Similarities and Differences between Genders in English and Persian: Family Related Proverbs and Expressions

Abstract

While considerable progress has been made in understanding the rich, complex, and dynamic interrelationship between language, culture, and thought, there is a long way left to be passed regarding gender perception as part of a community’s inherited thought and culture and the effect of this gender sensitivity on the language of that society including proverbs and expressions. The present study is an attempt to shed more light on this interrelation through analysis of gender in English and Persian proverbs and expressions containing kinship terms and to uncover the similarities and differences of the image of the family and kinship relations between these two languages and delineate any possible gender-bound biases. Data was collected through utilizing different kinds of. Proverbs and expressions were classified into three broad groups and then scrutinized so as to detect the trace of gender-bias. The results, which were in line with cognitive version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis substantiated the existence of cultural differences between these languages regarding family and kinship relations as well as the existence of the trace of gender-bias mostly against women, especially in Persian proverbs and expressions.