英语词汇中的性别歧视---毕业论文

1、【标题】英语词汇中的性别歧视 【作者】刘前辉 【关键词】性别歧视；英语词汇 【指导老师】李天梅 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionAs the peculiar result of the development of human society, language is a kind of social phenomenon and naturally reflects all the sides of human society. Its existence and development are closely linked with the social attitu

2、des of human beings and to a great extent are affected by their social views and values.Historically and sociologically, our society is man-oriented and man-centered. Woman, regarded as a weaker gender in society, are discriminated for a long time and completely subordinated in the political life, t

3、he economic life and even the family life in the society dominated by men. Unavoidably, this kind of phenomenon has been embodied in English vocabulary. In linguistic aspect, language is a bias-based and women suffer from language sexism.There are several definitions about sexism. According to Webst

4、er Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, it refers to “prejudice or discrimination based on sex; esp. discrimination against women.” 1 Longman English Dictionary gives another explanation “base on sex, esp. man looks down upon female.” 2 The America Heritage Dictionary for Learners of English g

5、ives such a definition “Discrimination based on sex, especially discrimination against women.” 3 So, based on the language custom, “sexism” always expresses that discrimination against the female.Sexism exists in all the social systems countries, and as a common social phenomenon, it is su

6、rly reflected in English vocabulary. This paper lists out some Linguistic features of sexism in English vocabulary, the reasons of sexism in English vocabulary and current trends for non-sexist language.II. Sex Discrimination in English VocabularyA. Sexually Weighted Word for WomanLanguage exists to

7、 allow us to communicate with one another. To this end, language serves two purposes: to communicate what our reality is and also what we wish it to be. So if we identify a trait in a language, such as sexism or other forms of prejudice, this only reveals a prejudice that exists in society. Language

8、, in particular metaphor, helps form social reality. There are many metaphors to describe a female. But often it has a totally different meaning.   1. food metaphor     Some food words can also be used to refer to females, such as cherry (樱桃)virgin(处女)，cookie 

9、(点心)lovely woman(可爱的女人)，crumpet (松脆饼)sexy woman(性感女人)，tart (果馅饼)prostitute(妓女)，tomato (西红柿)beautiful woman(漂亮女人), honey (蜜糖)dear(宝贝、亲爱的), piece (点心)woman(女人)，peach (桃子)beautiful lady(漂亮女人) and so on. Men often use these words to express their appreciation to women. Some

10、 even include the meaning that men treat women as dolls.  2. animal metaphor   There are also many words showing contempt for women. They embody sexual discrimination but still enjoy great popularity. For example: chick (小鸡)young woman(少女)，kitten (小猫)active girl(活泼年轻的姑娘)，bit

11、ch（母狗）unpleasant woman(泼妇），cat (猫)ugly woman(丑妇、贱妇、讨厌的女人)，dragon (龙)fierce woman(倔强的女人)， cow (奶牛)prostitute(子女多的女人、妓女)，crone (老母羊)ugly old woman(干瘪的丑老太婆) and mare-horse (母马)fat woman(粗声大气、肥胖固执的女人) and so on. These are all pejorative terms for women, because animals are consi

12、dered to be inferior to human beings on the earth. So using animals to refer to females indicates that females are inferior.   The semantic derogation of women helps to construct female inferiority and because women are confined to negative terms, women continue to be devalued.B. Marked Wo

13、man and Unmarked ManWhen a baby is born, the first question is whether it is a boy or a girl. The need to distinguish the sexes is reflected in English. There are many words like girls and boys, men and women, ladies and sirs in English which refer to gendered forms of existence. The sexually distin

14、guished words are so important in English that it is impossible to use a gender-free term like person.   In English different pronouns for both sexes are used when we refer to a third person: he and she. It cannot be said that these distinctions are a sign for sexism, however it is true th

15、at these uses open the door to certain forms of sexism. And the problem comes to existence in the neutral uses of the male characters. We know that the word “man” is used to refer to a general humanity and the pronoun “he” to refer to a third person whether it is a man or a woman. By lingu

16、ists these uses are formulated as the markedness of woman and unmarkedness of man. The woman is marked because we can use woman and she when we refer to female only, but the neutral usage of woman or of she is impossible. In linguistics, markedness refers to the way words are changed or added to giv

17、e a special meaning. The unmarked choice is just the normal meaning:    Unmarked         -      Markedprince (王子)    -    princess（公主）       

18、;  author（作家）    -      authoress（女作家）         actor（演员）       -      actress（女演员）         waiter（男侍者） &#

19、160;-     waitress（女侍者）         major (乐队男指挥)    -  majorette (乐队女指挥)And there are some other phrase examples:    君子(正派人)  a man of honor       &

