英漢語言性別歧視對比研究

1、畢業(yè)論文題目：英漢語言性別歧視對比研究Title: A Comparative Study of Sexism in English and Chinese2009年 5月 20日AcknowledgementFirst and foremost, my appreciation goes to my affectionate parents, and the rest of my family. Throughout the development of this paper, they have been there always giving me continuous support,

2、 encouragement and understanding. Their love and support encourage me to pursue progress all the time.My sincere gratitude goes to all the teachers who taught me and gave me great help and encouragement in the past two years. I am also grateful to all the writers whose works are referred to in this

3、thesis.My heartfelt thanks should be given to my supervisor, professor Xiong Dunli, whose enlightening suggestions, incisive comments and constructive criticism have contribute greatly to the completion of this thesis. Without his help, this thesis could never have reached its present form.AbstractL

4、anguage is the most important tool for human communication and thinking, and it reflects the thoughts, the attitudes, and the cultures of the people who make it and use it. Language was created by people through production and social practice and serves their purpose. Therefore, it tends to reflect

5、social reality and is subjected to the restrictions of peoples living habits, thinking patterns, behavior norms, moral outlook, political ideas and traditional civilization. Sex inequality in language has captured attention of linguists for centuries and has long time remained a heated topic among l

6、inguists. As a system of beliefs and practices that affirm the dominance of men over women on the basis of sex, sexism is an international phenomenon which occurs in almost all languages. This thesis is a tentative endeavor to make a systematic description and does a comparative research on the subj

7、ect from elements, phenomena, dispelling of sexism and so on. It is hoped that, by studying the sexism on pragmatics in English and Chinese, this thesis could provide some help to gender language learners. And also it can be of some effective help in east and west culture learning. Key words: Sex in

8、equality comparative research pragmatics摘要語言是人類交際和思維的最重要的工具， 它反映了語言創(chuàng)造者和使用者的思想，態(tài)度和文化。它是人類在生產(chǎn)和社會實踐中產(chǎn)生并服務(wù)于人類的， 因此，語言反映社會現(xiàn)實并受人們的生活習(xí)慣，思維模式， 行為準(zhǔn)則，道德觀，政治觀念和文化傳統(tǒng)的制約。語言中的性別歧視現(xiàn)象得到語言學(xué)家的注意長達(dá)幾個世紀(jì)且一直是他們所討論的熱點話題。性別歧視，是以性別為基礎(chǔ)而產(chǎn)生的一種歧視現(xiàn)象，語言中的性別歧視可以說存在于所有語言中。本文擬從原因，現(xiàn)象和消除三方面，對中英文中語用學(xué)方面的性別歧視進(jìn)行系統(tǒng)的描寫，分析和比較，希望對語言性別歧視的研究者們有

9、所幫助，從而能夠更好的學(xué)習(xí)東西方文化。關(guān)鍵詞： 性別歧視 對比研究 語用學(xué)Contents Introduction.1I. elements of sexism on pragmatics in English and Chinese.21.1 Social Elements.2 1.1.1 Language environment. .2 1.1.2 Social prejudice.21.2 Culture elements .41.3 Religious elements .4II. Phenomena of sexism on pragmatics in English and Ch

10、inese.52.1 Word-formation, word-building and word order .52.2 Ways of address .62.3 Conversation .7 2.3.1 Category choosing.8 2.3.2 Content amount 8 2.3.3 Talking method.9III. Signs of the dispelling of sexism on pragmatics in English and Chinese.103.1 Avoid generic nouns 103.2 Using of neuter words

11、 or gender-free language.12Conclusion .14Bibliography15Introduction In modern times, communication becomes more and more complicated and difficult as the mixing of cultures and languages, thus cross-cultural and cross-gender issues have increasingly draw scholars attention. In recent years, many stu

12、dies were carried out in this field. Sexism, as one of these studies, has for a long time remained a heat topic among linguistics. The word “sexism” refers to discrimination by members of one sex against the other, especially by males against females, based on the thought that one sex is superior. I

