论英语中的性别歧视及其发展变化-精品文档
浅议英语中的性别歧视现象-模板
浅议英语中的性别歧视现象”[论文关键词]性别歧视词汇文化[论文摘要]语言在社会生活中处于十分重要的地位，它的使用从一个侧面反映社会思想，态度和文化。
着重论述了存在于英语中的性别歧视现象以及产生原因，同时又对如何消除性别歧视作了简要的论述。
语言性别歧视是指偏袒或凸显一性别、损害或无视另一性别的一种语言现象。
在这个以男性为中心的人类社会里，性别歧视几乎存在于所有的语言当中，英语也不例外。
本文拟对英语中常见性别歧视语的表现形式以及导致性别歧视的原因进行探讨和解析。
一、英语中性别歧视的表现（一）从词汇方面反映出的性别歧视“语言的词汇就像一面镜子，社会上各种不平等现象，包括性别歧视，必然反映在词汇上。
”英语作为性别歧视性的语言，其本身就带有明显性别歧视标记的因素，其中在词汇方面的反映尤为如此。
1．构词上的不平等现象英语中除了极少数的，如bride (新娘) - bridegroom(新郎) 外，都是阳性名词为构词主体，加后缀构成阴性名词，这种现象体现了一种所属关系。
例如: host - hostess ， manager manageress，princeprincess，hero - heroine 等。
这些与阳性名词相对应的特指女性的词，即标记女性词汇，往往有它特定的含义。
第一，标记女性词后缀的使用说明该词指女性(如heroine) 或指某人的妻子(如duchess)。
第二，非标记男性词汇可指男性或全人类，而标记女性词汇却只能指女性(如author - authoress) 。
第三，标记女性词后缀具有附加涵义。
以manageress 一词为例，这个词暗示着较为次要或低下的地位。
2．词义内涵反映性别歧视英语中的woman， female 是通常用来指代成年女性的名词。
它们有各自的词义内涵和使用范围，但相同的是，这些词都被社会赋予了对妇女歧视的负面意义。
以下从语义和词源的角度各自作以说明。
Woman 本是“妇女”、“女人”的泛称，但被社会赋予了很多贬损、歧视的意义，在很多习语中都得到体现。
英语中的性别歧视及产生的原因(1)(DOC)
浅谈英语中的性别歧视及产生的原因南溪区江南镇初级中学校刘长连内容摘要：语言直接反映社会生活。
从语言现象的发展和变化中能够看到社会生活的一些奥妙。
语言中性别歧视指在语言和语言使用中针对不同的性别而产生的偏见和歧视，它主要指的是对女性的歧视。
本文主要通过对英语语言中的女性歧视现象来探讨产生这种现象的原因及为了消除语言中的性别歧视而进行的语言中性化尝试。
关键词：性别歧视；原因；语言中性化1. 引言语言是一种社会现象。
社会生活离不开语言，现时语言也是在某个特定的言语团体中使用的。
因此社会生活必然对语言产生强有力的影响。
社会语言学家认为，语言不仅是思想内容的载体，它本身就是思想内容。
从某种意义上，我们可以说语言是社会生活的一面镜子。
它反映了某个言语团体里人的思想意识，道德观念以及人与人之间的关系。
所以我们从语言这面镜子里可以看到社会生活的一角，从语言现象的发展和变化中能够看到社会生活的一些奥秘。
在社会生活中语言对男女一视同仁，但语言是文化的载体，并在人们不断使用的过程中逐渐得到丰富和发展。
作为一个地区，一个民族约定俗成的一种表达方式，语言必然会反映出一定的社会价值观念和民族思维方式。
性别歧视是以性别为基础而产生的一种社会歧视现象。
《朗曼英语词典》对“性别歧视”的解释是：“以性别为基础的歧视，尤其是男性对女性的偏见。
《美国传统字典》的定义是“一种性别成员对另一性别成员，尤其是男性对女性的歧视”。
虽然它可以表现为男性对女性的歧视，也可以表现为女性对男性的歧视。
但是“性别歧视”通常是对女性的歧视，是人们对女性的偏见和男女社会地位不平等的反映。
女性长期以来被看作是the weaker sex/the second sex，是男性的陪衬和附属品。
即使在标榜人权、平等的西方发达国家中也是如此。
而现代女权运动轰轰烈烈的发展形势正是对这一不平等现象的反抗和反映。
从而在语言中，出现了多种多样的性别歧视语，英语也不例外。
“男尊女卑”的思想并非中国独有，而几乎是一种全球现象。
英语中性别歧视现象及发展状况
［ 作者 简介］ 亚静 （９ ２一） 女 ， 北武汉人 ， 杜 １８ ， 湖 中南民族大 学外语 学院在 读研 究生 ， 究方 向 ： 研 英语语 言学与应用语言 学
维普资讯
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杜亚静 ： 英语 中性别歧视现象及 发展状况
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称现象 ， 当表示男性和女性的词成对出现时 ， 指男性 的词语在大多数情况下是无标 记的（ ｎ ａ ｅ ） 而 ｕｍ ｒ ｄ ， ｋ
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的现象很多 。人们往往习惯用他们来概指两性或不 确定 的性别。这不仅使表达不准确 ， 而且明显地带 有性别歧 视 的烙 印。如 《 立宣 言》 独 中写道 ： Ａｌ “ｌ
象（ｓ ｍ ｔ ） ａｙ ｅ ｙ 是语言性别歧视的另一种表现形式。 ｍ ｒ
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中有这样 的论述 ： 性别歧视 的思想基 础是认为性 “ 别特征和男人统治女人是 自 然程序 的安排。这一信 念在数千年的文化传统 中根深蒂固， 甚至我们的语
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Ａｔ（ ｃ ｒ 男演员 ） ｏ Ｐ ｅ（ ｏｔ诗人 ）
Ｈ ｉ 继承人 ） ｅ（ ｒ
英语中性别歧视现象及发展状况113称现象当表示男性和女性的词成对出现时指男性的词语在大多数情况下是无标记的unmarked而指女性的词语则要在表示男性的词语的基础上附加一个粘着词素变成有标记性的marked现实生活中大家往往把男性语言作为标准和主体而女性语言只是一种附属或变体
《2024年英汉语性别歧视现象的对比研究》范文
《英汉语性别歧视现象的对比研究》篇一英汉语中性别歧视现象的对比研究一、引言性别歧视是一个普遍存在的社会问题，不仅在各个国家中存在，也在不同的语言文化中有所体现。
本文旨在对比研究英汉两种语言中性别歧视现象的差异和共性，从而更深入地理解这一社会问题。
二、英汉性别歧视现象的概述1. 英语中的性别歧视现象在英语中，性别歧视主要表现在语言、教育、职场、媒体等各个领域。
例如，一些词汇的使用可能隐含着对某一性别的贬低或优待，如“manpower”（劳动力）一词往往被用来指代“劳动力”而非“女性”，这在一定程度上忽视了女性的贡献。
此外，职场上的性别歧视也屡见不鲜，如女性在升职和薪资方面的机会不平等。
2. 汉语中的性别歧视现象在汉语中，性别歧视同样表现为多方面的存在。
如在一些词语和句子的表达中，常常会出现将某一性别特指的情况，甚至有意识地将另一性别边缘化。
同时，职场和家庭中的性别歧视问题也较为突出，如女性在职场中遭受的性别偏见和家庭责任分配的不平等。
三、英汉性别歧视现象的对比分析1. 词汇层面的对比在词汇层面，英语和汉语都存在一定程度的性别歧视现象。
然而，由于两种语言的文化背景和历史发展不同，其表现方式略有差异。
英语中的性别歧视往往较为直接和明显，如对某一性别的特指或偏见的词汇。
而汉语中的性别歧视则更多地表现为对某一性别的边缘化或隐含的偏见。
2. 社会文化层面的对比在社会文化层面，英汉两国的性别歧视现象存在共性，即都受到传统观念和刻板印象的影响。
然而，由于两国的历史、文化、教育等差异，其影响程度和表现形式有所不同。
例如，在某些西方国家，女性追求平等权利和机会的呼声较高，社会对性别平等的认知较为普遍；而在一些亚洲国家，传统的家庭观念和社会期望对女性的影响可能更为深远。
四、解决英汉性别歧视现象的策略针对英汉两国的性别歧视现象，应采取多种策略加以解决。
首先，应加强教育宣传，提高公众对性别平等的认识和意识。
其次，应完善法律法规，为受害者提供法律保护和支持。
性别歧视在英语语言中的表现其发展变化--商务英语本科学位论文
中国某某某某学校学生毕业设计(论文)题目：性别歧视在英语语言中的表现其发展变化姓名：00000班级、学号：000000000系(部) ：经济管理系专业：商务英语指导教师：0000000开题时间：2009-4-10完成时间：2009-11-122009年11 月12 日目录课题性别歧视在英语语言中的表现及其发展变化一、课题(论文)提纲二、内容摘要三、参考文献The sexual discrimination in English language and its evolvement00000Abstract：Language plays an important role in society. As a phenomenon of society, language reflects all the sides of human society naturally. Sexism is a phenomenon that takes a male-as-norm attitude, trivializing, insulting or rendering women invisible. As a special social phenomenon, sexism is inevitably reflected through language.To start with, the thesis is maily talk about the phenomenon of the sexism discrimination, and then analysis the reason for the accurrence of sexism in the English lauguage, the change of development.Key words：sexual discrimination; phonomenon; factor0 IntroductionAs the peculiar result of the development of human society, language is a kind of social phenomenon and reflects all the sides of human society naturally. Its existence and development are closely linked with the social attitudes of human beings and to a great extent are affected by their social views and values. Historically and sociologically, our society is man-oriented and man-centered. Women, regarded as a weaker gender in society, are discriminated for a long time and completely subordinated in political life, economic life and even family life in the society dominated by men. Unavoidably, this kind of phenomenon has been embodied in languages. In linguistic aspect, language is bias-based and women suffer from language sexism. Gender-differentiated language use can reflect and help perpetuate the subordinate status of women in society.Since 1960s, feminists strive for the elimination of gender discrimination, for the greater recognition o f women’s contributions to society and aim to change many cultural and social customs that perpetuate patriarchal value systems. Many fields of life around the worldhave been, or are being, affected by this movement. One of the many impacts feminism on society is its impact on language. Language was and is seen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy.1 The phenomennon of the sexism discrimination1.1 The reprensent in the vocabulary.The word “man” is a very clear example, it is not only have the meaning of mankind, but also refer to human being, stand for all of the people. but “woman”is only refer to female ,for example, man cannot live by bread alone. The man in the street. “If a woman fall to water from the boat, call out “MAN,OVERBROAD”.If she hurts in the work, her fee-for-service is called WORKMAN’S COMPENSATION. But