英漢語言中的性別歧視研究

1、<p>　　西南財經(jīng)大學(xué)天府學(xué)院</p><p><b>　　2015屆</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)論文</b></p><p>　　論文題目：An Analysis of Sexism in English and Chinese</p><p>　　學(xué)生姓名：

2、 </p><p>　　所在學(xué)院： 專 業(yè)： 英語 </p><p>　　學(xué) 號： </p><p>　　指導(dǎo)教師：

3、 </p><p>　　西南財經(jīng)大學(xué)天府學(xué)院本科學(xué)生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計）開題報告表</p><p>　　論文（設(shè)計）類型：A—理論研究；B—應(yīng)用研究；C—軟件設(shè)計等；</p><p><b>　　摘 要</b></p><p>　　無論是幾十年前還是近幾年，性別歧視（

4、尤其對女性）在西方國家和中國成為一種普遍的社會現(xiàn)象，影響著女性的生活和工作。語言，作為人類的一面鏡子，反映著不同國家和地區(qū)的文化習(xí)俗，人文觀念，毫無疑問，也反映著性別歧視。語言中的性別歧視在語言學(xué)領(lǐng)域已成為熱門話題，眾多語言學(xué)家進(jìn)行了很多調(diào)查?；谙惹暗恼{(diào)查研究，本文將分為四個部分說明在英語和漢語中的性別歧視。第一部分將通過稱謂詞，派生詞和圍繞女性的貶義表達(dá)的例子，介紹一些英語中性別歧視的普遍現(xiàn)象。第二部分通過漢字構(gòu)成，貶低女性的諺語和

5、關(guān)于蔑視女性的隱喻，將列舉出一些漢語中性別歧視的典型現(xiàn)象。第三部分將分別闡釋英漢語言中的性別歧視的兩個共同點(diǎn)，即詞序和關(guān)于女性的消極涵義。第四部分，通過已有的研究報告，本文將簡短分析三個改善性別歧視的方式。我希望人們在使用英語或漢語時，能擁有避免性別歧視的意識，以此促進(jìn)和諧溝通的氛圍和實(shí)現(xiàn)男女本質(zhì)上的平等。 </p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：英漢語言;性別歧視現(xiàn)象;共同點(diǎn);避免方法 </p><p

6、><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　Sexism (particularly against women), decades ago or in recent years, has been a ubiquitous social phenomenon, influencing females’ life and work, in western countri

7、es as same as in China. Language, as a mirror of humankind, reflects on various culture, convention, and humanistic ideology in diverse countries and districts, as well as sexism without any doubt. Sexism in language has

8、 remained a hot topic for a long time among linguists who have already made numerous researches about it. Based on t</p><p>　　Key words: language; sexist phenomena; similarity; avoiding methods</p>&l

9、t;p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p><b>　　摘 要iii</b></p><p>　　Abstractiv</p><p>　　Introductionvi</p><p>　　I．Sexism in English1</p><p

10、>　　1.1Addressing Terms1</p><p>　　1.2 Derivation4</p><p>　　1.3 Derogatory Words around Women5</p><p>　　II. Sexism in Chinese7</p><p>　　2.1 Formation of Chinese C

11、haracters7</p><p>　　2.2 Depreciated Women in Proverbs9</p><p>　　2.3 Metaphors around Women10</p><p>　　III. Similarities of Sexism in English and Chinese11</p><p>　　

12、3.1 Word Order12</p><p>　　3.2 Negative Connotations for Women13</p><p>　　IV. Methods to Avoid Sexism in English and Chinese14</p><p>　　4.1 Adopting Gender-Free Words in English1

13、5</p><p>　　4.2 Abandoning the Sexist Words in Chinese15</p><p>　　4.3 Treating Female as No Exception16</p><p>　　Conclusion16</p><p>　　Literature Review18</p>

14、<p>　　Bibliography26</p><p>　　Acknowledgements28</p><p>　　An Analysis of Sexism in English and Chinese</p><p>　　Introduction </p><p>　　The disparate usage of la

