The Sexism in English Language英语中的性别歧视

1、the sexism in english language英语中的性别歧视abstractsexism in english language has launched along with the vigorous development of womens liberation movement since the end of 1960s. as a mirror reflecting the society, language images the social views and values. sexism in society is thus inevitably reflec

2、ted in the use of language.the paper based on the analysis of sex discrimination in english explores that it is by no means an extinction of sexist language so long as the sexism in society exists. the causes of sexism in this thesis are the inequality between male and female. in ancient time, the t

3、houghts that males host females and the treatment of women as inferiors to men are in vogue. men are always at superior positions to women in the social economy, in the politics, as well as in the peoples traditional ideas, so the idea of sex discrimination has reflected in the language. the thesis

4、summarizes the phenomena of sexism in english by using universal evidence, and they are shown and discussed in four aspects: english proverbs, english expressions, english vocabulary and the meanings of english words. lastly, the thesis introduces two feasible strategies to erase sexism in english l

5、anguage, and they are: language reform and social reform. the most important one is to erase the sexist conceptions and improve womens status, respect and support them. the language transformation can be realistic on the basis of the social reform.key wordssexism; female words; masculine words; stra

6、tegies 摘要自20世纪60年代起，语言性别歧视已随着女性解放运动的展开而得到蓬勃发展。语言是社会现实的一种反映，因此由于历史发展、文化、社会价值及男女两性之间在生理等方面的差异而引起的性别歧视，尤其是社会对女性的性别歧视一览无余的体现在语言上，英语语言中也存在性别歧视。本篇论文阐述了性别歧视产生的原因是男女地位的不平等，在人类早期，男尊女卑的思想盛行，男子在社会经济、政治、文化领域以及人们的传统观念中，总是处于比女性优越的地位,人们在观念上形成的对妇女特有的歧视观念慢慢形成并反映在语言中。本文分析了性别歧视在英语中的四个方面的表现：在谚语中；在词汇中；在词语中和在词义中，通过大量的举例和

7、分类来系统阐述。最后着重讨论了消除性别歧视语所应采取的一些策略，从语言策略和社会策略两方面入手，要消除性别歧视，关键在于根除社会上存在的性别歧视观念，进一步提高妇女的社会地位，语言的变革只能在社会变革的基础上才能实现。关键词性别歧视； 女性词； 男性词； 策略 introductionlanguage is a social phenomenon, and it has a close relationship with the social life, the language is used in a specific social group and it is not only the

8、 carrier of the ideological content, but a mirror of social life, it reveals peoples traditional thoughts that sex discrimination against women in the society. from the development and changes of the language, people can conclude that sex discrimination does not only exist in china, but in all the c

9、ountries. therefore, how does english language reflect the social phenomenon?the first person who did research on the gender and language is the denmark linguist otto.jespersen, he regards english as the most masculine language that is familiar to him, and it is a man centered language. the domestic

10、 scholars and experts, yang yonglin, bai jiehong, and so on, have done thorough research about sexist element in the english language, they also have introduced some feasible strategies to erase the sexism, but they just have done thorough research from the language strategy aspect. in the thesis, t

11、he author does the research from the combination of the social reforms and language reforms, and it is essential to erase the sexism from peoples minds. english, as one of the most widespread languages, its sexist element shall not be suitable to the intercultural communications, but there is massiv

12、e discrimination in it, people should pay much more attention to the sex equality and the improvement of womens social positions. understanding the sexist phenomenon in english language helps people study the language culture, and correctly treat the changes of the language in the historical develop

13、ment. the thesis emphatically introduces and analyzes the specific phenomena of sexism and also provides corresponding strategies that can be used to eliminate sexism in english language. . a definition to sexism in english languagesexism, in the oxford advanced learners english-chinese dictionary,

14、it means that disapproving action based on the ideas or belief that the members of one sex are less intelligent, able, and skillful, etc, than the members of the other sex, especially that women are less able than men and those particular jobs and actions are suitable for women and others are suitab

15、le for men. sexism in english refers to english expresses sexist assumptions about differences between men and women as in the prejudicial use of female or male wordssexist language expresses unfair assumptions and differences, and it can be either explicit, as in the prejudicial use of male or fema

16、le pronouns, or implicit. using universal evidence, the thesis here reveals how often english expresses sexist assumptions about differences between men and women.just as a proverb goes in england: “if you see an old man, sit down and take a lesson; if you see an old woman, throw a stone.” what expr

17、esses english version of the sexism prescribed for women, is particularly confining. english jokes and folklore are blatantly sexist. (nilsen alleen pace, 1990). in fact, woman in the world no matter in which country she lives, the roles designated to them is unfair in the society. sexism in english