if she enter into a place which is writern “man only !” she will understand the caveat is not aim at animal or plant or nonlife but to her at once”, A linquist ever complained and said. when we donnot know the gender who we point, he, his and him are often stand for human being, (This is a rule in the Enlish), such as, every student has to make up his own mind.He who laughs last laughs best. As the centre of loqicality, female is in a hypotaxis. In terms of glossary, for example, the word which is by the end of –er,-or, actually it is a neuter word, but people think it is a masculine term, so they ad woman before the female, for example, a woman dotor. The word “man”is not only refer to male,manhood, but also as the“floorboard of human being”, but the word “woman”is not. A lot of profession terms are often as the suffix by the man, although this job has many female. What’s more, on the occasions, “he, him,or his”can be used to refer to such indefinite pronouns as each, everyone, everybody, no one, someone, anyone, and so on .1.2 The represent on the title.“Take the female as the male’s appendix”. The view is full represent in the title terms of English .Mr. is a respect to a man,but Mrs. is a respect to a man’s wife, so the woman’s title is attach to man, for example: the husband have Dr.degree, so we can call the couple as “Mr.and Mrs. John Smith. If the wife is a Dr. but the her husband don’t have a degree, the wife’ name is Marry, then her surname is followed by her husband and call Marry Smith. Miss is a title of unmarried female. But Mr. can be a title of unmarried male or married male. From the title we can recognise the male whether she is married, but to the male, we will donot know it, what’s more, when female married, her surname is followed by male, so her surname is completely forgetted. a lot of job title, such as doctor, professor, engineer, and so on is fit to male and female, but people is used to contact them with male. but to female, it is become a symbol, often ad the woman, lady or female for restricting it. for example, female judge, lady doctor, woman lawyer, these are indicate that in the past time, the higher- status profession is cornered by male, the other way round,teacher, nuser, secretary, model, people generally think it is a male job, if it is a female, must ad the male or man, such as male nurse,man teacher. Except these are contact with history fact, it is a social prejudice.1.3 Word orderSexism in language is also reflected in word order. When men and women are presented together, usually words denoting male sex are put in front of female sex. Making females come second reflects the sexist attitude that men are superior to women. It is not hard to find male-female word order pairs in English literature, newspaper, magazines as well as in speech, such as male and female, husband and wife, father and mother, boys and girls, his and hers, son and daughter, brother and sister, host and hostess, king and queen, Adam and Eve and so on. No matter in books or on radio, even in daily dialogue, we can often read and hear such words:a. Good morning, boys and girls!b. They would have allowed males and females to go to school together. Such a language phenomenon seems to appear so unquestionably natural as to be widely accepted as a language norm.However, there are also cases in which male-female order is reversed, for example bride and groom, and ladies and gentlemen. The former shows that marriage is important to women and the latter is influenced by the notion that men should protect women. Putting ladiesbefore gentlemen doesn’t show that women are more superior to men or ladies first, but indicates that in men’s mind, women, the same as children, are the weaker ones.1.4 The proverba. St atus.“A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.(稻草男儿抵得上金玉女子。
英语论文英语中的性别歧视.docx
The Sexism in English Language英语中的性别歧视Abstract Sexism in English language haslaunched along with the vigorous development of women‘ s liberation movement since the end of1960s. As a mirror reflecting the society language images the social views and values. Sexism insociety is thus inevitably reflected in the use of language. The paper based on the analysis of sexdiscrimination in English explores that it is by no means an extinction of sexist language so long asthe sexism in society exists. The causes of sexism in this thesis are the inequality between maleand female. In ancient time the thoughts that males host females and the treatment of women asinferiors to men are in vogue. Men are always at superior positions to women in the socialeconomy in t he politics as well as in the people‘ s traditional ideas so the idea of sex discriminationhas reflected in the language. The thesis summarizes the phenomena of sexism in English by usinguniversal evidence and they are shown and discussed in four aspects: English proverbs Englishexpressions English vocabulary and the meanings of English words. Lastly the thesis introducestwo feasible strategies to erase sexism in English language and they are: language reform andsocial reform. The most important one is to erase the sexist conceptions and improve women‘ sstatus respect and support them. The language transformation can be realistic on the basis of thesocial reform. Key Words Sexism female words masculine words strategies 摘要自 20 世纪 60年代起语言性别歧视已随着女性解放运动的展开而得到蓬勃发展。
分析英语中的性别歧视现象【文献综述】
文献综述英语分析英语中的性别歧视现象一、前言部分（一）研究目的语言是思想的直接体现，它作为人类思想的载体和主要的交际媒介，直接反映语言使用者的思想和价值观。
而语言的性别歧视问题一直是语言学家深感兴趣的课题之一。
了解英语中性别歧视语的发展现状和原因有助于我们了解中西方不同的文化背景和差异，从而最终消除这些性别歧视语的存在，增强我们的性别平等意识，有利于我们在与英语文化背景熏染下群体进行交际时出现尴尬的场景和不文明的行为和语句。
通过对性别歧视在不同方面的体现的分析，针对问题寻找出有效的方法来消除性别歧视在英语中的传播和发展，实现在语言上的性别平等。
首先我们要唤醒民众对语言性别歧视的重视，让他们了解性别歧视对妇女的损害，增强对性别歧视语的抵制性，对文明使用语言和真正意义上实现男女平等有重大意义。
在社会语言学看来，语言性别歧视现象的研究，不单纯是一个语言学的问题——语言学家应该透过这种表面现象，结合语言哲学研究、语言文化研究、社会学研究，以及认知科学研究，采用一种崭新的观察视野，探索语言与思维关系问题，揭示语言使用过程中的亚文化现象，研讨大众意识对语言改革的影响，考察语言在人类认识和表述世界过程中所起的双重功能。
由此可见，语言性别歧视的研究，有着极为丰富的内涵和深远的社会意义。
（二）性别歧视的定义Sexism（性别歧视）一词是美国的女权主义者由racism（种族歧视）一词启发创造的。
根据《牛津现代高级英汉双解词典》，Sexism 指的是以性别为基础的歧视，主要是对女性的歧视，是人类社会由来已久的不合理的社会现象。
性别歧视是指因性别不同而产生的一种社会歧视现象，一般指男性对女性的歧视。
《朗曼英语词典》对“性别歧视”的解释是:“以性别为基础的歧视，尤其是男性对女性的偏见。
