The Sexism in English

1、英語中的性歧視the sexism in english1.introductionlanguage is a mirror that reflects the reality . on one side , it reflects the culture language is an important carrier of culture ;on the other side , it reflects the society its a tool to maintain social order . sexism has been a kind of social phenomenon

2、for thousands of years .sexism is common in english and many other languages. in social and cultural life , people will say what and how to say them is directly depended on the society . with peoples thoughts embodied in the language and culture , sexism can be represented as “l(fā)anguage of women” and

3、 “l(fā)anguage about women” . the former one is the result of the requirement that women should speak accaording to their own roles . the later one is the unequal phenomenon that women are discriminated and and suppressed . in the broad sense , sexism is the descrimination against women or men (wardhaug

4、h , 1986) . the oxford english dictionary defines “sexism” as : descrimination based on gender , especially descrimination against women . merrians websters collegiate dictionary (the 10th edition) has the similar definition : sexism is the bias or descrimination against women caused by sex differen

5、ces . in english , sexism exists in its morphology , syntax , semantics and pragmatics . the ways words are formed , the sentence structures , the meanings of words , and also , the using of words all give evidence that sexism is existant and popular . 2. sexism in morphology, syntax , semantics and

6、 pragmatics 2.1 sexism in morphologymorphologically, people use words which represent male to indicate female . on the condition that the gender of the person refferred to is unknown , english people are inclined to use the third person pronoun (he , his ,him) to represent the person . in this case

7、, “he” , “his” ,and “him” can represent both the gender male and female . usually , the neutral person pronoun for “he” and “she” is “he”. for example , we hope the audience will make up his own mind . everybody must do his best . according to the data , the persentage of “he” and “she” used in docu

8、ments is 4:1 , “he” is used to indicate the meaning of “she” , “his” also includes the meaning of “her” , which shows the domination of male in social society . moreover , words as “man” , “mankind” and those wods ended up with “man” can represent both genders . “man” can not only represent male and

9、 adult male , but also can be used to represent every person . but “woman” can not be used like that . many nouns that indicates careers can use “ man” as their suffix , thouth that kind of work is done by women . for example , chairman , mailman , workman , postman , freeman , etc . men have lived

10、here for years . thouth some words have both the form of “man” and “woman” , such as , policeman/policewoman , workman/workwoman, while the gender is unknown , people use the form of “man” without exception . sometimes , even people know the persons gender is female , people often use the male words

11、 , for example , he was punished severely by policeman for dangerous driving . besides , when people are writing a letter , they always use the male appellation ,such as , dear sir , dear gentleman , to represent the person with unknown gender . in english , women are subordinated to men . the femal

12、e nouns are formed by affixing the male nouns . for example , hero/heroine , steward/stewardess, male/female , waiter/waitress, etc. this means that the male nouns are recognized as unmarked , they are the nouns themselves . while the female nouns are marked , which means that they are formed by add

13、ing affix to the male nouns . the male words can be used to refer both the genders . if people want to use them to refer to female , they have to use the words , such as , “l(fā)ady” or “women” to emphasize . lexically , the nouns ended with “er” , “or” are neutral words , but people treat them as male

14、nouns . thats why people have to add “ woman” to indicate female , for example , a woman doctor . in common case , the nouns that refer to lower social careers have both the male and female form . but if people want to refer to the higher socail positions , they only have the concept of male . peopl

15、e have to use “l(fā)ady” , “woman” , “female” ,etc . to emphasize the female concept . for example , a ladydoctor , a woman lawer , etc . that is because the positions themselves are recognized as mens careers with respect . in other cases , the nouns , such as , male babysister , and male nurse , the w

16、ord “male” added here just because these careers are recognized as humble ,and they must be done by women . 2.2 sexism in syntaxin syntax , there is also sexism . traditionally , people think that male is superior to female both physically and mentally . in daily talk and writing , when a male and a

17、 female appear at the same situation , the male nouns are used in front of the female nouns . for example , boys and girls , men and women , prince and pricess , mr and mrs etc. but the polite greeting “l(fā)adies and gentlemen” is an exception . that is a fixed word order in social situations and that

18、doesnt mean that womens position has been raised . tracing back to the ancient times , high officials and noble lords always have their wives accompany them in parties . but the ladies were considered to be weak and delicate . therefore, when entering or exiting the door , the gentlemen always let t

19、he ladies go first . thats the origin that “l(fā)ady first” comes from . and gradually , people were accustomed to say “l(fā)adies and gentlemen” in speakings and toasts . besides , the sentence structure also embodies sexism . because womens social status and powers are inferior to men , women are inclined