13、t is a belief system. People believe that the physical differences between males and females are significant, and this belief determines directly their social and economic roles. Sexism, according to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, means “prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically a

14、gainst women, on the basis of sex”, according to Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, sexism is “prejudice or discrimination based on sex, esp. discrimination against women.” Based on the previous research, this thesis is attempt to compare the sexism in English and Chinese from aspects of eleme

15、nts, phenomena and the signs of dispelling, hoping it can help people to understand better the sexism in various cultures.1. Elements of Sexism on Pragmatics in English and Chinese1.1 social elements 1.1.1 Language environment In general families, children always stay with their mothers or baby sitt

16、ers longer than with their fathers at home. As the year goes by, boys were taught to be brave and should have vision, girls are taught to be gentle and meekness. Under the influence of this traditional concept, children associate with other people based on their own gender roles and know expressly a

17、bout what they should do or say. For instance, males could say things vulgar like “shit” in English, while females were cant because it is considered as rough and women should to be blandness in traditional conception. Children can also get this concept from books, television, and other mass medium

18、that the boys should doughty and girls should effeminacy, therefore they will chronically have subconscious reactions when talking or playing based on this concept and finally becoming as members of different gender languages. 1.1.2 Social Prejudice Deborah Cameron wrote in her Feminism Linguistic T

19、heory that she was told something about the new-born baby in the hospital. Every new-born baby will have a gender card posted on their beds like “I am a boy” or “It is a girl”. “I” and “It” is completely indicated the difference between boys and girls. These new-born babies are totally didnt underst

20、and “what is language”, but from then on, the sexism is already posted in their life. This is a typical example to analyze the social prejudice in western society, and there also many illustrations in eastern society. All in all, the major cause to led this prejudice is the different labor roles of

21、male and female.Since ancient times, females were considered as weaker person. With the development of the agriculture, stock raising and manufacture tool, males were found have much more dominance than in physical strength, then they become the main producer gradually and begin to predominate the s

22、ociety. While females have to spend so much time and energy on rising up offspring which has lowered their productivity and they finally become to a subsidiary part of the society. So males substitute for the women to become the dominance of the society, born a new society-patriarchal society. From

23、then on, females living depend on males and controlled by them. This control connection gradually led to a psychologically concept that females are lower than males. When the concept incorporates into language, the sexism language appeared. There is a prejudice existing for a long time that females

24、like to discuss some illogical trivial things and them always saying too much. “gossip, nag, prattle” are used to satire females. There are some proverbs about this: “many women, many words; many geese, many turds”, “the north sea will sooner be found wanting water than a woman at a word”.Politics i

25、s an exclusive game of males and they use it to further control the females. Whether in China or in western countries, females were considered that they should stay in home to do house trifle and bring up their children. In ancient China, women exist as an appendant of men; they didnt participate in

26、 politics at all. Till now, this status still exists. For instance, the Constitution of the United States was written by males. In this constitution, “he” was used in every clause about the vote of representatives, senators and president but “she” was never mentioned. In 1888, when the first women c

27、andidate in US history Shirley Chisholm appeared, she was hardly accepted by the voters. Times pass by, when the first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made an announcement that she will vote for senator in 2000, a lot of standpatters were express strong discontent. They thought the First Lady is just a

28、foil of the President, she shouldnt participate in politics. A look at the history of the United States, women could hardly participate in politics even if the number of women citizen is over half of the population. 1.2 culture elements As an important part of the culture, myth and folktales always

29、spread abroad and have deep influence to the human thoughts. In these stories, women are “dangerous” or they are “the roots of the evils”. It is said that all the evils were done by women or they are the reasons of the evils even if the men were the real criminal. Confucian is the source of eastern

