水漾女人、動物男人、與隱喻：性別與年齡交互影響之性別隱喻研究

Abstract

本論文旨在探討性別隱喻在中文裡字典和透過問卷的呈現， 並加入性別和年齡兩個因素，試圖闡述不同年齡和不同性別對性別隱喻使用有何不同的觀點，進而彰顯性別隱喻如何影響我們對兩性的看法，及兩性權力在社會變遷之下對兩性隱喻的表達會如何改變。

隱喻不僅為人類思考及認知的重要機制，也為特定較有權力的群體對其他群體表達其價值判斷的工具。無論中西方，男性幾乎較女性有權力並主宰語言的創造，性別隱喻研究因此成為一個揭露以男性為主的社會投射對兩性看法的途徑。然而，此類研究多以歐美語言為主，對中文的性別隱喻研究鮮少著墨。此外，以往研究多以字典做為語料庫，反應的雖為此語言背後的文化價值，卻無法窺探性別隱喻在社會變化後的差異。有鑑於此，本篇論文不僅以教育部重編國語辭典為語料庫，並以問卷訪問不同年齡層和不同性別的中文母語者， 探討既定成俗(conventional)的隱喻會如何影響當今的語言使用者，並指出性別和年齡會如何對兩性隱喻產生不同的觀點。 研究結果發現，在以字典為語料庫的性別隱喻充滿了不對稱的現象和以男性為主的價值投射。描述女人的隱喻有女人是植物、女人是動物、女人是物質、女人是食物和女人是物品，然而描述男人所使用的來源域只有前三個。 描述女人時，最多使用的為女人是植物，強調的面向多以年齡，美貌，忠貞，同時也反應男性身為行為者的視角。而在描述男性上面最顯著的隱喻是男人是動物，只強調男人強壯高大的身體特徵。 問卷以三個層次來分析：來源域(Source domain)的類別、種類和目標域(Target domain)的特徵。結果顯示，除了既有的性別隱喻之外，還多出了其他八類新的(novel)來源域，也從原本不對稱的結構轉為較為對稱。其中原本有既定描述特定性別的隱喻時，使用這些隱喻來描述該性別的比例會比用來描述另一性別的比例來的高。而被描述的性別又會比另一性別使用描述該性別的隱喻頻率更高。此現象反應了兩點。第一，性別隱喻對兩性的刻板印象有很大的影響。其次，鑑於性別是社會所建構的，性別隱喻提供了一個劇本，使扮演該性別角色的一方會更加瞭解並遵守社會對此性別該扮演角色的規範。此外，有些並未出現於字典的表達因為文化背景，語言知識或生活經驗的關係成為顯著的隱喻，例如女人是水即為跨年齡跨性別形容女性最常用的隱喻。最後，在特徵的層次上，女性的外表被整個社會重視的程度較男性高，而男性在社會層次上的特徵被重視的程度較高。隨年齡的個性變化也反映在特徵描述的改變上。

本論文探討了性別隱喻在歷時性和共時性上的不同觀點，並補足了以歐美語系為主的性別隱喻研究。在歷時性上，本研究指出，性別隱喻在來源域及強調特徵的使用上有較以往對稱的改變，的確反映出現今兩性權力較為平等的社會。另一方面，也反映出仍有許多對性別的刻板印象。在共時性上，此研究探討不同年齡層和性別對性別隱喻的不同觀點，彌補了以往性別隱喻裡以男性為主的單一視角。

The present thesis aims to investigate gender metaphors in Mandarin Chinese by adopting corpus-based method and questionnaire in which two factors: gender and age are taken into account to examine how different gender metaphors would be in different times and from different perspectives of different ages and genders in present time. Conceptual metaphor is not only regarded as an important mechanism of human thinking, but recognized as a device to reflect cultural values and norms which are often conveyed by speakers with more power toward other socially disadvantageous people. Men are usually those with power. Study on gender metaphor is thus considered as a manner to reveal the evaluations under the society of sexual inequality. However, little research of gender metaphor has been done except in European languages. Moreover, the data sources of previous studies are from the dictionaries, which are limited in reflecting the present values, and which lack different perspectives of different speakers. Via this study adopting two methodologies of corpus and questionnaire, we intend to fill the gap. The results based on dictionary show an asymmetrical structure of women metaphor and men metaphors. Besides, those metaphors are full of men’s values. The source domains describing women include PLANTS, ANIMALS, SUBSTANCE, FOOD, and OBJECT. However, only the previous three source domains are employed to refer to men. Among them, WOMEN ARE PLANTS is the most productive. Women’s age, beauty, and skittishness are highlighted. Otherwise, MEN ARE ANIMALS is the most prominent when men are the target domain. The tallness and the sturdiness are features emphasized. The questionnaire is analyzed from three levels: category of the source domains, types, and features of the target domains. The results show that other than the existed source domains found in the dictionary, there are eight novel source domains investigated. Besides, the asymmetrical structure has become more symmetrical. Among the categories, when there are conventional metaphors describing one gender in one category, the frequency of using this category to describe that gender is more prominent than to describe the other gender. Moreover, the speakers of one gender use more the conventional metaphorical expressions describing such gender to refer to themselves than speakers of the other gender do. Those findings show that gender metaphors have a great influence on the stereotypes of gender and that those metaphors describing two genders are regarded as an evidence for social construction of gender because each gender follows the society expects them to act, according to those metaphors. Otherwise, there are many types mentioned with high frequency not because of conventionality but of cultural background, language knowledge, and experience. For example, WOMEN ARE WATER is the conceptual metaphor of the highest frequency across genders and ages, which do not show in the dictionary. Finally, in term of selected features from the target domains, women’s appearance is more emphasized than that of men, while men’s social aspect are more focused than that of women. Furthermore, the differences of describing personalities reflect the change of personalities with ages. With ages, the focus of women’s tenderness increases, while the unpredictability of emotion decreases. On the other hand, the emphasis of men’s reliability decreases, whereas the impulsiveness decreases. By this study, we examine gender metaphors in Mandarin Chinese diachronically and synchronically, and complement the English-based literature on gender metaphors. Diachronically, the present study shows how gender metaphors change with the revolution of gender equality, but it also reveals that gender stereotypes are still entrenched in the society. Synchronically, we take age and gender into account to provide multiple perspectives in gender metaphors.