TheSexisminEnglishLanguage.pdf

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1、 英语专业本科学期论文 题 目 英语语言中的性别歧视 The Sexism in English Language 学院名称 船山学院 指导教师 职 称 班 级 02 学 号 20099210205 学生姓名 ii ii 2011 年 6 月 2 日 Abstract Sex discrimination exists in all the social systems and countries,and as a common social phenomenon,it is surly reflected in language.This paper summarizes the pheno

2、mena of sexism in English by using universal evidence,and they are shown and discussed in four aspects:English expressions,English vocabulary and the meanings of English words,English proverbs.Lastly,the thesis introduces two feasible strategies to erase sexism in English language:language reform an

3、d social reform.But 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;strategies 中文摘要 性别歧视在不同的社会制度和国家中都不同程度地存在。而作为一种

4、普遍的社会现象，自然会在语言中得到折射。本文分析了性别歧视在英语中的四个方面的表现：在词汇中，在词语中和在词义中；在谚语中，通过大量的举例和分类来系统阐述。最后着重讨论了消除性别歧视所应采取的一些策略，从语言策略和社会策略入手。但是要消除性别歧视，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 iii iii Contents 1 Introduction5 2 A Definition to Sexism in English Language 3 The strategies of Elimi

5、nating or Avoiding Sexism in English11 3.1.Try to avoid generic nouns 11 3.1.11 Social strategy 12 4 Conclusion References Acknowledgements13 13 iv iv 1.Introduction:Language is a social phenomenon,and it has a close relationship with the social life,the language is used in a specific social group a

6、nd it is not only 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,

7、but in all the countries.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 scholars and experts,Yang Yonglin,Bai Jiehong,and so o

8、n,have done thorough research about sexist element in the English language.In the thesis,the author does the research from the combination of the social reforms and language reform,and it is essential to erase the sexism from peoples mind.For English,Britain linguist palmer said that“the language ab

9、solutely reflect a national whole history and culture,and faithfully reflect a national every game and entertainment,every faith and prejudice“the thesis emphatically introduction and analyzes the specific phenomena of sexism and also provides corresponding strategies that can be used to eliminate s

10、exism in English language.2.A Definition to Sexism in English Language Sexism,in the Oxford advanced learners English-Chinese dictionary,it means that disapproving action based on the ideas or belief or that the members of one sex are less intelligent,able,and skillful,etc,than the members of the ot

11、her sex,especially that women are less able than men and those particular jobs and actions are suitable for women and others are suitable for men.In the Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary,the sexism means that prejudice or discrimination based on sex;esp.Discrimination against women.Sexism in E

12、nglish refers to English expresses v v sexist assumptions about differences between men and women as in the prejudicial use of female or male words.Phenomena of Sexism in English Language 2.1 The sexism in interpersonal appellation 2.1.1 The sexism in intimacy appellation In the west,male superior c

13、an use the intimacy call to call their female subordinates,such as sugar,darling,sweetie and girlie.In the contrary,the female subordinates cannot use that nickname to their boss,at the same time;the female bosses would not use that nickname to their mitarbeiters.But，the stranger man can call the fe

14、male with the nickname.It indicates that the females status is lower than male in the Anglo-American.Women are less than men of respect.2.1.2 The sexism in name appellation The English language distinguishes womens courtesy titles on the basis of marital status,but not those of men.There is only one

15、 form of address for men,Mr.,regardless of martial status.However,the martial status of women is distinguished by Miss and Mrs.,reflecting the notion that whether or not a woman is in a marriage.This discriminatory practice is said to mark the availability of woman is in a marriage.This discriminato

16、ry practice is said to mark the availability of women in terms of marriage(sex)and reinforce the view that a woman is the property of a man(either her father or her husband).When a woman has been married,people address her as“Mrs.Plus her husbands surname”.That is to say,if a woman is married to som

17、ebody,she has no right to be treated like an unmarried lady.As to a man,thats a different matter.For example：In English-speaking countries,you can often hear someone call the wife of John Smith“Mrs.John Smith”.There is no exception of famous Madame Curie,Mrs.Thatcher,and Mrs.Gandhi.Mrs.Thatcher is t

