Analysis of the female image in Chinese Proverbs: A Cognitive Study

Abstract

The present work aims to highlight the female image in the Chinese proverbs, from the cognitive perspective based on the theory of metaphor and metonymy of Lakoff and Johnson (1986), based on a corpus of more than two hundred examples analyzed, assessing their physical appearance, vices and virtues, status and family life, which the cultural world has created around them. The resultsof the study allow the following conclusions: 1) exist great discrimination against women in proverbs,most of them are based on the rural and agricultural environment of centuries 2) patriarchal andandrocentric ideology permeates the proverb through metaphorical and metonymic elaboration 3) theemergence and decline of these proverb have justified the evolution of mentalities and the change ofthe social framework.