30、culture, especially the Chinese culture. But its founder Confucius who is the famous ideologist, philosopher, educationalist in ancient China had a famous saying: “唯女子與小人難養(yǎng)也！”. This saying had established the sexism thought in China. On the other side of the world, after the greatest writer Shakespe

31、are wrote: “Frailty, then name is woman!” weaken is tantamount to women. This is the reason why sexism is such common in English and Chinese. 1.3 Religious Elements The culture reason is the root of sexism in Chinese, while the main root of sexism in English is the religious elements.The Holy Bible

32、is considered as the source of western culture. This book declared that women are the appendant of mens. “And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be c

33、alled Woman, because she was taken out from Man.” This is a typical sexism language written in “the Open Bible” which describe the scene that God made woman. Eve was made of Adams rib so she was considered as a plaything of Adams. This may be the earliest gender language which reflects sexism. In ad

34、dition, Eve is considered as the root of human sin. In Bible, Adam and Eve was evicted by God for she tempted Adam to pick and eat the forbidden fruit. In western culture, “l(fā)ady first” was a habitude, it is an etiquette between men and women. Men always offered to help women, like open the door, ask

35、 for the taxi, and move the chair. Ostensibly women are treated gentle, but actually this habitude was based on a concept that women are weakened, their life depend on men. In a banquet, you could always heard “what does your husband do?” and you will never heard a man ask other people “what does yo

36、ur wife do?” because in their opinion, “wife” is the job of women. Under this culture concept, sexism is become natural. 2. Phenomena of Sexism on Pragmatics in English and Chinese 2.1 Word-formation, Word-building and Word Order In Chinese, large number of derogatory terms are make of a word “女”, l

37、ike “妖，奴，奸，婪，妄，妒，嫉，婊，娼，妓”. It has been statistic that there are almost 257 words which are all make of the word “女”, and 35 words of these words are derogatory terms. Of course, there still have some complimented words with the word “女” like “好，妙，嬈，嫵，姣，婷，嫻，嫩，婉，婧”. But these just reflex that whether

38、good or bad, women are considered by men completely. These are said women are “objects” but men are “subjects”, and they are judged by men. This is why the derogatory terms make of “男” never exist in Chinese. As in English, the sexism mainly reflex in word-building like compounds and suffix. In Engl

39、ish, a majority of compounds are having masculine words as their main part. For instance, the UK is a “kingdom” but not “queendom” even sometimes is ruled by queens. The new college students are called “freshman” but not “freshwoman” even the girl students. Otherwise, the word “man” means “males” an

40、d it could also means “human being”. There are many compounds as the words above like “manpower”, “mankind”, “policeman”, “manmade”, “milkman”. The human society is made by both men and women but we only use “manpower” to describe the power of human. When we mentioned “chairman”, we always considere

41、d subconsciously that this “chairman” is a man. Males are dominators in society for a long time that females were hardly to be one of dominators, while this happens, their title must followed by “female”.Looking through the English words, almost all the feminine words are tagged that they can only r

42、epresent females. They are tagged by add bound morpheme after masculine words. This linguistic asymmetry is represented by the followings: The employment words had not been sexism words, but now lots of them are tagged with the masculine word that the bound morpheme must be added to avoid mistakes,

43、like: -ess manager-manageress monitor-monitoress director-directress poet-poetess; -ette usher-usherette drum major-drum majoretteCompellation words are also has sexism: some female names are come from male names by add “e”, “ie”, “ine” after male name, like “Louise” is coming from “Louis”.Be differ

44、 from the word-formation, word-building, word order has reflected sexism both in English and Chinese. It was not formulate that feminine words must writes after the masculine words, but put “males” before “females” was a subconscious action. Like “男女”, “夫妻” in Chinese and “father and mother”, “boys

45、and girls”, “man and woman”, “brother and sister”, “he and she”, “king and queen” in English. “Ladies and Gentlemen” is a exception, but just as mentioned in chapter 1, this is just a etiquette. 2.2 Ways of Address The typical example about sexism in ways of address is the extensive use of generic n

