Rationale
Both women and men make up the whole world and are important workforce and integral elements of the economic development and the advance of society
However, over hundreds of years struggling in many parts of the world, women‟s rights finally became human‟s rights as voiced by Hillary Clinton at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in China, 5 September 1995 She said,
“Women‟s rights, in other words, have been recognized as important components of two scholarly disciplines and movements – international human rights and law and development Neither international human rights nor law and development can afford to ignore women‟s rights and remain true to their core objectives” (Cao, 2016)
In Vietnam, the acknowledgement of women‟s rights has been amounted to after the people achieved the independence from feudalism and colonialism
The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which was announced in public at the Ba Đình Square on September 2, 1945 served as a stroke in people‟s rights in general and women‟s rights in particular Before this event, there was no explicit feminist movement in Vietnam and feminism was an unpopular topic and rarely mentioned (Duong, 2001) However, it is apparent that during millennium Chinese occupation, Vietnam was profoundly influenced by Confucianism, which lowers Vietnamese women‟s status Central to Confucian doctrine was that men were superior and women inferior It clearly supported a patriarchal social order, putting women in a lower social rank compared to men Those ideologies have been imprinted into people‟s mind till now
The treasure of Vietnamese folk poems has been seen as the nationally- possessed cultural heritage, making their contributions to diversifying mental life of the people They are sometimes described as a tool which is drawn on to represent reality and experiences of the people such as human relations, productive labour and daily activities, even national war Concerning human relations, the number of folk exhibits behaviors among people With their powerful language, folk poems are not a neutral vehicle Words are employed to hold people in respect but demonstrate blatant disregard for others
Therefore, I manage to do a thesis called “Sexism in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage” to partly disclose a social-cultural problem underlying the discourse The study approached the folk poems from a linguistic stand point, aiming to systematically show the hidden gender ideologies and the linguistic means basing on linguistic theories and framework This feature may set the study distinguished from literary analysis in which meanings are more often derived from personal interpretation and emotions.
Aims and research questions
The current paper is devoted to a critical discourse analysis of positive and negative evaluation of men and women carried out in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage The aims of this research are to clarify the ideologies embedded in the discourse and to investigate linguistic means in which the ideologies are expressed In fact, the two aims are closely interrelated and they will be achieved simultaneously throughout the process of data analysis Moreover, this analysis of the literature momentum of the Vietnamese people is expected to raise people‟s critical awareness of the persisted gender inequality and partly help with gender balance through language The study attempts to answer the following research questions:
1 What are the sexist ideologies in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?
2 How are these ideologies linguistically reflected in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?
Research methods and scope
This research adopted the approach of Critical Discourse Analysis It analyzed
2000 selected folk poems on love and marriage which were collected in two anthoplogies of Vietnamese folk poems by Vũ Ngọc Phan and Phúc Hải The analysis decoded gender dominance in folk poems that linked to the society The qualitative method of data analysis was applied for the research After data collection, the analysis of verbal elements is performed basing on Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework Description-Interpretation-Explanation with Systemic functional grammar by M A K
Halliday as a ground The analysis procedure will be further explained in the methodology chapter.
Significance
In response to massive development and advancement in the globe, the issue of language and gender has been an appeal for linguists Therefore, the current research in part provides readers with a critical view on the issue
CDA often serves as an advocatory side for the people who suffer from discrimination in gender This study adds one more to a pile of linguistics investigations, critically reflecting on the social problem
Vietnamese folk poems have a life expectancy of thousand years but are faded over the time To awaken the interest in this literature monument, the study offers a chance to summon it up and cultivate its vitality generations after generations.
Design
The research consists of three parts:
Part A, INTRODUCTION, outlines the background of the research In this chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the research
Part B, DEVELOPMENT, includes four chapters:
Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND, presents literature review and contextual background Importantly, it gives an overview of some previous research on the same subject
Chapter 2, THEORY AND METHODOLOGY, refers to basic concepts, the framework, the data as well as the method to collect and analyze the data to facilitate the research process
Chapter 3, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, presents and discusses the findings of the data analysis, organized by themes, then supported by linguistic analysis
Part C, CONCLUSION, draws important conclusions and makes suggestions for further research.
LITERARUE REVIEW AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
Literature review
The issuance of “Language and woman‟s place” by Lakoff (1975) first established the relationships between gender and language The publication triggered a controversy on women‟s and men‟s different language use (Nguyen, 2017) In her study, Lakoff attributed gendered language to basic assumptions about outstanding language use of women However, a range of studies protested Lakoff‟s findings about women‟s language For example, “Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation” by Zimmerman and West (1975) or a study entitled “Man made language” by Spender in 1980 assumed that language differences were due to power domination Then gender and language studies could be classified in the direction of two approaches – dominance and difference Fishman, Zimmerman and West were involved in the former The later was associated with Tennen (1985) Although the two approaches agreed that cultural difference and male dominance were the reasons for different language use, they both saw gender as naturally determined (Nguyen, 2017)
Another approach of this domain of linguistics in the 1980s and 1990s was post-modernism, referring to the general philosophical movement incorporating all fields of knowledge such as art, architecture, and also feminism (Nguyen, 2017) Hall
(2004) affirmed, “In the early 1990s, the field of language and gender began to shift to what many scholars now identify as an ideological understanding of linguistic gender.”
