浅析英语中的性别歧视现象-其他英语论文-论文联盟
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浅析英语中的性别歧视现象
作者：佚名
[Abstract] Language plays an important role in society. As a phenomenon of society, language reflects all the sides of human society naturally. Sexism is a phenomenon that takes a male-as-norm attitude, trivializing, insulting or rendering women invisible. As a special social phenomenon, sexism is inevitably reflected through language.To start with, the thesis traces the reasons for the occurrence of sexism in the English language. In nature, sexism in language reflects sexism in society.
two are closely related. Social connotations of sexism in English tell the relationship between phenomenon of sexism in language and essence of sexism in society. Then the thesis analyses sexism in terms of the generic masculine, word order and semantic derogation of women in greater detail. Finally, a large part of the thesis is contributed to how to change sexism in English. The author of the thesis thinks the key to the problem is: (1) solve the problem (2) (3) strive for balanced naming a (4) coin new corresponding words. The elimination of linguistic sexism lies in social change. Only by changing the social structure, that is, women and men own really equal status, can language equality be truly achieved.
[Key Words] E le feminism&
[摘 要] 在
中所处的地位尤为重要。作为一种社会现象的语言，必然会反映出人类社会的各种社会观念。性别歧视作为这其中的一种，是指把男性视作社会规范和中心，轻视， 侮辱女性或使她们显得微不足道。而这一特定的社会现象必然会在语言中折射出来。首先剖析了
中性别歧视现象形成的根源。从本质来说，语言中的性别歧视是社会中性别歧视的体现。两者紧密相连。性别歧视的社会内涵反映的就是这种语言中的性别歧视现象与社会中的性别歧视的本质的关系。接着论文从阳性词泛指，词序，词义的贬降等方面对英语中的性别歧视现象进行了详细的 分析 。最后论文还着力探讨如何改变这种歧视。作者认为，改变性别歧视主要解决以下几个 问题 ：(1) 避免阳性代词的泛指；(2) 词汇的中性化；(3)命名与称谓的对等；(4)创造新的对应词。语言中的性别歧视的最终消亡取决于社会变化。只有改变社会结构，即男女真正拥有平等的地位，语言中的平等才能真正实现。消除语言中的性别歧视的根本在于实现男女的平等的社会变革。
[关键词] 性别歧视；英语语言；词汇中性化；女权主义
1.& IntroductionAs the peculiar result of the development of human society, language is a kind of social phenomenon and reflects all the sides of human society naturally. Its existence and development are closely linked with the social attitudes of human bngs and to a great extent are affected by thr social views and values. Historically and sociologically, our society is man-oriented and man-centered. Women, regarded as a weaker gender in society, are discriminated for a long time and completely subordinated in political life, economic life and even family life in the society dominated by men. Unavoidably, this kind of phenomenon has been embodied in languages. In linguistic aspect, language is bias-based and women suffer from language sexism. Gender-differentiated language use can reflect and help perpetuate the subordinate status of women in society. Since 1960s, feminists strive for the elimination of gender discrimination, for the greater recognition of women’s contributions to society and aim to change many cultural and social customs that perpetuate patriarchal value systems. Many fields of life around the world have been, or are being, affected by this movement. One of the many impacts feminism on society is its impact on language. Language was and is seen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy.
2. The Factors of Sexism in the English LanguageSexism in English is not formed in one day, but built up in the long period of the development of language,
leads to the variety of the causes. What causes the sexism in the English Language? There are four factors: cultural factor, physiological factor, social factor and psychological factor.