46、ouns-he (他). When we didnt know the gender of the person, we usually use “he” to tag the person:He who knows the wind will reap the whirlwind.If a person breaks the law, he will be punished.Man proposes, God disposes.All men are created equal.The worlds history is of mankinds. In Chinese, “他” means

47、the male third person and “她” means the female third person. In Modernistic Chinese Dictionary, “她” means the third female and “他” means the third person. For the more, “他們” means a number of people but “她們” only means a number of females: 洪常青和娘子軍們的展示徹夜固守山頭，他們面臨的困難和危險是難以想象的。Here “他們” means a man and

48、 a number of women and we cannot use “她們” to replace “他們”. In English, “l(fā)ord” comes from “hlafweard” in Old English which made of “hlaf” (bread) and “weard”(guard) means “person who guard the bread” (person who has the power). Quite the contrary, “l(fā)ady” comes from “hlaefdige” means “person who make

49、bread” (maid); “husband” comes from “husbondi” in Old Icelandic which made of “hus” (house) and “buandi” (house owner) means “the owner of the house”. On the contrary, “wife” comes from “wif” (women) which comes from “weip” in Old Aryan means “tremble”, “blow hot and cold”, and “jittery”. There are

50、some more examples in Chinese: Females always call their husbands “先生”, “當(dāng)家的”, “官人”, “夫君”, “郎君”, “相公” which have connection with power, station, and deference, but wives are called “糟糠”, “拙荊”, “內(nèi)人”, “賤內(nèi)”, “堂客”, “家內(nèi)” which allude wife is the woman who stay in home; people called their enate relatives

51、 “外” adds the appellations in Chinese to discriminate their patrilineal relatives, while “外” means alienation in Chinese. 2.3 conversations Organization of conversation includes talking turns, opening, establishing and maintaining a topic, closing a conversation. Linguists find that there are many d

52、ifferences between genders in their conversation, which are mainly seen in the following three aspects: category choosing, content amount and talking method. 2.3.1 Category Choosing Category is the content and focus of the conversation, which they talk on with each other and exchange information tow

53、ard it. Linguists hold that women always talk their personal things, such as their families and children, their personal feelings and hopes. However, men seldom talk about their own feelings. They always choose such public topics as politics, education, religion, sports, economy and so on. This is r

54、elated to the positions women and men playing in. usually, males do the technical jobs and earn much more money than females do; females always work for serving business, and most of them lead their whole life at home, cooking, washing, and doing housework. And womens life styles, believes, thoughts

55、 toward things are somewhat narrower. The public also holds two extremes. When a man talks about housework or something personal, he may be regarded feminine. As well a woman will be thought to be rough if she always talks about mens topic. These are examples of traditional thoughts. 2.3.2 Content A

56、mountPeople usually think that women are much talkative than men. Lets look some words connected with talkativeness: babble, chatterbox, gab, gossip, nag, prattle. It is more interesting that when we talk about these words, we will relate them to women. Nevertheless, the fact is not like this. In co

57、nversation involving members of both genders, experts have proved, men speak more than women do. They have also found that when men talk to men, their content categories involve politics, history, sports, competition, and business. And when women talk to women, the focused topics contain families, c

58、hildren, and feelings of their own, and affiliation with others. But when the two genders interact, the men speak less aggressively or competitively and the women reduce their amount of talking about home and self-feelings. In the cross-gender conversation, men are more talkative than women. It is a

59、lways the men who first break the silence and talk to the woman. During the conversation, it is also like this. 2.3.3 Talking Method A linguists preliminary experiment has will describe the interesting differences of talking method between males and females: In the female/male conversation, the fema

60、le speaker uses more first person pronouns and fewer third person references than the male speaker; the female speaker also interrupts the other more; and she uses “um” at much higher frequency than male speaker. As in the female/female conversation, many expressions as, I think, Id say, I guess, ar