Many investigations in the field of feminist linguistics and in the domain of media studies have been carried out to these days, sharing the same foci on gender representation, the discursive construction of gender and gender identities Scholars of vast disciplines, including gender bias, feminist or socio-linguistics all currently contradict the reasons for variance in women‟s and men‟s language and variables in language use to talk about women and men A typical illustration of post-modernist approach is Cameron‟s “Performing gender identity” (Coates, 1998) She shared the same opinion with the other two approaches that something other than gender contributed to the complicated issue of different language use
However, as Litosseliti (2006) said, “who we are is partly because of the way we use language” Post-modernism not only saw language as a social practice to reflect the reality but a constituent to create such reality Therefore, adopting this approach, many research focused on language used by men and women, also language to talk about them Accordingly, Litosseliti (2006) also said, language is “dynamic, complex and subject to change” meanwhile, “gender can be seen as a broader, a more encompassing and complex term”
The highlight of the current study is to answer the question of how language reflects our world More specifically, this study is expected to examine language used to talk about men and women
Since the 1960s, there have been many discussions of the sexist language and those discussions have been widened beyond the feminist circles The focal point is on language use which shows discrimination against women and trivializes the activities associated with women According to Darweesh & Abdullah (2016), “sexism is defined as “the practices whereby someone foregrounds gender when it is not the most salient feature” Like racism and other discriminatory forms of language, sexism derives from larger societal forces against the less powerfull class Accordingly, sexism is the struggle of gender – males and females (Mills, 2008)
Darweesh et al., (2016) posited that, “sexism does not reside in certain words and phrases, but it resides in the beliefs that see women as being inferior to men”
(cited from Cameron, 2016) That is the reason why the studies on sexism have had academic and popular appeal, especially in CDA both in the globe and in the context of Vietnam In feminist campaigners‟ opinion, language here does not serve the function of representing reality It is used as a weapon in a war against sexism
In Vietnam, Vu (2016) conducted an analysis on gender discrimination which was clearly expressed behind diversifying linguistic signals in Vietnames folk songs and proverbs His research reached some important findings such as: men as active, women as passive; men as talents, women as mediocre things; men as rational, women as emotional; women as dependent on men; women as men‟s possession He stated sexism underlying the discourse in Vietnam was derived from Confucianism
Although the current research seems in a quite adjacent context with his research, the two research is different in main details First, sharing conventional ideologies about men and women in the feudal time under the influence of Confucianism with the previous research, the current one views women in different spheres, which is believed to be more comprehensive and systematic Second, with regard to methodology, this one employs a well-established framework proposed by Fairclough and bases itself on the influential theory of systematic functional grammar by Halliday The findings, hence, are hoped to be profound and exhaustive.
Contextual background
Although the domain of sexism has had academic and popular appeal and has flourished internationally for ages, there is no common formula to clarify this issue because its origin is from the historical and socio-political context Hence, one thing noted from the literature of gender and language studies is that contextual background should be of paramount importance in revealing the embedded ideologies in language from a CDA perspective
1.2.1 Confucianism and its implications for gender equality in Vietnam
Vietnam experienced millennium colonization from 111 BC to 938 AD by the Northern invader at the medieval time Under its domination, China‟s culture was disseminated in the Vietnamese society with both the dark and bright sides It enormously benefited the community but caused from tangible to intangible damages as well “From the fifteenth century onward, Confucianism became the dominant orthodoxy for maintaining national integration and stability (Wilfred, 2014)
Concerning social order, as Pham (2005) stated, “Confucianism emerged as one of many schools of thought that sought to provide order to society” Over 1,900 years of dissemination, the Vietnamese society was maintained in a rigidly stratified social order People were supposed to hold a definite status in the social hierarchy and to behave accordingly As Ly (2015) said, Confucian scholars, aristocrats and officials following the Confucian pattern were regarded as the social senior and the inherent classes such as farmers, craftsmen, and businessmen were socially inferior While the senior group was attributed to be national governers, the inferior group was responsible for serving the upper classes and themselves as well Among them, scholars, aristoscrats and teachers were treated with greatest respect Even it was believed that “a teacher's position was higher than parents were and only lower than the king” (Sloper & Le, 1995)
About erudition, a hallmark of Confucius' thought was that education became engrossed against other aspects Only great intellect and immense erudition were associated with the value of a person It gave an individual the role of a “Mandate from Heaven” Confucius stated that “his lessons were destined for all men, without exception His pupils came from the lowest as well as the highest levels of society, and access to education was thereby broadened considerably” (Yang, 1999)
However, as history goes, under the influence of Confucianism and in control of Vietnamese feudalism, Vietnamese women were in the lower social rank, having few education opportunities The less education opportunities they had, the less opportunities they gained to escape from their own lowly positions According to Jiang
(2009), Confucianism had such great influence on the society that sexist practices and infamous oppression on women are taken for granted Women‟s inferior position was widely sustained without question
