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1、Comparative Study of Sexism in English and Chinese.IntroductionLanguage is a kind of social phenomenon(phenomena) and reflects human society. Its existence and development are closely linked to the social attitudes of human beings and to a great extent are affected by their social views and values.
2、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
3、 phenomenon has been embodied in languages. In linguistic aspect, language is bias-based and women suffer from language sexism.The porpuse of the thesis is to probe into the sexual discrimination in both Chinese and English language,and to analyze and summarize the existence and the causes of them.L
4、iterature Review2.1The Definition of SexismFor the sake of accomplishing a finer study,the fundamental notion-sexist language and its related concepts must be made clear first.“Sexism”refers to discrimination by members of one sex against the other,especially by males against females,based on the th
5、ought that one sex is superior.According to Ruether(1993:165), “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 other words,it is a belief system based on the assumpt
6、ion that the physical differences between males and females are so significant that they should determine virtually social and economic roles of men and women.And sexism has manifested itself in different ways in different historical periods and in different cultures. “Sexsim manifests in all form s
7、ubtle gestures and especially language to exploitation and oppression,and in all human instituttions from the family to the multinational corporation”(Rothenberg,1988:21)The language encoded with sexism is referred as sexist language.Sexist language can be defined in a variety of ways.Braggin(1981:3
8、) suggests one definition: “a statement is sexist if its use constitutes,promotes or exploits an unfair or irrelevant or, impertinent distinction between the sexes.”By synthesizing the various definitions summarized by feminists and linguists on sexist language,the definition of sexist language can
9、be concluded as follows:A word or sentence used,a statement made is sexist if and only if it contributes to,promotes,causes,or results in the oppression of either sex.2.2 Previous Study about this TopicPrevious researches focus on the phenomena of gender discrimination in English language and analyz
10、ed the ways to diminish them. In their view, since God made Adam as a man in the first day, language of sex” has been put masculine gender first. If it is transposed, it doesnt accord with language habits. (刘建达8-14,25)“This at last isbone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, This one shall be called W
11、oman for out of Man this one was taken.” (Holy Bible 2-3) Cameron (Deborah Cameron) in her Feminism Linguistic wrote, “recently a puerperal told me in the hospital nursery, each newborn babys bed clearly writes: I am a boy. or It is a girl. Here the boy is called I, while the girls called It. The ba
12、bies dont know what language is, and their sex has already borne the hallmarks of the language and culture. (廖学金84) “Women have rich strong maternal desire by nature, and this makes them susceptible to inferiority, jealousy, and often indecisiveness. Women are not as determined and courageous and re
13、solute as the men. On this basis, some scientists proposed the so-called gender difference, giving the spiritual discriminating against women.”(向红 97) With the development of productive forces, the product in surplus. New gender labor divisions make man to play a more important role in the productio
14、n. Make them relatively control more resources. “At the same time the private property appeared, the men gave their property to their children. With the private ownership and the patriarchy, the history status within the scope of the female was defeated.”2.3 Theory BasisLanguage is the mirror of the
15、 society; the reflections of sexual discrimination in English Language are not by the nature of language itself, but the decision to particular social values and the national way of thinking in a certain reflection of language. (宋红波 83)Although women enjoy the same rights as men like employment, ele
16、ctions, education etc., however, women still on the fringe of society, is considered the weak” and others. Men always hold dominant position. (洪涛)In the west, Male boss could affectionately called female subordinates. Such as always darling, sweetie, girlie; In turn, the female subordinates couldnt
17、use the nickname to call their boss, and female boss also couldnt call their male staff. But strange man or not intimate man could use the nickname to call the woman. It indicates that the British and American society women have the low social status than the men, and have the less respect than the
