Summary
This research paper is based on the linguistic and cultural study of English and Romanian proverbs about women from the point of view of semantics, grammar and syntax. According to this, the purpose of the work is to examine semantic, grammatical and syntactical features of the English and Romanian proverbs about women, and to compare and contrast the cultural peculiarities identified. The woman is subjected to the bitterness and praise in proverbs because a distinct attention is paid to her role in society and family; since the creation of the world she tries to leave the background where the man placed her and to gain her place on her own.
The most important sources used in the research paper are: proverbs: Proverbs: A Handbook by Mieder W., American Proverbs about Women: A Reference Guide by Kerschen, L. and Realități sociale oglindite în proverbe by Zoltán, S. These books served as sources for both theory and examples.
The main objectives of this research are to define proverbs and to overview their etymology, to classify proverbs about women and to identify the human values related to women expressed in English and Romanian proverbs. The main research methods used in this study are analysis and synthesis, comparison and contrast.
The paper consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusion, bibliography and appendix. The first chapter centers on the cultural and linguistic analysis of English and Romanian proverbs about women and the role of women in family and society. The second chapter describes and exemplifies the semantic, grammatical and syntactical peculiarities of proverbs about women. The results of the study are presented in the conclusions of the paper. The appendix is divided in the glossary of terms and corpus linguistics that comprises 150 of English and Romanian proverbs about women.
Introduction
The motivation to study the cultural and linguistic aspects of proverbs about women comes from my interest for proverbs and the desire to make acquaintance with women’s role in the society, their own world in which they have their rules and their power. Women were always criticized and admired, humiliated and loved, and all these are illustrated in proverbs that we read every day, we amuse ourselves with and comment upon. Not only the syntactical and grammatical structure of proverbs motivates a student to make a closer study on them, but also their meaning that becomes very important when decoding their messages and when applying their ”lessons” in real life.
The main purpose of this research paper is to analyze proverbs about women demonstrating their origin and cultural peculiarities, structure and classification according to different authors.
The hypothesis we admit in this research is that proverbs about women in both English and Romanian cultures rather criticize and mock at women due to their pretended inferiority to men and their nature difficult to be understood by men.
The practical value of this work consists in providing classifications of 150 proverbs about women analyzed in terms of linguistics, which can be useful for researchers working with proverbs, feminism and role of gender. It is also important in discussing the actuality of proverbs nowadays, which are used daily by everyone in speaking and writing, in schools when making essays and commentaries, sometimes in the headlines of articles.
The objectives of this research paper are:
o to define proverbs;
o to characterize the field that deals with the study of proverbs;
o to identify cultural peculiarities in English and Romanian proverbs about women;
o to determine the role of women in proverbs;
o to classify proverbs about women;
o to analyze the grammatical, semantic and syntactical structure of proverbs about women;
o to outline the human values related to women expressed in English and Romanian proverbs;
The main research methods used in this work are comparative and contrastive analysis between English and Romanian constructions, semantic and structural analysis. Classification is widely applied in the practical chapter of the study; 150 of examples of English and Romanian proverbs were collected and classified according to some principles related to semantic, grammatical and syntactical analysis.
The structure of the paper consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusions, a bibliography, and the appendix that is divided in glossary of terms and corpus linguistics.
Chapter One studies the definitions and etymology of proverbs, grammatical, syntactical and semantic analysis of English and Romanian proverbs about women.
It also focuses on the characterization of the branch that deals with proverbs – paremiology. The classification of proverbs about women and the comparative and contrastive analysis between the cultural peculiarities in these structures are provided in this chapter.
Chapter Two examines 150 of examples of English and Romanian proverbs about women selected from various reliable sources. These have been classified and analyzed according to various criteria such as structure, meaning, message.
The conclusion comprises all the results of each subchapter analysis. It summarizes the information employed in the research and the results obtained in the practical chapter.
The main sources used in both chapters are Proverbs: A Handbook by Mieder W., American Proverbs about Women: A Reference Guide by Kerschen, L. and Realități sociale oglindite în proverbe by Zoltán, S., Cultural Dimensions in English and Romanian Proverbs by Lifari, V. and Vicol, D.
Chapter One. The Concept of Proverb and Its Linguistic Aspects
The reason of this chapter is to provide a presentation of the most important theoretical peculiarities associated with proverbs about women. It includes definitions of proverbs, their origins, paremiology, the image of women in English and Romanian cultures, and the linguistic features that refer to different types of category and classification according to diverse and various authors, and their general and well known characterization. The methods used here are analysis, synthesis, contrast, classification and comparison.