Regarding manners, according to Confucianism, there was a need to devise a code to regulate behavior and morals of people, which made people comply with, eliminating the unrest of the society Central to the Confucianism doctrine was three fundamental principles – the behavior, loyalty and obedience People was to abide by the code of conduct of deference: children were to show their filial duties to their parents, wives were to voluntarily surrender themselves to their husbands, students were to obey teachers and citizens were forced to yield to their rulers In a word, women were repeatedly considered as the lower social class compared to men Their practice of obedience to their husband was seen as a common sense and the most important virtue of women At the age of marriage, the girl was followed to her spouse‟s house and given the cautionary words: “when you go to your new home, you must be respectful and circumspect Do not disobey your husband” Despite women‟s obedience, polygyny was among prevailing social problems and accepted by law (Jiang, 2009)
In terms of gender bias in domestic worship, Confucius said "man is the representative of Heaven and is supreme over all things Woman yields obedience to the institutions of man and helps him to carry out his principles" (Robertson, 2014)
One of the major principles of Confucianism is “the cult of ancestor worship or veneration gives the male double roles: head of the household and religious head of household for ancestor veneration Since this rite is normally conducted only by the male descendents Boys are more desirable than girls” (US Navy, 1967)
Besides, language and documents were witnessed massive impacts Ly (2015) affirmed, “the acculturation generally and dissemination of Han culture specifically left a deep influence on Vietnamese language and writing” Ly (2015) showed us, regarding the grammatical aspect, for Vietnamese modern language, affixes were added to form Sino – Vietnamese words; compounds and many words of Chinese- origin were imported As for vocabulary, the majority of Vietnamese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese Even such the amount to date has still been used frequently, including ancient Sino - Vietnamese words, medieval Sino-Vietnamese words, contemporary Sino-Vietnamese words - conversational language of Vietnames - Chinese people in South Vietnam, and words containing Sino - Vietnamese elements
The diffusion of China‟s calligraphy is given because Vietnamese folk poems in the current study witness its deep penetration
1.2.2 The Vietnamese women’s status in patriarchal society
According to UNESCO materials (1989), “the introduction of a rigid Confucian hierarchy by the Chinese rulers left an indelible mark on Vietnamese history and culture” In patriarchal society, there remains the idea that “men are to be respected, women despised” and women are “weak and helpless creature” against men, said Confucius (Pham, 1999) Confucius also said, “the populace and women is ignorant, filled with bad instincts, and hard to educate” (Eno, 2015) Female children hardly escaped from their inherent inferior status cause only male children could get access to the nation‟s education system, mandarinate was destined for males
In marriage, women had no options rather than abide by whatever suitor chosen for them by their parents That was such the obvious fact that there went a saying, women were “sit wherever her parents ordered her to” They could not get married to a man of love For wedding – a lifetime event, women were considered a tribute, the same as money, jewels and other material objects to the owners of the family
UNESCO materials (1989) demonstrated, “for a sum of money given to poor peasants in distress, or for unpaid debt or land rent, they could seize young girls often reknowned for their beauty” Despite the beauty, marriage was an institution designed to take full use of women‟s labour After wedding, women were subjected to the husband‟s family
Being considered an important production force, women were resorted to all sorts of household work Women did all the domestic chores, tedious agrarian tasks and all the manual labour Nevertheless, being a female spouse, “if you have a son, you can say you have a descendant But you cannot say so if you have even ten daughters”, said Confucius (Pham, 1999) Sexist discrimination was shown right in the ways the family members received the next generations The young girl had no material possession and no rights to have succession as prescribed by a will, even though they made great contributions to the families
Under feudalism, as prescribed by law, polygyny and child marriage were acceptable, allowing the marriage of a man with several women (UNESCO, 1989)
Often, the rich man or his parents would choose a little girl as his wife, who would be in charge of operating the housework as a cheap servant At adulthood, the man could marry other girls while the little girl had to be loyal to her husba nd for her whole life, becoming unpaid servants bound for life to their ignoble exploiters
1.2.3 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage
The Vietnamese term “ca dao”, also “phong dao” simply refers to the romantic song without the music but the melody According to Balaban (1980), “Ca dao” are always lyrical, sung to melodies without instrumental accompaniment by an individual singing in the first person, not the narrative third person of traditional oral, epic poetry in the West The range of “ca dao” includes children‟s game songs, love songs, lullabies, riddles, work songs, and reveries about spiritual and social orders No stories are plotted The singer, to quote Confucius, merely
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
Theoretical background
Fairclough (1980) defines CDA as: “by critical discourse analysis, I mean
DA which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony”
According to van Dijk (1986), CDA is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias It examines how these discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical contexts
According to Wodak (2001), “CDA may be defined as fundamentally concerned with analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, signaled, constituted, legitimized and so on by language use (or in discourse)”
To brief, language construction and the role of language in structuring power relations in society are the target of CDA Most scholars agree that CDA does not necessarily a single method but tends to be an approach, which constitutes itself to different levels (Meyer, 2001)
The key notions of CDA are important to understand with a view to have an insight about this linguistics approach a Critical
Fairclough (2001) assumed that the concept of “critical” was employed in a special way to unearth hidden connections between language and power and ideology
Wodak (2001) said, “basically, „critical‟ was to be understood as having distance to the data, embedding the data in the social, taking a political stance explicitly, and a focus on self-reflection as scholars doing research” b Ideology