20、 to use mild and implicit sentences to express relaxed tone . the tag question is a typical feature , for example , he wont come today , will he ? whats more , women always use model auxiliaries and parenthesis to show uncertainty . for example , i was wondering if you could possibly do me a favour

21、.2.3 sexism in semanticsin semantics , there are four kinds of sexism . the first one , is the degradation of female words. some of the female words were only used to describe those women with higher social status , but now these words have been made popular . paralelly , the male words havent chang

22、ed over time . a typical example is “l(fā)ord” and “l(fā)ady” . in the past , “l(fā)ady” represents the graceful and superior woman , but now, it doesnt contain the meaning of “l(fā)ord” . in shops , people call the female “salesladies” , and the male “salesmen” instead of “saleslord” or “salesgentlemen” . therefor

23、e , “l(fā)ord” and “gentlemen” still keep the meaning of superior and respect . but “l(fā)ady” becomes more and more popular . the second one , is that female words are usually associated with negative meaning . there is a trend that the female words are deteriorating , while the male words are being honore

24、d . in usual situation , male words have positive meanings , while female words have negative meanings . take bachelor and spinster as an example , both of them mean the unmarried person . bachelor implies the meaning decent , independent and sex free , while spinster implies ugly , sexless and inca

25、pable . though some words are similar in their forms , their inherent meanings are different . take governor and governess as an example , governor means the person appointed to govern a province or state (esp . a colony abroad ) . but governess means the woman employed to teach young children in th

26、eir home ( usu . living in as the member of the household ) . the third one is that , even the same word can have positive or negative meaning when it is used to represent male or female . for example , tramp means the person with no fixed home or occupation who wanders from place to place . it keep

27、s the meaning when used to refer to a male person . when it is used to refer to the female person , it means a whore . the fourth one is , the words which are used to describe a female who loses her virgin are far more than that are used to describe a male . according to the statistics , in english

28、, people express their descrimination against women by smearing the female nouns . there are about 520 words being used to mean a woman with a messed sexlife . to certain degree , almost every female word has the negative meaning . the negative meaning of lady , queen , madam , mistress etc. is fema

29、le cat , procuress . 2.4 sexism in pragmaticsin pragmatics , the sexism is also obvious and common . after the marriage of a girl , she has to change her family name and ues her husbands family name . there is no lack of this kind of example . in daily life , male has no need to state clear whether

30、he is married or unmarried , while female has to use mrs and miss to distinguish if she is married or not . in english , people are used to using names of objects to refer to men and women . the connotation and emotion are different from each other . food is for eating , and the names of food are us

31、ually used to refer to women . this shows the inferior position of women , such as , cheesecake(naked woman) , cheery(a virgin) , tomato(beautiful woman) . when using the names of animals as a metaphor to women , they always have the negative meaning of stubborn , rude , unreasonable , and dissolute

32、 . for example , “dragon” has the meaning of shrew , “cow” means the lazy and stupid woman , “hen” means the gossip woman who likes to poke her nose into other peoples business . on the contrary , the metaphors to men have little negative meanings . “stub” , “buck” , “wolf” symbolize power and domin

33、tion . people also compare a cunny man as a “fox” , and a kind of respect is contained in the meaning . 3.main causes of sexismenglish is a kind of language with sexism , dale spender (1985) pointed out men monopolize english , they have never given up the control to this language . this leads to wo

34、mens passive and inferior position . eckert and mc monnelcinet (1992:90) think that the female language reflects womens desire to ascend to the higher class , their lack of sense of security and their obedience . the male language reflects mens strength , their will of competing , their ability of b

35、eing independent , and their management and domination of the whole society . there are three main causes for sexism in english culture , society and psycology . 3.1 the cultural causeslanguage is an important part of culture . english embodies english culture . religion is a concentrated reflection

36、 of culture , it influences the development of language . the bible is the basis of western culture . in the bible , men are described as pure and noble , and women are related with sex . on the positive aspect , women are the spokesmen of virgin , while on the negative aspect , women are the substi

37、tutes of whore . in the traditional religion and custom , women are always descriminated and repelled . either in the new testament or the old testament , women have no status at all . for example , as jesuss ancesters , the daughters of jacob rebecca , lea , rachel , diana were not mentioned at all

38、 . even some women were mentioned , they were described as the substitutes and property of men . there was a description in the bible of how human beings are created : and the lord god said , it is not good that the man should be alone ; i will make him a help meet for him . and out of the ground th

