MOTIVATION OF GENDER-MARKED ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN IDIOMS

DENOTING INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES

Phraseologie im interlingualen and interkulturellen Kontakt = Phraseology in interlingual and

intercultural contact / Herausgeberinnen, editors Melanija Fabčič, Sabine Fiedler, Joanna
szerszunowiez. – Maribor, Univerza v Mariboru, 2013. – P. 251 – 260.

The dialectical unity of language and thinking shows, on the one hand, that a human being
comprehends reality in terms of his native language, and, on the other hand, that any thought can be
expressed rather adequately in any language. Otherwise, the way of verbalization of the objective
reality in case of its adequate reflection in the human being's mind, is not the same in different
languages.
It is particularly manifested on the phraseological level of the language, which presents a
special layer of language culture.
Therefore it is quite evident that contrastive and comparative investigations of language units
are extremely important; they reveal general features of all the languages, similar features of the
correlative languages, special peculiarities of a given language. At the same time, they enable
linguists to penetrate into the process of phraseologisation and general laws of the formation and
development of phraseological parallels.
The report continues the research devoted to the investigation of the idioms representing
human intellectual abilities.
The following ideas are crucial for the current research:
1. The number of phraseological units of this group is great and they are varied in
nature. It can be accounted for by the importance of human mental abilities, which is reflected
in the language by various phraseological units.
2. As the majority of phraseological units is anthropocentric, it seems interesting and
important to study the methods of human mental abilities representation in phraseology and in
gender-marked phraseology in particular.
3. Motivation is one of the key concepts of the phraseological meaning. It helps to
reveal national peculiarities of culture and mentality.
4. Contrastive studies provide a solid grounding for the research of the idioms denoting
human mental abilities, as it stimulates deeper understanding of the phenomenon in question /
the language units under examination.

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 Mind, Intellect, Mentality is an ability of a human being to think and to regulate his own
attitude to reality. Mentality makes a human being a unique creature in this world; it broadens
radically his possibilities of perceiving all things around him.
Intellect and mental qualities are the very inner qualities, by which a human being is
evaluated. It is not without reason that people use the proverb: “You are judged by appearances at
first but by your mind later on”. There is also a German proverb: “Man empfängt den Mann nach
dem Gewand und entlässt ihn nach dem Verstand“. These examples substantiate one idea:
sometimes nice clothes and a beautiful appearance can conceal inner shallowness.
The way mind or intellect can be presented, has always been interesting for people. The given
phenomenon is investigated by a wide range of scientific disciplines: philosophy, psychology,
linguistics, etc.
Based on their own ideas of human mind, people have also made different evaluations of this
phenomenon. It could not but be reflected in language: a great number of lexical and phraseological
expressions, which denote human intellectual abilities, came into being.
The rich tradition of studying language units of intellectual and mental sphere testifies that
display of intelligence or human intellectual abilities and its language representation always were in
the center of researchers’ attention.
Various aspects of the analysis of the language units nominating human intellectual abilities
were investigated by E. Arsentyeva (1989), V. Plungyan (1993) and E. Rakhilina (1993), T.
Bakhvalova (1993), V. Gak (1993), M. Kovshova (1996), M. Golovanivskaya (1997), V. Ubiiko
(1998) and others.
Human intellectual abilities can be defined as acquired and highly developed mental faculties
to cognitive and cogitative actions, readiness for effective mastering various knowledge and skills
(Stavtseva 2006).
The objective of the present research is the comparative analysis of motivation of gender-
marked English and Russian phraseological units of the mentioned group.
Phraseological units were drawn from different lexicographical sources and Russian, British
and American periodicals of last years. Gender-marked English (56) and Russian (72) idioms (i.e.
idioms containing “male”/”female” semes) were selected among phraseological units denoting
mental abilities.
The classification of the idioms in question into "femininity" and "masculinity" groups shows
that in both languages phraseological units representing female way of thinking are in the minority
(13 English and 28 Russian idioms), though the majority belongs to the "masculinity" group (36
English and 38 Russian units). There are, as well, several units in both languages that could be used
to talk about both men and women (7 English and 6 Russian phraseologisms), for example:
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 Table 1. Gender classification of the idioms denoting human intellectual abilities
"Femininity" Group "Masculinity" Group Neutral
13 dumb Dora 36 proper Charley 7 a nitwit; a nutcase
cousin Betty simple Simon a space cadet
28 лиса патрикеевна 38 олух царя небесного 6 дурак набитый /дура набитая
девичья память гигант мысли мужичий ум говорит: надо, бабий
ум говорит: хочу.

