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- Title
Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation.
- Authors
Vancauwenbergh, Margot; Franco, Karlien
- Abstract
This study examines a collection of expressions for the taboo topic of menstruation in Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. A model for the identification of conceptualization patterns in taboo verbalizations is set up, analyzing each expression according to the X-phemistic mechanisms and, if applicable, the metaphorical source domains or metonymic vehicles at its origin. The various conceptualizations of menstruation are approached from a socio-cultural perspective; variation in conceptualization is examined through a correspondence regression analysis with three speaker-related explanatory variables (L1 and associated cultural background, menstrual experience, and age group). The underlying interest is linguo-cultural as the study aims to verify whether dominant menstrual attitudes are reflected in the linguistic conceptualization of menstruation within each socio-cultural group. Such correlations are indeed found, although the youngest age-group shows some unexpected linguistic behavior.
- Subjects
MENSTRUATION; REGRESSION analysis; MANDARIN dialects; AGE groups; TABOO
- Publication
Language & Cognition (Cambridge University Press), 2024, Vol 16, Issue 2, p505
- ISSN
1866-9808
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/langcog.2023.45