Gender Metaphors in Russian and English Linguocultures: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The article represents the results of the comparison between gender oppositions of Russian and English linguocultures that are fixed in the system of conceptual metaphors. As the main sources of data for metaphor study dictionaries of the Russian and the English languages are used. We reveal the peculiar characteristics of a person with no respect to gender and gender-marked characteristics that are common and culture-specific for the two linguocultures. What the metaphorical nominations of a person have in common is that the aspect of gender differences is not predominant; however, they are of importance when describing a person's appearance. The distinctive feature of the metaphorical systems is a significant prevalence of metaphors characterizing women in Russian.