A Study on Sexism in English Language from Linguistic Perspective【毕业论文】.doc

1、 本科毕业论文 （ 20 届） 英语 A Study on Sexism in English Language from Linguistic Perspective 外语学院学生毕业论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的毕业论文是本人在导师的认真指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的研究成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含其他个人或集体已经发表的学术成果，也不包含为获得浙江万里学院或其它教育机构的学位证书而使用过的材料。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式表明。如本 文涉及上述声明及任何知识产权纠纷，本人将承担一切责任。 学生签名： _日期： _ Abstract

2、 Sexism is a social phenomenon which exists commonly and widely, and language is a product of the special development. Thus sexism in language embodies the sex discriminations in the society. This thesis will analyze and discuss sexism in English language from word formation, word meaning and expres

3、sions. The developing trend of language sexism will also be discussed. Finally the thesis will present the importance of eliminating sexism in English language. Key Words: sexism linguistics social phenomenon 摘 要 性别歧视是一种普遍存在的社会现象，而语言是社会发展的产物，因此，语言中性别歧视则是社会性别歧视的体现。本文从语言学角度，通过对 英语 构词、词义和表达 方法 手段 的 分析

4、，揭示 了英语 语言 中 对 女性 的 性别歧视，并探讨了其发展趋势， 同时 强调了消除语言中性别歧视的意义。 关 键字： 性别歧视 语言学 社会现象 Contents 1 Introduction . .1 2 Sexism in English Language. 2 2.1 Sexism Reflected in Word Formation .3 2.1.1 By Compound Words . 3 2.1.2 By Suffixes .4 2.2 Sexism Reflected in English Wording.6 2.3 Sexism Reflected in Word M

5、eaning .7 2.4 Sexism Reflected in Expressions .8 2.4.1 By Word Order of Expressions. 8 2.4.2 By Idioms, Proverbs and Slangs .9 3 Developing Trend .10 4 Conclusion.1 1 Works Cited .1 3 Acknowledgements 1 A Study on Sexism in English Language from Linguistic Perspective 1 Introduction Do you think tha

6、t we are living in an absolutely equal world? Do you believe that we have overcome all sorts of discriminations in the world? Do you treat everyone equal? Actually, we are living in a society which is full of inequality and discrimination. Sexism is very common. Sexism refers to the discrimination b

7、ased on genders, especially the discrimination against females. Sex discrimination has greatly influenced many different aspects of our social life. Since 1960s, feminists have done a lot on elimination of sex discrimination, and more attention has been drawn to females contributions towards our soc

8、iety so as to better womens social status. (Zhao Yuancheng, 2008, p.116) Thanks to their great work, a lot of fields in our social life all over the world have been, or are being, influenced by this trend of thought. More and more people come to realize the importance and value of womens contributio

9、ns for our world. Language is a product of social development, so sexism in language can well reflect sexism in our society and English is no exception. English, as an ancient and widely used language, gives us a lot of evidence for its sex discrimination against females. Sexism in English refers to

10、 the sex bias in the widely used languageEnglish.(Dai Yuelan, 2007, p.767) Since last century many feminists have paid great efforts to avoid the usage of both spoken and written English which supports unfair or untrue attitudes towards a particular sex, especially towards women. However, after cent

11、uries of hard work by those feminists, there are still lots of sex discriminations in existence around our daily life. Whats more, most of the English speakers even have never noticed that they are still using a language which is closely related to sexism. Whenever English is used, the idea of sexis

12、m is delivered from one person to another even the speaker is totally unintentional. This study is going to do a detailed analysis on the topic of sexism in English language 2 from linguistic perspective. Robertson once said: “Culture consists of all the shared products of human society.”(Robertson

13、Ian, 1981, p.28) Sexism is not something existing only in English or any other languages, it also exists in peoples minds. Various reasons lead to sexism in English language. Generally speaking, we can divide these reasons into two main parts: historical and social reasons, and physical reasons. In

14、the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of people, and it comprises their historical and culture backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.(Deng Yanchang & Liu Runqing, 1989, p.3) When talking about the historical reasons of sexism in Eng

15、lish, we must have some basic knowledge about the origin of the human beings in the western world. The Bible is one of the most important and widespread masterpieces in the English speaking world. This book is not only a Christian scripture, but also a book about culture and customs. As many of the

16、residents centuries ago were Christians, the Bible has greatly influenced their notion and as a result also works on the English language. The Bible tells us that the first human the God makes is a male called Adam, and the first female Eve is made by Adams rib. The origin of human being seems to de

17、cide that the status of females in the society has to be the appendix to males. Women are tending to be a part of men rather than independent ones. As to the physical reasons, since men acquire some absolute advantages in physical abilities and power which enable human beings to multiply in ancient

18、times, they gradually gain dominance in politics, economy and culture. (Gan Xiaodan, 2010, p.760) With all the complicated and varied factors working together, men have more privileges over women in the society in all parts of human culture, including English language. 2 Sexism in English Language A

