Corpus-Based Gender Differences in English Language：Take He, She and His, Her as Examples

【Abstract】Language is a tool of communication. There are many differences in the use of English which may can reflecting the differences in gender. This paper uses the British National Corpus to compare the two sets of words “he”， “she” and “his”， “her”， from the four aspects of word frequency， register， collocation and semantic prosody. It is found that the differences between men and women in English reflecting the differences in social status and division of labor between them.

【Key words】gender difference; register; collocation; semantic prosody

【作者簡介】温梦媛，武汉理工大学，硕士，外国语学院外国语言文学专业，研究方向：语料库翻译。

1. Introduction

The first step is the investigation of distribution frequency in different register， based on corpus inspection of British National Corpus. The second step is the investigation of collocation features. The significant collocations are retrieved by setting the window span as -4/+4 in BNC. So when put the two words he and she as subjects， we analyze the colligation and collocation of the two words，especially the verbs. The third step is the investigation of semantic prosody. By analyzing two objective pronouns， his and her， we examine the semantic differences between the two words， and what semantic vocabulary is often used， negative， positive or neutral.

2. Data Analysis and Discussion

2.1 Register Distribution of he and she in BNC

The total word frequency of the personal pronoun he which indicates gender differences is 633413 words. The total word frequency of she is 350294. The frequency of he is about twice that of she. Firstly， the male personal pronoun he is about twice as much as she in the total word frequency. Secondly， in the six typical domains of the BNC， the use of he in spoken and fictional styles is about twice that of she. In magazines， news， and academic styles， he is three times greater than that of she， which is common in formal styles. He is more widely used than she is， and more commonly in formal style. It can be seen that men enjoy more freedom and recognition in social activities than women.

2.2 Collocation of he and she in BNC

In this paper， he and she are the subject， and the span as -4/+4. See Table1 for detailed data.

By searching for the words with the MI value greater than or equal to 3 in the first 100 verbs， and manually removing the common be verbs that they share， compare the typical behavior verb collocations， and get the top ten verbs. The verbs are divided into the following two categories： verbs that express emotional attitudes and express behaviors. For the attitude verbs he often matches some of the permission such as agree， allow. And she often accepts some expressive wishes and endures the words of the class such as wish， bear. For the verbs of behavior， we find that he often matches some verbs that can express decisions， rights， and violent behaviors. Hold can mean possessing something; decide means that the person has certain rights; abandon and fight have a certain tendency to violence. The words collocated with she often indicate that the subject is hurt， such as cry， lose. The words “spend， pay， wear” are more related to consumption and clothing. It shows that women life is more closely related to family and more attention is paid to family life.

Male behavior is mostly decided， with more orders， the right to decide and women are mostly dependent and service providers， often expressing aspirations， asking for opinions， and paying more attention to the family than men.

2.3  his/her+N in BNC

In BNC ， in the compare part， his and her are respectively input as word 1 and word 2， and choose collocates noun -0/+4. The specific data is shown in Table 2（At the end of the article）.

His used nouns can be divided into， mostly nouns that represent male domination and power， and nouns that represent entertainment. The words diocese， criticism， reforms that represent male entertainment are mostly ball-related words： innings， batting， bowing. Words that represent dominance and rights have obvious positive semantic rhyme and it can be seen that men are the owners of power from ancient times， enjoy their own domination and dominance， and outdoor activities are mostly ball-based. Her usually picks up some words that represent the body parts， chest， bun. Her is also used in conjunction with words that express physical or mental state， but such words have significant negative semantics， including pains， shivers， and shakes. The last category is a term that can refer to women clothing and daily activities such as knitting， petticoat， pinafore. These words reflect the traditional activities of traditional women in the area of family services， preparation， cooking and so on.

It can be concluded that in terms of social rights， men have domination， courtiers and rich leisure activities. Women are more of a service party， have the traditional female preparation， cooking skills， serving the family is their primary task， the scope of activities is small， in a social disadvantage.

3.Conclusion

Language is a mirror of society. However， the differences in language are still obvious. The differences between the two languages reflect the differences in the social status of men and women. Men have more independence in society. Women are bound by traditional concepts and are relatively inferior. Therefore， build an equal society and equal language environment requires unremitting efforts.

References：

[1]Firth， J·R. Papers in Linguistics1934-1951[M]. London： Oxford University Press，1957.

[2]Smith， P. M.Language， the Sexes and Society[M]. Ox-ford： Basil Black well Ltd，1985.