TheSexisminEnglishLanguage英語中的性別歧視1

1、the sexism in english language英語中的性別歧視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

3、thoughts 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

5、language, 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 words：sexism; female words; masculine words; st

6、rategies 摘要自20世紀60年代起，語言性別歧視已隨著女性解放運動的展開而得到蓬勃發(fā)展。語言是社會現(xiàn)實的一種反映，因此由于歷史發(fā)展、文化、社會價值及男女兩性之間在生理等方面的差異而引起的性別歧視，尤其是社會對女性的性別歧視一覽無余的體現(xiàn)在語言上，英語語言中也存在性別歧視。本篇論文闡述了性別歧視產(chǎn)生的原因是男女地位的不平等，在人類早期，男尊女卑的思想盛行，男子在社會經(jīng)濟、政治、文化領(lǐng)域以及人們的傳統(tǒng)觀念中，總是處于比女性優(yōu)越的地位,人們在觀念上形成的對婦女特有的歧視觀念慢慢形成并反映在語言中。本文分析了性別歧視在英語中的四個方面的表現(xiàn)：在諺語中；在詞匯中；在詞語中和在詞義中，通

7、過大量的舉例和分類來系統(tǒng)闡述。最后著重討論了消除性別歧視語所應(yīng)采取的一些策略，從語言策略和社會策略兩方面入手，要消除性別歧視，關(guān)鍵在于根除社會上存在的性別歧視觀念，進一步提高婦女的社會地位，語言的變革只能在社會變革的基礎(chǔ)上才能實現(xiàn)。關(guān)鍵詞：性別歧視； 女性詞； 男性詞； 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 o

8、nly the 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 al

9、l the countries. 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

10、domestic 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 t

11、hesis, the 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 i

12、s massive 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

13、 development. 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

14、 dictionary, 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 othe

15、rs are suitable 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 words sexist language expresses unfair assumptions and differences, and it can be either explicit, as in the prejudicial use o

16、f male or female 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 sto

17、ne.” what expresses 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. sex

18、ism in english 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 crysta

19、llization of human 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 kin

20、d of language unavoidably 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 soci

21、ety, the roles of women 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 “l(fā)ong hair and short wit” expresses women is lack of wi

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

23、 women are sexy. in 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 th

24、e masculine eponyms 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 f

25、eudal consciousness 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”. （莊和誠，2002） such examples have rev

26、ealed women are inferior and subordinate to them.b. sexism in english expressions english 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 durin

27、g their communications, 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 cal

28、l english a sexist language.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 reade

29、r will use his own judgment”, “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 ref

30、erred to males contain two 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 rec

31、eivers sex. the sexism exists 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 wor

32、ds are behind male words, for 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 femal

33、e, but professor, lawyer, doctor, 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 referre

34、d to as a professional, and 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 in

35、ferior to males.3. the changes 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

36、 relative word “governess” 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 m

37、arried man, and so do many 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 eng

38、lish language, it shows that 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 masculin

39、e words referred to the inferior 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 a

40、ssociated with masculine, if they are used to designate female, they would always be added on a word “woman” or “l(fā)ady”. 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 positi

41、ve and praised, although the 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 wo

42、manmale are superior to females. 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 professio

43、nal nouns take “man” as their 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 m

44、atter that there are many boys 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 exampl

45、e, “prudent man” refers to 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”

46、refers to the woman who is 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 o

47、f social bias. sometimes, two 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 t

48、reats the single man and woman 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 lang

49、uage.  . the causes of sexism 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 inevit

50、ably reflected in the use of language, 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 whi

51、ch field, such as in the social economics, 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.sexis

52、m exists in peoples minds. sexism does 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 consciou

53、s decisions about what pronouns they will 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

54、 the english. b. the effect of traditional 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

55、against woman is a part of culture values, 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 religi

56、on supports the idea that female is inferior 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 discrim

57、ination in language cannot be eliminated 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 subordina

58、ted to men, so people have formed the 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 langu

59、age, people can find universal phenomena 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. population of neutral words and expressionst