论英语中的性别歧视现象及其消除方法

论英语中的性别歧视现象及其消除方法

［Abstract］Language reflects a nation’s history, culture and all of its entertainments, believes and prejudice. Therefore, language inevitably has the traits of sexism. It is the use of language which devalues members of one sex, almost invariably women, and thus fosters gender inequality. It discriminates against women by rendering them invisible or trivializing them at the same time that it perpetuates notions of male supremacy. This thesis is to talk about the sexual discriminations in English, traits of female language, and solutions to eliminate sexual discriminations.

［Key words］English,sexual discrimination,female language,solution

I. Sexual Discrimination in English

1.1 Take the men’s language as the standard language, and women as the ancilla of men

In English, there are many words with sexual discrimination phenomenon, and in the order of words, we can find that men are usually in front of women. For instance, Mr. and Mrs., his and hers, boys and girls, men and women, brothers and sisters, etc.. Because of the long-term historical reason, women have been put in the position of appurtenant of men. In many countries there is the tradition that unmarried women are

named after their fathers, after their marriage, they are named after their husbands. In English, compared with men’s names, women’s names are slighting and they will always be called their husbands’family names, like Mrs. Smith. And in some paratactic phrases, women are always in the number two place, for example, King and Queen, Lord and Lady, husband and wife, and etc.. The phenomenon that considers women as the appurtenant of men can also be found in the word-building of some conjugated words, like prince —princess, host —hostess, mister —mistress, male — female, man — woman, hero — heroine, etc.. In these words, we can find that those words of men are not tagged while those of women are formed by adding additive morpheme.

1.2 Take women as the exception

In English, there are many words that are “ruled” by men, like chairman, spokesman, freshman, brotherhood, etc.. Psychologically, people think that those reputable persons must be men, so once women become reputable, they will be considered as the exception. Most people (including women) will connect president, chancellor, professor, judge, and lawyer with men when they are mentioned, so in order to avoid misunderstanding, people will add the tag “woman” to those titles which will be given to women, such as woman doctor, female pilot, etc.. In English, man and woman is a couple of conjugated words. But the word