“Ideology, for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations CL takes a particular interest in the ways in which language mediates ideology in a variety of social institutions” Wodak (2001)
Van Dijk (2001) quoted the definition of ideology from Destutt de Tracy‟s writing by saying that, ideologies have something to do with system of ideas, and especially with the social, political or religious ideas shared by a social group or movement The definition highlights the reflection of the society‟s belief that urges them to preserve it and affect them c Power
Power is an abstract concept Muqit (2012) said, “It is defined as the ability of its holder to exact compliance or obedience of their individuals to their will” In CDA, language serves as the effective device to execute power between the one in more powerful position and the others in inferior place “Language is not powerful on its own – it gain power by the use powerful people make of it” (Wodak, 2001) One group utilizes language to establish hierarchy of the community
CDA appeared in the 1970s, adding a stroke to the interest of linguistic research
It turned from the concern for formal and structural properties of the text to the functional aspects of language as it related to the society This approach pays particular attention to the connections between language, power, domination, and ideology in general
Fairclough and Wodak (1997) encapsulate the main eight tenets in CDA as follows:
3 Discourse constitutes society and culture
6 The link between text and society is mediated
7 Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
8 Discourse is a form of social action While van Dijk distinguishes his approach from others in CDA by the mediation between society and discourse, i.e, between social cognition and personal cognition, Wodak differs his perspective from others by focusing on the historical contexts of discourse, Fairclough‟s CDA “brings social science and linguistics together within a single theoretical and analytical framework, setting up a dialogue between them” (Chuliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) His approach not only provides a critical view to the social problems, disclosing underlying power, ideology, etc but also has issue-addressed orientations Importantly, regarding language as a social practice, Fairclough can establish dialectical relationships between language and society in which historical and contextual elements are not excluded
Concerning CDA, Fairclough has been seen as the most important contributor to CDA in the development of the analytical framework so far His framework is considered the most useful vehicle to implement CDA Fairclough‟s three-part scheme of analysis is foremost mentioned as follows: text (description: formal properties of text), discourse practice (interpretation: relationship between text and interaction), and sociocultural practice (explanation: social determination of the production processes and interpretation and their social effects) a Description: Fairclough (2001) proposed ten questions to facilitate the analysis of discourse in terms of vocabulary, grammar and textual structure However, the current research mentions seven of them which really work for this investigation
1 What experiential values do words have?
- What classification schemes are drawn upon?
- Are there words which are ideologically contested?
- Is there rewording or overwording?
- What ideologically significant meaning relations (synonym, hyponym, antonym) are there between words?
2 What relational values do words have?
- Are there markedly formal or informal words?
3 What expressive values do words have?
5 What experiential values do grammatical features have?
- What types of process and participant predominate?
- Are processes what they seem?
- Are nominalizations, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ negative sentences used?
6 What relational values do grammatical features have?
- What modes (declarative, grammatical question, imperative) are used?
- Are there important features of relational modality?
- Are the pronouns „we‟ and „you‟ used? And if so, how?
7 What expressive values do grammatical features have?
- Are there important features of expressive modality?
As a suggested direction in the first stage of CDA, Fairclough recommends that both vocabulary and grammar carry a set of three values to facilitate data analysis, including experiential, relational and expressive ones
First, concerning experiential value, as Fairclough (2001) said, “A formal feature with experiential value is a trace of and a cue to the way in which the text producer‟s experience of the natural or social world is represented Experiential value is to do with contents, knowledge, and beliefs” This value is related to word choice, the repetition of ideologically contested words and the use of the words with similar or different traits of meanings to reflect the social reality
Second, relational values have something to do with formality of words To specify, choices of formal words or informal alternatives help with illustrating formality of societal relations between the producer of the text and the audience
Third, in expressive value‟s turn, it is placed in the dialectical relationships with the above two values, shedding light on subjects‟ evaluation of social identities (Fairclough, 2001)
Especially, metaphor is the use of a word or phrase to indicate something different from the literal meaning As metaphor has traditionally been viewed as the most important form of figurative language use, and is usually seen as reaching its most sophisticated forms in literary and poetic language (John, 2009)
Methodology
Step 1: The critical discourse analysis in the current research was carried out in about 2000 selected folk poems on love and marriage Among them were approximately 1300 poems on love and 700 of them on marriage Vu Ngoc Phan and Phuc Hai‟s anthopologies were chosen for the study among various ones of Vietnamese folk poems because the two authors divided thousands of poems that they collected according to the content of the poems, specially love and marriage, which was believed to be appropriate with the purpose of the research
Step 2: The focal point of this research is sexism in more than 2000 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage Therefore, the researcher filtrated the poems in together to form separate themes This step aimed to eliminate the poems in which did not discover the relationship between males and females In many poems, feelings and emotions on love and marriage were the topic Another case was simply borrowing landcape depiction to refer to affection and sentiment Or in exceptional cases, males or females were controversial All collected poems were the ones with sexist language either implicitly or explicitly