39、e lord god formed every beast of the field , and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them : and whatsoever adam called every living creature , that was the name of thereof . and adam gave names to all cattle , and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of

40、the field ; but for adam there was not found a help meet for him . and the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam , and he slept ; and he tooks one of his ribs , and closed up the interested thereof . and the rib , which the lord god had taken from man , made her a woman , and brought her un

41、to the man . and adam said this is now now bone of my bones ,and flesh of my fleshes : she shall be called woman , becase she was taken out of man . (holy bible ,1978, cenesis , 2:1824) from the above description , we can clearly see that women are substituted to men . men come to the world first ,

42、then women were created because they were needed by men . whats more tragic is that women were created because all the other animals could not satisfy men . for the bible , women can be defined as one part of men . in exodus , women are the same as other animals , they are belonged to men , and they

43、 are the property of men : “ thou shalt not covet them neighbors house , thou shalt covet thy neighbors wife nor his manservant , nor his ox , nor his ass , nor anything that is thy neighbors .” the new testament described women in this way : wives , submit yourselves unto your husband , as unto the

44、 lord . for the husband is the head of wife , even as christ is the church - therefore as the church is subject unto christ , so let the wives are to their own husbands in everything . (ephesiand 5:2224) . in the bible , almost all the influencing people are men , not women , such as jesuschrist , m

45、oses , abraham . besides , some theories about sex difference have appeared recently . some scientists boasted that their theories were based on science , but in certain degree , their theories are deceiving . floyd pointed that women has three main caracters : passive , selfadmiring , being maltrea

46、ted . therefore women are born with selfabased , jealous caracters . unlike women , men are persistent and just . moreover , in european countries , the education for women has been neglected for a long time . women had no chance to get enough education . this caused their ignorance . actually , the

47、y are not unwishing to fight , but are unable to fight . 3.2 the social causesin social life , because of different social divisions of labor , the sexism appears . there are huge differences in the divisions of labor between men and women . feminists think that its a society of men , the society ex

48、ists for men , and men control the whole society . the male chauvinists claim that they are the men are the perfect standard , women must be judged by this standard . simone de beauvoir (quoted in william kornblum and joseph julia , 1992) wrote in her article “women as other” that women were differe

49、nt according to mens standard , they were secondary and subordinated . men were absolutely the dominators. therefore , according to this kind of logic , women earn little money , they have no power and they are the secondary citizens . their contributions to literature , art , and science can not ge

50、t the praise they deserve . in the early time of human history , our society was devided to maternal society and paternal society . in maternal society , women were superior to men . with the development of productive force , men were gradually liberated from fishing and hunting , and they began to

51、do agricutural work . because men were stronger than women physically , and women had to spend more time and energy taking care of the baby , so men become more and more important in social life . eventually , men began to control women , and women had to rely on men . this is the turning point in h

52、istory . from then on , in the paternal society , in feudalism , in the slave society and in the capitalism , women all lived at the bottom of the society . the cause is just the differences in division of socail labor . the sociolinguist bollisger (1980) think that the cause of the descrimination l

53、ied in that women were always considered to be the merchandise and property of men . he used two examples to illustrate that : 1 . our people are the best gamblers in the galaxy . we compete for power , fame and women . 2 . the brave pioneers crossed the plains with their wives , their children and

54、their cattle . when people read these two sentences , the immediate impression is that women are the property of men , they equal the cattle . people would be socialized since the day when they were born . especially the girls , they would wear either the blue or pink clothes . this is the earliest

55、way to distinguish them from boys . though children dont know the conotation of the colours , the adults kown . based on this point , people can separate the sex roles . parents always teach children what is “male” and what is “female” in their life . this makes the children have strong sense of gen

56、der . and this sense can be consolidated by further learning and experiencing . influened by the life and media , people gradually form the idea of men and women .simone de beauvoir described how girls were endowed with the socialized role in his book “the second sex” (1961). these roles made the gi

57、rls realize that women can not match with the men anyway . thats to say , people would not encourage girls to learn some challenging courses , such as maths and phylosophy . on the contrary , people expected girls to learn some skills like cooking , taking care of children and their husband , and do

58、ing housework . for example , micheal lewis (1972) discovered that the degree that parents take care of the newly born baby would influence the girls to form socialized roles . from the early age , girl infants are looked at and talked to more than boy infants . for the first six months or so , boy

59、infants have more physical contact than girl infants , but by the time they are six months old , this reverses and girls get more physical contact and more nontouching contact . the motive appears to be cultural ; mothers believe that boys should be more independent than girls and that they should be encouraged to explore and master the world . lewis thought that the inclination that mothers liked to t