Sexism in the English Language through Asymmetrical Phenomenon

王莹

Abstract：This thesis focuses on the asymmetrical phenomenon, which reflected in the extensive usage of masculine words, the marked female words and unmarked male words, positive words for males and negative words for females, and etc. Finally, the thesis puts forward some ways of fighting against sexism. Sexism is a society problem, which can be traced to its historical and cultural sources. In order to achieve non-sexism in language，social sexism should be eliminated first.

Key Word： sexism; asymmetrical phenomenon; masculine words; derogation of female words

1.Introduction

As a product of society and one special communicative methods of human, language reflects all the aspects of human society naturally. Language isnt sexism in itself, but when referring to language and sex, people immediately think of sexism. Sexism was put forth after the discovery of linguistic asymmetry. The asymmetrical phenomenon in English language is theoretically based on Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, which has a great influence on the research between language and culture.

2. Reflection of asymmetrical phenomenon in English language

Linguistic asymmetry is one of the traditional approaches to the study of the sexism against women in language. Hellinger(1989)in her article “Revising the Patriarchal Paradigm Language Changed Feminist Language Politics”[1] (Quoted from Tang Jinwen, 2002) looks back over a rather long period of time concerning the research of sexism against women in language.

2.1. Asymmetrical phenomenon reflected in masculine language as standard whereas feminine language as subordinate

2.1.1 .the extensive usage of masculine words

That “men embrace women” is a relatively recent rationalization in the history of the language. In 1746，John Kirkby formulated his “Eighty-eight Grammatical Rules.”[2] (Quoted from Zhu Li, 2004). These are the product of Mr. Kirkbys own imagination. Rule No.21 stated that the male gender was more comprehensive than the female，which is a move towards the concept that male is the norm，but woman is only the subordination or variation. In this way, women are always made invisible.

The fact that the word “man”, “mankind” and “he” are used as terms for the human race reflects male dominance in society, women is subordinate to man. Lets see the following sentence: “Man can do their best to conquer nature.” And “Man must to work to eat.” The “man” in the two sentences refers to all people, while women have to determine whether they are included. Another gender-related reflection is in the use of masculine forms, such as: mankind, chairman, fireman, businessman, etc. Such words are masculine-specified terms, and they are ambiguous and discriminatory, women have to be subordinate with a male symbol on this occasion.

In addition, the general use of the third person pronoun (he, him, and his) also reflects sexism in English language. The use of the generic he as a Standard English has specified the masculine pronoun for many years. Therefore, it is a long history for “he” embracing “she”. In the west, when referring to most supreme image—God, people use “he”, so Casey Miller and Kate Swift said: “What annoyed the women most was the universal custom of referring to God as “he”. [3] As English learners, we often unconsciously take “he” for “she” by mistake when referring to a female, let alone when referring to people in general or a person whose gender is unknown. Therefore, the words “man”, “mankind” and “he” which are often taken as terms for the whole human race reflects male dominance in society, women is subordinate to man.

2.1.2. Marked and unmarked words

Salzmann (1993) again puts his hand on this issue. According to him, gender-bias terms and usages in language that favor men can be easily found in English. “Feminine forms are usually derived from masculine forms. A useful concept when analyzing sexism is that of unmarked and marked terms. This is still asymmetry, but of a special kind.”[4]

Lets take the word “lion” for example: Lion is a generic word，including both a male lion and a female lion. Yet，when we refer to a female lion，we often use the marked term lioness (it is “marked” because it has the additional suffix-ess).It is quite common in English for “unmarked” terms to refer to males，while referring to a female，the terms are “marked” by adding a suffix. This may make terms for females appear to differ from the “standard”. Just as Baron (1996) once commented that: “In most cases, the usage of feminine suffix means that female nouns are derivatives of male form, which has secondary or inferior position.”[5] (Quoted in Xie Jieli, 2003)

Markedness is a linguistic term referring to the addition of a morpheme(of gender，number，diminutive，etc.). The English language has a tendency to define women as a sort of male. In most cases，there is asymmetry between words referring to male and female. Words for male are unmarked while words for female are marked，usually formed by a male word+suffix, which shows that womens identity，profession and status are inferior to men. One example of this tendency is the fact that many of the nouns that refer to women performing various roles are linguistically marked as derivatives of the basic (male) form.