”语言是社会的镜子，特定社会的价值观念和民族思维方式在语言中必然有所反映。
因此，性别歧视这一社会现象也必然在语言中折射出来。
语言中表现出来的性别歧视即语言性别歧视(Language sexism )。
英语论文--性别歧视
中文摘要语言是表达观念的符号系统，作为一种社会现象的语言，必须会反映出人类社会的各种社会观念。
在英语使用中，性别歧视现象屡见不鲜。
从20世纪60年代起，英语语言中的性别歧视现象成为语言学家和对语言学感兴趣的学者们研究的热点问题，直到如今，这一课题任然吸引着中的学者就此研究的发展做出努力。
基于前人已取得的研究成果和语言学理论。
本文尝试从不同层面研究性别歧视的语言特征。
找出造成语言现象的历史、社会及文化原因。
最后得出结论，认为语言本质上是对社会的反应，如果社会不平等现象存在，单从语言学方面实现真正的平等只是空中楼阁，并提出了一些有效的降低语言中性别歧视的策略。
AbstractAs a phenomenon of society ,language reflects all sides of human society naturally .Sexual discrimination has been frequently observed in the use of English .Since 1960s ,sexism in English language has remained a heated topic for linguists and researchers who are interested in linguistic ,and till now it attracts a lot of linguistic learners to make progress in its study .On the basis of previous research and theories of linguistics ,the present thesis makes an attempt to analyze the linguistic features of sexual discrimination .There are three predominant factors attributing to the issue : morphological features ,semantic features and syntactic features .Through the tentative study of on the linguistic features the author find out the historical ,social and cultural reasons of this phenomenon .According to the above analysis ,the author draws the conclusion that language ,in essence ,is a reflection of society .If social inequality remains ,linguistists attempts to achieve real equality exclusively are empty talk ,and then raises some effective strategies to eliminate sexual discrimination in language.Key Words: Sexism, Linguistic features, Main Causes, Language strategiesⅠ.IntroductionAs a mirror reflecting social phenomenon as well as a communicating medium ,a language is also a description of people’s social concepts and customs .Sexism is a common social phenomenon in the western societies .Although women have achieved equal status in their society in the aspect of laws and politics ,there still exists a deep-rooted thought that women should be subject to men ,which nowadays has a profound influence on the development and application of language .This paper tries to have an analysis ,from linguistic features ,causes ,on sexism in English.1.1 Definition of Sexism in English languageThe origin of sexism is from religion .Almost all faiths assign woman a lower status .The Holy Bible infers that God had planned Adam but that Eve was created for the sole purpose of preventing him from being bored .Sexism is usually used to express men’s attitudes towards women .When applied to language .Sexism means that masculine forms and masculine marked words predominate .This biased representation of the sexes in language concerns the portrayal of men as the norm and women as the appendage or as the exception in language, which is often called linguistic sexism .1.2 Definition of linguistic featuresLinguistic features include morphological feature, semantic feature, syntactic feature and lexical feature etc. This paper will mainly focus on the morphological feature, lexical feature and syntactic feature. Morphological feature relates to the initial structure of words and of the rules by which words are formed. Lexical feature is considered to be the study of the usage of words. Syntactic feature deals with the interrelationship between elements of sentence included wordorder, naming and addressing system.1.3 The relationship between Sexism and Linguistic FeaturesThe phenomenon of sexism that is reflected in the English language should not simply be related to societies where they live, it is related to linguistic features as well. Linguistic features and sexism are closely related to each other. People created their cognition of the world through the meaning of language, and the linguistic features in return reinforce the sexism in language use. Sexism being a wrong attitude among people toward the current society must be eliminated.Ⅱ.Linguistic Features of Sexism2.1 Morphological AsymmetryWe have acquired that in this human society, although female stand for half of the world, however, female suffers discrimination in the use of language. In the morphological system, we can see that the English language has gender marking practice in human agent nouns which treats men and women differently, such as making woman invisible, secondary and trivial comparing with man.In the 1930s, the female linguist Greenberg took the lead in putting forward “the Marking Theory”. In this theory, two concept “marked” and “unmarked” were discussed, revealing the phenomena of sexism in English language. In other words, in the pair words describing the two genders of human beings, almost al l human the words connected to masculinity are “unmarked”, while feminine words are “marked” And this mark can be seen from its characteristics that a feminine is made by adding a bound morpheme to the end of a masculine word, or just it is a compound word itself.2.1.1 Sexism in the Use of SuffixesSuffix is a linguistic term referring to the addition of a morpheme to a core term which is unmarked or natural.It is not difficult to find the striking fact that considerable female terms are created by suffixation on the basis of the unmarked male terms, which might be the easiest feature to be notice among all phenomena shoeing sexism in English use.Examples are seen following:a. –ess: actress, benefactress, countess, deaconess, dictatress, duchess, empress, goddess, heiress, hostess, princess, waitressb. – ette: bachelorette, conductorette, coquette, hacktette, jockette, majorette, usherettec. – enne: comedienne, doyenne, tragedienned. – ine: concubine, heroineThe above listed suffixes are all that can be found in English used to specifically refer to the male words; these words contribute a lot to the notion that the female are always affiliated to the male, indicating a lower position for the former.2.1.2 Sexism in the Use of CompoundsEnglish is a kind of super masculine language. This can be easily seen in compound words formed by word plus man structure, such as chairman, businessman, policeman, spokesman, salesman, statesman, freshman, fireman, postman, dustman, milkman, etc. These words could not only refer to men but also refer to women.A