18、he former Prime Minister in UK.However,few people know her own family names.Mr.Clintons wife,Hilary Clinton,as a liberated woman,kept her name Hilary Rodham after marriage.But in order to help her husband in the election,she had to change her name.Form the address of men and women,one can clearly se

19、e the submissive position of women and women are merely an extension of their husbands or part of their husbands estate.vi vi This also reflects in the language.2.1.3 The sexism in word order When both the man and woman are called,we usually call the man first.Such as:king and queen,brother and sist

20、er,father and mother,boys and girls,husband and wife,Adam and Eve but ladies and gentleman.2.1.4 Sexism in the appellation of title job Some words havent male symbol meaning,but we regard it as the male word.In habit,English speaking people consider that professor,doctor,lawyer,surgeon,barrister,mag

21、istrate etc.as the male.When we heard that“My cousin is a professor”we usually think the professor is a male.If we want to illustrate how these words are female,general but in front plus woman,lady,female etc.modifiers.Such as:woman professor,lady doctor,female worker etc.These so-called neuter gend

22、er phrase usage from a side,reflect that only the man have the better professional in the old society.In the contrary，some words such as teacher,nurse,secretary,model etc.are regarded as the female.If we want to illustrate how these words are female,general but in front plus man or male,such as male

23、 nurse or man teacher.These habits relate to the fact of the history and are a social prejudice that we can say.2.1.5.The appellation reflect the womans personal life The Greens have four people;there are father,mother,daughter and son.If the son and daughter havent married,we call the father or son

24、 is Mr.Green,the mother is Mrs.Green and the daughter is Miss.Green.Through the appellation,we can easily find that if the woman has married or not.2.1.6 The sexism in some food and animal words Some food and animal words can also be used to refer to females,such as cookie means smart girl,crumpet m

25、eans sexing woman,tomato means beautiful girl,kitten means smart girl,crone means old ugly woman and so on.Men often use these words to express their appreciation to woman.It even includes the meaning that men treat women as dolls.These are all pejorative terms for women,because animals are consider

26、ed to be inferior to human being on the earth.So using animals to refer to female indicates those females are inferior.The semantic derogation of women helps vii vii to construct female inferior and because women are confined to negative terms,women continue to be devalued.2.2 The sexism in English

27、vocabulary and the meanings of English words Sexism in language in general comes in three major forms:language ignores women;it defines women as less significant than men;and it completely opposes women.They can be located in the generic masculine terms.Language has a tendency to neglect women,treat

28、 women as submission and also demean women.The process of words that refer to women acquiring demeaning or sexual connotations has been widely observed,and has been called semantic derogation.2.2.1 The sexism in generic pronouns Generic pronouns are pronouns that are said to refer,with equal likelih

29、ood,to women and men.But the English language ignores women by allowing masculine terms to be used specifically to refer to males and commonly to refer to human beings in general.The generic pronoun“”he”is perhaps the most well know example of the gender-specific of sexist language,and is frequently

30、 referred to be“he/man”language.The most significant manifestation of the sexism is in the use of generic masculine pronouns“he”and its variants“his”,“him”and“himself”in such sentence as:He who laughs last laughs best.Everyone must do his homework well.If anyone calls,tell him I will be back later.E

31、veryone should learn to solve problems himself.In the above examples,“he”,“his”,“him”and“himself”are used not sex-specifically,but generically,that is,although the pronouns refer grammatically to the single male citizen,they should be taken to refer to both male and female citizen in general.On the

32、formal occasions,he,him,or his can be used to refer to such indefinite pronouns as each,everyone,everyone,everybody,on one,someone,anyone and so on.While she,her,herself dont have such usages.2.2.2 The sexism in generic nouns Another well-know example of generic masculine terms is“man”.The definitio

33、ns of“man”in Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese viii viii Dictionary(Extended fourth edition)are as follows:adult male human being;human being of either sex;person sing(with the or a)the human race;mankind.There are some examples taken from the dictionary.All men must die.Growing old is someth