Thus we have: author—authoress, poet—poetess, actor—actress, steward—stewardess,

prince—princess, baron—baroness, mayor—mayoress.

Moreover, once “ess” is added to a noun，usually the words meaning is negative. For example，manageress can be used as the female manager of a laundry or cake shop，although it can be used to refer to the female manager of a bank or a transnational corporation. Many professions ending with “ess” have the connotation of shallow，contemptuous and derogation.

2.2. Asymmetrical phenomenon reflected in the semantic connotation of positive-masculine and negative-feminine

2.2.1. Derogations of feminine words

In English，there are many counterpart words referring to male and female. Words with either neutral or positive connotations over time acquired negative connotations and finally ended up as “sexual meaning”. As Rsbet (1996) claims: “Almost female words are derogatory through the time, as the insulting epithet for ‘prostitute such as: housewife, lady, girl, mistress, and nun.”[6]

Lets see some examples as follows:

The term “hussy” derives from old English “huswif”(housewife), which meant “the female head of the house”. The term gradually deteriorated to “a rustic rude woman”, and finally came to mean “a lewd, brazen woman or prostitute”. Therefore，it comes down from flattery to derogation. Girl，the word itself, has a long history of specialization. Originally it meant “a child of either sex”，then was specialized to mean “a female child”. Later it acquired the meanings of “a serving girl or maid servant” and of “a prostitute”. Today the term girl has ameliorated, referring to a young woman; typically one has not yet been matured.

2.2.2. The development of non－parallel semantic from paired terms

Its well known that one word may have positive connotations, while another word with the identical linguistic meaning may have negative connotations. Schulz(quoted from Xue Yan，2002)，after investigating sexism in language and society, she suggests that there are more positive words used for males and many negative words used for females with no semantic equivalent for males.[7]

Lets look the following example:

(1) Bachelor and Spinster

Bachelor: an unmarried man (eligible bachelor) who is regarded as very suitable to be chosen as a husband. Spinster: an unmarried woman, usually one who is no longer young and seems unlikely to marry or a woman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying. Its obviously that the word “spinster” is derogatory in connotation as to the stance of the definer.

(2) Master and Mistress

Originally, both the two terms “master” and “mistress” are related to the sense “one who has power over another”. However, changes have clearly happened to mistress and not to master. Now “master” generally refers to a man who has acquired prefect ability in some fields, but its feminine counterpart is another case, the connotation of “mistress” is a women with whom a man has a sexual relationship, usually not a socially acceptable one”[8](Long Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1992:775). So it tends to lose status and practically restricted to its sexual sense of “paramour”(情妇). In addition, when used with reference to animals, we often say: “He is the master of this lovely dog.” But never say: “He is the mistress of this lovely dog.”

2.2.3. Different connotation of the same word

Semantic meanings for females are becoming derogatory or demeaning. The examples cite above are all asymmetrical phenomenon in language, women are connected with negative connotation, while men with positive connotations. Even the same word has quite different meaning when referring to female and male, often derogatory connotations for women than for men. There are many words just like this; the following are some other examples:

(1) A male pirate is defined as “one who infringes on rights of others or commits robbery on high seas.”(Schulz，1975)[9].But a female pirate is defined as “an adulteress who chases other womens men.”

(2) A male tramp is defined as a person with no home or job，who wander from place to place，or a drifter.(流浪漢) A female tramp is defined as a woman considered to be sexually immoral，especially a prostitute.(妓女)

(3) A fast man refers to one who wants too much pleasure and spending too much money(挥霍无度的人;做事麻利的人), A fast woman refers to one who shows boldness and lack of modesty in sexual relationship，is free in sexual matter(生性放荡的女人，荡妇)

(4) A loose man refers to a causal person or an idle person lacks a sense of responsibility (一个生活随便，对一切报无所谓态度的男人),A loose woman refers to a woman lacks conventional moral restraint in sexual behavior, a woman considered to be sexually promiscuous(放荡的，在性行为方面缺少传统道德观念约束的女人)

3. Current trend of non-sexism

Recently more and more Feminist language researchers focus on striving for linguistic impartiality of the sexes. The main strategies here to achieve this goal are avoiding the use of generic masculine, changing some naming and addressing terms and advocating some neutral words by feminists.

3.1. Alternatives of gender pronouns

The following are some suggestions for avoiding the use of generic pronouns.

1. Replace “he” with “he or she” (him or her; his or her) or “he/she” (him/her, his/her). This replacement indicates women are included in the antecedent of the pronouns.

(1) When reporter covers controversial stories, he/she should have responsibility.

(2) Every good citizen should love his or her country more than himself or herself, he or she could be ready to die for his or her country.

2. The gender-neutral third person pronoun they and its variants can be used when the subject is an indefinite pronoun.

(3) Everyone thinks they have the answer.

(4) Everyone is leaving, arent they?

3. If possible，use definite “the” to take place of “ his”. For example:

(5) The speaker must constantly monitor his listener to check that the assumptions he is making are shared assumptions.→The speaker must constantly monitor the listener to check that the assumptions he is making are shared assumptions.

3.2. Gender neutralization

The trend of the gender-neutralization is to obtain linguistic equality of the sexes by minimizing or discarding gender-specific expressions and constructions. The gender-neutralization trend involves the elimination of the suffixed forms for female professional and occupational nouns. The following are examples:

Use words which denote both sexes carefully: Man→human being, Manmade→synthetic/ artificial, Man in the street→average people, Business man→business person, Fireman→firefighter, Housewife→homemaker

Avoid using morphemes, which reflects womens lower rank when there is necessity to show their sex: Authoress→author, Aviatrix→aviator, Poetess→poet, Lady doctor→doctor, Girl athlete→athlete

4. Conclusion

Sexism in language is a kind of society phenomenon, which reflects traditional values and the national way of thinking. A language or words cannot be either good or bad but can only be viewed as such people who use it. In fact, gender bias against women in English is not restricted to those isolated words and syntax forms. Traditional researches of sexism in the English language do have aroused more and more peoples awareness of the inequality between women and men. Therefore，the elimination of linguistic sexism lies in social change. As English language learners，we should cast our eyes on these changes and trends of the language，pay attention to their characteristics and be aware of their directions. It is our task to combine language with society and study them. When everyone in society is indeed equal, there will be little sexual asymmetrical phenomenon in language.

References

[1] 湯金汶. 英语中性别歧视新探[D]. 苏州: 苏州大学英语语言文学, 2002.

[2] 朱力. 英汉语言中的性别歧视的比较研究[D]. 吉林: 吉林大学外国语言学及应用

学, 2004.

[3] Casey Miller, Kate swift. One Small Step for Genkind [A] In Gary Goshgaria Exploring Language7th ed. Harper Collins College Publulishers: 1989, 378.

[4] Salzmann, Zdenek. Language，Culture and Society: An Introduce to Linguistic Anthropology, West view Press: U.S.A. 1989. 185.

[5] 谢莉洁. 谈英语中的性别歧视[J]. 中州大学学报, 2002, 37(2): 37-38.

[7] Xue Yan. A Retrospective in the English Language.兰州铁道学院学报(社会科版)2002, 21(2): 110—115.

[8] Long Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1992:775.

[9] Schulz, Muriel “The Semantic Derogation of Women” B.Thomeand N .Henley(ed.) Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance. Rowley，Mass.，Newbury House，1975.377-379.

Author

WangYing Professional Title: teaching assistant,School: Fujian University of Technology