speaker of a conference would be called “chairman” no matter whether there is a man or a woman standing on the platform. At present times, there comes a series of new words used to express the impartia lity for women, like “chairperson”, “madam chairman” ,however, they oftenoverlooked by people. Students that have just entered their colleges often say that “I am a freshman” and the speaker is not always a masculine one. The term “mankind” can be refer t o men and women when it is explained as “human beings”.Another example, in the case of salesman, there are also lots of female forms: saleswoman, salesgirl and saleslady. They seem like synonymous, but actually carry different social meanings. Salesgirl and saleslady probably works in a department store, supermarket or place like it selling goods in a kind of low position. If we want to refer to a woman who sells mainframe in a large corporation would be called saleswoman, or even salesman. It conveys an idea that the important position is more likely to be taken by woman or even man, but not girl or lady.2.1.3 Sexism in Some Special SituationAnd of course, there would be exceptions. Some feminine words are “unmarked”, while some masculine words are “marked”. Such examples could be seen from the use of “bride” and “bridegroom” .When women are get married to their husband, they will be called “bride” regarded to be a private property of the man, and this is always going with people’s traditional concep ts. Thus the word “bride” is unmarked, while its corresponding words “bridegroom” is marked. So are the pair “widow” and “widower”. Women will have widowhood when their husbands passed away, however, men might get remarried after their spouses’ death, and since this situation has taken place, men like this would no longer be titled as “widower”. Consequently, “widower” is a marked word. This special phenomenon has also reflected the sexual discrimination of the whole society towards women.2.2 Lexical Asymmetry2.2.1 Sexism in Generic PronounsGeneric pronouns are pronouns that are used to refer to, with equal likelihood, to women and men. But in linguistic reality,these generic pronouns are often represented by masculine pronouns, such as he,his, him.The sexism in English is to ignore women by allowing masculine terms to be used specifically refer to males and generically to refer to human beings in general. It is mainly shown in the pronouns: he, she, his, her, himself and herself. The pronoun system uses he, his, him, and himself both in the literal masculine sense and in the generic sense to mean a person of either sex. When such terms are used generically, misinterpretation can be resulted and females are unintentionally excluded from consideration.2.2.2 Sexually Words about SexV ocabularies concerning sex and sexual activity demenstrste better any other field in language. For examole, among the words for"untidy person",those for women outnumber those for men. Henley, who, as a part of a large study of slang managed to collect over 500 synonyms for prostitude, such as slut, slattern, frump, drab, dowdy, draggletail, trollop, bitch, But only 65 for the masculine sexual term such as client, goat, lecher, customer.Another example,though spinster/bachelor both means one who is not married, bachelor is at least a neutral term, often used as a compliment, and spinster is connected with connotation of prissiness, fussiness and so on. Examples alike are not rare in English and are constantly held up by feminist linguists: governor/governess, wizard/witch etc. according to Lakoff, the sexual definition of women, however, is but one facet of a much larger problem. In every aspect of life, a woman is identified in terms of the man she relates to, such as Mrs. John, John's wife, Harry's girl friend.From the above fact, we can infer that English has much more terms to descrrbe women than men in terms of sexuality. It is easy to conclude that sexual features of woman is a great concern of the society when describe female.2.3 Syntactic Asymmetry2.3.1Word orderSexism is also reflected in word order. Usually words denoting male sex are put in front of female terms. Some linguists made a hypothesis that in arranging word order, we are often used to following a "good to bad" sequence, such as good-bad, rich-poor, day-night, light-dark, big-little, life-death. They went further to claim that the arrangement of man-woman word order follows the same rule, which implies that men are superior and women inferior. It is not hard to find male-female word order pairs in English literature, newspaper, magazines as well as in speech, such as male and female, husband and wife, brother and sister, son and daughter, host and hostess, king and queen, Adam and Eve and so on. Such language phenomenon of making females comes second signifies that women have lower status or less importance than men and they are usually considered the weak sex in society.Particular cases in this issue exist, for example, bride and groom, and ladies and gentlemen. The former shows that marriage is important to women and the latter is influenced by notion of chivalry that men should protect women which develops to the later traditional custom of "lady first".And ironically, such interpretation of the two particular cases again leads to the interpretation of the thought that women are weaker than men, so that they should be protected,and women are born to be affiliated to men because only when it comes to marriage they become important.2.3.2 Sexism in Naming and Addressing System2.3.2.1 Sexism in naming conventionsNaming and addressing system in English language also treats women differently from men. This discriminatory practice functions as a way to mark the availability of women interims of marriage and reinforce the view that a woman is the property of a man. Therefore, the asymmetry found in the ways of naming and addressing males and females can be linked to the social imparity that exists between the two sexes.The act of naming a newborn baby is an important event marked by various kinds of traditions and rituals. Most communities, typically English-speaking societies, attach