社会语言学视角下《蛇蝎女佣》中女性身份的话语建构

【摘要】社语言学视角下的身份话语建构主要研究语言、权利与身份之间的关系，强调自我身份意识的重要性。《蛇蝎女佣》以丰富、幽默、风趣的女性言语为主，淋漓尽致的体现了移民女佣与富人雇主之间的权利制衡和权利冲突，也表达了移民女佣通过语言建构起的女性自我身份意识。本文以《蛇蝎女佣》第一季作为语料，试图对其中女性话语体现的权力关系和身份建构做出简要的解释。

【关键词】社会语言学 女性身份 话语建构 蛇蝎女佣

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 one’s 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 women’s 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 they’ve 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 “I’ll 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 you’re gonna sit by us， it’s 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：

That’s 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 wasn’t 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：

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作者简介：夏青，河北金融学院商务外语系，助教，东北大学毕业，研究方向：社会语言学，认知语言学，话语分析。