社會語言學視角下《蛇蝎女傭》中女性身份的話語建構

【摘要】社會語言學視角下的身份話語建構主要研究語言、權利與身份之間的關系，強調自我身份意識的重要性。《蛇蝎女傭》以豐富、幽默、風趣的女性言語為主，淋漓盡致的體現了移民女傭與富人雇主之間的權利制衡和權利沖突，也表達了移民女傭通過語言建構起的女性自我身份意識。本文以《蛇蝎女傭》第一季作為語料，試圖對其中女性話語體現的權力關系和身份建構做出簡要的解釋。

【關鍵詞】社會語言學 女性身份 話語建構 蛇蝎女傭

Social identity refers to the membership of a person within a social community， which is of great importance to the member in value and in emotion. The construction of identity is a constant process of self-defining， self-realizing and self-refining. Jenkins （1996） thinks that identity is a way of distinguishing distinct social individuals and the community as a whole among various social connections. Eckert （2000） advocates that identity， or the self-realization is actually an understanding of ones own social position in relation to others. The study of language and gender is a popular theme ever since the early 1920s. Jespersen （1922） points out the differences between male language and female language. Lakoff （1975） describes some characteristics of womens language within American culture from several discursive angles. The discursive construction of identity can be dated back to the later 1960s when Labov （1966） first started to assume that identity is a way of distinguishing individuals and the community as a whole within social relations， thus having the ability of being constructed. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet （2000） believe that men and women are constantly constructing their social identities through language.

The major story line of Devious Maids is carried out around five maids working for the rich in Beverly Hills. Through their dialogues among themselves or with their employers， they tend to choose to strengthen their female identities.

Firstly， female identity is constructed as maids. In Devious Maids， several words are constantly mentioned such as “the help”， “the maid”， “mop the floor” “clean the windows” “take care of the baby” “serve” and words like these can be good proofs of what theyve done. They construct their social identity as the maid under their working situations without feeling embarrassed or humiliated. Language is closely related to social and cultural context. The construction of identity is also closely associated with the language people use in their socialization. The five maids always construct sentences like “I am going to cook” “I have to clean the kitchen” or “Ill get if for you” which can all explain their social identity as the maid under the social context of working for the rich.

Secondly， female identity is constructed as secret-informer. The way they talk and chat constructs their identity as the informer of the secrets， revealing their social role as a disloyal maid of the secrets of the rich like the following words of Zoila when she invites Marisol to join them and gossip about the secrets of their employers：

“-Is it awful of me to gossip about my employers？

-Honey， if youre gonna sit by us， its a requirement.” （Episode 1）

Thirdly， female identity is also constructed as independent and equal individual. The five maids in Devious Maids are as independent and equal as their rich employers. Though maid they are， they never tend to feel awful or humiliated about their identity. They enjoy their legal rights， work as employees of other occupations and work at ease without embarrassment. The following citation is said by Zoila to her first lover Henry， the rich brother of her employer at dinner：

Thats all I ever was to you…a pleasant afternoon. God， I am such an idiot. For twenty years， you were the one who got away. But I always blamed myself. I thought I wasnt good enough for you. It turns out， you are not good enough for me. （Episode 6）

Therefore， people， male or female， usually use their typical and identical way of speaking to demonstrate his or her identity in the social structure where he or she lives， forming the discursive construction of his or her identity. The witty dialogues in Devious Maids present a brief explanation to the relationship of language and gender and the process of discursive construction of female identity as maid， secret-informer， as well as independent and equal individual.

References：

[1]Robin Tolmach Lakoff.Language and Womans Place[M].USA：Oxford University Press，1975.

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[4]項蘊華.國外有關身份的社會語言學研究[J].哲學動態，2009. 07：47-52.

[5]項蘊華.身份建構研究綜述[J].吉林大學社會科學學報，2005. 03：154-159.

[6]袁周敏.身份建構的應用研究述評[J].山東外語教學，2013.02： 38-44.

[7]史耕山，張尚蓮.國內語言性別差異研究概述[J].外語教學， 2006.05：24-28.

作者簡介：夏青，河北金融學院商務外語系，助教，東北大學畢業，研究方向：社會語言學，認知語言學，話語分析。