女性を意味する動物メタファーの相違点 -狐・猫・蛇を中心に-

Abstract

This research aims to investigate and analyze differences as well as similarities found in three respective animals, such as fox, cat and snake, all of which are perceived as animalic metaphors implying femininity, on the basis of the outcomes gained through both internet web pages and proverbs concerned with these metaphors. The outcomes are as follows:▪ [1 – Fox]: Fox tended to engender metaphors by centering upon its “shape of yes” and the precondition that “it behaves quite intelligently (in a negative / derogatory sense)”. In particular, the latter one has been oftentimes identified during the internet research and this implication to do with fox has long remained unchanged up to the present time. In other words, the image of fox that “it behaves quite intelligently” has negative ramifications and, hence, this has not been utilized in a positive, hence favorable, sense. ▪ [2 – Cat]: Metaphors associated with cat were produced, centering primarily upon cat’s eyes attached to its skull part. The eyes in this context indicate “huge and attractive eyes” that generate positive images to others, not “just plain and expressionless eyes” in a literal sense. And the metaphor like “a woman like a cat” connoted not merely a woman having a liberal / open‐minded and even rowdy personality, but also a good‐looking and physically attractive woman. While words implying only negative images being identified in proverbs, positive images were also found in the internet research. On top of this, terms associated with cat were so diverse that the overall image of cat tended to be by and large changeable. ▪ [3 – Snake]: Metaphors to do with snake center upon its eyes that symbolize “heavy‐handed, crafty and crawly eyes” and their images had a tendency of having more negative ramifications than the first two metaphors. In proverbs were both positive (i.e. auspicious / fortunate face: 吉祥) and negative (i.e. bad omen)‐imaged words found in proverbs, leading to producing rather contradictory outcomes. This result was to a greater extent interesting, especially given that “the metamorphosis of snake” in the Japanese society generally connotes the gradual process of transforming it into to being an object of hatred from being an object of worship like god.