An Analysis of Sexism in the English Language

摘 要：在英語語言中，小到詞根詞綴，大到文學作品都有不同類別性別歧視現象。本文主要從構詞方法、詞義、詞序、委婉語對女性的性別歧視語進行研究，從性別排斥、性別限制、否定性別定型三個方面對男性的性別歧視現象進行

探討。

關鍵詞：性別歧視 男性 女性 英語語言

I. Introduction

Sexism has long existed in human history. Even nowadays， in the society enjoyes a high level of civilization， sexism against both female and male is still severe very much. This thesis will study the sexist language existing in the English language and provide practicable methods to ameliorate it.

II. Sexism against women

2.1 Word formation

Marked and unmarked are two terms in the linguistics. In terms of lexical opposites， marked form is a non-basic， often one with inflectional or derivational endings. Thus， a morphologically negative word form is marked as opposed to a positive one： happy/unhappy， honest/dishonest， fair/unfair. Similarly， unaffixed masculine or singular forms are taken to be unmarked in contrast to affixed feminine or plural forms： lion/lioness， host/hostess， child/children. An unmarked form is also a default form.

2.2 The derogatory meaning

There are six pairs of corresponding words， the meaning of each masculine words originally equals to the feminine words， but with the development of the culture and society， the meaning of the feminine words have changed a lot： lord＼lady，baronet＼dame，governor＼governess，master＼mistress，callboy＼callgirl， bachelor＼spinster

III. The sexism against men

3.1 The gender-exclusive words

The current society thinks that mom plays a more important role in a family no matter on raising a child or on dealing the family routine. For example：mother tongue，mother wit，mother church，motherland， mother earth， mother figure，mother nature， mothering

3.2 The gender-restrictive language

Ruth E. Hartley has pointed it out that， the society has imposed boys to have male features much more earlier than they demand girls to have the female features （Hartley，2013）. There are many words like sissy have been filled with derogatory meaning： mamas boy， milksop， muffy，twit，creampuff pantywaist， weenie，Miss Nancy，womp ，turkey，coward lily-livered ，jellyfish，butterfly

IV. Avoiding sexism

4.1 Turning into gender free words

Instead of using man＼men， using neuter words like person， people to replace them in some collocations， for instance， chairperson， and use humankind to replace mankind.

4.2 Avoiding the third-person pronoun—he

To avoid the extension of the meaning of he， there are several methods. For example：

He who loses a friend loses more

The one who loses a friend loses more.

V. Conclusion

The equality of the two genders is viewed as the one of the symbols of modernization and civilization. There will be a long way to go to achieve the maximum elimination of sexism， but as long as the human being keep learning and working on it， a more brilliant civilization is just around the corner.

References：

[1] J， Coates. Women， Men and Language[J]. Longman. 1993.

[2] Ruth， E， Hartley. Understanding Childrens Play[M]. Routledge Press.2013.

[3] 蔣婷媛.性別歧視語的兩面性—微探男性性別歧視語[J].Foreign Language and Literature，2012年7月

[4] 張志偉.漫談英語中針對男性的歧視語[J].河南師范大學學報（哲學社會科學版），第32卷，第6期.

作者簡介：楊開迪（1991-9）女，籍貫：四川綿竹，學歷：大學本科 學位：學士，研究方向：英語翻譯。