It is absolutely evident, that the bulk of the idioms under consideration possesses negative
evaluation and the number of positive phraseological units in this group is limited, for example:
велика Федора, да дура (-), дундук дундуком (-), ростом с ивана, а умом с болвана (-), a bird
brain (-), dumb Dora (-); добрая кума прибавит ума (+); smart as a whip (+), a bright chap (+),
etc.
Motivation carries out a special role in the phraseological meaning.
Motivation is understood as the possibility of an interpretation of the mental image, evoked
by the literal meaning, in a way that makes sense of the lexicalized meaning. The explanation of
idiom motivation makes it necessary to turn to various extra-linguistic, mainly culture-based types
of knowledge (Piirainen 2010: 65-66).
Let’s concider the following examples.
Russian phraseological unit “отпетый дурак” (cf. in English: arrant / utter / brazen / damned
fool) means ‘бестолковый, крайне неразумный человек’ (‘a goofy, extremely foolish or muddle-
headed man’).
The constituent ‘отпетый’ corresponds with the religious code and contains knowledge about
the Church ceremony, performed on the body of the died (requiem / burial service). A basis of the
idiom is a metaphor which likens a very silly person to the dead man over which body the burial
service ceremony is made (БФСРЯ 2006).
The person, over whom the requiem service was performed, is symbolically regarded as “lost
or unworthy of life”. The idiom as a whole serves as an example of a foolish and unwise person. It
could be used to talk about both, men and women.
This point can be further exemplified with an English idiom “a smart Aleck”. In “Longman
Idioms Dictionary” this phraseological unit is defined as ‘someone who is annoying because they
think they are very clever, or because they always have a clever reply to what people say’. This
idiom is not rooted in antiquity (“Oxford English Dictionary” traces its etymology to mid-1860s
American slang) and is comprehended without difficulties nowadays.

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 Professor Gerald L. Cohen in his book “Studies in Slang”, Part 1 (1985) suggests the original
“smart Aleck” was one real Alec Hoag. A celebrated, clever thief and confidence man operated in
New York City in the 1840's. Mr. Hoag, along with his wife Melinda and an accomplice known as
"French Jack," devised a confidence game called the "Panel Game," a method by which prostitutes
and their pimps robbed foolish customers.
Alec Hoag was given the nickname ‘Smart Alec’ by the police for being a resourceful thief
who outsmarted himself by trying to avoid paying graft. The thought is that the police then used this
term when dealing with other criminals who seemed a little too smart for their own good, often
thinking of ways around giving police their payoffs: “Don’t be a Smart Alec”.
This term, as an expression, then took about 20 years to germinate and eventually found its
way in print in 1865 and popular culture shortly thereafter.
The examined idiom has a metaphor as a basis of its transference and is used with
disapproval. It presents a symbol of annoying or irritating behavior. Though originally it was used
to characterize a male mental abilities and behavior, now it’s widely used to describe women, too:
a) Ms. Case, worried that her credit rating might suffer, sent in a check for $0.00. Now she's
worried that the command center will think she is trying to be a smart aleck and that the
computers will wreak revenge. Stay tuned (Nemy 2001. – July. 30.).
b) At times she sounds like Groucho Marx. (Come work for me, a lover says when Jane loses
her job. Jane says, ''I could bring you up on charges for that.'' What? ''Work harassment
in the sexual place.'') At others she's a smart-aleck sitcom child. (''Chips Ahoy!'' Jane
calls out, flirting with a charter-boat captain.) (Iovine 1999. – July 22.).
The idiom has a lot of synonyms: smarty, smarty pants, wise guy, wise apple, know-it-all,
clever dick, smart ass, wiseacre, that testifies the significance of the concept it presents.
Motivation is closely connected with such phenomenon as the inner form of a phraseological
unit which may be viewed as the motif of transference, the image-forming base, the associative-
imaginary complex, etc. The inner form of a phraseologism is the meaning of its prototype on the
basis of which phraseological meaning is formed.
The inner form of an idiom correlates with the notion of phraseological transference, which is
defined as a complete or partial change of meaning of an initial (source) word-combination (or a
sentence) as a result of which the word-combination (or the sentence) acquires a new meaning and
turns into a phraseological unit.
Phraseological transference may be based on metaphor, metonymy, simile, etc. or on their
combination. In addition, symbols, historical facts and other realities, as well as proverbs, sayings,
quotations, etc can serve as a basis for a phraseologism.