1.1. Definitions of Proverbs
People speaks and communicate every day, every time they share and discuss pieces of information, they also have some conversation when they wants to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings but can not find the right words. In this instance the proverbs appear in their help. Proverb is a brief and a popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense. A proverb may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance. The reason of popularity is due to its usage in spoken language as well as in the folk literature.
Proverbs comes to mind automatically when speaking orally or writing on a paper, and their use depends on situation; they are practiced in political speech, in poetry, in familiar and friendly chats and in other cases extensively. A lot of scholars from antiquity and to our days have studied proverbs trying to define them and giving the best definition that would be accepted by everyone.
There is a great need for wisdom in our society today. Lack of wisdom is destroying the lives of many young people, and making fools out of some who are older. Proverbs guide our thoughts and actions, and warn us of the hidden dangers along life’s way.
Many attempts at defining a proverb have been made from Aristotle to the present time, ranging from philosophical considerations to cut-and-dry lexicographical definitions [3, p. 260]. A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorisable form and which is handed down from generation to generation [3, p. 261]. The existing definitions do not take into consideration such linguistic aspects of a proverb as its semantics, structure, use, functions and meaning in varied contexts.
The researchers have recommended a lot of definitions throughout the hundreds of years. Mieder, one of the greatest paremiologist of all times gave his own definition on this: “A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation” [25; 4]. From this announcement we can deduce that poverbs go toward the time, they do not exist just for a period of time – a day, a year, a century; they exist since people start to create a culture. As a result, they are transmitted reliably starting with one generation then into the next which enriched and varied our vocabulary every day.
Since we have specified over the term paremiologist, we will explain what it really express. Paremiology is the field that deals with the investigation and study of proverbs. Paremiology – “paremia” means “proverb” and “- ology”(gr.) – that means ” a dealing with, a speaking of “. Paremiology is the insightful investigation of proverbial language. Two fields deals with proverbs: paremiology and paremiography.
Paremiographers collect and classify proverbs.
Paremiologists deal with definition, form, structure, style, content, function, meaning, and value of proverbs.
Many significant books, dictionaries and articles related to this branch are published each year:
Simpson, J., Speake, J. Kin, D. Taylor, A., Whiting, B.J. Mieder,W. Talk
These are books written by researchers that portray and describes the advancement of different sorts of proverbs collections and manage the starting point and scattering of sayings in a specific dialect, language and culture, talk about definition proverbs of the different genres, examine stylistic and structural aspects, explore the function and use in various contexts (oral correspondence, literature, broad communications/ mass media), and attempt to give a complete view of the importance and significance proverbs as verbal techniques. A characteristic book is Proverbs and Their Lessons by Trench, R. C. (1905), which represents a “survey of the origin, nature, distribution, meaning, and significance of proverbs in the English-speaking world” [25].
Another source is Archer Taylor’s work The Proverb (1931) which manages with definition problems, metaphorical proverbs, proverbial types, variants, proverbs in folk narratives and literature, loan translations, and the classical or biblical origin of many proverbs, customs and superstitions reflected in proverbs, legal, medical, and weather proverbs, their content and style, proverbial stereotypes, proverbial expressions and comparisons etc. His work keeps on being a huge source of motivation for some paremiologists from around the world.
Nowadays there are plenty of dictionaries where are identified the most popular proverbs and folks in the language. The dictionary of proverbs and is an independent lexicographic work together with dictionaries of phraseological units and collections of winged words and expressions.
