Construction of Negative Identity of Female Gender in the Punjabi Proverbs

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Language plays an important role in constructing identities in a society. The Punjabi Language is a member of the modern Indo-Aryan family of languages. It has a very rich culture, especially in the rural areas of Punjab. Punjabi language has a strong connection with the culture and its norms. Punjabi society is a patriarchal society in which, male members who bear the decision-making authority, head the families. Women are usually not included in making decisions and are considered socially and economically dependent on men. Women consider themselves insecure, incomplete, ineffective and inefficient without males. Therefore, the male dominance becomes one of the significant predictor of the male discrimination against women. Power relations are maintained through the use of Punjabi proverbs. The female gender endures gender discrimination and low self-esteem. Male dominance is also exercised through the use of proverbs. The current research aims to expose the male dominance and the negative connotations attached with the identity of female gender in the Punjabi society. Female gender will get awareness of their identities constructed through the use of language in the proverbs. The qualitative research method has been employed to research randomly selected 20 Punjabi proverbs. It employs critical discourse analysis as its theoretical framework. Norman Fairclough’ 3D model has been used to do textual analysis. The proverbs have been taken from the famous book “Punjabi Akhaan”. The proverbs have been analyzed on the literal, contextual, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. They have also been dissected on the micro, meso and macro levels to analyze them from the different perspectives. The frequency of the use of Punjabi proverbs has also been observed. After the research, it has been concluded that male dominance in the Punjabi language causes gender discrimination and false representation of female identities. The kind of images constructed in the Punjabi proverbial language truly labels the female gender permanently with the negative connotations. It hinders their progress as well as their status. All the females of Punjabi culture will be benefitted with the current research. It will enable them to understand the kind of male dominance and gender discrimination in the Punjabi language. As a result they will be able to understand the authenticity and the true value attached to these proverbs.