REPRESENTATION OF FEMALE POSITIVE INNER ATTRIBUTES IN POLISH AND CHINESE PROVERBS FROM AN ETHNOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article investigates and compares the positive inner attributes of women reflected in Chinese and Polish proverbs. The sources of the features that underlie the representations of female positive inner attributes from proverbs were found to draw mostly from traditional (national) culture, cultural symbolism, and social and gender stereotypes. Social beliefs, ethnic and gender prejudice towards women in both societies, as well as ethno-cultural information accumulated in the proverbs, were revealed by means of the ethnolinguistic approach to their critical analysis. In both cultures, inner attributes provide a clear moral compass pointing to an ideal female behaviour. However, we only found evidence in Chinese proverbs of low intellectual and cultural qualities representing positive attributes of a good spouse.