20、#160;自己奋斗起家的人 a self-made man    有价值的人 a man of worth           作家 a man of letters/ man of pen     科学家a man of science             

21、60;  领导人a man at the wheel    政界巨头the man higher up           坚强不屈的人 a man of ironC. Sex-paired WordsThere are many pairs of sex-paired words such as, lord-lady, baronet-dame, master-mistress, call boy-call girl, ba

22、chelor-spinster, governor-governess, mister- madam, etc. These words are semantically equivalent originally. But with the changes of their meaning, feminine words gradually gain derogatory even obscene connotation. However, the masculine terms remain their commendatory connotation. The following are

23、 the examples:   “Governor”, in the extended fourth edition of Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, means “a person appointed to govern a province or state (especially a colony abroad).” 4 “Governess” refers to “(especially formerly) a woman employe

24、d to teach young children in their home (usually living as a member of the household).” 5 In old English, these two words respectively refer to a man or woman who exercises a sovereign authority in a colony, territory or states. As time goes by, the meaning of the word “governess” is 

25、“a woman who is employed to teach young children,” or “a woman having regular sexual intercourse with one man to whom she is not married.” But the word “governor” keeps its original meaning basically.   “Mistress” is originally explained as a woman in a position of authority

26、, control, or ownership, as the head of a household like a housekeeper, or something personified as female that directs or reigns. Similarly “master” is an employer, one who has control over or ownership of something or the man who serves as the head of a household. It even has the commendatory

27、 sense which means one who defeats another, a victor or Jesus. But, gradually “mistress” refers to a woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a married man usually who is not her husband and from whom she generally receives material supports. Contrarily, the meaning of “master”

28、remains still.   As for “bachelor” and “spinster”, both refer to an unmarried or single person. But “bachelor” implies an unmarried man who lives a happy and perhaps libertine life, while “spinster” conjures up an image of an old, indifferent, solitary and unappealing w

29、oman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying.    In a word, those changes of connotation of the feminine words are the typical examples of existence of social prejudice against woman.D. Sex Discrimination in Network EnglishWith the development of society, espe

30、cially the internet, English has changed greatly in the era of information. Vocabulary is one of the most active factors. There are many sex discrimination phenomena in network English. Some of them are new created words, such as  “dinosaur（恐龙）”、“lesbine(蕾丝)” and so on.  The original

31、intention of “dinosaur” is a huge animal in ancient times, but in network English, it refers to the ugly female. The original intention of “lesbine” is a decoration of the clothes, but in network English, it means a woman who is sexually attracted by other women. Some of them are compound

32、words, such as “callboy” and “call girl” and so on. The former refers to the waiter in hotel or the person who calls the player ready to stage in theatre; the latter means the prostitute summoned by phone.III. The Reasons of Sexism in English VocabularyA. Historical factorIn the Holy Bible

33、 (The Books of The Old Testament):So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

34、0;This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.6 Man came to the world first while woman made from one of mans ribs was created just as a help meet for him. And she was not created until all other animals failed to mee

35、t the satisfaction of the man. From the order of the birth, it is obvious to see the different importance of man and woman. And man and woman are not equal at all because woman is only a part of man, which itself is the discrimination against women. It is said in the Holy Bible that the first sin is

36、 also committed by the woman. She was seduced by the snake into eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and having the man eat, too. At last, the woman was punished to bring forth children in pain and was ruled over by the man. From above, the superiority of men and inferiorit

37、y of women is clearly seen. The Holy Bible is actually a book of men. As Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries, it is unreasonable to deny that this helps to set and consolidate the inferiority of women. B. Cultural FactorAlong with the development of civilization, liter

38、ature and art play an important role in discrimination against women. “In literature and art, mens characteristics are full of aspiration, mighty and helpful, daring to take risks, decisive, indomitable, etc. While women are being regarded as weak, temperate, perceptive, passive and so on. It i

39、s easy to notice sex discrimination in the works of literature and art because sex discrimination is one of the most common topics of literature and art.” 7 We can easily find out discrimination from literature and art because they are the common medium. Literature and art model many meaningful disc

40、riminative images by the common values, and conversely these images strengthen peoples social values. With the influence literature and art, how can we avoid discrimination in society and language?     For instance, in the Bible, almost all the influential figures are men. The mo

41、st powerful one, the God, is called father, then comes his son Jesus Christ. We may list some other prominent ones: Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt; Abraham, the ancestor of the Jesus are unanimously men.     In the Bible, there are many stories about sons inheriting f

42、rom their fathers. Neither the mothers nor the daughters were considered eligible to have access to the property. In accounting for a mans life, what he did, how many sons he had, what the names were and what they did were often made very clear, even if they were not so excellent. Because sons were

43、regarded as responsible for carrying on the family line, few women could have their names. Among them, some are famous for their sons, like Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ; Among the lucky women who left their names, very few were noted for their own achievements. They were confined at home, doing

