The “Doctrine of Discovery” was used by European monarchies, beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, as a means of legitimizing the colonization of lands outside of Europe. It was issued in 1493, the year after Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of what is now known as North America. The Doctrine of Discovery provided a framework for Christian explorers, in the name of their sovereign, to lay claim to territories uninhabited by Christians. If the lands were vacant, then they could be defined as “discovered” and sovereignty claimed. The Doctrine of Discovery continues to impact Indigenous peoples throughout the world.
f the branch that deals with proverbs – paremiology. The classification of proverbs about women and the comparative and contrastive analysis between the cultural peculiarities in these structures are provided in this chapter.
Chapter Two examines 150 of examples of English and Romanian proverbs about women selected from various reliable sources. These have been classified and analyzed according to various criteria such as structure, meaning, message.
The conclusion comprises all the results of each subchapter analysis. It summarizes the information employed in the research and the results obtained in the practical chapter.
The main sources used in both chapters are Proverbs: A Handbook by Mieder W., American Proverbs about Women: A Reference Guide by Kerschen, L. and Realități sociale oglindite în proverbe by Zoltán, S., Cultural Dimensions in English and Romanian Proverbs by Lifari, V. and Vicol, D.
Chapter One. The Concept of Proverb and Its Linguistic Aspects
The reason of this chapter is to provide a presentation of the most important theoretical peculiarities associated with proverbs about women. It includes definitions of proverbs, their origins, paremiology, the image of women in English and Romanian cultures, and the linguistic features that refer to different types of category and classification according to diverse and various authors, and their general and well known characterization. The methods used here are analysis, synthesis, contrast, classification and comparison.
1.1. Definitions of Proverbs
People speaks and communicate every day, every time they share and discuss pieces of information, they also have some conversation when they wants to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings but can not find the right words. In this instance the proverbs appear in their help. Proverb is a brief and a popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense. A proverb may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance. The reason of popularity is due to its usage in spoken language as well as in the folk literature.
Proverbs comes to mind automatically when speaking orally or writing on a paper, and their use depends on situation; they are practiced in political speech, in poetry, in familiar and friendly chats and in other cases extensively. A lot of scholars from antiquity and to our days have studied proverbs trying to define them and giving the best definition that would be accepted by everyone.
