basis for the life and upbringing of a child; mother as a bearer of love; opposition of mother and stepmother. The study can be continued by identifying and describing means of expressing these meanings in Chinese and Russian paroemiae about a woman. A separate aspect of the comparative analysis can be identification of divergent meanings in paroemiae about women, which we understand as a fixation of gender norms of traditional society.

Keywords

• paremiological picture of the world
• paroemia
• chinese language
• russian language