(1) Cultural factorIn the Holy Bible (The Books of The Old Testament): “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones a this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ ” [1] Man came to the world first while woman made from one of man’s ribs was created just as a help meet for him. And she was not created until all other animals failed to meet the satisfaction of the man. From the order of the birth, it is obvious to see the different importance of man and woman. And man and woman are not equal at all because woman is only a part of man, which itself is the discrimination against women. It is said in the Holy Bible that the first sin is also committed by the woman. She was seduced by the snake into eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and having the man eat, too. At last, the woman was punished to bring forth children in pain and was ruled over by the man. From above, the superiority of men and inferiority of women is clearly seen. The Holy Bible is actually a book of men. As Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries, it is unreasonable to deny that this helps to set and consolidate the inferiority of women. (2) Physiological factorFor extended work and life together, people realized that men are tall in stature, strong in muscle and robust in physique. In contrary to men, women are small in stature, weak in physique and have more fat and less muscle than men. Women also mature more rapidly. [2] In a word, men are stronger than women. This determines that men play a more and more important role in social and economic lives. A man’s job is to work outside but a woman’s job is to stay at home, do the housework and take care of the children. Women are treated as the weaker ones and they realize their own values through their marriages to men. At last, women are lower in status. They have to leech on to men and are dominated by men. Gradually, people begin to discriminate women and think that they are inferior in intelligence. This wrong perspective forms slowly and reflects in language.(3) Social factor (Labor division)Feminists all claim that we live in a patriarchal society: a society of men, ruled by men and for men. Patriarchy depicts men as the perfect norm against which women are measured and found lacking.Both the Western and Eastern societies use sex, to one degree or another, in allocating tasks, activities, rights, and responsibilities. As for the job done by men and women, there is a long-stereotyped notion of what they can do. In history, there has been a division of labor--a division in which women’s place was restrained at home for housework and child-care while men worked outside being the breadwinner. At last, men had dominance over women, and women had to be dependent on men. This was the turning point for women. From then on, in paternal society, slavery society and capitalist society, women had been on the bottom of society. In long and endless course of history, sexism against women has been accumulated. It is due to different labor division that leads to different social status. This has been clear in ancient and modern society. Later, in addition to domestic work, women began to enter the paid work place.
However , even though half of women are employed outside the home, the belief persists that woman is mainly, and primarily, in the roles of wife and mother. Due to women's relative physical weakness and lower educational background, they do primarily the low-status, low-paying jobs. Although men also have family roles, they are defined primarily by their economic or occupational position. Thus the sexism in the society has been in existence, the embodiment of which is necessarily the sexism of language.(4) Psychological factorBecause of the social and cultural factors, women are always considered to be the weak. People treat women as inferior to men. They educate men to be manly, decisive, and brave while women are required to be polite, conservative, obedient, and gentle. Because women are in subordinate status in the society, they have to constrain their emotion and give up their own need to meet the satisfaction of men. As time passes,
speaking women pay more attention to the elegance and standard of language than men. They use more pleasant and polite words in the hope that they can receive other’s approval. And they are taught to speak softly, to avoid contradicting others, to be obedient in communication, and to be aware of giving cues of strong confidence. They mould themselves to be inferior in their potential sub consciousness.[3] Therefore, women try their best to strengthen their social status through their speech than men do. The lower women’s position is, the more polite they are in the face of others. And the standard language they use can show their submission and politeness. This also suggests that women are in a lower position in the society.
3. Phenomena of sexism in the English language3.1 The generic masculineSexism in language in general comes in three major forms: la it defines women as less
and it completely opposes women. They can be located in the generic masculine terms.
3.1.1 Generic pronounsGeneric pronouns are pronouns that are said to refer, with equal likelihood, 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 known example of the gender-specific of sexist language, and is frequently 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 sentences as:(1)&He who laughs last laughs best.(2)&Everyone must do his homework well.(3)&If anyone calls, tell him I will be back later. (4)&Everyone 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 citizens in general. On the formal occasions, ‘he’, ‘him’ or ‘his’ can be used to refer to such indefinite pronouns as each, everyone, everybody, no one, someone, anyone and so on. While ‘she’, ‘her’, ‘herself’ don’t have such usages.&&
3.1.2 Generic nounsAnother well-known example of generic masculine terms is “man”. The definitions of “man” in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (Extended fourth edition) are as follows: ① ad ② human person ③ [sing](without the or a) mankind. There are some examples taken from the dictionary. ① All men must die. ②Growing old is something a man has to accept. ③Man is mortal. [4] 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 Independence: “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? [5] A clear explanation of this phenomenon may be found in sentence like:(1) Man is a social animal.(2) Men remake nature.When seeing the 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(3) Woman is a social animal.(4) Women remake nature.Of course, they are gramm semantically, however, the third sentence has 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 and totally ignore the existence of woman.[6] There are many other generic masculine terms such as man-to-man, prehistoric man, brotherhood, chairman, and policeman.&3.1.3 Women being attached to menThe English language distinguishes women’s courtesy titles on the basis of marital status, but not those of men. There is only one 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 women in terms of marriage (sex) and reinforces 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 husband’s surname”. That is to say, if a woman is married to somebody, she has no right to be treated like an unmarried lady. As to a man, that’s 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.[7] Mrs. Thatcher is the former Prime Minister in UK. However, few people know her own family names.[8] Mr. Clinton’s 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. From the address of men and women, one can clearly see the submissive position of women and women are merely an extension of their husbands or part of their husbands’ estate. This also reflects in the language.