Different meanings of proverbs that support the past one are given by Galperin, Arnold, MacFarlane and others. As indicated by them, sayings are short/brief, they express wisdom, truth collected in the experience of a group or country; for the most part they express an ethical and moral lesson that is to state that they show and teach us something or gives a reasonable advice as Kerschen stated [15; 3]. Thinking of them as, we can see that the most accentuated words and expressions we may focus on are: “short/brief proclamations”, “express wisdom, truth, ethics”, “culture/group”, “involvement”, “experience” that propose the significance of proverbs for a country. Some short sentences are easy to remember, but they may contain powerful words and convey huge messages to which people give careful much attention and in which they get themselves and their life experince. In this way, proverbs are short sayings known by everybody that contains the experience of life of a people and express their knowledge, truth and morals (“The wisdom of the street lies in proverbs” – German Proverb)
Proverbs appeared since the time of Plato and Aristotle and they can be considered the “fathers” of that society which was with little experience and wisdom. From here a function of proverbs arises that is to “provide a secular precedent for present action”, claimed Dundes [11; 24]. Nowadays they became more or less a way for teaching and learning from the ancestors’ experience and wisdom, showing their popularity among other structures of folklore such as songs, myths, legends, riddles, jokes, rhymes, etc. We can admit that proverbs are popular and it is due to some reasons: first, they are short and easy to remember. Second, they enlighten our understanding of a situation that we come across with in life. Third, proverbs are popular because they present the good qualities of the inner world; they give patterns of eminence, though their literary value is subjected to loss when translating them into other languages. Therefore, proverbs have long been popular and continue to be so because we might use them whenever we want or need for the reason that they are universally applied; in other words, proverbs become an ease of communication. Often, they come to help us, since they are made for different occasions and for different types of people. There are situations when we need to prove an idea, a statement and to bring strong arguments in order to be convincing, when we want to characterize or to allude to a person or a group of people who keep themselves busy with wrong or useless things, etc. During 1600s and 1700s on the strength of their popularity many collections of proverbs were made, as they were regarded “the true intellectual aristocracy of a nation”, Schipper pointed out [34; 4].
As Trench told, proverbs must have shortness, sense and salt. They should be brief, said in a breath, they should be not slight or insignificant, but rather with point and gnawing. That is why they contain a profound meaning implying all of our attention to interpret it. They want us to try to us to analyze them in order to find their content that will caution us of few moves we need to make or to evade. The receive information will assault out brains and settle on us to take choices, strategies and flow of action. In order to support the last thought, Machado has a great comparison ” proverbs are like dangling carrots that get your adrenaline going “[20; 6]. To comprehend the statement an explanation is necessary: “dangling carrots” are people who attempt to pull in or influence another person to act. It is evident that proverbs make us think and to make some actions. Proverbs cannot be denied, kept away from or ignored as a result of reality they contain, as it is known, no one can evade truth. Reality in proverbs is not a hypothetical or theoretical one, it is rather, functional wisdom.
Lau gives an alternate definition concentrating on the utilization of proverbs that we use every day “proverbs are first of all messages passed between and among people. They are principally expressed in speech, though they can also be transmitted through writing, visual arts, and electronic communication. In their verbal form, they are brief and pithy, wise and witty, rhetorically forceful but discreetly indirect” [16; 2]. To be more specific, people utilize proverbs in oral and written form as much as they contain knowledge and regular day to day knowledges. Their using is in a nearby connection with the time of our lives; numerous proverbs are in neglect in light of their message or implying that does not agree the circumstances. the proverbs create the impression that mirror the our life. Proverbs about women are thought to be more recent of the fact that “until recent times, the study of folklore has largely excluded women”[15; 1]; this is due to men’s aspiration or desire to dominate the world, making women to remain in the background with the image of a housekeeper and a mother who raises her children. In our days women have the same rights as men, they ruler the job of men; they try to affirm themselves as leaders in the highest organizations for example presidents, ministers, businesswomen, etc . Through being the subject of precepts, stories and different manifestations of old stories one feel the importance of women on the planet, yet not to overlook that maxims about women have existed since the Bible was composed. Eve was the main woman whose wrongdoing has been reflected in all women since then to now “A single woman destroyed Paradise”.
In order to maintain its popularity, a proverb needs to “make appeal to the whole man – not to the intellectual faculties alone, but to the feelings, fancy…imagination…stirring the whole man to pleasurable activities” [41; 18], to be short, concise and understandable. The ones that do not cover all these are not , received and accepted by individuals, and lose their popularity and stop spreading all through the world.
Thanks to the proverbs and idioms it is not difficult to find individuals morals, beliefs and humans from a specific timeframe, their emotions and concerns, their feelings of fears and humor, their state towards the law and authority person. As one reflects his image in the mirror so the proverbs reflect individuals moral condition and spiritual life, in this manner every country has its own particular old stories, proverbs and idioms, its own intelligence, encounter that reflect the particular components of its way of life, development and awareness.
Today proverbs are utilized step by step by advertisements and business slogans, and they are not apply in every day discussion as they were used before. In any case, their messages are still kept in the mind of each person. Intentionally or not, they still seem to feel pressured into traditional behavior without even asking why. In this manner, other modern variations of proverbs create the impression that influents the old ones however which keeps a similar message. Proverbs have a strong impact on the general public, entering in each life and people need them in everyday conversation. Regardless of the possibility that the circumstances change, the need of the general knowledges that pass on intelligence is in need. Proverbs mirror the profound life, humors and moral condition of the population. They offer responses to every one on the reality; they reflect attitude of people, exchange social, philosophical, religious, moral and esthetical people groups dreams.