18、 languagethe paper presents the sexist phenomenon, which is very universal in english language. and it is shown and discussed in four aspects: english proverbs, english expressions, english vocabulary and the meanings of english words.a. sexism in english proverbsproverb is crystallization of human

19、wisdom and incarnation of the concise language. the linguists consider the proverbs as a mirror of the ethnic, the live fossil of the language. in recent years, with the further study of the language, the linguists have found what refers to both genders, most proverbs in every kind of language unavo

20、idably express the affection of the male chauvinism and feudal consciousness of the treatment of females are inferior to males, and followings are some usual phenomena of the sexist language in english proverbs.1. role categorythe women are considered as delicious food in the society, the roles of w

21、omen in the society and culture in every country are very passive, but men are active, for example: “a fair woman without virtue is like palled wine”, “all women may be won”, “words are women, and deeds are men”. the sentence “long hair and short wit” expresses women is lack of wisdom, but men are c

22、lever, another example goes like this: “when an ass climbs a ladder, we may find wisdom in women” （庄和诚，2002）, the sexist language expresses women are lack of wisdom and they are capricious.2. manner categoryin modern society, most people hold such mind that men are successful but women are sexy. in

23、american culture, a woman is valued for the attractiveness and sexiness of her body, while man is valued for his physical strength and accomplishments. a persuasive piece of evidence supporting this view is that female eponyms relate closely to a womans physical anatomy, while the masculine eponyms

24、have nothing to do with the namesakes body, but instead, honor the man for his achievement and accomplishment.3. marriage categoryin relation to marriage, there is much linguistic evidence showing that weddings are more important to women than to men. many proverbs reflect such feudal consciousness

25、that girls are not important in a family. for example: “it is a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock”, “marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can”, “there are many good women, it is true but they are in their graves”. （庄和诚，2002） such examples have revealed women are infe

26、rior and subordinate to them.b. sexism in english expressionsenglish has gradually formed the tendency that the expressions referred to the male generalize the ones pointed to the two genders during its development. although people do not mind to discriminate against women during their communication

27、s, the phenomena that people discriminate against women reflect the gender bias of society, and sometimes, women feel insult from other people. moreover, some expressions structure that elaborate the meanings of discriminating against woman have emerged, and therefore people call english a sexist la

28、nguage.1. the summary of masculine expressions on two genders masculine english expressions summarize two genders. people often meet such sentences during our study and daily life: “any patient is free to bring his complaint to me if he feels aggrieved”, “we hope the reader will use his own judgment

29、”, “everyone should hand his homework tomorrow”. from the above examples, it is clear that the words “his” or “he “in the sentences refer to two genders, not the single gender, that is to say, “he” contains “she”, “his” contains “her”. besides, to begin a letter, words referred to males contain two

30、genders in salutations of a letter, people often use the words referred to man summarize man and woman when they do not know the receivers specific sex of the people, for example, in formal letters, people often use “dear sir or dear gentlemen”, but do not care for the receivers sex. the sexism exis

31、ts in every field, so people should pay much attention to the sexist phenomenon in the language.2. sex orders in expressions and wordsfemale words are behind male words, in some english expressions, when referring to men and women, the two genders are not equal, female words are behind male words, f

32、or instance: brother and sister, father and mother, boys and girls, husband and wife, man and woman. those do not elaborate the sexist meanings in form but with sexism in sense. the jobs teacher, nurse, secretary, model, and etc, these neutral words are designated to female, but professor, lawyer, d

33、octor, etc. are recognized as masculine words and designated to males. all these customaries are a social bias, just look at another example: “professional”, when a man is called a professional, he is thought to be a doctor or a lawyer, but when people hear a woman referred to as a professional, and

34、 they are likely to think of a prostitute. but it is not true today, because so many women have become doctors and lawyers that it is no longer incongruous to think of women in those professional roles. people should change their traditional conceptions that females are inferior to males.3. the chan

35、ges of female words meaningsduring the development of english, many female words meanings have taken place during the history. for example, “governor”, in old english, it referred to the person in charge of a particular unit, and now it keeps the same meaning. however, the relative word “governess”

36、means another thing, it has changed its former meaning from family tutor into prostitute, and another example, “master” and “mistress” referred to the male and female school teacher, but now the word “mistress” refers to a woman who is having a sexual relationship with a married man, and so do many

37、other words, lord and lory, sir and madame, temper and temptress. the female words have changed their former meanings and they have been endowed with a belittled meaning, which is the sexist reflection in english language.c. sexism in english vocabularysexism exists in english language, it shows tha

38、t masculine vocabulary refer to both genders, that is to say, the generalization of the masculine words.1. sex discrimination and job titlesinferior job titles refer to both genders, but higher ones only refer to male. in english, there are both feminine words and masculine words referred to the inf