3.1.4 Female as an exceptionEnglish itself has no difference of gender. But in this man-centered society, people is used to believing that prestige person are always males. However, a woman who once receives great popularity is regarded as a special exception.Many professionals such as doctor, professor, engineer, lawyer, pilot, judge, surgeon can be used to indicate both males and females. But when indicating female’s position, professional, etc., these words are created by adding a bound morpheme or by combining them with a word referring to female.[9] Because these satisfactory jobs are traditionally viewed as ones qualified only by males. Women are just the appendant to men. The words below can best illustrate it:
Common gender&&&&&&& Masculine gender&&&&&&&&&&& Feminine genderwaiter&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& waiter&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& waitresshero&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& hero&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& heroinepilot&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& pilot&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& woman pilotdoctor&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& doctor&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& woman doctorsurgeon&&&&&&&&&&&&&& surgeon&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& female surgeonlawyer&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& lawyer&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& lady lawyerInterestingly, when we hear other people say “ My cousin is a lawyer.”, most people always conclude that my cousin is a male. Most of the time, whenever we refer to a woman, we have to elaborately add woman, female or lady before many professionals.But other professionals like secretary, nurse, typist, receptionist, dressmaker, are often used to indicate females. When they are used to refer to males, you should add male or man before them, such as: male nurse, male typist, and male secretary. It makes clear that men monopolize the high status professionals. Women can only do service work or low social status work. English is a kind of super masculine language. This can be easily seen in compound words formed by word plus man structure, such as chairman, businessman, congressman, newsman, statesman, salesman, mailman, policeman, and spokesman. From these words, we can easily know that males are the center of the society. These jobs are certainly taken by males and women are completely excluded.In addition, there are some female professionals formed by adding the bound morpheme such as –ess, -ine to the root. For example:Male&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Femalepoet&poetessprince&princessgod&goddesscount&countesshero&heroineThis kind of word-formation seems to tell that women are derived from men and attached to men. These discriminatory practices often make women invisible and treat them secondary.
3.1.5 Word orderSexism in language is also reflected in word order. When men and women are presented together, usually words denoting male sex are put in front of female sex. Making females come second reflects the sexist attitude that men are superior to women. It is not hard to find male-female word order pairs in English literature, newspaper, magazines as well as in speech, such as male and female, husband and wife, father and mother, boys and girls, his and hers, son and daughter, brother and sister, host and hostess, king and queen, Adam and Eve and so on. No matter in books or on radio, even in daily dialogue, we can often read and hear such words:(1)&Good morning, boys and girls!(2)&They would have allowed males and females to go to school together.Such a language phenomenon seems to appear so unquestionably natural as to be widely accepted as a language norm. However, there are also cases in which male-female order is reversed, for example bride and groom, and ladies and gentlemen. The former shows that marriage is important to women and the latter is influenced by the notion that men should protect women. Putting ladies before gentlemen doesn’t show that women are more superior to men or ladies first, but indicates that in men’s mind, women, the same as children, are the weaker ones.[10]
3.2 Semantic derogation of womenLanguage has a tendency to neglect women, treat women as submission and also demean women.[11] The process of words that refer to women acquiring demeaning or sexual connotations has been widely observed, and has been called semantic derogation.
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Generally (but not always) pronouns stand for (pro + noun) or refer to a noun, an individual or individuals or thing or things (the pronoun's antecedent) whose identity is made clear earlier in the text. For instance, we are bewildered by writers who claim something like They say that eating beef is bad for you.
They is a pronoun referring to someone, but who are they? Cows? whom do they represent? Sloppy use of pronouns is unfair.
Not all pronouns will refer to an antecedent, however. Everyone here earns over a thousand dollars a day.
The word "everyone" has no antecedent.
The problem of agreement between a pronoun and its antecedent and between a pronoun and its verb is treated in another section on . The quizzes on pronoun usage are also listed at the end of that section.
This section will list and briefly describe the several kinds of pronouns.
KINDS OF PRONOUNS:
Personal Pronouns
Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an -s ending to create the plural or the apostrophe + s to create the possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons or things) change form according to their various uses within a sentence. Thus I is used as the subject of a sentence (I am happy.), me is used as an object in various ways (He hit me. He gave me a book. Do this for me.), and my is used as the possessive form (That's my car.) The same is true of the other personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plural we, you, and they. These forms are called cases. An easily printable chart is available that shows the various .