People use these conventional, mysterious, fixed, well known statements to perform discourse acts, to summarize and value a circumstance, to decide, to offer a counsel to somebody, et cetera. Proverbs are the most capable and compelling instrument for the transmission of culture, social profound quality, behavior and thoughts of a people starting with one era then onto the next one. The purpose for the adequacy of the adage is that it is a wise saying in light of individuals’ involvement, and is an impression of the social qualities and sensibility of the general population.
According to Zoltán proverbs are carriers of human experience kept in linguistic form; the human experience in proverbs is rendered metaphorically and laconically [42; 74]. A general definition that comprises all the ideas presented until now is that proverbs is a part of collective consciousness, of mental forms of the traditional societies and that they are social imitations about our daily life, about the way we are related to our peers and the way we justify our behavior.
1.2. Origin of Proverbs
The world has persevered through much time and all eras of people that has lived in it has gathered so much experience and adapted such a variety of things that there is a huge stuff of wisdom that the humanity shares each day. Even Aristotle who lived two thousand years ago said of proverbs as “fragments of an elder wisdom”. As everything in this world has its origin wisdom, in fact the wisdom from proverbs also originates from somewhere. Proverbs are created by people either intentionally or unintentionally, being “the wit of one and the wisdom of many” as Mieder mentioned [25; 9]. At that point they are spread through radio, TV, and print media, and obviously these days, through Internet. Their source has dependably been life in all its assortment. They were conceived during the time spent in understanding of people, they reflected with contemplations of the working individuals.
There are four sources considered the origin of proverbs (given by the paremiologist Mieder) [25; 10]:
1. Medieval Latin
2. The Bible
3. The historical move of proverbs from the United States to Europe
4. Greek and Roman antiquity
Medieval Latin was the most usually utilized dialect in the Middle Ages. All records, works of the writers and different sorts of papers had been composed in Latin until different dialects like French, English started to force some expert in composing; and all these were converted into the separate dialects. They have been spread to Europe and these days they are exceptionally prominent in discourse. A few well-known examples are: “Crows will not pick out crows’ eyes” (48), “Strike while the iron is hot” (48), “New brooms sweep clean” (47), “All that glitters is not gold ” (47), “When the cat is away, the mice will play” (46), “The pitcher goes so long to the well until it breaks at last” (40), “No rose without thorns” (39), “At night all cats are grey” (38), and “Clothes do not make the man” (37) [25; 12]. In the case of the proverb “All roads lead to Rome”, we may say that there is a direct translation in every language. Be that as it may, there are some variations that replace Rome with another city as per the region the precept is utilized with. For example, in Estonia it is replaced with St. Petersburg, in Russia – Moscow, in Turkey – Mecca, and so forth.
The Bible was translated in many languages, but not all translated proverbs are identical because there are different methods of the translators. For example, “Neque femina amissa pudicitia alia abnuerit” [24; 179] has distinguishable English translations 1) “When a lady has lost her virtue, she will not shrink from other things”, 2) “A woman, having lost her virtue, will hesitate at nothing”. There are different structures and words of the sentences, but the most substantial thing is that they keep the same message and meaning. “As you sow, so you reap”, “He who digs a pit for others, falls in himself ”, “He that will not work, shall not eat”, “Do as you would be done by”, “A prophet is not without honor save in his own country”, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, and “There is nothing new under the sun” [25; 11-12] are examples of proverbs that contain biblical vocabulary. They are often used by Europeans speakers even if they do not remember that they are proverbs from the Bible.
The American proverbs effectively move to United Europe through broad communications or Internet. United States spread and scatter new proverbs, words and expressions all through Europe by the method for their mainstream culture from music, motion pictures, movies, talk-shows and so on and of their most popular broad communications – ads, toons and so on that we have on the 21st century. Some examples of proverbs are “A picture is worth a thousand words,” “It takes two to tango,” and “Garbage in, garbage out” (from the world of computers) [25; 13].