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 Transference based on metaphor is defined as “a likening of one object (phenomenon, action)
of reality to another, which is associated with it on the basis of real or imaginable resemblance”
(Zykova 2006: 133).
Let’s consider the following phraseological units with the metaphor in the transferred
meaning.
Russian phraseological unit “намотать на ус” means ‘запоминать, учитывать на
будущее’ (to remember, consider on / to take into account for / the future). The origin of this idiom
is connected with the ‘nervous habit of twisting one’s mustache while thinking’ (Melerovich in dr.
2001: 750) The image of the examined idiom goes back to an ancient system of storing the
information - to small knot setting for memory on ropes, scarves and other types of clothes. The
constituent ‘mustache’ here stands for a male maturity, wide experience and accumulated
knowledge. The idiom conveys a stereotype about attentive perception and information storage.
In the phraseological unit “Simple Simon” meaning ‘a foolish or gullible person’ transference
is based on metaphor, too, i.e. on the likening of a stupid, naive person to a character who features
in various nursery rhymes.
Metaphorical image of the following idioms is built on the basis of comparison with flora and
fauna, similarity of different features (characteristics) or functions of animals: dumb bunny, an old
fox, dumb ox; лиса патрикеевна (‘a sly flatterer’ - sly fox, crafty devil, slyboots – the name of the
fox in Russian tales), гусь лапчатый (‘a sly, resourceful, crafty person’ - an old fox, shifty rascal),
желторотый птенец (‘a very young, naive, inexperienced person’ - greenborn, tenderfoot, wet
behind the ears, callow fledgeling).
According to Irina Zykova, transference based on metonymy is a transfer of name from one
object (phenomenon, thing, action, process, etc.) to another based on the association of contiguity of
their properties, relations, etc. fixed in the material reality. The transfer of name is conditioned by
close ties between the two objects; the idea about one object is inseparably linked with the idea
about the other object (Zykova 2006: 133).
For example, the metonymical transference in the phraseological unit “a blue stocking”
meaning ‘an intelligent and very educated woman who spends most of her time studying and is
therefore not approved of by some men’ is based on the replacement of the genuine object (a
woman) by the article of clothing.
The expression appeared in the late 17th century and originally was used to describe a man
wearing blue worsted (instead of formal black silk) stockings; extended to mean ‘in informal dress’.
Later the term denoted a person who attended the literary assemblies held (circa 1750) by three
London society ladies, where some of the men favoured less formal dress. The women who
attended became known as blue-stocking ladies or blue-stockingers.
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 Transference based on simile is the intensification of some feature of an object (phenomenen
or a thing) denoted by a phraseological unit by means of bringing it into contact with another object
belonging to an entirely different class (Zykova 2006: 133), for example: смотреть как баран на
новые ворота - ≈ give an empty stare; глуп как сивый мерин – ‘completely stupid, crazy’
(‘мерин’ here means ‘a gelding’).
Usually, images, created by simile, are very transparent semantically, as they are based on
real objects. Each simile is made as a result of an age-long experience of people. That is why it has
a store of images which are familiar to each member of the language community; they are handed
over traditionally from one generation to another. The image, which lies in the basis of a
phraseological unit, is supported by the existence of the language metaphor.
The idiom “(as) mad as a hatter” meaning ‘completely mad’, now commonly understood to
mean ‘crazy’, although the original meaning is unclear and may have meant annoyed. According to
one of the etymological variants of this idiom, the resulting effects of the mercury compounds usage
in the 19th century for hat making are well-established and reflected in the unit.
Whilst not being the source of the phrase, we can't mention the idiom “as mad as a hatter”
and leave out Lewis Carroll. His ‘Hatter’ character from “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”,
1865, is of course the best-known mad hatter of them all. The Hatter is not actually described as
mad in the story - merely a participant at ‘a mad tea-party’ - although he can hardly be called sane,
he is portrayed as mad (along with all the other characters) by the Cheshire Cat.
Many idioms possess more than one type of transferred meaning. The combination of
different types of transference is blended with various cultural and historical phenomena in one and
the same idiom for example:
• mother wit – an idiom where metaphor is blended with personification, or
• кисейная барышня – a coddled person (usually, a young woman) who is unable to adjust to
real life (originally, an affected and prudish young woman with petty interests). English
equivalents are ‘a pampered young lady, pampered darling, [in limited contexts] prim young
lady’. Here the combination of metaphor and metonymy can be observed.
• куриные мозги – a sparrow-brain (a person of limited intelligence) – in this case, metaphor is
blended with metonymy and litotes.
Thus, the analysis of types of transferred meaning allows to state that the majority of the
examined phraseological units has a metaphor, metonymy or, more often, the combination of
different types of transference as the basis of the transferred meaning.
Information about the nature of the image, which serves as a basis for phraseological
transference, and of the inner form as a way of its meaning organization, reflects ‘naïve’ ideas of

