Abstract

The use of proverbs is a universal phenomenon in various societies in the world and Yorùbá is not an exemption. Studies abound on the nexus between language, sexism, and gender, most especially, how they relate to the use of proverbs in Yorùbá, a language spoken in Southwestern Nigeria. These studies have examined the discourse functions of proverbs in literary texts, television shows, newspaper reports and academic discourses with insufficient attention paid to how female subjugation manifests in the use of gender-sensitive proverbs in real-life conversational exchanges. This study investigates the linguistic undermining of women evident in certain Yorùbá proverbs in discourse-oriented situations with a view to identifying how the female gender is linguistically framed. The study analyzes six gendersensitive proverbs combining insights from deconstruction theory and Fillmore’s framesemantic approach to the understanding of discourse. The study shows how contrast, comparison and dissimilar connections between women and men help to entrench the dominance of masculinity in the proverbs. The study argues that certain social framing reconceptualizes and presents a flaw notion on the roles of women in the society. The study concludes that language is a social phenomenon and should develop according to the changing trends in the society.

Keywords: Yorùbá Proverbs, Gender, Discourse strategies, Framing, Deconstruction