15、nguage between male and female had aroused linguists’ attentions in seventeenth century, and later, with the flourishing development of sociolinguistics since the 1960s, the relationship of language use and gender differ

16、ence has been a heated topic among linguists. The language is arranged so that men are identified with exalted positions, and women are identified with more service-oriented positions in which they are being dominated an

17、d instructed by men. So the languag</p><p>　　stereotypical utilization of sexism in language. Thus, it is of vital importance for people to enhance their awareness of avoiding sexual bias</p><p>

18、;　　when communicating with the opposite gender, especially for men. This essay will describe specific phenomena of sexism in English and Chinese separately, helping people have a distinct understanding of it and build up

19、 an awareness of avoiding it.</p><p>　　I．Sexism in English </p><p>　　In western culture, there is a household story in The Bible that the God created Adam, the first man, from the earth at the v

20、ery beginning of the world, and took a rib from Adam to create Eve, the first woman. It is probably how the thought that man is the master and woman is merely his subordinate and the discriminatory language against women

21、 that often treats them as secondary start. Briefly speaking, English places more emphasis on men than women through the contemptuous languages to ignore w</p><p>　　Addressing Terms</p><p>　　Lan

22、guage, specifically addressing term, is a magic tool with a function to give everyone a particular name, enabling all human beings to know each other and show social relations between them. The most convincing example of

23、 sexism in English is the social meanings embedded in Mr. Miss. and Mrs. For male, whether single or married, they are addressed as Mr., a general term amongst men. For female, however, single ladies are entitled Miss. (

24、plus their families’ name) and the wives are called Mrs. </p><p>　　Another vivid example of sexism in English is Sir and Madam, which is the most frequently used pair of words among people. Sir is used as a

25、polite way of addressing a man whose name you do not know, or before the first name of a man and a baronet, or a form of address by children in school to a male teacher. As the equivalent of Sir, Madam is surly used when

26、 speaking or writing to a woman in a formal or business situation. Along with the social development, Madam has no longer been solely used i</p><p>　　He who has health has hope; </p><p>　　He who

27、 knows nothing doubts nothing; </p><p>　　He who stands alone has no power; </p><p>　　He who does not respect others deserves no respect from others;</p><p>　　He who risks nothing ga

28、ins nothing;</p><p>　　He who knows most speaks least.</p><p>　　The use of He as a term occasionally to encompass female suggests the universal thought of male’s superior status, and makes women

29、grammatically invisible thus remaining them inferior. </p><p>　　1.2 Derivation</p><p>　　In the records of human history, the physiological and psychological differences between male and female h

30、ave contributed to shape into the man-centered society. When words, such as actor and actress, show up in pairs, people have no difficulty in recognizing masculine one as it has no special marks and it is the root of the

31、 feminine one, which manifests female is a subordinate of male in general sense. Derivation, a common way of word formation, forms a word with meaning and category disti</p><p>　　Here are some of such p

32、airs of the words: actor and actress; waiter and waitress; host and hostess; usher and usherette; governor and governess; prince and princess; duke and duchess. These pairs of words note the importance and priority of ma

33、le in English lexicon. Simply to learn English, people are capable of memorizing words by recognizing the suffix as well as differentiating the masculine and feminine words, but from the perspective of equality, female i

34、s considered as a secondary, humble a</p><p>　　1.3 Derogatory Words around Women</p><p>　　Vocabulary, as a major carrier of word meaning, mirrors the linguistic discrimination against women in E

35、nglish. The meanings of many words referring to male and female are basically equivalent, but with the revolutionary of history, words for female gradually acquire disapproving implications and are attached with derogato

36、ry meanings. Here tick off some representative expressions. King and queen are both originally relevant to the noble leaders of a country, and king, up to now, still has i</p><p>　　II. Sexism in Chinese

