-
英语中的性歧视
The
Sexism
in
English
1
.
Introduction
Language
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
—
it
’
s
a
tool to maintain social order .
Sexism has been a kind of social phenomenon 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 people
’
s
thoughts embodied in the language and
culture , sexism can be represented as
“
language of
women
”
and
“
language 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
(
Wardhaugh ,
1986
) . The
Oxford English Dictionary
defines
“
sexism
”
as
: descrimination based on gender ,
especially descrimination against women
.
Merrians
Webster
’
s Collegiate
Dictionary
(
the
10
th
edition
) has the similar
definition : sexism is the bias or descrimination
against women caused
by sex differences
.
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 .
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2. Sexism in Morphology, Syntax ,
Semantics and Pragmatics
2.1 Sexism in Morphology
Morphologically,
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
,
“
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 documents 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 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 here
for years .
Thouth some words have both
the form of
“
—
man
”
and
“
—
woman
”
< br> ,
such
as
,
policeman/policewoman
,
workman/workwoman
,
while
the
gender
is
unknown
,
people
use
the
form
of
“
< br>—
man
”
without
exception .
Sometimes
,
even
people
know
the
person
’
s gender
is female , people often use the male words , 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 female 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
adding affix to the male nouns .
The male words can be used to refer
both the genders . If people want to use them to
refer
- 2 -
to
female , they have to use the words , such as ,
“
lady
”
or
“
women
”
to emphasize . Lexically ,
the
nouns ended with
“
—
er
”
,
“
< br>—
or
”
are
neutral words , but people treat them as male
nouns .
That
’
s
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 .
People
have
to
use
“
lady
”
,
“
woman
”
,
“
female
”
,etc .
to
emphasize
the
female concept . For example ,
a lady
—
doctor , a
woman lawer , etc
. That is because the
positions themselves are recognized as
men
’
s careers with respect .
In other cases , the nouns ,
such as ,
male baby
—
sister
,
and
male nurse
, the word
“
male
”
added here just because these
careers
are recognized as humble ,and they must be done by
women .
2.2 Sexism in
Syntax
In 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 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
“
ladies and
gentlemen
”
is an exception .
That is a fixed word order in social situations
and
that doesn
’
t
mean that women
’
s 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 the ladies go first .
That
’
s the origin that
“
lady
first
”
comes from .
And
gradually
,
people
were
accustomed
to
say
“
ladies
and
gentlemen
”
in
speakings
and
toasts .
Besides
, the sentence structure also embodies sexism .
Because women
’
s social
status and
powers are inferior to men ,
women are inclined to use mild and implicit
sentences to express
relaxed tone . The
tag question is a typical feature , for example ,
He won
’
t come
today , will
he
?
What
’
s more , women always
use Model Auxiliaries and Parenthesis to show
uncertainty .
For example ,
I was wondering if you could possibly do me a
favour
.
- 3 -
2.3 Sexism in
Semantics
In 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 haven
’
t
changed over time . A typical example
is
“
lord
”
and
“
lady
”
. In the past ,
“
lady
”
represents the
graceful and superior
woman , but now, it doesn
’
t
contain the meaning of
“
lord
”
. In shops ,
people
call
the
female
“
salesladies
”
,
and
the
male
“
salesmen
”
instead
of
“
saleslord
”
or
“
salesgentlemen
”
.
Therefore ,
“
lord
”
and
“
gentlemen
”
still keep the meaning of superior and
respect . But
“
lady
”
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 honored . 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
incapable .
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 their 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 keeps 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
,
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 sex
—
life . To certain
degree ,
Almost every
female
word
has
the
negative
meaning .
The
negative
meaning
of
lady
,
queen
,
madam
,
mistress
etc.
is female cat , procuress .
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2.4 Sexism
in Pragmatics
In pragmatics
,
the sexism is also
obvious and common . After the marriage of a girl
,
she has to change her family name and
ues her husband
’
s family
name . There is no lack of
this kind of
example . In daily life , male has no need to
state clear whether 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 usually 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 . For example ,
“
d
ragon
”
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
people
’
s business . On the
contrary , the metaphors to men have
little negative meanings .
“
Stub
”
,
“
buck
”
,
“
wolf
”
symbolize power and domintion . People
also compare a cunny man as a
“
fox
”
, and a kind of respect is contained in the
meaning .
Causes of Sexism
English
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
women
’
s passive
and inferior position . Eckert and Mc
Monnel
—
Cinet (1992:90) think
that
the female language reflects
women
’
s desire to ascend to
the higher class , their lack of sense
of
security
and
their
obedience .
The
male
language
reflects
men
’
s
strength
,
their
will
of
competing
, their ability of being 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 Causes
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Language is an
important part of culture . English embodies
English culture . Religion is a
concentrated reflection 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
substitutes
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
Jesus
’
s
ancesters
,
the
daughters of
Jacob
—
Rebecca ,
Lea , Rachel , Diana were not mentioned at all .
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
the 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 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 unto 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
,
2:18
—
24)
From the above
description , we can clearly see that women are
substituted to men . Men
come to the
world first , then women were created because they
were needed by men . What
’
s
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
are the property of men :
“
Thou shalt not
covet them neighbor
’
s house
, thou shalt covet thy
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