An Analysis of Sexism in the English Language

摘 要：在英语语言中，小到词根词缀，大到文学作品都有不同类别性别歧视现象。本文主要从构词方法、词义、词序、委婉语对女性的性别歧视语进行研究，从性别排斥、性别限制、否定性别定型三个方面对男性的性别歧视现象进行

探讨。

关键词：性别歧视 男性 女性 英语语言

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.性别歧视语的两面性—微探男性性别歧视语[J].Foreign Language and Literature，2012年7月

[4] 张志伟.漫谈英语中针对男性的歧视语[J].河南师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版），第32卷，第6期.

作者简介：杨开迪（1991-9）女，籍贯：四川绵竹，学历：大学本科 学位：学士，研究方向：英语翻译。