Commodification of women through conceptual metaphors
the metaphor woman as a car in the western Balkans
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22009Keywords:
conceptual metaphor, woman, car, BCMSAbstract
Commodification of women in a society can be reflected in its language and its conceptual metaphors. Thus, conceptualising women as possessions in the western Balkans has engendered the conceptual metaphor WOMAN IS A CAR, which the present research has shown to be widely-spread and commonly used among the speakers of BCMS (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian). The study has been carried out on excerpts from online discourse, mostly fora and readers’ comments on news portals, whereby the authors have extrapolated the extensions (i.e. the submetaphors of the most general metaphor studied – WOMAN IS A CAR). Bearing in mind that conceptual metaphors form mental frames in the minds of individuals which are difficult to dispel and which operate at subconscious levels, the implication is that the significant presence of the metaphor WOMAN IS A CAR in BCMS suggests that its speakers see women as objects to be disposed of by their owners (men); that is, that women continue to occupy a lower position in the societies of the western Balkans. Metaphors such as this one support and perpetuate such social relationships, which is why it is of great significance to uncover their underlying discourse mechanisms.
References
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Pasma, T. (2011) Metaphor and Register Variation: The Personalization of Dutch News Discourse. Oisterwijk: BOXpress.
Pragglejaz Group (2007) A practical and flexible method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22(1): 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752
Rajkovi?-Ristivojevi?, N. (2008) Zoonymic metaphors about men and women. Philologia 6: 45–52.
Schmitt, R. (2005) Systematic metaphor analysis as a method of qualitative research. The Qualitative Report 10(2): 358–94.
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Shinohara, K., Morizumi, F., Takada, M. and Kim, Y.-T. (2005) Socio-culturally motivated resemblance metaphor: an analysis of sexual metaphors in Korean and Japanese. In Metaphor, Cognition and Culture: Selected Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Researching and Applying Metaphor (RAAM IV) 187–207. Manouba: University of Manouba.
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Sutton, L. A. (1995) Bitches and skankly hobags: the place of women in contemporary slang. In K. Hall and M. Bucholtz (eds) Gender articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self 279–96. New York: Routledge.
Takada, M., Shinohara, K., Morizumi, F. and Sato, M. (2000) A study of metaphorical mapping involving socio-cultural values: how woman is conceptualized in Japanese. In 14th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation: Proceedings 301–12. Tokyo: Waseda University.
Tsang, S. (2009) Metaphor, culture and conceptual systems: a case study of sex metaphors in a Hong Kong Chinese newspaper. LCOM Papers 2: 1–16.
Wipf, B. (2010) Wine Writing Meets MIPVU: Linguistic Metaphor. Amsterdam: VU University.
Baider, F. H. and Gesuato, S. (2003) Masculinist metaphors, feminist research. Metaphorik 5: 6–35. Retrieved on 20 August 2013 from http://metaphorik.de/05/baidergesuato.pdf.
Billow, R. M. (1977) Metaphor: a review of the psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin 84(1): 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.84.1.81
Blagojevi?, M. (2004) Položaj žena u zemljama Balkana: komparativni pregled. Belgrade: Gender Centar Vlade RS.
Charteris-Black, J. (2005) Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501706
Domínguez, P. J. C. and Zawislawska, M. (2006) Animal names used as insults and derogation in Polish and Spanish. Philologia hispalensis 20: 137–74.
Dorst, A. G. (2011) Metaphor in fiction: Language, Thought and Communication. Oisterwijk: BOXpress.
Goatly, A. (2007) Washing the Brain, Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.23
Gutiérrez-Rivas, C. (2011) Women as food in Hispanic cultural metaphors. MP: An Online Feminist Journal 3: 6–20.
Hanks, P. (2006) Metaphoricity is gradable. Trends in Linguistic Studies and Monographs 17: 17–35.
Hegstrom, J. L. and McCarl-Nielsen, J. (2002) Gender and metaphor: descriptions of familiar persons. Discourse Processes 33(3): 219–34. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326950DP3303_2
Herrmann, J. B. (2013) Metaphor in Academic Discourse: Linguistic Forms, Conceptual Structures, Communicative Functions and Cognitive Representations. Dissertation Series 333. Utrecht: LOT.