The current study employs Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework for CDA
In order to achieve the goal of the study, the researcher closely sticked to the proposed framework in all three stages Thereby, the data analysis was carried out as follows:
Stage 1 - Discourse description: In the stage of description, every single folk poem was thoroughly scrutinized to figure out the hidden and apparent sexist ideologies behind language The sexist phenomena were highlighted and classified into themes At the same time, the linguistic means to show such phenomena were noted down The researcher tried to answer the questions Fairclough posed as a suggestion for CDA Asnswers for those questions revealed discourse‟s properties in terms of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures which facilitated the second stage of interpretation
Stage 2 - Interpretation: This stage was concerned with the interaction between the text, the writer and the audience In the very first step, for the interpretation of the relationship between the text and the writer, it refers to as the surface and literal meaning of the discourse In the second step, for the interpretation of context, i.e., the interaction between the text and the audience, it refers to as the contextualization of the discourse As a CDA, the current study exposed the underlying ideologies in the filtrated data
Stage 3 - Explanation: For comprehensive view, the analysis tried to explain the ideologies under the context of the community in which people inhabited Macro factors such as history, culture, politics, background ideologies and so forth deserve careful consideration.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Women in the family setting
3.1.1 Women as caretakers for children
The most salient pictures when depicting women as caretakers are the emerging images of a woman with her child instead of a man with his child In most of those pictures, verbally, words and phrases are related to pain and misery that mothers must cope with since they carry a child in their womb
In terms of experiential values of words, a scheme for the act of giving birth to a child is easily seen in most of the poems with the same content, including “vượt cạn, sinh ra, mang nặng đẻ đau” The images of a woman in labour using the words “Vượt cạn” (giving birth to a child) and “mang nặng đẻ đau” (carrying a child in women‟s womb) are compared to the action of crossing the sea with numerous difficulties and threats
Example 5 (No 1575): Con mẹ có thương mẹ đâu,
Chín tháng mười ngày mang nặng đẻ đau
(The child feels no love for mother, Nine months, carry the child in the womb)
In terms of experiential values of grammar, the circumstance “chín tháng mười ngày” of the process “mang nặng đẻ đau” states artistic intentions From the aspect of textual meta-function, the theme “chín tháng mười ngày” is something other than the subject, referring to as the marked theme Readers can simply identify an obvious sexist discrimination in the poems The clause not only describes the incident, but conveys a message as well As a starter of the clause, old information, the lengthy period of time is to introduce the act of giving birth However, despite pain and misery, the explicit meaning of this poem is that women are mistreated because the child does not share the love of maternity Such the same message is also present in the following poetic line:
Example 6 (No 1526): Mẹ sinh ta vượt cạn một mình
(Mother gave birth to a child alone)
In term of grammar, the experiential values show real effectiveness in CDA
The former sentence would not be a debate unless the actor “mẹ” (a woman) and the material process “vượt cạn” (giving birth to a child) was not accompanied with the circumstance “một mình” (alone) It must be a controversial issue of whether women should have a claim about their own maternity when it is widely held that mothers should find motherhood a holy job However, the circumstance “một mình” is the highlight of the sentence It makes an emphasis on the act of mistreating by men, who are supposed to be by his counterpart in difficult moments
These following verses show that as a mother, women display their presence in children‟s development day by day:
Example 7 (No 1583): Gió mùa thu mẹ ru con ngủ
Năm canh chầy, thức đủ năm canh
(Wind puffing in fall, mother sing you child to sleep Five times watch-announcing, stay awake the whole time)
Example 8 (No 1625): Vợ nghèo ẵm trẻ hài nhi
Lên tầng để búi, rồi đi đẩy gòong
(Poor wife carry an infant in her arms, Twist hair into a bun, then go and push a freight car)
Example 9 (No 1530): Dành riêng quà bánh nhường cho
Sắm riêng quần áo mới đồ chiều con Trông con nằm ngủ ăn ngon
Sợ con thất ý lại còn hờn lâu Hai ba tuổi độ hầu học nói Tập dạy cho thưa nói dần dần Nuôi thầy dạy học tập văn tập bài
(Reserve a child candies Buy clothes for the child Take care of his sleeping and eating
Be afraid the child is dissatisfied and resent
At two - three, the child learn to talk Teach to occasionally speak
Invite teachers to teach the child)
Experiential values of words make great contributions to the representation of a mother as a caretaker in these poems A scheme and a wide range of the words reffering to the act of taking care by mothers are listed such as: “tay bồng, tay mang, ẵm, ru, ủ, ôm,” (carrying a child in mothers‟ arms) or “dạy” (teaching) Another scheme refers to mother‟s sacrifice such as: “dành riêng, nhường cho, sắm riêng, chiều”
In terms of experiential values of grammatical features, the participants – recciepient or goal are “con” (children) Not father or anyone else, mothers are the
“actor” of the “material process” realized by the verbs such as: “ru” (singing a child to sleep), “bồng” or “ẵm” (carrying a child on mothers‟ arms) The statement starts with the circumstance – an adverbial phrase “gió mùa thu” (in autumn with the wind puffing lightly), suggesting an overwhelming emotion of maternity in a quiet and gentle atmosphere
Mothers are often seen taking care of and covering children in tranquility
However, when taking care of children, mothers are always worried In terms of experiential values of words, a classification scheme for women‟s anxiety or the act of worrying is employed At the same time, in terms of experiential values of grammar, mothers are always the carier in relational process with the verbs “lo” and “phiền”
(feeling worried), “khổ tâm” (grieving)
Example 10 (1529): Năm canh con khóc cả năm Ôm con mẹ chịu khổ tâm lo phiền Khi con ốm sốt chẳng yên
Con phiền có một mẹ phiền bằng hai
(Five times watch-announcing, the child weeps and moans all the time Carrying the child in the arms, mother is crushed by grief
When the child gets ill, The child is uncomfortable one time, mother grieves twice)
Example 11 (1530): Con rày đã yên lành mát mẻ