37、</p><p>　　China, a prestigious country with a longstanding reputation in the world, has over five thousand years’ history and fruitful culture represented by a substantial number of refined scholars and inte

38、llectuals in different kinds of fields. Confucian culture that hoists its own unique banner in China has enhanced the Chinese traditional value, Man superior to woman which was primarily established as patriarchal replac

39、ed matriarchal society and had gradually become a central ideology with the flouris</p><p>　　2.1 Formation of Chinese Characters</p><p>　　Similar to English, sexism exists in Chinese whose basic

40、 morphemes are the individual Chinese characters. Among the thousands of millions of Chinese characters, “女” (nv in pinyin, meaning “female”), a pictographic character, has the direct connection with gender bias in the l

41、anguage. Lots of words composed of “女” contain the contemptuous and disdainful meanings about women. For instance, “妓” (ji in pinyin) signifies a prostitute or a whore, “姘” (pin in pinyin) means to have unethical sexual

42、rela</p><p>　　There are other characters with a derogatory sense indicating scorn and insult to female, such as “奸” “娼” “嫖” (usually used to show the illicit sexual behavior), “嫉” “婪” “妄” (associated with un

43、healthy and devious mental state). Female is not the only one who will have such immoral behavior and twisty mentality, but why do those disparaging expressions solely link with female other than both genders? It is appa

44、rent enough to see that formation of Chinese characters is depreciated for women and re</p><p>　　Furthermore, when mentioning some job titles like “教授”（professor in English）, and “法官”（judge in English）, bulk

45、s of people will automatically relate those titles to male as if only men are capable of handling challenging affairs. When people read or hear some sentences like my cousin is a police and my friend is an engineer, they

46、 are prone to refer these two job titles to male without asking whether the cousin and the friend here is a man or a woman. So, how do they name the female in the exactly</p><p>　　2.2 Depreciated Women in Pr

47、overbs</p><p>　　Proverb is the essence of Chinese profound culture, the valuable result of human wisdom, and the embodiment of language. The cultural big shot in British literature, Shakespeare, has a famous

48、 proverb --- Frailty, thy name is woman--- indicating the weakness of female in society. In China, “male superior to female” is not only evidently reflected in the formation of Chinese characters but also in the proverbs

49、 and idioms. In the ancient China, girls of poor families could not attend school. W</p><p>　　Sexism against women also lies in the following typical examples. “嫁出去的女兒，潑出去的水” ( if a woman marry a man, s

50、he will be submissive to her husband and seldom return to her family to keep their parents company); “嫁雞隨雞，嫁狗隨狗” ( a woman has no choice but to follow her husband no matter what kind of personality he has and do things a

51、s he pleased); “女人頭發(fā)長, 見識短” ( women are long-haired but short-sighted). From the above instances, it is easy to make a conclusion that women have no independent viewpoints,</p><p>　　2.3 Metaphors around Wome

52、n</p><p>　　Since “Male superior to female” has been the conventional thought of Chinese people, male has been empowered to dominate and control female who has no right to object and protest. In the man-orien

53、ted society, naturally, men enjoy much higher social position than women, thus generating the metaphorical perception - “Man is central; woman is peripheral”. Despite that people are pursuing the equality between men and

54、 women and abandoning the obsolete customs, there are still a large amount of negati</p><p>　　Metaphors deprecate women in a rude way both by the literal meaning and the implied conceptions. “女人是朵花，總在灶前爬” (w

55、omen are flowers, but they are always swirling in the kitchen) connotes that women are pretty with beautiful appearance but are deemed to work in the kitchen. “最毒婦人心” (women can be the most vicious creatures of the world

56、) suggests that women will be cruel and malicious to do anything to satisfy their desires. “兄弟如手足，女人如衣服” (brotherly friends are like hands and feet; women are like clo</p><p>　　III. Similarities of Sexism in

57、 English and Chinese</p><p>　　English and Chinese belong to different language phylum, and people who use them come from different nationalities in different regions. Nevertheless, people living in English

58、speaking countries and China have gone through the similar period of patriarchal society in the history. Living as the human beings, therefore, they have the same evolutionary process and the identical physiological stru

59、cture of brain; accordingly, their thoughts make no difference without national characters. It is not s</p><p>　　3.1 Word Order</p><p>　　Whenever using English and Chinese, as long as masculine

60、words and feminine words are turning up together, the former is always ahead of the latter. This phenomenon, or officially defined word order of “man-woman”, reflects the sex bias against women. Provided that the arrange

61、ment of “man-woman” follows the rule of “good to bad” which can be explained in the cases of “big-small” and “rich-poor”, it implies that men are much better than women. This idea seems to go extreme, but it at the same

62、tim</p><p>　　Words and expressions relating to male and female below can be the potent proof to explain the word order of “man-woman”. Chinese terms like 夫婦，兒女，男女，公婆，重男輕女，夫唱婦隨，癡男怨女，男女有別，男盜女娼，郎才女貌，夫貴妻榮，implie

63、s the traditional idea, 男尊女卑(men enjoy higher social status than women). Likewise, English expressions like he and she, king and queen, host and hostess, father and mother, son and daughter, husband and wife, brother and

64、 sister denote the gender discrimination against women by weakening females’ status. Y</p><p>　　3.2 Negative Connotations for Women</p><p>　　Some words relating to women initially have the posit

65、ive connotations, but as time goes by, they acquired negative meanings both in English and Chinese. Take “woman” in English and “小姐” in Chinese as an example. “Woman” originally implies an adult female human being, howev

66、er, it has been attached with lots of negative connotations. A woman of town, a woman of street, a woman for pleasure, or a louse woman all refer to a prostitute. A fancy woman, or the other woman are relevant to a woman

67、 has an</p><p>　　IV. Methods to Avoid Sexism in English and Chinese </p><p>　　Language is the mostly and frequently used tool for people to communicate with each other, and sexism in language is

68、 a linguistic vice that produced by the long-term incorrect thought. The longer people neglect this phenomenon, the more inequalities will be induced. Consequently, it is of paramount importance for everyone to know how

69、to use proper languages as same as how to show their respect to each other under a harmonious communicative circumstance. Underlying the strategies below is the vie</p><p>　　4.1 Adopting Gender-Free Words in

70、 English</p><p>　　English emphatically focuses on masculine words and expressions, so people are advised to apply gender-free words in their daily life. Officer, voter, coach, immigrant, salesperson not sale

71、sman or saleswoman, etc. are some words with no gender bias. When the sex is ambiguous, people are supposed to use man or woman, him or she, or the plural they instead of using man or he alone to conceal the possibility

72、of woman who will be linguistically invisible. Meanwhile, people should avoid the particula</p><p>　　4.2 Abandoning the Sexist Words in Chinese</p><p>　　China has a colorful culture, especially

73、its language which consists of thousands of Chinese characters. There are definitely some words to replace those depreciated words and phrases like “老姑娘” “賤人” “小婊砸” “老處女”. Certain people are easy to burst into anger, and

74、 some dirty words will come out of their mouth. This kind of situation can be quite understandable, but it is highly recommended that they will not say those words that look down upon female such as “去他媽的” “狗娘養(yǎng)的” “臭婊子”.I

75、n other words, peop</p><p>　　4.3 Treating Female as No Exception</p><p>　　Another prominent aspect of feminist linguistic improvement concerned the accustomed and out-of-style thought of people

76、in English speaking countries and China. Now that sexism in English and Chinese stems from the sex discrimination against female in western and Chinese people’s mind, to avoid the sexism in language, what matters most is

77、 to eliminate the obsolete thought—male superior to female, and help them then draw attention to the equality between male and female. This strategy aims to cha</p><p>　　Conclusion</p><p>　　Sexi

78、sm in English and Chinese can not only be easily found in communication, literature masterpieces, intercultural affairs, but also in people’s minds. Female seems to make some achievements to seek the equal treatment, whe