Personal pronouns can also be characterized or distinguished by person. First person refers to the speaker(s) or writer(s) ("I" for singular, "we" for plural). Second person refers to the person or people being spoken or written to ("you" for both singular and plural). Third person refers to the person or people being spoken or written about ("he," "she," and "it" for singular, "they" for plural). The person of a pronoun is also demonstrated in the chart
. As you will see there, each person can change form, reflecting its use within a sentence. Thus, "I" becomes "me" when used as an object ("She left me") and "my" when used in its possessive role (That's my car"); "they" becomes "them" in object form ("I like them") and "their" in possessive ("That's just their way").
When a personal pronoun is connected by a conjunction to another noun or pronoun, its case does not change. We would write "I am taking a course in Asian history"; if Talitha is also taking that course, we would write "Talitha and I are taking a course in Asian history." (Notice that Talitha gets listed before "I" does. This is one of the few ways in which English is a "polite" language.) The same is true when the object form is called for: "Professor Vendetti gave all her books to me"; if Talitha also received some books, we'd write "Professor Vendetti gave all her books to Talitha and me." For more on this, see .
If one is interested in the uses of one as a numerical and impersonal pronoun, one should click the enter button.
When a pronoun and a noun are combined (which will happen with the plural first- and second-person pronouns), choose the case of the pronoun that would be appropriate if the noun were not there.
We students are demanding that the administration give us two hours for lunch. The administration has managed to put us students in a bad situation.
With the second person, we don't really have a problem because the subject form is the same as the object form, "you": "You students are demanding too much." "We expect you students to behave like adults."
Among the possessive pronoun forms, there is also what is called the nominative possessive: mine, yours, ours, theirs.
Look at those
cars. Theirs ours is beautiful.
This new car is mine.
Mine is newer than yours.
Demonstrative Pronouns
The family of demonstratives (this/that/these/those/such) can behave either as pronouns or as .
As pronouns, they identify or point to
That is incredible! (referring to something you just saw)I will never forget this. (referring to a recent experience)Such is my belief. (referring to an explanation just made)
As determiners, the demonstratives adjectivally modify a noun that follows. A sense of relative distance (in time and space) can be conveyed through the choice of these pronouns/determiners:
These [pancakes sitting here now on my plate] are delicious. Those [pancakes that I had yesterday morning] were even better. This [book in my hand] that [book that I'm pointing to, over there, on the table] is trash.
A sense of emotional distance or even disdain can be conveyed with the demonstrative pronouns:
You're going to wear these?
This is the best you can do? Pronouns used in this way would receive special stress in a spoken sentence.
When used as subjects, the demonstratives, in either singular or plural form, can be used to refer to objects as well as persons.
This is my father.That is my book.
In other roles, however, the reference of demonstratives is non-personal. In other words, when referring to students, say, we could write "Those were loitering near the entrance during the fire drill" (as long as it is perfectly clear in context what "those" refers to). But we would not write "The principal suspended those for two days"; instead, we would have to use "those" as a determiner and write "The principal suspended those students for two days."
Relative Pronouns
The relative pronouns (who/whoever/which/that) relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns (The student who studies hardest usually does the best.). The word who connects or relates the subject, student, to the verb within the dependent clause (studies). Choosing correctly between which and that and between who and whom leads to what are probably the most Frequently Asked Questions about English grammar. For help with which/that, refer to the
article on those words (including the hyperlink to Michael Quinion's article on this usage and the links to relevant quizzes). Generally, we use "which" to introduce clauses that are parenthetical in nature (i.e., that can be removed from the sentence without changing the essential meaning of the sentence). For that reason, a "which clause" is often set off with a comma or a pair of commas. "That clauses," on the other hand, are usually deemed indispensable for the meaning of a sentence and are not set off with commas. The pronoun which who (and its forms) that usually refers to things, but it can also refer to people in a general kind of way.
For help with who/whom refer to the section on . We also recommend that you take the quizzes on the use of who and whom at the end of that section.
The expanded form of the relative pronouns — whoever, whomever, whatever — are known as indefinite relative pronouns. A couple of sample sentences should suffice to demonstrate why they are called "indefinite":
The coach will select whomever he pleases.
He seemed to say whatever came to mind.