18、men. (蒋桂红) Man in the first place, woman in the second place. In English, there is a proverb: Marry your son when you will, you daughter when you can. (戴卫平 168)This showed that sex discrimination also reaction in marriage. Greenberg, the English linguist put forward the Lexical markedness, and he po
19、inted out that male usually do not has signal words. However, female always has the feminine marker. The feminine words always derived from putting the negative sign words on the bases of the Male word roots. This reflected the gender ideology that the male is the dominant and the female is the suff
20、ix. (Greenberg Joseph 121-124) “Now she represents a woman but he is mankind. If she enters mankind she loses herself in her” (Spender, Dale 158)For my research, it is based on their theories and combination, from general to specific, from common to individual, focused on investigate the sexual disc
21、rimination in English language, analyze and summarize the exits sexual discrimination in English language, encouraging English majors to use neutral words and at the same time avoiding sexist words, and thus gradually reducing the use of sexist words. It is also useful for school staff to know how t
22、o understand a certain literature work better, and provide the precious suggestion for teaching reform.Result and Discussion3.1 The reflections of sexism in English and Chinese3.1.1 Womens Attachment to MenIn Ancient China,men are called“先生”either before or after he is married.But women are called“小
23、姐”before she is married,and are called“太太”“夫人”or “张氏” “李氏” after she is married.Or using their husbands name ended with words like“嫂”or“婶”.Whats more，women use respectful words to call their husband,such as“官人”“老爷”，while men called their wife “贱内” “内人”or“做饭的”,which shows womens lowly states both in
24、their family and in the society. It is still very common for women in Europe and North America to adopt their husbands names when they marry.Men are called Mr before or after married.While women are called Miss before shes married,and called Mrs after she is married,with her husbands last name,such
25、as “Mrs White” “Mrs Green.”Even the famous former British Prime Minister whom we called “Iron Lady”,people called her Mrs.Thatcher,with her own last name barely known.This situation is not only happened in daily life,but also in dictionary.No matter how much famous a woman is,her name will be kept w
26、ith her husbands last name in the dictionary.For example,“Charlotte Bronte”is called“Mrs.George Parlmer Putnam”(Nilsen,1944)Womens attachment to men can be found on the asymmetry of sexual terms of men and women. In English,when the words which indicate man and woman are appearing in pairs,the one i
27、ndicates man are unmarked in most situation.However,the one indicates woman are supposed to attached with affixes,such as hero-heroine,actor-actress,usher-usherette.Although these affixes allow people to easily differentiate woman from man,they have already lose their original fuctions in current da
28、ys,instead of which,they only reflect a subordinate,humble and passive status of women.3.1.2 The General Use of Male Term in Third Person PronounsIn Chinese,the third person pronoun which refers women“她”didnt exist until 1918.Women and men are both called “他”before.In modern Chinese,although the thi
29、rd person pronoun refers women exsists,it still used much less than“他”.Lots of words are compound with “他”，not“她”.Such as “他bin general,people used to use“他”,not “她”.In middle English,the third person pronoun”he”refers to”he”,”she”,or”they”.Since 13 century,the third person pronoun”she”appeared,but”
30、she” is much less used than “he”.When using words like”a person”everyone”somebody”,their pronouns,possecive pronouns,objective cases,reflexisve pronouns are “he”his”him”and”himself”,which refers to men.For example:If a person breaks the law,he will be punished.Everyone puts up his hand.Somebody has
31、lost his key.3.1.3 The Unfairness of Women Being Treated as ExeptionIn English,there are some words expressing “profession” without deictic function,but when they indicate womens professions,the words are added with words like women-/lady-/female-,etc.Thus it can be seen that in English,women have b
32、een cconstrained by stereotypes,like a wife,or a mother.Women are not allowed to take up a decent occupation,and whenever a woman take a decent job,the jobs name has to be added a sign of woman,such as professor-women/female professor,judge-women judge.It is obvious that these words-building are cre
33、ated by gender discrimination,which is a reflection of womens social status in hundreds of years.At the same time,in Chinese,though some occupations are both for men and women,when women take up them,they also have to be added words“女”.For instance,女博士，女作家，女司机,etc.Even if when referring to illegal a
