METAPHORISATION OF WOMEN IN YORUBA PROVERBS: A FEMINIST CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Studies on conceptual metaphors in gender-based proverbial discourses have gained much scholarly attention in linguistic studies. In spite of this, conceptual metaphorisations in gendered Yoruba proverbs still remain under-researched. This study seeks to fill the gap by exploring conceptual metaphorisations in gender-based Yoruba proverbs using linguistic frameworks. The data comprise 100 Yoruba proverbs on women. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis guide the analysis. The data analysis reveals that, four (4) conceptual metaphors structure women in the select proverbs: Women Are Weaklings; Women Are Evil; Women Are Whores; and, Women Are Procreants. The first three conceptual metaphors generically give women a “downward orientation”. The fourth assumedly underlines an “upward orientation”, which implicitly entails a down orientation. The downward image schema of these four metaphors indicates that, among the Yoruba, women are profiled negatively. This profiling reveals that the Yoruba’s ideological gender structure advances a hierarchical order in which women are subordinated to men. Article visualizations: