论英语中的性别歧视

景德镇陶瓷学院科技

艺术学院

本科生毕业论文（设计）

题目：

Sexism in English Vocabulary

学

号：

姓

名：

院（系）：

专

业：

完成时间：

指导老师：

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

…………………………………………

..

Abstract in Chinese

……………………………………

.

Abstract in English

……………………………………

.

………………………………………………

in word-formation methods

………………

..

2.1 Suffixes

…………………………………………

.

2.2 Sexism in compound words

……………………

..

in Naming and Addressing

…………………

..

3.1 Sexism and Naming

………………………………

.

3.1.1 Sexism in the first names

………………

..

3.1.1.1 Derivation of Female Names from Male Names

……

..

3.1.1.2 Sexism in Semantic Naming of First Names

………

.

3.1.2 Sexism in the family names

……………

3.1.2.1 Patrilineal System of Family Names

3.1.2.2 Change of Female Family Names upon marriage

3.2 Sexism and Addressing

………

.

3.2.1 Sexism in Addressing Terms

…

..

3.2.1.1

Female Social Titles upon Relationship with Mal

e

…

3.2.1.2 Derogation of Female Honorific Titles

……………

.

3.2.1.3 Abusive Addressing Patterns

………………

..

in Proverb and Slang

……………………………

..

4.1 Sexism in Proverb

……………………………………………

4.2 Sexism in Slang

………………………………………

5. Conclusion

……………………………………… ……………

..

6. Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Hou Xiaohua,my

supervisor,for her constant and inspiring guidance and has walked

me through all the stages of writing of the t her constant and

illuminating instruction,this thesis could not have reached its present form.

Second,i would like to expree my heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers who

taught me when i have striving for my Bachelor Degree for their excellent lectures

and inspiring ideas.

Last, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations

and great confidence in me all through these years.I also owe my sincere gratitude to

my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to

me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis

摘要

英语不仅是一种语言工具，也是一种意识形态工具。性别歧视这一文化观念

反映在语言的 词汇学中。牛津高级字典是这样解释的：

“不平等的对待人，尤其

是对女性，因为她们的性别”。本篇论文将从英语词汇构词法、词义、称谓语及

谚语和 俚语分析英语词汇中的性别歧视。

所以对性别歧视了解的越多，

避免的困

难也就越多。这是很有实际意义的。

关键词

：语言；英语词汇；性别歧视

ABSTRACT

English is not only a language tool, but also an ideological tool. V

ocabulary of

the

language

can

faithfully

reflect

the

culture

it

serves

such

as

oxford

advanced

learner's

dictionary

explains

it

as

below:

the

unfair

treatment

of

people,

especially women, because

of their article will discuss sexism

that exists in English lexicon in terms of

word formation ,word meaning ,naming and addressing terms ,as well as proverb and

slang the more you know it, the better you will avoid trouble. Therefore, the

present research has important practical significances.

Key words

：

language

；

English word;sexism

;

tion

Sexism

，

according to Oxford Advanced Learner?s English

-Chinese Dictionary is defined as prejudice or discrimination against people

()because of their sex and according to Longman Dictionary of

Comtenporary English ,sexism is defined as ideas and believe that menbers of

one(usually man) sex are more able and clever than theode of the other sex .It is

manifest in all forms of behavior from subtle gestures and especially language to

exploitation and oppression

，

and in all human institutions from the family to the

multinational corporation(Paula S

．

Rothenberg 1988

：

21)

．

It affirms the dominance

of men over women

，

jnst as Rosemary Radford Ruether(1993

：

165)holds that“sexism

is gender privilege of males over females

．

It is males primarily who have originated

this form of oppression

，

benefited from it

，

and perpetuated it

，

legally and

ideologically

．

”In this sense

，

it keeps women in second

．

classstatus

，

denies them their

rights to control their own bodies

，

and denies personal

，

mental

，

and physical safety

；

it reinforces the false notion that any man who is ge ntle

，

flexible

，

compassionateor

gay becomes“feminine”and thereby loses status and respect

．

in word formation

Word

formation

is

one

of

the

elements

in

language

from

which

we

can

find

many

examples

of

most

obvious

one

is

the

word

“history”,which

it

combines words “his”and “story”.It claimed that the history belonged to man not the

general,it is divided in to two categories,adding suffixes and compounding.

2.1 Adding suffixes

Adding

-tress

is

common

among

words

like

,actress,authoress,sculptress

and

gh it sometimes awarded some outlanding achievements

of women,the

importance of its role isn?t the same as instance,we usually call a

man of a

general manager,rather than a general highest rank of poet in British

is Poet Laureate,which it award to every distinguished poet including both males and

ver,rarly

had

it

probably

honored

a

poet

of

Poetess

Laureate.

Word

like

hostess

is

widely

accepted

by

people

in

bar

,which

its

meaning

had

been

same as in the terms of JewessNegrss and Quakeress

The suffix of -ette includes three meanings .The first one aims at small size,such

as “cigarette(

香烟

)” and “kitchenette(

小厨房）

”.The second level is artifical ,such as

“Lea therette(

人造皮）

”.The

third

level

derives

from

the

last

two

meanings

which

discloses the oweakness of woman and subordinates to a result ,it discininates

against

woman

are

unfairly

the

turn

of

19

century

and

20

century

,“Suffragette”was

frequently

used

by

women

who

wanted

to

strive

rights for r,the public and media used it with derogation.