19、merican sexists are thought to be the first group of pioneers who recognized the sex discrimination in English language and took life-long hard work to fight for females legal and equal rights. After years of hard work, they come to a conclusion that not only people make the language, but also the l

20、anguage can change peoples 3 attitude towards females. However, as a widely used language, English is more likely to be an androcentric language. It shows its favor for males, and runs down females in many cases. English is greatly influenced by sexism in many aspects, and in the following, language

21、 sexism will be discussed in four aspectsword formation, English wording, word meaning and English expressions. 2.1 Sexism Reflected in Word Formation Words, as the basic unit of a language, give us much evidence about its attitude towards many different issues, including sexism. By studying these,

22、we can get a deeper and more professional knowledge about sexism in English language. In the following, sexism in word formation can be defined in two aspects. 2.1.1 By Compound Words Compound words are such words which are made up by two or more than two single words. The meaning of a compound word

23、 is the sum total of the two or more different morphemes which make up this compound word. (Wang Dongping & Wu Xiuhong, 2009, p.88) Among all the compound words in English vocabularies, masculine stems play an important role. We can find much interesting evidence to prove that. Mankind, is a much us

24、ed word in our daily life. We can easily find the word is made up by the two words: man and kind. “ Man” is opposite to the word “woman”, stands for the particular gender of male, while “kind” means a group of something. When we try to analyze this word, we can see obviously the sign of discriminati

25、on against females. Then the compound word “man+kind” is used to refer to humans and thus gives all the language speakers an implication that all human beings are men only and women are appendixes to men. As a result, we never use the word like “womankind” instead of “mankind”. Kingdom, a king is th

26、e male governor of a country, while “dom” means an area 4 of land. The word “kingdom” implies that only males can take the absolute power and right to govern everything including females, and females are always under the control of males. We can find easily sex discrimination against females. Althou

27、gh the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now under the control of Queen ElizabethII, the country has never changed its title into the United “Queendom” of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so in English language, sexism is still going on. A good case in point is the word “cha

28、irman”. As we can see clearly, the word “chairman” is made up of “chair” and “man”. “Chair” means in charge of a meeting or something like that. When somebody is titled as a chairman, most of us will think that this person is a male subconsciously. Such words as “policeman” “businessman” and “postma

29、n” are all created under the same historical context. Men are considered to be the governors of the whole human beings for a long time for they have gained both mental and physical advantages over women. In fact all these positions are taken by males during the early years of their creation, and fem

30、ales have no right to take these kinds of positions during that time. During these years, words like “chairwoman” “chairperson” have been created, however this kind of words are not widely used yet, and cant change the situation greatly. When a compound word has a masculine morpheme in it, it is eas

31、y for its speakers to understand as if this compound word is totally designed for males rather than females. Whats more, as far as we can see, most of this kind of compound words are quite positive, and show males absolute power to take charge of everything, including females. 2.1.2 By Suffixes In E

32、nglish, suffixes refer to a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word, to make a new word. Masculine words can be used to describe both males and neuters, however, on the contrary, feminine vocabularies dont have this kind of character.(Jing Liangliang, 2009, p.59) When a bound morpheme

33、is added to a 5 masculine word, it changes into a feminine word, and to do so, suffixes are much used. Now lets come to see two typical examples: “-ette” and “-ess”. -ette: when looking up to the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, the suffix “-ette” not only has the meaning of “fem

34、ale”, but also means “small”. For examples, usherusherette, and hackhackette. In the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, “hack” is a writer, especially of newspaper articles, who does a lot of low quality work and does not get paid much. Meanwhile, hackette, is used for a female jou

35、rnalist. From the explanations, we can see that hack is a derogatory term, after adding the suffix “-ette”, the word “hackette” seems to be an insulting word as well as a derogatory term. The word “hackette” shows a particular disrespect to female journalist. The suffix “-ess” means “female” in the

36、Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary. We change a male title into a female one by putting this suffix at the end of a word, such as, “actor-actress” “waiter-waitress” “God-Goddess” and “poet-poetess”. This kind of words can help us distinguish a male from a female, and figure out fema

37、les special achievement in some fields sometimes. However, they are always considered less important than males. The pair of words “poet-poetess” can improve this point of view. Poet Laureate is one of the blue ribbons for both most outstanding poets and poetesses in Britain. Although this prize is

38、set not only for poets but also for poetesses, this prize is named as “Poet Laureate” rather than “Poetess Laureate” which makes us realize the fact that on many occasions females are at lower position compared with males. Both of the two bound morphemes seem to be negative for females state in our

39、daily social life. The fact that many feminine words are made up by adding a bound morpheme to masculine words shows the societys attitude toward females to some degree. (Wang Guiping & Xiao Yan, 2008, p.94) According to this, females seem doomed to be appendixes to males instead of independent ones. Females seem