Linguistic sexism in English and Chinese.doc

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1、 Chapter IntroductionFrom the point of cross-cultural communication, every nation has his own habits and customs, way of thinking, language psychology, behavior criterion, value concept and cultural tradition. English and Chinese culture are extremely rich, so their total cultural equivalence is rar

2、e. But on men-women relation discrimination to the female and the unequal status between men and women are the same. Thousands of years, men control the hegemony and they are always lawmakers, the narrators. In comparison, women are only forced to obey. There is a famous saying by Heidegger: “the la

3、nguage is the home of existence.” But this “home” is an old house, which its bricks, flowers and woods are filled with ancestors ghost. All the words belongs to the former dynasties opinions. Now, women want to protest to the discriminated fate, but they are tongue-tied. Lakoff said if women want to

4、 change their image, they should start from language, because you are what you say. Its helpless that women have no choice but use the bricks which are engraved by men hegemony to build their fortress. Gender discrimination is an ancient historical topic. People who seek fairness and justice ever ha

5、ve extremely unfair concept and consciousness. This makes women are in the oppressed status in a fairly long period. This kind of residual thoughts are still existed in today language and culture. As a mirror of the society, language not only reflects social value concept, but also promotes the form

6、ing of social ideology. A close look at the phenomenon of sexism must be taken. The article discusses the different cultural phenomenon and compares English culture with Chinese culture from concept, salutation, words, history, religion and the strategy to get over the sexism. This dissertation incl

7、udes the following six aspects.Chapter II Linguistic sexism widely exists in English and ChineseAs we all know, every problem has its own cause and background. Gender discrimination has connection with classic culture and custom. Now lets analyze sexism existed in two classic culture. 2.1 Background

8、 of sexism From matriarchal society to patriarchal, the status of male and females roles change in the redistribution. “male masters outside and female inside.” Subsequently women lose their leading roles. Men in the society, polity, economy and culture absolutely stand the top in the world, while w

9、omen are narrowed to the small family. We know that language is a kind of special social phenomenon and it is created by labor, which has close relations with production activity. Therefore, when the society forms the situation dominated by men, language have outstanding reflection.2.2 Definition to

10、 sexism Sexism, in the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese 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 th

11、ose particular jobs and actions are suitable for women and others 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 differe

12、nces, and it can be either explicit, as in the prejudicial use of 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,

13、sit down and take a lesson; if you see an old woman, throw a stone.” What expresses English version of the sexism prescribed for women, is particularly confining. Chapter III Gender discrimination in English and Chinese appellation termsIn human society appellation terms mean identifying word or wor

14、ds by which someone is called and classified or distinguished from others. This kind of salutation reflects certain social culture or the relationships between people among particular language environment. People form a kind of relationship and everyone occupies a special position. A common appellat

15、ion terms can generate rich social connotation in specific communicative activities and with the difference of time and place change their content.3.1 Gender discrimination on nameThe name or surname is a kind of symbolic, it is the sign which people distinguish with each other and it includes the f

16、irst and last name two parts. As a unique thing in human civilization, it has closely relation with peoples behavior, social psychology and cultural traditions. Although name sequences in Chinese and English is different (in Chinese surname first and giving name second; in English is opposite), the

17、people consciously or unconsciously put their own desire and social attitude into the name when they choose surname. In English speaking countries, the childrens family name is the same with their fathers family name. The naming to women usually shows beauty, virtuous, pure and lovely and so on, suc

18、h as Lily (a kind of flower), Susan (means grace), Diana (means elegant, beautiful and noble); however, naming to men embodies strong and brave, pursuit of freedom and dream. Richard (means sturdy and forceful), Lewis (means protecting people), Andrew (means brave and ingenuous) are the examples. Ch

19、inese character “xing（姓）” consists of “nv（女）” and “sheng（生）”. In the matriarchal society of China ancient times, people use mothers name as surname. But in the later patriarchal society, status of women goes down and men dominate the whole society. Their name is deprived of and even if they have the

20、ir own name, people seldom call it. Unmarried women is often called “yatou（丫头）” or ”niu（妞）”. In modern Chinese, though the above situation has been improved, gender discrimination doesnt change. And the meaning is different too. Womens name emphasizes beauty of femininity and name often contains “hu

21、a”, “ya”, “xiu”, “mei” and so on. 3.2 Gender discrimination on marriageWith the development from matriarchal to patriarchal society, male and female roles change in the redistribution. Subsequently women lose their dominance. In male-centered English social customs, married men can work outside and

22、earn money. But if women turn into wife, their world is narrowed to family. They can only stay in the narrow space in ministering husband and taking care of children. They are the ornament to husband. Men in the home is considered to be strong, dominating the business and supporting wife and childre

23、n, whereas women is dependent. Before marriage, men are called as “Mr.” and after marriage is the same. But after marriage women will lose their names and be changed to “Mrs. XX”. For example, if Mary Brown gets married with Jim Smith, the name of Mary will change to Mrs. Smith. So Mary not only los

24、es her surname, but also her giving name. Even if John dies, she is still his widow, called “Johns widow”. In ancient China, because of womens subordinate status, they use lowly appellation call themselves, such as “nu（奴）”, “nujia（奴家）”, “qie（妾）”, “jianqie（贱妾）” etc, but they must use honorable saluta

25、tion to call their husband. In the past, Chinas married women are called as “XXshi（XX氏）” and surname will change into husbands family name. At present, this kind of salutation is still popular in rural place. Now Chinese women have no need to be renamed as husbands surname. Men in the formal occasio

26、n call his wife for “airen（爱人）”, “furen（夫人）” and so on. But in some informal situation, “haizitama（孩子他妈）” and “wulitou（屋里头）” are still very popular. Chapter IV Gender discrimination in vocabularyVocabulary is like fossil, which embodies peoples thinking and understanding at that society and reflects

27、 the whole society.4.1 The umbrella name phenomenon in vocabularyThe most obvious example which reflects the sexism is the word “man”. It means not only mankind but also man. But “woman” only means woman. For example, growing old is something a man as to accept. In addition, in English there are a lot of words, whatever people is male or female and they are all called “XXman”. For example, chairman, salesman, postman, policeman and so on. English has many neutral words expressing the profession and they are adapt to men and women, such as doctor, lawyer, professor etc. 8