Abstract
AN EVALUATION ON METAPHORS OF WOMAN LANGUAGE IN TURKISH FOLK LULLABIES
Languages used by woman and man are formed in the society that they belong to. In patriarchal societies, attributes of the language designated to the woman by the society should be investigated, rather than the language woman actually uses. In addition, woman language is a language often formed under the influence of dominant man language in the society. Oral language products includes knowledge of woman language. One of the oral languages products are lullabies.
Association of issues such as home, family, faith, talkativeness, beauty, clothing and cleaning with woman compared to man, and the presence of words related to these issues in woman language leads to the idea of existence of woman-specific verbal expressions in lullabies song by mothers. Woman language can be identified by identifying attributes of these verbal expressions.
Expressions for the boy and girl generally praising them indicate that the mother sings lullabies for her son and daughter in parallel with their gender roles. Therefore, words mother used for her daughter differentiates from those used for her son. Most of metaphors and adjectives for the girl evoke delicacy in accordance with the perception of the girl in the society. Those used for the boys are in accordance with their perception again, comprises hardness and strength in meaning. In addition, being a baby to be addressed softens the mother’s speaking style, and also, in accordance with the character of patriarchal societies, woman language becomes more emotional and enthusiastic than man language. Women’s dosen’t or couldn’t express her feelings that take place in lullabies as metaphors and similes. Thus methaphoric and metonymic expressions or similes are numerously noticeable in lullabies. In this essay will be evaluated what kind of metaphore and metonymy or similes using in lullabies and their meanings parallelism with the social structure.
Keywords
Lullaby, metaphor, woman language, simile.