Whoever crosses this line first will win the race.
What is often an indefinite relative pronoun:
She will tell you what you need to know.
Indefinite Pronouns
The indefinite pronouns (everybody/anybody/somebody/all/each/every/some/none/one) do not substitute for specific nouns but function themselves as nouns (Everyone is wondering if any is left.)
One of the chief difficulties we have with the indefinite pronouns lies in the fact that "everybody" feels as though it refers to more than one person, but it takes a singular verb. (Everybody is accounted for.) If you think of this word as meaning "every single body," the confusion usually disappears. The indefinite pronoun none can be either singular or plural, depending on its context. None is nearly always plural (meaning "not any") except when something else in the sentence makes us regard it as a singular (meaning "not one"), as in "None of the food is fresh."
Some can be singular or plural depending on whether it refers to something countable or noncountable. Refer to the section on
for help on determining the number of the indefinite pronouns (and the number [singular/plural] of the verbs that accompany them). There is a separate section on the uses of the pronoun .
There are other indefinite pronouns, words that double as :
enough, few, fewer, less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, every, each, any, either, neither, none, some
F fewer will finish.
Little is expected.
See the section on
for help in determining the number (singular/plural) characteristics of these pronouns.
Intensive Pronouns
The intensive pronouns (such as myself, yourself, herself, ourselves, themselves) consist of a personal pronoun plus self or selves and emphasize a noun. (I myself don't know the answer.) It is possible (but rather unusual) for an intensive pronoun to precede the noun it refers to. (Myself, I don't believe a word he says.)
Reflexive Pronouns
The reflexive pronouns (which have the same forms as the intensive pronouns) indicate that the sentence subject also receives the action of the verb. (Students who cheat on this quiz are only hurting themselves. You paid yourself a million dollars? She encouraged herself to do well.)
What this means is that whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence there must be a person to whom that pronoun can "reflect." In other words, the sentence "Please hand that book to myself" would be incorrect because there is no "I" in that sentence for the "myself" to reflect to (and we would use "me" instead of "myself"). A sentence such as "I gave that book to myself for Christmas" might be silly, but it would be correct.
Be alert to a tendency to use reflexive pronoun forms (ending in -self) where they are neither appropriate nor necessary. The inappropriate reflexive form has a wonderful name: the untriggered reflexive.
"Myself" tends to sound weightier, more formal, than little ol' me or I, so it has a way of sneaking into sentences where it doesn't belong.
Bob and myself I are responsible for this decision.
These decisions will be made by myself me.
If you have any questions, please contact myself me or Bob Jones.
When pronouns are combined, the reflexive will take either the first person
Juanita, Carlos, and I have deceived ourselves into believing in my uncle.
or, when there is no first person, the second person:
You and Carlos have deceived yourselves.
The indefinite pronoun (see above) one has its own reflexive form ("One must have faith in oneself."), but the other indefinite pronouns use either himself or themselves as reflexives.
(There is an entire page on the pronoun .) It is probably better to pluralize and avoid the clumsy himself or herself construction.
No one here can blame himself or herself.
The people here cannot blame themselves.
Interrogative Pronouns
The interrogative pronouns (who/which/what) introduce questions. (What is that? Who will help me? Which do you prefer?) Which is generally used with more specific reference than what. If we're taking a quiz and I ask "Which questions give you the most trouble?", I am referring to specific questions on that quiz. If I ask "What questions give you most trouble"? I could be asking what kind of questions
on that quiz (or what kind of question, generically, in general) gives you trouble. The interrogative pronouns also act as : It doesn't matter which beer you buy. He doesn't know whose car he hit. In this determiner role, they are sometimes called interrogative adjectives.
Like the , the interrogative pronouns introduce , and like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns play a subject role in the clauses they introduce:
We know who is guilty of this crime.
I already told the detective what I know about it.
Reciprocal Pronouns
The reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. They are convenient forms for combining ideas. If Bob gave Alicia a book for Christmas and Alicia gave Bob a book for Christmas, we can say that they gave each other books (or that they gave books to each other). My mother and I give each other a hard time.
If more than two people are involved (let's say a whole book club), we would say that they gave one another books. This rule (if it is one) should be applied circumspectly. It's quite possible for the exchange of books within this book club, for example, to be between individuals, making "each other" just as appropriate as "one another."
Reciprocal pronouns can also take possessive forms: They borrowed each other's ideas. The scientists in this lab often use one another's equipment.}