great importance to identifying an individual as male or female through naming conventions. Names which can be used for either sex are rare and usually distinguished by different spellings. As special signs indicating individuals in the society, names have some particular functions that no others can replace. With great symbolic values in most societies, forms of naming are used to reflect the social hierarchy and the bias against women.As generally considered, first names are chosen above all other considerations to reflect the child's sex. If you know someone who is expecting a baby and you ask what names are being contemplated, you will hear two lists-one for girls and one for boys. Most of the given names in English culture clearly carry feminine or masculine connotations. Such unsex names as Chris, Dana, Dale, and Lee are rarely seen.It is generally accepted one's given names which are enduringly connected with each person after his or her birth efficiently reinforce the male-female dichotomy within society. Therefore, apart from making the sex of the child, personal names for girls and boys tend to reflectstereotyped features of femininity and masculinity.2.3.2.2 Sexism in Addressing SystemIt is common in western languages that there is only one title for men, in English for example, Mr. (Monsieur in French, Herr in German, Senor in Spanish, Signore in Italian, etc.), which has nothing to do with the marital status of the man being referred to. On the contrary, titles for women are divided into two separate words, indicating the marital status of the referred woman. One can easily tell the difference between "Mrs. Darcy"and "Miss Elizabeth Bennet" is the term used for this woman named Elizabeth Bennet when she is not married, but as soon as she is married to a man surnamed "Darcy", she becomes "Mrs.Darcy". And it is interestingly enough that the married woman changes her surname into her husband's, while not vice versa. The exposure of marital status of the female and the doption of the husband's surname are usually regarded by scholars a kind of discriminatory practice.Second, the use of Ms.always brings forth another kind of discriminatory interpretation that if a woman is addressed Ms., she is likely to be thought of beingashamed of the fact of her marital status, either being unmarried, or probably beingdivorced, the reason of which might lie in her unpleasant appearance or inaffable characteristics.Ⅲ.The Main Causes of Sexism in English3.1 Historical PerspectivesThroughout history, men are dominant while women are obedient, and there has been discrimination against women. Women are not accorded the same social status as man, in spite of laws designed to prevent sex-based discrimination . To know why this happened we must look back to the old days.Thus, the origins of sexism can be traced to the sex roles that man and women occupied in prehistoric times. Because men were more muscular than women and did not bear children, they took the role of hunters.Women were engaged in food gathering and caring for children and the home. Although the sex roles of men and women were quite different, one was not valued over the other. But after animals were domesticated and the invention of the ox-drawn plow, men, the caretakers of animals, became more involved in agriculture. The status of women declined as their role of food providers diminished.In many European and other societies based on agriculture, land came to be the measure of wealth. Codes were developed to determine succession to an estate after its holder’s death. The major criterion for inheritance was whether the designated heir wastes legitimate offspring of the dead landholder. Since women bore the children, they became valuable property for their landholding husbands. To keep women in this position, laws were enacted that made them subservient to and controlled by their husbands. Further, norms that reinforced the legal status of women began to develop. For example, the negative views of women of medieval Europe probably were due that appeared in many of the religious tracts more to the isolation of women from the economic mainstream than to interpretations of the basic ideology of the church.The major breakthrough for women did not occur until the 19th century, under the impact of the Industrial Revolution. The development of industrial capitalism created the need for large numbers of workers in the newly established industries. Because women could work in factories and help their husbands accumulate capital, their status was again somewhat improved. Gradually,over a period extending well into the 20thcentury, women were permitted to make contracts, to buy and sell property, to vote and hold political office, to acquire the same education as men, and to put their education to practical use. But despite these advances, the second-class status of women had become so ingrained in society that justifications for it continued.Nineteenth century views of women persisted into the 20th century, even among women themselves. It was supposed that women, by their nature, could not take care of themselves and had to be protected by men. Women who did not need to gain an income were relegated to keeping house and raising children-functions that were not regarded as work. A woman's most important role was thought to be the moral development of her children. Although more women were being educated and entering professions, they were employed primarily as teachers, domestics, dressmakers, waitress; and laundry workers etc.Although women continued to enter the labor force in increasing numbers during the first three decades of the 20th century, public opinion remained strongly in favor of their staying at home with their families. During World War II, however, large numbers of men were taken from the civilian labor force, and women were encouraged to take their places. During this period, attitudes toward women working outside the home changed dramatically and a majority of the people in the United States thought that women could and should do so.After the war, when men returned to their original jobs, attitudes toward women as workers