Mẹ mới lòng vui vẻ không lo
(The child is all right Mother is relieved)
In the collection of folk poems about the affection between mothers and children, parallel structures are seen very often When children cry, the mother feels down When children suffer from illness, the mother feels tensioned The repetition of behavioral and relational process reflects mother‟s careful attention to children
Children are the focal point of mother‟s thinking Here, the mother not only fulfills her taken-for-granted duties as the caretaker for children but incurs the responsibility of upbringing and educating children as well
To conclude, despite pain and misery, women‟s sacrifice for children was not attached much importance They were even treated with neglect
3.1.2 Women as caretakers for in-law family’s members
Additionally, the portrait of a woman is also depicted in the caring role for husband or husband‟s family members as follows:
Example 12 (No 1593): Áo ướt em mang hong
Mồ hôi em giặt, quần hồng em mang
(Wet coats I give an aring to Sweaty shirts I wash trousers I clothe)
Example 13 (No 1594): Nào khi anh ốm anh đau
Tay bưng chén thuốc vã đầu cho anh
(When you are ailing, Medicine on the hands, I release for your headache)
Example 14 (No 1569): Anh đi em ở lại nhà
Hai vai gánh vác mẹ già con thơ
(You leave, I stay at home Take responsibility for an eldly mother and young babies.)
To realize experiential meta-function, also in terms of experiential values of grammar, the material process is repeatedly utilized in those three verses, indicating that a woman, as the actor participant of the material process, keeps performing her daily activities such as: “hong quần áo, giặt quần áo” (giving an airing and doing the washing to clothes) for her husband When the husband suffers from illness, the woman relieves him with the act of releasing for husband from his headache “vã đầu”
Her counterpart and in-law parents are the recipient participant In term of mood, declarative modes are also employed to show that serving husband and in-law family members is wives‟ responsibility beyond question
In any drawing of women, they occupied the role of a servant for the other family members of all times
3.1.3 Women as caretakers for house chores
In the following poem, the female is the narrator of the story about her ordinary life The story has 4 lines
Example 15 (No 1519): Canh một dọn cửa dọn nhà
Canh hai dệt cửi, canh ba đi nằm Canh tư bước sang canh năm Chiềng anh dậy học còn nằm làm chi
(First watch-announcing tidy up house Second weave silk, third lie down From the fourth until the fifth Wake you up to study, you lie still)
Here, once again, that is experiential values of words and phrases which all show that managing domestic work and cleaning-up chores is females‟ taken-for-
Remarkably, concerning in experiential values of grammar, every single line starts with a circumstance, referring to sequential points of time and operating as marked theme at the same time The marked theme is given and old information, paving a way for new information, which is a range of daily chores performed by the woman
The transitivity of experential meta-function and the theme-rheme relations in textual meta-function are placed emphasis the most to show that women offered no resistance
In one word, women‟s responsibilities were supposed to do mediocre jobs like daily chores Sexism was shown clearly in the representation of men performing a greater task – studying
3.1.4 Women as helpers for men
Besides the above weighty responsibilities, a wife, as a part of family, plays a role of main workforce, making great contributions to the economy‟s family This role is demonstrated in a wide range of verses Take some of the verses as examples:
Example 16 (No 1745): Sáng trăng, trải chiếu hai hàng,
Cho anh đọc sách, cho nàng quay tơ
(In the moonlight, unroll sedge mat, Husband read books, wife weave silk)
Example 17 (No 1972): Thiếp thời tần tảo cửi canh
Chàng thời nấu sử sôi kinh kịp thì
(I contrive to warp and weave You manage to cram for examintaions)
Example 18 (No 1940): Em ngồi dệt cửi trên khung
Anh đến ngồi học cùng chung một đèn
(I am weaving silk by the warp frame, You take a seat and study with the same lamp)
Obviously, a weaving and sawing wife or a sales-wife is often seen next to the portrait of a husband who is reading books, cramming for examinations or chanting a poem Here are some of dozens of folk poems about men‟s and women‟s jobs
In terms of experiential values of vocabulary, rewording of terms referring to their jobs clarifies the conventional assumption that certain jobs are destined for men and women, including “đọc sách, nấu sử sôi kinh, học hành” (reading books, cramming for examinations, studying) and “quay tơ, dệt cửi, cửi canh, buôn bán”
Women in the social setting
3.2.1 Women in low social hierarchy
In terms of experiential values of words, there is a scheme for addressing to males and females in the entire data Among more than 2000 folk poems on love and marriage, males are often addressed as “quân tử, anh hùng, tài tử, trượng phu, người văn nhân” and females as “hồng nhan, má hồng, thục nữ, thuyền quyên” This classification scheme, as a sub-part of experiential values, demonstrates the reaility of the social world as follows:
Example 35 (No 293): Lộc còn ẩn bóng cây tùng
Thuyền quyên đợi khách anh hùng vãng lai
(Bud is shrouded on the pine tree,
A beautiful girl waits for a man of honor)
The addressing of males refers to a man of honour and good appearance with strength and ability, meanwhile that of females indicates women are assessed by their appearance and explicit assessement rather than intelligence or implicit personality
The addressing, at the same time, is a reminder of ideal images of men and women in feudal society Sexism reflects in the representations of ideal men and women themselves
Whilst the society highly appreciated men with intelligence and morale, women‟s intelligence and morale were looked down upon It seemed hard to abandon male-dominated ideologies because it was deeply rooted in people‟s mind for so long
The society unfairly excluded women from the scenario in which they could be outstanding, obtain great accomplishments and socially recognized as men There only existed a man of immense erudition “anh hùng trí cao” (a man of high mind)
Experiential values of these words reveal the implicit ideology about males and females in hundreds of folk poems
Another scheme also demonstrates gender inequality That is the use of the terms to talk about some certain vocations: “ông đồ”, “anh đồ”, “thầy” These Vietnamese terms invoke no more than a male scholar and teacher in people‟s minds
Otherwise, only men are represented as “học trò” (a student):
Example 36 (1989): Anh là con trai học trò
Em thách cưới thế anh lo thế nào?