Greek and Roman Antiquity. The wisdom from established proverbs was spread through Latin dialect; proverbs were interpreted and written in Latin, then from Latin were interpreted in other European dialects. These manifestations of old stories were distinguished in works of Aristotle, Homer, Plato, Euripides and different writers. Mieder notices Erasmus of Rotterdam just like a critical man in spreading traditional and medieval proverbs all through Europe with the assistance of his work Adagia, which clarifies proverbs. By the way, of English these infiltrated in numerous nations that utilization this dialect as official or second one: Australia, USA, Canada and others, showing at the end of the day that precepts in each dialect contain all inclusive human encounters and bits of knowledge. “Barking dogs do not bite” (51 European languages), “One swallow does not make a summer” (49), “Walls have ears” (46), “One hand washes the other” (46), “Make haste slowly” (43), “Children and fools tell the truth” (41), “Still waters run deep” (38), “Love is blind” (37) [25; 11], and “Fish always begin to stink at the head” (33) are proverbs that come from the classical times and are widely used today in Europe. We can see, that the numbers in brackets remain for the quantity of European dialects into which they were interpreted. These writings express human intelligence that does not allude to any nationality or ethnicity, since it is all inclusive. They are indistinguishable in all dialects and keep on being a methods for correspondence among Americans, Europeans and other individuals from various parts of the world.
1.3. Cultural Dimensions in English and Romanian Proverbs about Women
Since the past years proverbs were borrowed from different dialects and societies, converted into all the possible languages that exist on the planet, either preserving its underlying significance and message or not. In this unique circumstance, we can give a wide description of sayings about women in both English and Romanian languages. Numerous researchers attempted to expound women and her part reflected in proverbs, for example, Kerschen, Reid, Schipper, and others dedicated them entire books, while Dundes, Porter, Downey talked about them just in a few sections, subchapters or passages. In many of these sources, women are shows up beside men and just in some of them women are dealt with as a different subject.
After the time, the role of women in the public arena has changed. If before, she was the being who brings life to her children, regards and complies with her husband, and deals with house; these days she can involve an indistinguishable positions just like men do: they manage organizations, they are fit for being pioneers, legal counselors, effective specialists, and so on as the American culture appeared in the last quarter of the century. But their salary was anyway below the men one. Now we examine this and to decide their impact on the status of women. From our experience of utilizing proverbs in our discourses, we can feel that proverbs about women are described by ” biting wit and bitter complaints” [22; 6], the humour utilized can be sarcastic and severe. She is introduced as sharp-tongued, half-witted, toy like animal that is unfaithful to men. Women in the reality of men are a different class for proverbs seen from their perspective, since there are not such precepts just about them. Regardless of the possibility that men keep up their positions and women accept their subordination, there is an idea per their temperament, women can be equal in degree and energy to that of the men.
In the reality of men, women are normally characterized as men. Once in a while men call their spouses “baby” as a term of affection, communicating their littleness. Perhaps due to this women are put on the second place. As we see there are some kind of combination and expressions in English, in which women are put in the first place, for instance “ladies and gentlemen”, “bride and groom”; but there are “king and queen” (never vice versa), “Mr. and Mrs.”, “boys and girls”, etc. Speaking over the English wedding custom, we can observe that the couple is called “man and wife” by a male priest or minister, and not “wife and man” or “woman and husband”. In Romanian wedding custom, we can see the same with the exception of the individual who articulates the couple as “soț și soție” (husband and wife). Normally it is a women who says to the husband “You can kiss the wife!” Both English and Romanian custom when the groom carries the women across the threshold emphasizes the fact that women are dependent of men because they are strong and women are weak.
We can see women as wonderful, delicate and sensible creatures. They are regularly ready to govern more usefully than men are; they manage without animosity and dangers. They have a monstrous power: they offer life to their children, bring peace and quietness, she keeps the house in care, arrange, cleaning. A long list of their ideals and virtues can be drawn up on the grounds that they show up in proverbs described not just by negative elements as it was said above, additionally of positive ones.
In the first place, the women is a young lady who learn life from her mother. When she grows up, she marries. Before marriage, the young lady is in principle a virgin. After the marriage the young lady transfers her last name after the husband. At her wedding, she moves toward becoming “wife” in the expression “man and wife”. From the perspective of etymological “lady” gets from “man” as from the myth that Eve was made from Adam’s rib. After the wedding women move toward becoming “housewives” that implies women are married to a house. In this sense, there is no such mix as “househusband”. Presently they are occupied with “homemaking” and “housekeeping”. All women are expected to marry, if not they become the subject of cruel proverbs in which she is presented as an old maid “Old maids lead apes in hell” [14; 51], “Show me a man without a spot, and I’ll show you a maid without a blot” [38; 79]. Starting from here for the rest of her life, she has the role of “wife” who constantly takes care of her husband and his needs; she is a cleaner, a cook without ever complaining: “He that has a good wife shows it in his dress” [34; 107], “A good wife makes a good husband” [30; 99].