Words like aviatrix(

女飞行员）

，

executrix(

女执行官）

and dominatrix(

母夜叉

)

added

the

suffix

of

-trix,which

all

present

an

insular

prejudice

towards

are so weak and fragile that they need obey to men.

2.2 Sexism in compound words

In

addition

to

sex

discrimination

in

suffixes,compounding

is

a

good

example

word-

formationof

common

words

made

by

“man”

and

“woman”for

example

.on

one

hand,there

are

a

great

many

words

with

“man”,like

h uman,policeman,chairman,businessman,sportsman,supe rman,mankind,postman,Engl

ishman,airman, salesman,clergyman,kinsman,countryman,

the

word

“woman”is made up of “man. All these words should refer only to the male,while in

fact,the meanings of these words also cover woman,which is obviously unfair to the

ly,this

kind

of

words

are

regarded

as

masculine

words

in

ing to the point of view in English history,it inherits word-formation

principle

of

Latin

and

old

English

in

grammar

such

kinds

of

words

empasize masculine in word the sametime,it also stresses that all things

are done by the mmale, not the female in practical use.

That is quite unfair to the the other hand,in social life,pepole always

regard women with a woman is engaged in noble cases,she will face

much more difficulties than the following meaning of words also show that

the words made up of”woman”mainly

emphasize the characteristics

of women who

are engaged in some kind of profession or belong to a certain of example,

(1)Womankind: female human beings

(2)Chairwoman:

a

woman

presiding

officer

of

an

assembly

meeting,committee

or

board

(3)Womanpower:the power of woman physcial strength

(4)Policewoman: a woman who is in a member of a police force

(5)Womanhood:the state of being a woman;woman

(6)Horsewoman:a woman horseback rider

in Naming and Addressing

Spender(1985:24) notes:

one of the features of English language practices which are

inherently sexist is the use of naming and addressing terms.”Naming and addressing

terms

play

an important role in interpersonal

are

continuously

used

in

our

daily

life

hence

the

social

and

cultualfactors

encoded

in

them

are

very

valuable for us to explore.

3.1 Sexism and Naming

Naming system usually includes first name,middle name and family nam,such

as

“William

Jefferson

Clinton”.First

name

such

as”William”in

the

example,is

otherwise

known

as

Chtistian

name,forename

or

given

name

like”Jefferson”in the example occurs betwwen the first name and family name as the

second forename,and is usually represented by its capitalized initial letter and is often

used in formal name is known as Surname,or last name,which is a

name

shared

in

common

to

identify

the

mumbers

of

a

family,which

is

usuallyinheritedfrom the ascending generation on the paternal side,such as

?Clinton”in

the part will discuss the sexist phenomena in the first and family name

on the basis of the analysis of their semantic features.

3.1.1

Sexism in the first names

Giving first name to the infant is one of the most important name is

truly a lifetime gift from parents;it helps define the children within the family,school

and the outside an analysis of sexism in first names is very significant.

3.1.1.1 Derivation of Female Names from Male Names

In English lots of female names derivate from male names by adding affixes

for example,Stephen-Stephanie, play an important role in the

formation of female researching affixes used to refer to female in

English,Mills(1995:93)claims that those affixes lead to a view of women as a

derivation from a male universal norm and the female form is seen as the marked term

and the male as the unmarked ore,it is not a surprise that female names

would have some consistent marker female names derive of male ones by

addingthe suffixes

“

-

a”

(or “

-

ia” due to phonetic

reason), “e” and “

-

line” to them.

like

Albert and Alberta

、

、

Alex and Alexa

、

Daniel and Danielle

、

Gabriel and Gabriell and

Paul and Pauline

etc.

First corresponding with the above, research has shown that male names differ

fromfemale ones in two major aspects. Firstly, male names are shorter in spelling than

female names according to the research, There are many male names are formed with

one syllable such as Jim, Fred, John, Bob and Jack, while only few female names are

one syllable. Furthermore, fewer female names have three or more than three syllables,

such as Roberta, Victoria and Amand. Part of the explanation of this study lies in the

fact that many female names are originated from male names by adding one or more

syllables.

Secondly, male names are phonologically different from female ones. This thesis

finds that majority of male names are ended with consonant phonetic symbol in which

some male names end with the stops [d], [t], [k] such as Robert, Richard, Jack; while

only two femalenames do, namely, Brooke and Jade. However, most of female names

analyzed endedwith a vowel [i], [i:], [

?

], such as Mary and Anna, but only a few male

names do argues (1990: 476), “Small vocal tracts such as [i], [i:], [?

], which

producehigh-pitched sounds, are typically possessed by smaller, weaker, less

threateningbeings.” Therefore, the frequent

use of [i] in such female names as Tracey,

Mary andBonnie, and [

?] in Rita, Selina and Lisa, reflects “smallness and lack of

threat are heldto be desirable attributes of females”.

Theoretically, the practice of deriving female names from male ones forms the

contrast in which men are dominant and women are subordinate in society and

meanwhile it is in accordance with the belief in

Bible

that woman was created from a

rib of man.