44、chores and giving birth to children.     The Holy Bible is actually a book of men. As Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries, it is unreasonable to deny this help to set and consolidate the inferior position of women. “A woman must regard her husband a

45、s her king and serve him with her highest adoration. Submitting is the most important and persistent obligation of a woman.” 8 How low the status of women in family and society it is! Under this kind of custom in the men-oriented society, how can women avoid being discriminated?C. Physiological Fact

46、orFor extended work and life together, people realized that men are tall in stature, strong in muscle and robust in physique. In contrary to men, women are small in stature, weak in physique and have more fat and less muscle than men. Women also mature more rapidly. In a word, men are stronger than

47、women. This determines that men play a more and more important role in social and economic lives. A mans job is to work outside but a womans job is to stay at home, do the housework and take care of the children. Women are treated as the weaker ones and they realize their own values through their ma

48、rriages to men. At last, women are lower in status. They have to leech on to men and are dominated by men. Gradually, people begin to discriminate women and think that they are inferior in intelligence. This wrong perspective forms slowly and reflects in language.  D. Psychological FactorBecaus

49、e of the social and cultural factors, women are always considered to be the weak. People treat women as inferior to men. They educate men to be manly, decisive, and brave while women are required to be polite, conservative, obedient, and gentle. Because women are in subordinate status in the society

50、, they have to constrain their emotion and give up their own need to meet the satisfaction of men. As time passes, when speaking women pay more attention to the elegance and standard of language than men. They use more pleasant and polite words in the hope that they can receive others approval. And

51、they are taught to speak softly, to avoid contradicting others, to be obedient in communication, and to be aware of giving cues of strong confidence. They mould themselves to be inferior in their potential sub consciousness.9 Therefore, women try their best to strengthen their social status through

52、their speech than men do. The lower womens position is, the more polite they are in the face of others. And the standard language they use can show their submission and politeness. This also suggests that women are in a lower position in the society.E. Social FactorFeminists all claim that we live i

53、n a patriarchal society: a society of men, ruled by men and for men. Patriarchy depicts men as the perfect norm against which women are measured and found lacking.    Both the Western and Eastern societies use sex, to one degree or another, in allocating tasks, activities, rights, and

54、 responsibilities. As for the job done by men and women, there is a long-stereotyped notion of what they can do. In history, there has been a division of labor-a division in which womens place was restrained at home for housework and child-care while men worked outside being the breadwinner. At last

55、, men had dominance over women, and women had to be dependent on men. This was the turning point for women. From then on, in paternal society, slavery society and capitalist society, women had been on the bottom of society. In long and endless course of history, sexism against women has been accumul

56、ated. It is due to different labor division that leads to different social status. This has been clear in ancient and modern society. Later, in addition to domestic work, women began to enter the paid work place. However, even though half of women are employed outside the home, the belief persists t

57、hat woman is mainly, and primarily, in the roles of wife and mother.     Due to women's relative physical weakness and lower educational background, they do primarily the low-status, low-paying jobs. Although men also have family roles, they are defined primarily by their eco

58、nomic or occupational position. Thus the sexism in the society has been in existence, whose embodiment is necessarily the sexism of language.IV. Current Trends for Non-sexist LanguageA. Linguistic DisruptionLanguage is not only used to exchange ideas, convey information, but also used to set up and

59、maintain the harmonious relationship between human beings, create and keep the effective communication environment among social members and groups. Any form of sexist language, whether on purpose or not, will probably stand off or offend some social member or group. Language and language use mirror

60、social attitudes and stereotypes and bias.     Along with the womens liberation movement, people began to realize the importance of the language reform and desexism becomes necessary. Then, language should be changed into non-sexism. There are several types: avoiding the use of g

61、eneric masculine, changing some naming and addressing terms, coining new words and advocating some neutral words. 1. Avoiding using generic masculine pronounsLinguists engaged in study of sexism in the English language are not satisfied with merely pointing out the problem. As a solution to the

62、 problems that the generic masculine can create, a number of proposals have been made. A major category among these solutions is to avoid using generic masculine. Some alternatives to avoid generic masculine are offered as follows:      (1) The generic masculine he, his

63、, him should be replaced with he or she, his or her, him or her, and the like, which expressly indicate that women are included in the antecedent of the pronouns. This strategy can be illustrated with the following sentence: Every good citizen should love his or her country more than him or herself;

64、 he or she should be ready to die for it if the need arises.     (2) The gender-neutral third person pronoun they and its variants should be used with a singular meaning. The proposal makes it possible to say: Every good citizen should love their country more than themselves; they should be ready to die for it if the need arises.     (3) Changing the whole sentence into plural form can also help to avoid sexism. Look at the s