Gender stereotyping

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dziallas

Abstract Across languages, the head and sexualized body parts (i.e., vagina, breasts, penis, testicles) are conceptualized in a number of ways, for example as fruits and vegetables: heads are conceptualized as cabbages, vaginas as figs, breasts as melons, penises as carrots, and testicles as olives, to only name a few. The present study draws on the theories of conceptual metaphor and metonymy by Lakoff & Johnson (1980) to analyze the conceptualizations of the five body parts as fruits and vegetables in English, Spanish and French. For this purpose, a slang dictionary-based database of 184 conceptualizations was compiled. Research on the head and sexualized body parts is particularly interesting as they represent the core of intellect and sexuality respectively, which makes them prone to being conceptualized in a variety of expressive and euphemistic ways. The results of the present study show that female body parts are primarily conceptualized as sweet fruits, while the penis as well as the head are mostly understood of as savory vegetables. This finding suggests a case of gender stereotyping, whereby sweet-natured women are denied intelligence as the head is stereotypically seen as a male body part (i.e., as a savory vegetable).

1976 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Wildman ◽  
Robert W. Wildman ◽  
Archie Brown ◽  
Carol Trice

In Study 1, 55 young women responded that they preferred men with hairy chests and circumcised penises. The chest was the male body part reported to be most “sexually stimulating” to females. The busts were the female body part most “sexually stimulating” to males ( n = 34). In Study 2, men ( n = 35) preferred larger busts than women typically possess on the average, but the women ( n = 48) tended to overestimate the bust size most preferred by males. The ratings of bust-revealing clothing showed the males were more desirous of actually seeing the naked bust than females appear to realize.


ExELL ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Adisa Imamović ◽  
Anela Mulahmetović Ibrišimović

Abstract The paper deals with metonymies having body parts as source domains in English and Bosnian. According to Cognitive Linguistics standpoint, human cognition is based on bodily functioning. Therefore, we started from the hypothesis that most body part metonymies are very similar across languages and cultures, and share similar properties. The aim of the paper was threefold: first, to examine whether metonymies with body parts as source domains have common grammatical and conceptual properties in English, secondly to examine whether they share the same properties in Bosnian, and thirdly to compare the two languages in this respect. We analysed body part metonymies in terms of some grammatical properties such as the use of singular and plural, specific and generic reference, grammatical recategorisation from count to mass nouns, noun-to-verb conversion, and some conceptual properties such as source-in-target vs. target-in-source metonymies, metonymic chains and combination of metaphor and metonymy. Many common features were found both within the respective languages under consideration and in cross-linguistic analysis. The minor differences found in contrasting the data from the two languages are mainly the result of differences in grammatical systems.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofi Agyekum

This paper addresses the semantic shifts, extensions, semantic patterns, and pragmatic nature of the metaphor of anger and its usage in different contexts. It looks at the conceptual relationship between the two words akoma, “heart” and bo, “chest,” and how they have been lexicalized in the Akan language to express anger. The paper concentrates on fossilized metaphorical expressions relying on the conceptual metaphor frameworks of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). I will discuss the body parts akoma and bo in terms of their physical, semantic, metaphoric, and cognitive representations. The data are taken from Akan literature books, the Akan Bible, and recorded materials from radio discussions. The paper illustrates that there is a strong relation between a people’s conceptual, environmental, and cultural experiences and their linguistic systems. We will consider the universal concepts of body part expressions and, in particular, Akan specific body part expressions of anger. In the end, we will be able to establish how body parts help us in the lexicalization of expressions of emotion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Vu ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thu Van ◽  
Nguyen Thi Hong Lien

Research on idioms from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, in particular through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy in cognitive semantics, has been steadily growing. While there have been quite a few investigations into the role of conceptual metaphors in meaning formation, conceptual metonymies are still left underexplored. This article examines the role of metonymic conceptualization of personality in English and Vietnamese idioms containing "head", "face" and “eyes” from the conceptual metonymy theory of cognitive linguistics. With analyzed examples from 713 English languages and 947 Vietnamese idioms of body parts collected, the article shows that metonymic conceptualization plays an essential part in the formation of meaning. There are many similarities in the way "head", "face" and “eyes” are conceptualized for personality in both English and Vietnamese cultures. However, why Vietnamese body part idioms use a lot of symbolic pairs, English idioms do not. The study suggests more attention to conceptual metonymy in teaching idioms in order to help students infer idiomatic meanings. Rather than asking students to learn by heart the composite meaning of idioms, teachers should encourage them to guess the idiomatic meaning. Besides, conceptual metonymy should be explained to students since it helps language learners infer idiomatic meaning and retain it longer.


Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses

The chapter reports on work concerned with the issue of how conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) functions as a link between culture and cognition. Three large areas are investigated to this effect. First, work on the interaction between conceptual metaphors, on the one hand, and folk and expert theories of emotion, on the other, is surveyed. Second, the issue of metaphorical universality and variation is addressed, together with that of the function of embodiment in metaphor. Third, a contextualist view of conceptual metaphors is proposed. The discussion of these issues leads to a new and integrated understanding of the role of metaphor and metonymy in creating cultural reality and that of metaphorical variation across and within cultures, as well as individuals.


Author(s):  
Carol Priestley

This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.


Author(s):  
Laura Mora ◽  
Anna Sedda ◽  
Teresa Esteban ◽  
Gianna Cocchini

AbstractThe representation of the metrics of the hands is distorted, but is susceptible to malleability due to expert dexterity (magicians) and long-term tool use (baseball players). However, it remains unclear whether modulation leads to a stable representation of the hand that is adopted in every circumstance, or whether the modulation is closely linked to the spatial context where the expertise occurs. To this aim, a group of 10 experienced Sign Language (SL) interpreters were recruited to study the selective influence of expertise and space localisation in the metric representation of hands. Experiment 1 explored differences in hands’ size representation between the SL interpreters and 10 age-matched controls in near-reaching (Condition 1) and far-reaching space (Condition 2), using the localisation task. SL interpreters presented reduced hand size in near-reaching condition, with characteristic underestimation of finger lengths, and reduced overestimation of hands and wrists widths in comparison with controls. This difference was lost in far-reaching space, confirming the effect of expertise on hand representations is closely linked to the spatial context where an action is performed. As SL interpreters are also experts in the use of their face with communication purposes, the effects of expertise in the metrics of the face were also studied (Experiment 2). SL interpreters were more accurate than controls, with overall reduction of width overestimation. Overall, expertise modifies the representation of relevant body parts in a specific and context-dependent manner. Hence, different representations of the same body part can coexist simultaneously.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3543
Author(s):  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Jiawei Fang ◽  
Shuwei Tang ◽  
Zhengguo Wu ◽  
Xiaoying Wang

Cushioning and antibacterial packaging are the requirements of the storage and transportation of fruits and vegetables, which are essential for reducing the irreversible quality loss during the process. Herein, the composite of carboxymethyl nanocellulose, glycerin, and acrylamide derivatives acted as the shell and chitosan/AgNPs were immobilized in the core by using coaxial 3D-printing technology. Thus, the 3D-printed cushioning–antibacterial dual-function packaging aerogel with a shell–core structure (CNGA/C–AgNPs) was obtained. The CNGA/C–AgNPs packaging aerogel had good cushioning and resilience performance, and the average compression resilience rate was more than 90%. Although AgNPs was slowly released, CNGA/C–AgNPs packaging aerogel had an obvious antibacterial effect on E. coli and S. aureus. Moreover, the CNGA/C–AgNPs packaging aerogel was biodegradable. Due to the customization capabilities of 3D-printing technology, the prepared packaging aerogel can be adapted to more application scenarios by accurately designing and regulating the microstructure of aerogels, which provides a new idea for the development of food intelligent packaging.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Toshiki Kusano ◽  
Hiroki Kurashige ◽  
Isao Nambu ◽  
Yoshiya Moriguchi ◽  
Takashi Hanakawa ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that resting-state brain activity consists of multiple components, each corresponding to the spatial pattern of brain activity induced by performing a task. Especially in a movement task, such components have been shown to correspond to the brain activity pattern of the relevant anatomical region, meaning that the voxels of pattern that are cooperatively activated while using a body part (e.g., foot, hand, and tongue) also behave cooperatively in the resting state. However, it is unclear whether the components involved in resting-state brain activity correspond to those induced by the movement of discrete body parts. To address this issue, in the present study, we focused on wrist and finger movements in the hand, and a cross-decoding technique trained to discriminate between the multi-voxel patterns induced by wrist and finger movement was applied to the resting-state fMRI. We found that the multi-voxel pattern in resting-state brain activity corresponds to either wrist or finger movements in the motor-related areas of each hemisphere of the cerebrum and cerebellum. These results suggest that resting-state brain activity in the motor-related areas consists of the components corresponding to the elementary movements of individual body parts. Therefore, the resting-state brain activity possibly has a finer structure than considered previously.


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