Hines, C. (1999) Foxy chicks and Playboy bunnies: a case study in metaphorical lexicalization. In M. K. Hiraga, C. Sinha and S. Wilcox (eds) Cultural, Typological and Psychological Perspectives on Cognitive Linguistics 9–23. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.152.04hin
Hiraga, M. (1991) Metaphors Japanese women live by. Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism 1(1): 38–57.
Kie?tyka, R. (2005) Zoosemic terms denoting female human beings: semantic derogation of women revisited. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 41: 167–86.
Kimmel, M. (2004) Metaphor variation in cultural context: Perspectives from anthropology. European Journal of English Studies 8(3): 275–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/1382557042000277395
Kittay, E. F. (1988) Woman as metaphor. Hypatia 3(2): 63–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1988.tb00069.x
Kövecses, Z. (2006) Metaphor and ideology in slang: the case of woman and man. Revue d’Études Françaises 11: 151–66.
Kövecses, Z. (2010) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, R. (1973) Language and woman’s place. Language in Society 2(1): 45–80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500000051
Lakoff, G. (1993) The contemporary theory of metaphor. Metaphor and Thought 2: 202–51. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173865.013
Lakoff, G. (2003) Metaphor and war, again. Retrieved on 27 January 2010 from www.alternet.org/story/15414/?page=entire.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
López Rodríguez, I. (2009) Of women, bitches, chickens and vixens: animal metaphors for women in English and Spanish Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación/Culture, Language and Representation 7(7): 77–100.
Maalej, Z. (2001) Of animals, foods, objects, plants and others, or, how women are conceptualised and evaluated: a cross-cultural perspective. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Researching And Applying Metaphor (RAAM IV), University of Manouba, Manouba.
Matica srpska i Matica hrvatska (1967) Rje?nik srpskohrvatskoga književnog jezika. Novi Sad: Matica srpska i Matica hrvatska.
Mili?, G. (2013) Pristup zoosemiji unutar teorije konceptualne metafore i metonimije. Jezikoslovlje 14(1): 197–213.
Montashery, I. (2013) Figurative construction of gender through metaphor and metonymy. Advances in English Linguistics 2(1): 105–9.
Mühlhäusler, P. (2012) Prologue. In A. Idström and E. Piirainen (eds) Endangered Metaphors 2: 1–14. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pasma, T. (2011) Metaphor and Register Variation: The Personalization of Dutch News Discourse. Oisterwijk: BOXpress.
Pragglejaz Group (2007) A practical and flexible method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22(1): 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752
Rajkovi?-Ristivojevi?, N. (2008) Zoonymic metaphors about men and women. Philologia 6: 45–52.
Schmitt, R. (2005) Systematic metaphor analysis as a method of qualitative research. The Qualitative Report 10(2): 358–94.
Sharp, L. A. (2000) The commodification of the body and its parts. Annual Review of Anthropology 2000: 287–328. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.287
Shinohara, K., Morizumi, F., Takada, M. and Kim, Y.-T. (2005) Socio-culturally motivated resemblance metaphor: an analysis of sexual metaphors in Korean and Japanese. In Metaphor, Cognition and Culture: Selected Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Researching and Applying Metaphor (RAAM IV) 187–207. Manouba: University of Manouba.
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A., Krennmayr, T. and Pasma, T. (2010) A Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.14
Sutton, L. A. (1995) Bitches and skankly hobags: the place of women in contemporary slang. In K. Hall and M. Bucholtz (eds) Gender articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self 279–96. New York: Routledge.
Takada, M., Shinohara, K., Morizumi, F. and Sato, M. (2000) A study of metaphorical mapping involving socio-cultural values: how woman is conceptualized in Japanese. In 14th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation: Proceedings 301–12. Tokyo: Waseda University.
Tsang, S. (2009) Metaphor, culture and conceptual systems: a case study of sex metaphors in a Hong Kong Chinese newspaper. LCOM Papers 2: 1–16.
Wipf, B. (2010) Wine Writing Meets MIPVU: Linguistic Metaphor. Amsterdam: VU University.
Published
2017-03-28
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Bratić, V., & Vukovic, M. (2017). Commodification of women through conceptual metaphors: the metaphor woman as a car in the western Balkans. Gender and Language, 11(1), 51-76. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22009