79、reas sexism in language still is in its existence which has been elaborately discussed in above long section. From the major part of this thesis, the conclusion comes easily that linguistic discrimination against women i

80、n English and Chinese is undeniable. Strangely, mos</p><p>　　I hope people can understand the negative effect of sex discrimination by regarding male as dominant and superior in language, thus creating

81、an amicable communicative environment. I expect eradicating gender bias against women in language will become reality and truly make man and woman equal in education, politics, job market and other domains. </p>&

82、lt;p>　　Literature Review</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　Language is a very powerful element, and a frequently used method of communication. Yet it is easily misunderstood and m

83、isinterpreted on account of its complicated mechanism with a great deal of nuance. The language, English or Chinese, which people use in day-to-day conversation, may denote gender bias when they choose different expressi

84、ons with diverse sentimental colors. </p><p>　　Sexism (particularly against women), decades ago or in recent years, has been a ubiquitous social phenomenon, influencing females’ life and work, in western cou

85、ntries as same as in China. Hence, gender bias in language has remained a heated topic for a long time among sociolinguists, most of whom have conducted numerous researches about it. </p><p>　　It may help pe

86、ople to have a crystal-clear idea about this paper by explaining the definition of sexism at the beginning. Based on the usages of English and Chinese, this paper illustrates how the sexist languages depreciate women in

87、terms of appellation, word order, proverbs, and so forth. There are several evident similarities of sexism in English and Chinese which will be presented in this thesis. At the end, the feasible approaches to avoid sexis

88、m in languages are offered based on other rese</p><p>　　Key words: sexism; English; Chinese; improving methods </p><p>　　Introduction</p><p>　　Sexism in English and Chinese, as a un

89、iversal phenomenon, is one of the aspects of inequalities between men and women. Language invented by both male and female enables male hold a powerful social status, whereas makes female feel inferior to male. So the la

90、nguage used to convey this type of male supremacy is generally reflecting the honored position of the male and the subservience of the female. </p><p>　　It is absolutely not inappropriate that people have th

91、eir rights to use any word to reflect women, but why they would like to choose the negative words or derogatory expressions when there are so many more to choose from? With the mixing of cultures and languages in modern

92、times, communication is likely to be very complicated and difficult. Cross-cultural and cross-gender issues, consequently, have increasingly attracted linguists’ attention. In recent years, lots of sociolinguists have ca

93、rried </p><p>　　This thesis is a tentative attempt to analyze the sexism both in Chinese and English by listing out some conspicuous sexist phenomena，and then to discuss the feasible and effective ways to av

94、oid sexism in these two languages respectively. Therefore, to help people have a distinct understanding of sexism in English and Chinese and build up an awareness of avoiding it is a valuable topic.</p><p>　

95、　The Definition of Sexism</p><p>　　As the women’s liberation movement in the U.S culminated in the late 1960s, more and more people were aware of the inequality, such as the asymmetrical use of language, bet

96、ween men and women. Feminists, inspired by the words “racial discrimination”, created “sex discrimination”, namely sexism. According to the 7th edition Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, sexism means”

97、the unfair treatment of people, especially women, because of their sex.” According to Webster Ninth New Coll</p><p>　　The word “sexism” refers to discrimination by members of one sex against the other, espec

98、ially by males against females, based on the thought of patriarchy culture. Simply speaking, sexism is gender privilege of males over females. Sexism is manifest in all forms of behavior from subtle gestures and especial

99、ly language to exploitation and oppression, and in all human institutions from the family to the multinational corporation. </p><p>　　The findings of the study</p><p>　　3.1 The Researches on Sex

100、ism in English and Chinese </p><p>　　Whether in western countries or China, it is a belief system based on the assumption that the physical differences between males and females are so significant that they

101、should determine virtually all social and economic roles of men and women．In the monograph A Study of Sociolinguistic Issues, Yang Yonglin(2005) says that linguistic sexism in different cultures is not solely a symbolic