34、ct，if it is committed by a woman,the famle sign is aslo added,such as “女贼，女骗子”etc.3.1.4 The Disparagement on Women and Famine WordsThere are numerous words towards women in both Chinese and English.For example,in English, “bitch” “tart” “prostitute”,in Chinese, “贱人” “婊子”etc.From the perspective of s
35、emantic colors,we can find out that sexism is more obvious in Chinese.Take “小姐”for example,which originally meant young lady,however,in current Chinese society,it has a new different meaning of prostitute.which is a negative words,while the words“少爷”“公子”remain neutral.Another example is “哥们”，meaning
36、 mens relationship of being loyal to each other，on the contrary,“姐们”has a very ambiguous meaning.“爷们儿”gives expression to the masculine side of men，however,the word“娘们儿”usually indicates women who are inexperienced,ignorant and nagging.As well as Chinese,there are a lot of negative words describing
37、women in English.For example,mandam is originally used to call married lady,however,it is also used to name procuress，while sir is still a neutral word.Another example is bachelor and spinster,both indicating unmarried identity.Bachelor just means unmarried men.However,the one indicates unmarried wo
38、men are implies old,unhappy and no one wants to marry her.In Chinese,lots of words formed by a feminine character have a contemptuous meaning towards women,such as 奴(which means slave)，奸(which means evil)，婪(which means greedy)，妓(which means prostitute) and so on.The book”说文解字”explained women as“妇，服也
39、。女持帚，洒扫也。”by which it meant,women are born to obey,to do housework like moping,washing,and cooking.Besides,some words are at first without discrimination against women,however,when combining with female,mother,and some words else indicate women,they become discriminative.For example,流女流，which means
40、women are weak,and weaker than men.老虎母老虎，which indicates tough and strong women;On the contrary,when some neutral words are combining with words related to male,they become commendatory term。For example,雄风、雄才大略。Even the same words,when it indicates man,its commendatory，while indicating woman,its der
41、ogatory。For example,the word professional indicates an experienced expert,while when indicates women,it may have the meaning of street girl.Easy means easygoing,but it aslo means a woman is flirtatious.To describe a strict male manager,people use the phrase “hard taskmaster”,however,to describe a fe
42、male manager with the same characteristic,people use “hard to work for”.When a man makes decision decisively,people say hes decisive,while a woman will be described as emotional.Over time,it comes to a difference between male and female language.Someone who do research on female language and male la
43、nguage points that,women are sentimental,shifting,shallow and bored,and they are talking endlessly in high pitch,and what they are talking about are “dirty diapers stuff”,so that their gathering is called “hen sessions”.It is easy to see the obvious sexism in all these words.3.1.5 The reflection in
44、word orderEither in English or in Chinese,when appellations come in pairs,the words related to man are always put on the front.In English,we are used to express in this way:husband and wife,son and daughter,host and hostress,king and queen,Adam and Eve.In Chinese,means of expression like this can be
45、 found everywhere.For instance:男女，父母，叔婶，夫唱妇随，男尊女卑，男耕女织,which hint the traditional thought of male superiority to female.Although in some specific occasions,people place female prior to male,such as ladies and gentleman,it gives a feeling that women are more delicate,needing mens concern,or is just k
46、ind of mens gentility.In summary,all these usages are reflection of that men are the main creater and user of language. 3.1.6 The reflection in third person pronounsIn Chinese,the third person pronoun which refers women“她”didnt exist until 1918.Women and men are both called “他”before.In modern Chine
47、se,although the third person pronoun refers women exsists,it still used much less than“他”.Lots of words are compound with “他”，not“她”.Such as “他bin general,people used to use“他”,not “她”.In middle English,the third person pronoun”he”refers to”he”,”she”,or”they”.Since 13 century,the third person pronou
48、n”she”appeared,but”she” is much less used than “he”.When using words like”a person”everyone”somebody”,their pronouns,possecive pronouns,objective cases,reflexisve pronouns are “he”his”him”and”himself”,which refers to men.For example:If a person breaks the law,he will be punished.Everyone puts up his
49、 hand.Somebody has lost his key.3.1.8 The Reflection on Proverbs.Proverbs are the special forms of language”The wisdom of notion lies in their proverbs.”Said by British writer Page.Proverb is a reflection of culture,life,and custom during a specified period.Sexism is very common in proverbs.For example:A womens tongue wags like a lambs tail.Foxes are all tails and women are all tongue.