39、erior jobs in social status. for instance, waiter and waitress, steward and stewardess. but when referring to the higher post titles, there are only masculine words, such as doctor, professor, engineer, etc. are suitable for both genders. however, these words are usually associated with masculine, i

40、f they are used to designate female, they would always be added on a word “woman” or “lady”. such as these words a lady-doctor, a business woman-lawyer. in english, the words used to describe woman are pejorative and belittled, but the words used to describe man are positive and praised, although th

41、e man and woman do the same work in a company, people used to describe them with different words due to the social bias, for example, a businessman is aggressive, and a businesswoman is pushy. in addition, one often meets these phenomena during our daily lives2. man and womanmale are superior to fem

42、ales. woman is subordinate to man. in vocabulary, the nouns ending with er, or are neutral words, but people think they are masculine, such as doctor, professor; engineer, etc. if they are designated to females, they always add woman or lady before them, and many professional nouns take “man” as the

43、ir suffix, such as chairman, mailman, etc. although there are many women working in the field, the word he always indicate the both genders, just as english teachers often say that nobody in the class can be proud of his english, here, “his” stands for girls and boys, no matter that there are many b

44、oys and girls in the class. the generalization of the word “he” reveals men are superior to women and men are the center of the society.d. sexism in the meanings of english wordsa word, when it is used in different genders, it is endowed with different meanings. for example, “prudent man” refers to

45、a man who is careful and cautious to the uncertainties and he acts care and foresight, but “prudent woman” is the woman who behaves in an extremely manner. and another example: “imposing man” refers to the man who looks important or causes admiration, but “imposing woman” refers to the woman who is

46、indifferent, ruthless and horrible.furthermore, another word “tramp” which is used to refer to the man without family, job or money, who travels around and asks for money from others ,but when “tramp” refers to a woman, it is a mistress, obviously it is a semantic choice of social bias. sometimes, t

47、wo words point to the same thing, the linguistic senses are different, for example, bachelor refers to the single man, but the word spinster refers to the unmarried old woman, the two words are unequal in the linguistic sense. just because of the social bias, the society treats the single man and wo

48、man differently.for english itself, there is no sex discrimination, even no gender difference in it, masculine meanings are endowed with gender inequality by people purposely. from the above evidences, people can find factors about the gender discrimination in english language. . the causes of sexis

49、m in english languageenglish language, as a social phenomenon, it surely reflects the society, and it has the features which are changeable and profound. as a mirror reflecting the society, language images the social views and values. sexism in society is thus inevitably reflected in the use of lang

50、uage, it reveals the gender bias of the society.a. the causes of social position and powerthe sexist language reveals discrimination against women in social life. in ancient times, man was the center of the society and more important than woman, no matter in which field, such as in the social econom

51、ics, politics, culture fields and traditional conceptions, woman was inferior to man and was subordinated and dominated by man, they have been looked down upon gradually. as a result, the idea that woman is inferior to man has been revealed in the language.sexism exists in peoples minds. sexism does

52、 not only exist independently in the languages, but also exists in peoples minds. language is like an x-ray in providing visible evidence of invisible thoughts. the most important thing people are interested in is to discuss sexist language as they make conscious decisions about what pronouns they w

53、ill use, no matter what jokes they will tell or laugh at, how they will write their names, or how they will begin their letters, they are forced to think about the underlying issue of sexism. sexism in english is the remnant of sexism in one culture reflected in the english. b. the effect of traditi

54、onal conception and culture consciousnesssocial bias has engendered with the impact of the social surroundings and the traditional conceptions, the discrimination against woman in english language has formed a kind of vicious circle, the bias and discrimination against woman is a part of culture val

55、ues, and the propagation of the culture values has strengthened the sexism. the first woman eve reported in the bible is created by the rib taken from adam (the first man made by god), it proves that woman belongs to man, woman is created for man, and the religion supports the idea that female is in

56、ferior to man. sexist phenomenon in language reveals the social life. to some extent, language is a mirror of social life, and it reflects the relationships between moral sense and ideology of treatment of females as inferior to males. therefore, the sex discrimination in language cannot be eliminat

57、ed if sexism exists in the society. the unfair positions between man and woman is one causes of the society, in primitive time, and man was at superior position in the social economics, politics and peoples traditional ideology, women were inferior and subordinated to men, so people have formed the

58、traditional conceptions that belittle woman, the false idea reflected the discrimination against women have gradually permeated in the language, and then there have been sexist language. the strategies of eliminating or avoiding sexism in englishin english language, people can find universal phenome

59、na of sexism, but with the vigorous developing of womens liberation movement and the improving of womens status, the sexism in english language have desalinated. two ways are used to eliminate the sexist english, they are: language strategy and social reform.a. language strategieseliminating the sexist language is to apply standard language, and populate the neutral words and expressions, and avoid the masculine words in the communication.1. popu