(You are a student, How can you cover wedding-presents?)
Example 37 (1619): Quả cau nho nhỏ, cái vỏ vân vân
Nay anh học gần, mai anh học xa
(Tiny areca, tough skin, You attend schooling far and near.)
In all of 2000 selected folk poems, the use of “cô giáo” (female teacher) or any other terms referring to a female scholar can be found nowhere The lack of parallel forms to talk about females‟ occupation in these folk poems indicates that only men were received orthodox education It is the reaffirmation of the ideology of the contemporary society In erudition, women did not reserve the right to display their presence in schooling and examinations Also, hardly could women be present in mandarinate places In most cases, women unfairly held socially trivialized occupations such as salesperson, merchant, dealer and trader or weaving workers It is, at the same time, a clear explanation for men‟s higher position in the society In prestigious areas like politics where people are socially recognized, men are the belief
Example 38 (No 1607): Một mai chúa mở khoa thi
Bảng vàng choi chói bia đề tên anh
(One day the lord organize an examination The dazzling rolling of honor, your name is respected)
Example 39 (No 1609): Anh đi ra mười chín nước chư hầu
Có ai chịu phận thảm sầu như em
(You leave for vassals Nobody is grieved like me)
Example 40 (No 1604): Chàng đi vực thẳm non cao
Em mong tìm vào đến núi Tản Viên
(You go up hill and down dale,
I contrive to arrive Tan Vien mountain)
In terms of experiential values of grammar, the authors tend to trivialize women by making men stand out, using a wide range of material processes such as “đi lính”
(serve in the army), “làm quan” (join mandarin places), and “nổi cơ đồ”, “chen đua với đời”, “vượt non cao” (doing incredible jobs) with the men as the actor Any activity associated with men is overestimated in relation to those activites associated with women The truth is in the reverse direction for women, i.e activitives by women are kept lessened
Adding to negative evaluations for women, many of folk poems presented degradation of women by using simile phenomena Two of them are given as following examples:
Example 41 (280): Thân em như đóa hoa rơi,
Phải chăng chàng thật là người yêu hoa
(My fate is like falling flowers You are a lover for flowers?)
Example 42 (646): Anh như con một nhà giàu
Em như tờ giấy bên Tàu mới sang Anh như con một nhà quan
Em như con én lạc đàn ngẩn ngơ Anh như chỉ gấm thêu cờ
Em như rau má nở bờ giếng khơi Cho nên chả dám ngỏ lời
Người chê rằng bạc, kẻ cười rằng khinh
(You are the only child in rich family
I am like Chinese paper You are the only child in mandarinate
I am a stray swallow from the herd You are like silk to saw the flag
I am like penny wort by the will
I dare not to say One sneers with ingratitude, one laughs with despise.)
Very often, folk poems in this collection exploit the semantic figure of simile to make a comparision of women and their destiny as well, using the particle “như” (like) and “là” (as) Experiential values of comparison images are declared to be ideologically contested The devaluation of women are clearly seen when women are compared with “hoa rơi” (falling flowers), “cơm nguội” (cold rice), “bàn cờ”
(chessboard), “giấy Tàu” (Chinese paper), “én lạc đàn” (a stray swallow from the herd), etc Most of the images manage to convey an ideological message and draw a terrible picture of women that women are dispensable wastes and abundancies, objects of low quality, or inanimate objects Perhaps, the pronoun “anh” and “em” in these Vietnamese folk poems does not provide sufficient and adequate imformation about the first-singular person in this context However, with any clarification, it is convincing argument that women are belittled
Metaphors are proved to be a preferred semantic figure by the Vietnamese populace as the authors of this literature heritage to tell the story about women‟s tragic fate in numerous verses
Example 43 (No 286): Có đào đông chàng đừng phụ liễu tây
Bơ vơ phận gái biết rày làm sao
(With peach tree, you badly behave willow tree Lonely fate, what to do?)