34、ing a man has to accept.Man is mortal.From these definitions and examples,it is easy to see that“man”,and“men”can be used generically to refer to both male and female.But woman and women cannot be employed in reference to men.This also reminds people of the famous saying from the US Declaration of I

35、ndependence:“All men are created equal.”Should people argue that the“men”does not include women because women were not given the right to vote in the eighteenth century America?A clear explanation of this phenomenon may be found in sentence like:Man is a social animal.Men remark nature.When seeing t

36、he three sentences,speakers of English are able to readily interpret“man”and“men”as meaning“the human race”;“humankind”.If not,the two sentences could be changed into Woman is a social animal.Women remake nature.Of course,they are grammatically well formed;semantically,however,the third sentence has

37、 the defect of being partial,and the fourth sentence is very ridiculous.From above,one can know that in English using“man”or”men”to indicate“the human race”,neglects the fact that men and women are equal in the society.By contraries,they treat man as the center of society,an embodiment of criterion

38、and totally ignore the existence of woman.There are many other generic masculine terms such as man-to-man,prehistoric man,brotherhood,chairman,and policeman.2.2.3 The sexism in non-parallel semantic developments of paired terms Many sociolinguists have claimed that words become negative when shift i

39、nto the female sphere,while male has remained pure and neutral.For example:1)King and queen One is masculine,the other feminine and both mean“ruler of an independent state”.ix ix King has retained its initial meaning,but besides the core meaning of queen,queen is also used as“a disparaging term for

40、a gay or homosexual man”.2)Master and mistress Both of them indicate someone who possesses and/or has power over someone or something else.For example:“He is my master.”usually means“He is my boss.”or“He has more power than me.”While“She is my mistress.”is more likely to be interpreted as meaning Sh

41、e is my illicit lover.Mistress originally refers to a woman in a position of authority,control,and ownership,as the head of a household like a housekeeper,but it implies a woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a usually married man who is not her husband and from whom she generally rec

42、eives material support.2.2.4 The sexism in semantic collocation and change In English,a word may have different connotations when it is used to describe different sexes.For example:He is imposing and she is imposing.Sentence a means“He is impressive and admirable.”While sentence could be interpreted

43、 to mean that“She is disgusting and apathetic.”When the sex changes,so does the meaning.Besides,words,which begin with either neutral or positive connotations over time,acquire negative implications and finally end up as“sexual slurs”.For example,the tern hussy derives from Old English huswif(“house

44、wife”),which means“the female head of the house”.The term gradually deteriorated to“a rustic rude woman”and finally comes to mean“an indecent,impudent woman or prostitute”.2.3 The Sexism in English proverbs Proverbs are the achievements of the human intelligence.It is regarded as the mirror of the n

45、ation.English proverbs are the important of the English language.There are a lot of female proverbs,but many of that depreciate the female and reflect the female are belonging to the male and have a lot of bad meaning.In the status A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.If husband be not at home

46、,there is no body.About the Married x x Marry your son when you will,your daughter when you can.In the Behavior Many woman,many word;many geese,many turds.In the Ability and Wisdom Long hair,short wit.Woman have long hair and short brains.In the Morality Fair woman without virtue is like palled wine

47、.In the Character Frailty,they name is women.3.The strategies of Eliminating or Avoiding Sexism in English In English language,people can fine universal phenomena of sexism,but with the vigorous developing of womens liberation movement and the improving of womens status,the sexism in English languag

48、e is disappearing little by little.Two ways are used to eliminate the sexist English,they are:language strategy and social reform.3.1 Language strategy 3.1.1 Avoiding using generic masculine pronouns (1)The generic masculine he,his him should be replace with he or she,his or her,him or her,and the l

49、ike,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 his or herself;he or she should be ready to die for it if the need arises.And avoid the masc

50、uline word“he”.A sentence:If a student cant be in class,hell have to do the work in his own time.It exists sexism,so we should change it to:If a student cant be in class,theyll have to do the work in their own time.3.1.2 Population of neutral words and expressions The most important thing to erase t