The representation of women in English and Russian paroemiological pictures of the world

Abstract

© 2016 Shaimardanova et al.The article touches upon culturological study of concepts which is connected with the analysis of texts (proverbs) where these concepts are fixed and verbalized as a reflection of national culture and consciousness. The objects of the research are English and Russian proverbs and sayings which reflect the gender stereotypes of the compared ethnic groups. During the analysis of the factual material the authors try to identify the model of the female image represented in English and Russian gendermarked proverbs. The article reveals the semantic groups characterizing the portrait of a woman/wife: inner world, behavior, husband (man) - wife (woman) relationships, appearance, age, well-being, generally accepted rules; it turns out that in the both paroemiological pictures of the world a woman / wife has a lower social status than a man. The article proves the existence of an explicit andocentric phenomenon (the reflection of male perspective) that causes negative perception of the female image in English and Russian gender-marked paroemiological units.