EVLİLİK KURUMUNA TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYET ÜZERİNDEN BAKIŞ: DİLSEL GÖRECELİLİK

Abstract

Since ancient times, the relationship among language, culture and the mind constitutes one of the main areas of discussion and research aimed at understanding the dynamics of human society and existence. Linguist, Edward Sapir, and his student, Benjamin Lee Whorf, hypothesized that the language we speak could control much of the ways we think about the world around us, as well as our abilities and behavior. According to this hypothesis, language affects a person’s perception of reality and by extension, the way he or she views the world. After this hypothesis was offered, purporting to explain the relationship between language and thought, some predictions were made in relation to it. One of them postulates that gender in language has a semantic role, and that implementation of gender is one of the ways in which languages differ. Like in most ideologies language is effective on gender ideology. In Turkish, gender norms in language is common and sexist ideology is being perpetuated through it. Turkish society has predetermined strict traditional male and female behaviors and roles and has made them central and permanent within its own culture through language. The language, which is a power tool, is in the hands of men, while women are forced to find themselves in this language and create an identity independent of men. The marriage institution in a society is one of the places where gender can be observed saliently. In this thesis, how Turkish language affects the conceptual system of its speakers in terms of gender is investigated. In addition, this thesis attempts to demystify the relationship between language and gender within the Turkish marriage institution.