Example 44 (No 401): Phận bèo nhiều nỗi linh đinh,
Kể sao cho hết phận mình khúc nôi
(The fate of water-fern is floating on water Hardly to tell about such floating destiny.)
Willow tree is a plant with hanging-down leaves and barks, usually referring to a weak woman Water-fern is another plant, often seen floating on water and the image of floating water-fern is employed to talk about women‟s destiny under the drift of unforeseen events in life Repeatedly, metaphorical figures of women are inanimate objects, which people do not necessarily care for emotions and their behavior to the inanimate objects is of their free will More importantly, here, peach tree, willow tree and water-fern are ascribed personal qualities Like persons, they have a relationship
They badly behave to each other Like persons, water-fern has its own fate, floating and drifting on the face of the waters In one word, through metaphorical figures, it is an underlying ideology that women have no other choice but accept to be a living but powerless thing with a fragile soul
One more interesting point about the value of words and semantic strategies in folk poems is that they depicted women as dependent beings who were always dominated by other than three bonds and four virtues That is, hundreds of folk poems mentioned the impact of so-called destiny on women‟s life In terms of classification scheme, folk poems about women being dependant beings were found in the use of the scheme for destiny such as “duyên, phận, số, thì”
The metaphorical images are engaged to partly represent women as dependent beings
Example 45 (No 95): Huệ tàn bướm chẳng vãng lai,
Tình thương đã phụ, trúc mai kể gì!
Ví dù hoa hỡi là hoa!
Mùa xuân không nở, nở vào mùa đông
(Faded flower, butterflies are indifferent Affection is badly treated, so are bamboo and plumtree
Spring, you do not blossom, you blossom in winter)
It is not difficult the least to determine mataphorical phenomena of a woman for
“hoa tàn” in these poems However, remarkably, the implicit images of faded flowers and late blossoms are employed to convey a message The implication is that like flowers, women have their own right time to blossom They are dependent objects and cannot make a decision for their own life
Sexist bias in these poems is the fact that women are considered as weak and dependant beings and there is no opposition by any means
Conclusion
This research is an attempt in Critical Discourse Analysis to clarify the relationship between language and society An investigation was conducted in 2000 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage to find the answers for the two questions, namely what- question and how-question The study employed Fairclough‟s framework on the basis of Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Grammar
Research question 1: What are the sexist ideologies in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?
Concerning the sexist ideologies in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage, the investigation unveiled the allegedly subordinate roles of women in family and society
In the family setting, women were not supposed to perform any important roles other than a caretaker for children, family members in law and house chores, a helper and a person waiting for men Despite such numerous roles, women were considered as inferiors to men and dependent beings and even badly treated In the social setting, women, at the same time, served as people in low social hierarchy, and dependent beings as well To brief, despite various roles in family, women in the past were despised and mistreated
Also, regardless of such numerous roles in society, females were always belittled and any activities related to them were trivialized For the unjust both the two communities, women were held back all the time and could not escape from the society‟s confinement
Research question 2: How are these ideologies reflected in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?
Sexism in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marrigage was shown either verbally or by overestimation of male representation through semantic figures Data analysis was conducted on the basis of three-dimension framework and Hallidayian‟s as a ground Therefore, underlying ideologies were exposed by answering the proposed set of questions and realizing three meta-functions in a comprehensive way as well The threesome of experiential-relational-expressive values of words and grammar, especially classification schemes and unusually high degree of wording as smaller parts of experiential values, was seen reflecting the reality of the world Also, transitivity, moods and theme-rheme relations reinforced the downplaying of women‟s significances and contributions in both domains Additionally, semantic features of the discourse, namely metaphor and simile, were elicited to display traditional biased assumptions about men and women, which were embedded in the discourse.
Limitations
One of the CDA‟s ambitions is to discover hidden ideologies in the discourse and to bring readers to see them However, the discourse of the current research on sexism in folk poems on love and marriage was placed in the context of Vietnamese feudal and patriarchal society; the gender bias against women was and has been prevailing philosophy among Vietnamese people until now Therefore, despite being from CDA standpoint, the investigation tends to unearth linguistic signals rather than well-known social problems and relations To specify, it provides linguistic evidence for gender inequaties of the contemporary society in folk poems, which are not new to everyone any longer.
Suggestions for further research
As far as we know, the historical aspects or the social context contributed greatly to shape attitudes towards Vietnamese women those days However, the fact is that no one can determine the exact time at which a single poem was compiled How can we identify in which period of time did one particular folk poem appear? Certainly, it has posed a question for researchers of other domains rather than linguistics In term of language studies, it is impossible for the researcher to analyze language construction to reveal sexism evolution in the society which is supposed to be increasingly profound This can be a suggestion for furture investigations They can be a potential study in linguistics or other domains of social studies
Additionally, as said above, CDA tends to select the view of the people who suffer from gender discrimination and criticize language use of those who are supposed to be in power and take responsibility for gender inequalities It can be a suggestion for upcoming research to carry out a CDA in the view of opposite side To specify, a CDA on gender prejudice in favour of men can be highly recommended
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