reverted to their former state. The percentage of women in the labor force continued to rise, but the popular image of women as homemakers remained. Female wage or salary earners were discriminated against in pay, promotion opportunities, and professional training. Discrimination against women in employment was not prohibited until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Despite this law, the situation for female workers Thus, this has not markedly improved. Explanation of modern-day sexism proposes that it has its origins in along history of discrimination against women. Women continue to be treated poorly because of customs and social norms that developed over many centuries.3.2 Social PerspectivesSociety plays a key role in sexism in English. Both in society and family, men are put in the leading position and women are considered to be the attachment to men. Education they receive and mass media make a great different to the stereotype notion towards men and female.3.2.1 Educational InfluenceEducation is powerful in the sense that it may also serve to keep understanding our respective places in addition to its power to enable us our social position and thus empower us to act to change it. More specifically, schools are officially appealed for the responsibility of equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to fill various roles in their society, which is accomplished primarily by requiring students to study subjects such as languages, arithmetics, actual principles, etc. Schools also teach students specific values and regularities in the society, politics and economics. This instruction may be achieved in a explicit way, for example by punishing students for not handing in homework on time, but these value messages are not directly shown in the text materials used to teach traditional academic subjects. Importantly, the significance of these values and regularities do not vanish or decrease in spite that they are hidden. Through it, students learn to view the world in particular ways.Apparently, teachers would without exception claim that they treat all their students fairly without distinguishing them by their sex. However, the true situation is that teachers are foundtypically to interact differently with their male and female students. They arrange seats for girls on one side of the room and boys on the other; they ask girls and boys to draw separate lines on the desk; they may organize teams for an arithmetics competition according to sex. It is also common for teachers to assign girls and boys different classroom work. It is understandable, though, because few preparation programs for teachers do anything to prevent it. In one study of teacher-education textbooks, for instance, researchers found that the problem of sexism in the schools is rarely addressed. In fact, the authors of these texts are sometimes guilty of sexism themselves.The messages that distinguish the sexes that teachers send to students are reinforced by the traditional texts available in elementary schools. Besides the academic subjects of their school's formal courses, the students also learn a set of values and expectations of a hidden curriculum, whose importance is even greater Even a book in the easy-to-read section of the library might teach the children that:” Boys eat, girls cook; boys invent things, girls use what boys invent; boys build houses, girls keep house" (Best 1983:62). Books also teach young children that the re’re things only boys can do and things only girls can do. Some publishers of children’s reading materials have kindly made a serious effort in recent years to eliminate gender stereotyping from these texts. There is evidence that the reading materials now available have been greatly improved in the matter of gender distinguishing, although there are still unfairness’s, such as the types of roles assigned to males and females in the stories, for example girls need to be rescued more than boys and boys are more adventurous than girls. The importance of using nonsexist text materials is underlined by the evidence which indicates that children do learn their hidden lessons quite well.Entering teenagers, children are still differently educated in secondary schools. At this age, both young men and women feel that they need to be popular with their classmates and schoolmates, but the methods and tactics of their success at this purpose are somewhat different. For teenage boys, the most important source of popularity is athletic excellence. A teenage boy tends to measure himself by what he can physically surpass others of his age, and "how he stacks up determines to a great extent his social acceptance by others and his own self-esteem" It is the one who is physically excellent who is regarded as a leader, by his peers as well as by teachers and parents. And a variety of stereotypically masculine skills and values are acquired via the pursuit of athletic gloriousness: aggression, endurance, self-confidence, teamwork, and so on. On the contrary, teenage girls are taught that to beic is "unfeminine" and schools enlarge this message with less funding for girls' sports items. Physical attractions and athletic ability are not their chief sources of popularity. Ins tead, what is most important to a teenage girl is having a boyfriend.” A girl may be bright, friendly, competent, and attractive, but without a boyfriend she lacks social validation of these positive attributes. It is as though being selected by a boy tells others that a girl is worthwhile"Teenage boys and girls are also expected to formulate their career goals in this part of life, though they differ with each other to a great extent. The career aspirations of teenage girl appear to be significantly lower than those of teenage boys with similar backgrounds and abilities. Even though they can see the majority of adult women around them working full-time outside the home, they continue to expect a rather traditional career for themselves. A number of studies have shown that while many high schools girls today express a preference for an egalitarian division of labor in the household, most still favor an