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various phenomena (in this case – human intellectual abilities) and in turn, allows to describe their /
its cultural and national peculiarities.
In the beginning of our research we supposed that the analysis of the motivation of the idioms
in question would help to describe and compare existing gender stereotypes of human intellectual
abilities in the English and Russian languages, and thus would allow revealing universal and
national-specific in the man and the woman images, especially, their mental abilities, in different
cultures.
But we turned out to find nothing new: though in both languages the majority of the idioms
possesses negative evaluation of male and female mental abilities, female state of mind or way of
thinking is criticized much. It reveals that all of the examined idioms de-personify or dehumanise
women. Most of the phraseological units under consideration portray women as worse than stupid
and mischievous animals, stinging plants and hellish trouble. The idioms from both languages are
remarkably comparable in the intensity of their cumulative misogyny and demonstrate superiority
of male sex above female one.
To prove that, let’s consider an English proverb “when an ass climbs a ladder, we may find
wisdom in a woman” (CODP), which is discussed in many works on gender linguistics (Yisa
Kehinde Yusuf; Kuznetsova 2012; etc) and still serves as a symbol or stereotype of male
predominance.
In this proverb, the inability of an ass to undertake upward or vertical position, presumably
due to its inherent stupidity, is recalled. This disability of the ass is implicitly compared with the
presumed inherent inability of women to acquire wisdom. In other words, the proverb implies that
as it is difficult to find an ass which is endowed enough to climb a ladder, so it is difficult to find a
wise woman. Considering the use of the word ‘may’ in the proverb, it is further sexistly implied that
finding an ass that is capable of climbing a ladder would still be no guarantee for finding a wise
woman. The proverb thus implies that an ass (as stupid as it is presumed to be) may be wiser than a
woman.

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