A lot of proverbs shows us that women need a husband and men need wife. Some of them even express women’s economic dependence on men, and of men’s dependence of being served by women.
Examining some proverbs about women, we can see that not in all the cases the components from English proverbs compare with the Romanian ones. This happens on account of the contrasts between the way of life, perspectives of the countries. Each culture has its own qualities, trusts that express the national peculiarity of the nation such as truth (adevar), knowledge (cunoastere), honesty (cinste), education (educatie), dignity (demnitate), irony (ironie), wisdom (intelepciune), friendship (prietenie), fate (soarta), diligence (harnicie), etc. These components can be enrolled in a social structure that decodes the importance of these qualities in a specific setting. Because of the polysemy of the terms, we can utilize proverbs in various circumstances of life, not in everything except rather in the ones in which relate with the ethical, ethnic and authentic implications of the saying.
In all countries, nations and cultures, there are differences of the genders man – woman that define their roles. In the majority of cultures, there are clear perceptions that refer to gender behavior. It is considered that the woman must be kind, emotional, tender and dependent – “Femeia e tot femeie și în ziua de Paști” [42; 95], “Vecine, s-a dus bărbatu’ meu la moară, nu știu să mă mărit ori să-l aștept” [23; 88], “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband” [29; 216], and the man active, independent, rational, able of self-control, dominant and even aggressive. Over the time, these customary restrictions lost from their incentive because of the modernization of the general public and social division of work. Regardless of the possibility that they are viewed as erroneous and wrong, their underlying foundations are solid and obvious in our general public’s cognizance. They are taken as truths giving positive qualities to men and less positive to ladies. This distinction is evident particularly in the fields relating to power and eminence. The relation between man and woman is based on their different personalities but complementary that through union, they create a harmonious whole “Când muierea-i mută și bărbatul surd, viața cea mai bună între amândoi” [42; 95], as Zoltan stated and exemplified [23; 89]. Other examples are “Behind every great man is a great woman”[21; 19], “A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple” [21; 52], “Men make houses, and women make homes” [21; 186]. The way of life will keep on nurturing disdain, misjudging, and partiality concerning ladies. Along these lines, the skirmish of the genders will lead no place, bring no magnificence yet casualties of segregation and battle for spots in the public arena. When we talk about this segregation on the grounds of sex, really, we mean the distinction and the inadequacy of ladies to men. This clarification can be effortlessly lessened to the term sexism that showed up toward the finish of 1960s. These battles amongst men and women that were occurring in both private and open spaces conveyed such reasons as the portrayal of women in the press, in occupation notices and in ordinary discussions. They took the image of a women portrayed as far as physical characteristics: hair color (redhead, blonde), engaging quality to men and others (excellence, shocker, and so forth.); as far as home and family, and in those of their relationships with men (working spouse, mother). Men do not get this treatment to them. We can clearly see that in Mr. for men and three sorts of treatment to women as indicated by their status Mrs. for a married lady, Miss for an unmarried one, and Ms. for a lady whether she married or not. Frequently utilized by a women who does not have any desire to tell to people about her status, or when we do not have a clue. Another reason inside these battles is the work they do. Women remain invisible in such occupations whose names that have the suffix -man (postman, businessman). Such names as driver, writer and doctor rather refer to men. Thus, there is a need of compound nouns like lady doctor (but not gentleman doctor), woman writer (but not man writer), woman driver (but not man driver). These three activities are seen more as male activities. This was a short description of the sexism in English language.
One important aspect of this study is the way we see the world through linguistic structures. In this subchapter, we will see how women are appreciated and seen in English and Romanian cultures through proverbs. In each culture woman is seen from different corners. Lifari, V. and Vicol, D., comparing and contrasting English and Romanian proverbs about women, give a view of women’s traits expressed in proverbs [17; 98-99]. These are:
o the importance of the woman as the keeper of the house “Casa e casă cînd ai o gospodină în casă”, “A tent without a woman is like a violin without strings”;
o wisdom and intelligence of woman “Bine este să asculți și sfatul unei neveste”, “A woman’s advice is not great thing but he who won’t take it is a fool”;
o fairness of woman “Cine poate găsi o femeie cinstită? Ea este mai de preț decît mărgăritarele”, “Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies”;
o courage of woman “Ea este îmbrăcată cu tărie și slavă, și rîde de ziua de mâine”, “Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come”;
o kindness of woman “Muierea bună e ca pâinea caldă”, “The good mother faith not, will you, but gives”;