arrangement in which the husband is the primary breadwinnerand the wife is responsible for housework and childcare, especially when there are young children at home . These traditional expectations are reflected in the homework girls are most often assigned in preparation for their future jobs. Those not planning to attend college are typically enrolled in sex-typed vocational training courses, such as home economics, cosmetology, and secretarial programs that prepare them to be homemakers or to take jobs with salaries far lower than the skilled trades that those in advanced mathematics and science that will prepare them to pursue further study for the most highly paid and prestigious professionsEducational bias exists even in colleges and graduate schools. "What's your major" is frequently asked among college students, and the responses reveal the fact that men and women continue to be concentrated in very different fields of study, especially in areas of engineering and physics, although there has been a rise in some areas of study whose students used to be mostly male . Male students tend to pursue degrees in engineering, architecture, the physical and natural sciences, computer science, and business, while women are heavily concentrated in nursing, home economics, library science, education, the social sciences, and humanities. However, within the latter two areas, political science, criminology, philosophy, and theology have a higher percentage of male than female degree recipients. This imbalance persists and worsens at the graduate level that the graduate degrees of men and women tend to be concentrated in different fields Why there is such a difference in career aspirations between teenage boys and girls may be because of the widespread belief that girls are not as intellectually gifted as boys and, therefore, cannot do as well as boys in academic work. Research reveals that both parents and teachers tend to attribute boys' academic achievements to intellectual prowess and to explain their failures in terms of factors such as "bad luck” but they do just the opposite for girls: if they are successful, they were lucky or thetas itself was easy; if they do poorly, it is because they are not smart (beaux 1976).Consequently, teachers appear to offer male students more encouragement, to publicly praise their scholastic abilities, and to be friendlier toward them than they are toward female students.Text materials and school staff may also influence girls’ ambitions. Sexstereotyping in mathematic materials and foreign language texts and in other higher educational materials has been proved to exist. At the same time, high school guidance counselors may lead male and female students into different fields and activities. Sex stereotyping is also common among counselors and that they often exclude female students from certain college preparation courses, especially in mathematics and the sciences. Finally, although elementary school girls can at least identify with their teachers, whom we have noted are almost all women, this becomes more difficult in senior high school where 53 percent of teachers are men . High school students are especially likely to have a male teacher for their math courses and science courses.3.2.2 Influences from MediaMass media also has a wide influence on people's views about gender by reinforcing the traditional image of women enduring humiliation, attending to husband and children, and resigning themselves to unreasonable treatment. Every day people spend a lot of time watching TV and reading newspaper and few people escape exposure to the vivid and recurrent patterns of images, information and values in the world of mass media.In films and TV series, gentle, kindhearted and considerate females are highly valued. What's more, most often women are presented in terms of relationships, such as lover, wife, or mother. In。
英语语言中的性别歧视现象与发展变化
别歧视语言 的确有 了变化 。 性别歧视现象
一
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（ ） 一 表现在使用范 围方面的性别歧视 １ ． 中某些 表示 职业的名词只用 阳性形式如 ｆｅ ｎ 英文 ｉ ｍａ ， ｒ ｆｈ Ｈ ａ ．ｍｉ ｍ ｎ ｅｔｅｍ ｎ等 ， ｉ ｅ Ｉｎ ｌ ａ ，ｗ ａｈｒ ａ ｓ ｌ ｋ 而且 ｆ ｅａ ｅ（ ｏ ｆｔ ｒ 祖先 ） ｒ ｈ 、
运动。陆续 出现 了许 多改 革和消除语言性别歧视 的方案 ， 性
在现代英 、 中专指 “ 语 妓女 ”同时我们发 现某些 用于 比喻男 性 的名词词 义有 了扬升 ， 例如 ： ｘ原指 “ ｆ ｏ 狡猾 之人 ”但 其背 ， 后却暗含 “ 智多谋 ” 足 之意 ；ｏ 原来俚 语 中比喻 “ ｗｆ 追逐 的色
Ｏ ｈ，Ｉ ｍｕ ｔ ｏ ｎ ｗ，ｏ ｅ ｍｕ ｔｂ ｈ ｖ ｉｅ ａ ｇ ｎ ｌ — ｓ ，ｙ ｕ ｋ ｏ ｎ ｓ ｅａｅｌ ｅ ｔ ｋ ｅ
ｍｎ（ ， ａ ． 啊 你晓得 ， 我必须如此。做人 须有君子风度 ） （ ） 现在语义结构 中的性别歧视 二 体 １ ． 通过语言 的研究 ， 我们发 现某 些无标记名词 的词义发 生贬降 ， 且专用来指女性 。例如 ： ｅ ｃ ｗ ｎｈ原指 “ 少女” “ 、乡村姑
方面均有体现 。２ ０世纪 ７ ０年代初 ， 女权运动在西方兴起 ， 受 娘 ”在 中古英语 中也被用来指“ ， 男孩 ” 而如今 上“ ， 荡妇 之意 ， ｈｒ 原意为 “ 人” 情 是个通 性词 ， 不含贬 义 ， 而 其影响 ， 英语世界掀起 了一场 旨在 消除眭别歧视 的文字改革 不再指男性 。ｗ ｏｅ
万方数据三体现在表达方式中的性别歧视协会澳大利亚广播委员会及全国师范理事会等都纷纷起在社会交际中人们往往对女性用t夫小孩或家庭的标记如在英语里人们称女性为my的性别歧视英语中的性别歧视语研究
英语语言中性别歧视及其变化
英语语言中地性别歧视及其变化收藏本文章引言语言是现实世界地一面镜子,现实世界地种种现象,美丑好坏,尽现其中.在一向声称人生而平等地英语国家里,其实也有诸多地不平等.男女不平等即是其中之一,而这种不平等也被反映在语言这面镜子里.然而,妇女地社会地位感比男子敏锐,英国语言学家彼得.特鲁杰说：“在我们地社会中,妇女地地位不如男子那样牢靠,而且通常比男子低一些.因此,对她们来说,可能更加需要在语言上和别地方面来表明和保障她们地社会地位.”上世纪70年代初,女权运动在西方兴起,受其影响,英语世界掀起了一场旨在消除性别歧视地文字改革运动,这方面尤以美国为甚.本文拟谈谈反映在英语语言中地性别歧视现象.出现原因及其发展变化．一英语语言中地性别歧视现象首先我们来了解一下什么是性别歧视（sexism）.根据Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary,其定义是：prejudice or discrimination based on sex ; esp: discrimination against women , 基于性别地偏见或歧视,尤其是对妇女地歧视.«朗曼英语词典»对“性别歧视”地解释是：“以性别为基础地歧视,尤其是男性对女性地偏见.”«牛津字典»给“性别歧视”所下地定义是：“性别偏见或歧视(尤其对女性).”因此,在语言习惯上,“性别歧视”通常是指语言对女性地歧视,那么,英语语言是怎样歧视女性地呢？1.以男性语言为规范,而女性语言只是一种附属或变体.1.1在词汇上地表现a) “当中最明显地例子就是”man”一词,既有“男子“地意思,又表示”人类”.泛指所有地人,而woman仅是“女子”地意思.如：Man cannot live by bread alone.(人不能单靠面包生活).The man in the street(普通人,一般人).一个语言学家曾抱怨说：假如一个女人从船上掉入水中,呼叫地是：“MAN,OVERBROAD.”若她被闯了祸逃走地司机撞死控告词是MANSLAUGHTER.倘若在工作中受伤,她地医疗费称作WORKMAN’S COMPENSATION.但是如果她来到一个写着man only ！地地方.她立刻明白整个告戒不是针对动物或植物或无生命之物而写地,而是冲着她来地.”[1][P22-23]b)不知道所指之人地具体性别时,he ,his 和him 经常用来泛指全人类,（这是英语中地一条规则）, 如 Every student has to make up his own mind. He who laughs last laughs best.男主女从,以逻辑性为中心,女性便居于从属地位.就词汇而言,如以—er, --or 结尾地名词实则是个中性词,但人们将之看作男性名词,所以如是女性则在前面加woman,如：a woman doctor. Man 一词不但可以指男人,成年男人,而且作为“人类地总称”,而woman 则不然.许多职业名词常以man 作为后缀,尽管干这工作地有许多女性.he 和she 地单数中性人称代词用he 表示,因而我们常见Nobodyin the class can be proud of his English.这类说法,尽管教室中有男有女.1． 2 称谓上地表现a) “把女性当做男性地附属品,而这一观点充分体现在英语称谓词当中.Mr. 是对一位男士地尊称, Mrs.则是一位男子地太太地尊称,女性地称谓也就依附于男性了,如: 丈夫是John Smith 具有博士学衔,于是可以称这对夫妇为Dr. and Mrs. John Smith.假如丈夫没有学衔或职称,那只能称为Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. 假如妻子是博士,丈夫没有学衔或职称,妻子地名字叫Marry随夫姓后只能称呼为Marry Smith. Miss是用来称呼未婚女性地称呼.Mr.却既可以称呼未婚男性,也可以称呼已婚地男性.女性从称谓马上就可以识别出婚姻状况,而对于男性却无从知晓,而且女性结婚后改随夫姓,这样自己地姓就完全被遗忘了.b) 许多职业名称如doctor,professor,engineer,等对男女都适应,可是人们习惯于把他们跟男性联系在一起.而对于女性则成了一个标志项,往往要加上woman,lady,或female等词加以限定.如：female judge, lady doctor, woman lawyer. 这些从一个侧面反映出旧社会中地位较高地职业为男子所垄断,相反地,teacher, nurse , secretary, model 等人们一般认为是女性,如为男性时前面要加上male 或是man.如male nurse, man teacher. 这些除了历史现实情况有关,也可以说是一种社会偏见.”[2][P85-86]2.女性语言语意贬低地表现“英语中,与女性有关地词语地贬化大大多于与男性相关地词语.曾有人做过统计,与prostitute意思接近地词大约有500多个,而与whole-monger(嫖客)意思相近地词只有65个.此外这一点还表现在对于与女性相关地词语地含义地贬化上.在英语中,任何词只要与女性有关,其意思就要变质,这个词就会成为贬义词.同一个词用与男性和女性身上可以引起极为不同地联想,甚至是有完全不同地意思.用与男性常常带有褒扬或赞美之意,而用于女性常常带有贬低或轻蔑地意思.例如,professional一词,用在男性身上和女性身上可能会引起地联想却大相径庭.He is a professional.让人联想起体面地职业,如律师,医生等,而She is a professional很多英语国家地人会理解为She is a prostitute.很多女性词原来和与其相对应地男性词具有同等地地位,可以在相同地状况下和条件下使用,但是后来只有女性词带上了否定地色彩.用于男性地词往往是褒扬地.而用于女性时则带有贬意.如governor和governess这一组词,Governor其含义是“总督”“州长”等,governess则指“家庭教师”甚至“情妇”.Master 指地是“主人”“大师”等,而mistress指地是“情妇”之意.再如：call boy 指地是旅馆地男服务员,而call girl指地是通过电话联系召唤地妓女,词义截然不同.”[3][P121-122]3.语言性别定势“修饰同样性格特征地形容词也有男女有别,并且带有明显地褒贬色彩.语言搭配可以明显地说明语言地性别定势.男性是包括勇敢.安全.成就等一切高尚品质地象征,而女性则是柔弱.胆怯地象征,是摆设于饭桌之上令人欣赏地花瓶而已.英语中有manly courage, masculine charm,强有力地男人是charismatic(具有超凡魅力地).而强有力地女人是domineering(盛气凌人地)；对诙谐.幽默地男人用witty(聪明机智地),对女人则用sarcastic(尖刻.好挖苦地)；男人勃然大怒称为outraged(义愤填膺地)；女人却称作hysterical(歇斯底里地)；称好奇地男子curious(有求知欲望地);对女人则称nosy(多管闲事地).”[4][P48]总之,女性词总是和不愉快地事物相联系,女性词地变化意义真是随处可见.4．男女先后地语序“表示男女两性地词汇排列地顺序上,除了英语中客套语“Ladies and Gentlemen“以外,其他阴阳称呼语地并列无一例外地遵循阳性在前,阴性在后地规则.语言地性别歧视现象也就一目了然,如：Mr. And Mrs. Smith (史密斯夫妇) ；husband and wife (夫妻) ；Kind and Queen (国王和王后) ；father and mother (父母) ；brothers and sisters (兄弟姐妹) ,等等.”[5]P23-24]5在英语谚语中地表现5．1 地位.“如A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.(稻草男儿抵得上金玉女子).If husband be not at home, there is nobody.(丈夫不在家,等于说没人).Man, woman, and devil are three degrees of comparison.(男人.女人和魔鬼三个等级分贵贱).这些大男子主义色彩地谚语集中反映了妇女受欺凌.歧视地社会地位.”5．2 婚嫁.“A fair face is half portion(姿色颜,嫁妆半).Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can(娶妻不忙,嫁女宜速).It is harder to marry a daughter well than to bring her up well.(养女易,嫁女难).反映重男轻女地思想和把女性商品化地倾向.”5．3 言行.“如Words are women, deeds are men.(女子巧舌,男儿实干).Husbands are in heaven whose wives scold not. (老婆不唠叨,丈夫就像在天堂里).Many women, many words; Many geese, many turds (鹅地屎多,女人地话多).女人常常被拿来与动物相提并论,多话地行为男女都有,根据生理科研表明,女子大脑中语言中心地溶积比男子大地多,女性喜欢与人交流,这算不上是女人地缺点.”5．4 才智.“Long hair, short wit. Woman have long hair and short brains(女人头发长,见识短).When an ass climbs a ladder, we may find wisdom in women. (毛驴登梯时,女人才有才智).男人一方面鼓吹“女子无才便是德”,而当女子循规蹈矩之后 ,又骂女人头发长见识短.”5．5 品德.“fair woman without virtue is like palled wine.(美女无德,淡酒一杯).Virtue is faire far than beauty.(美德远胜美貌).”5．6 特征.“oman is made to weep.(女子生性好哭). Frailty, thy name is women(弱者,你地名字是女人).”[6][P71-72]二.性别歧视地原因语言是文化地一部分,并对文化起着重要地作用,语言又受文化地影响,反映文化.反映一个民族地历史特征.语言性别歧视是社会性别歧视地真实再现,其产生地根源并不在语言本身,而由于历史文化.宗教心理.社会角色和地位等方面地不平等,才造成语言地性别歧视.具体而言,主要有以下方面地因素.1．历史背景：“性别歧视作为一种社会现象是有其历史根源.人类社会早期,男女本是平等地.在母系氏族社会中,由于母系血统在社会群体中地重要性,女性居社会统治地位.妇女在原始社会物质生产中地重要作用,是其受到社会尊重地经济基础.随着生产力地发展和私有制地出现,男性在经济上地地位地逐渐上升,母系氏族制被父系氏族制取代.从此男性对女性地歧视成为延续千年地社会问题.男子是社会地主宰,女人只是男子地附属品,她地价值局限于生殖.进而对妇女抱有偏见,认为妇女智力低下.大脑较小.缺乏天赋.简单幼稚.社会还用道德和法律等手段,维护和支持歧视妇女地社会现象.”2．文化意识地影响：“在西方地文化中,《圣经》地地位举足轻重,其蕴涵地价值观念有着广泛地社会基础.在进化论提出之前,关于人地起源之说早已流传千年.上帝是万物地创造者.在宣传基督教地艺术画面上,上帝地形象是男性地,拯救世界地又是他地儿子基督.上帝首先创造了亚当,然后为了给他一个伴侣,才取其一根肋骨造了夏娃.因而女性理所当然地成为男性地附庸或派生物.因为她是为男性而造地.这个世界地主宰是男性.而且,夏娃禁不住撒旦地诱惑而偷吃了禁果.女性就与头脑简单.非理性.背叛.欺骗.邪恶.诱惑等贬义词密切相连.”[7][P306]3．社会角色和地位：千百年来,男性和女性在家庭中和社会中扮演着不同地传统角色：男主外,女主内.社会分工地不同使男性在社会生活中占主导地位.男性身强力壮,被看成是主宰一切,女性则被看做是软弱无力地依附者,活动范围仅限于家庭,做家务和养孩子.男性在社会体制占据着支配地地位,代表着权利；女性则处于权势地从属地位,仅仅是点缀和装饰.女性结婚后就得冠于夫性.如前面所提到地当妇女介入某些行业时,就需要特别加上标识.不加标识,就没有属于自己地独立身份.加上了,又突出了性别地区别.从而形成新地潜意识地不平等地标识.三.语言性别歧视地发展和变化在历史上,除去那些在定义专指女性地词（例如mother, actress ）以及那些传统上表示女性职业地词（例如nurse, secretary）之外,英语把每个人都看作male,不论是普通人（man in street）还是超人（superman）,不论是外行人（layman）还是唯唯诺诺地人（yes-man）也就是说除非特别说明之外,所有地人,不论是医生还是教授,不论是总统还是乞丐,都是男人,man与mankind代表所有地人；he可以用来指男性,也指女性.因为英美都是重视男性（male-oriented）地社会.按照圣经上所说地亚当是上帝造地第一个男人,而夏娃是用亚当地肋条造第一个女人,这就是从宗教上把男人看成了主要地,而女人成了低等或第二等地,成了附属品,随之,第一批“亚当肋条词”（Adam’s-rib words）也就造出来了,例如female, woman.等.20世纪70年代初,在英国出版地Britannica junior encyclopedia 把men解释为the highest form of life on earth .认为Man must invent most of his behavior .可以看出,用men 来代替所有地人,故意使woman 一词不出现.英语中与male 有关地词manly, virile, masculine,常含有褒义.可以表示力量.勇气.坦诚.雄浑.气概,例如manly determination to face what comes ,a masculine love of sports ,a virile literary style 等.而与female有关地词却往往是贬义地,例如feminine wiles, womanish tears ,a womanl-like lack of promptness等还有一些词本来是无褒贬意之分地,但用与男性便有褒义,用与女性便产生贬义地,例如：Mike is easy. (迈克平易近人).Mary is easy(玛丽水性扬花).Edward is fast (爱得华干活麻利).Alice is fast. (艾丽丝生性放荡).这显然是性别歧视.性别歧视不是语言本身地问题,而是社会上地语言使用造成地.在英语国家,经常用女性地名字来命名一些反面地或骇人地事物,例如把飓风或龙卷风地名字女性化.英语语言中地性别歧视及其变化(一)2009-10-30 10:14:32 来源: 作者: 【大中小】浏览:110次评论:0条引言语言是现实世界地一面镜子,现实世界地种种现象,美丑好坏,尽现其中.在一向声称人生而平等地英语国家里,其实也有诸多地不平等.男女不平等即是其中之一,而这种不平等也被反映在语言这面镜子里.然而,妇女地社会地位感比男子敏锐,英国语言学家彼得.特鲁杰说：“在我们地社会中,妇女地地位不如男子那样牢靠,而且通常比男子低一些.因此,对她们来说,可能更加需要在语言上和别地方面来表明和保障她们地社会地位.”上世纪70年代初,女权运动在西方兴起,受其影响 ,英语世界掀起了一场旨在消除性别歧视地文字改革运动,这方面尤以美国为甚.本文拟谈谈反映在英语语言中地性别歧视现象.出现原因及其发展变化．一英语语言中地性别歧视现象首先我们来了解一下什么是性别歧视（sexism）.根据Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary,其定义是：prejudice or discrimination based on sex ; esp: discrimination against women , 基于性别地偏见或歧视,尤其是对妇女地歧视.«朗曼英语词典»对“性别歧视”地解释是：“以性别为基础地歧视,尤其是男性对女性地偏见.”«牛津字典»给“性别歧视”所下地定义是：“性别偏见或歧视(尤其对女性).”因此,在语言习惯上,“性别歧视”通常是指语言对女性地歧视,那么,英语语言是怎样歧视女性地呢？1.以男性语言为规范,而女性语言只是一种附属或变体.1.1在词汇上地表现a) “当中最明显地例子就是”man”一词,既有“男子“地意思,又表示”人类”.泛指所有地人,而woman仅是“女子”地意思.如：Man cannot live by breadalone.(人不能单靠面包生活). The man in the street(普通人,一般人).一个语言学家曾抱怨说：假如一个女人从船上掉入水中,呼叫地是：“MAN,OVERBROAD.”若她被闯了祸逃走地司机撞死控告词是MANSLAUGHTER.倘若在工作中受伤,她地医疗费称作WORKMAN’S COMPENSATION.但是如果她来到一个写着man only ！地地方.她立刻明白整个告戒不是针对动物或植物或无生命之物而写地,而是冲着她来地.”[1][P22-23]b)不知道所指之人地具体性别时,he ,his 和 him 经常用来泛指全人类,（这是英语中地一条规则）, 如 Every student has to make up his own mind. He who laughs last laughs best.男主女从,以逻辑性为中心,女性便居于从属地位.就词汇而言,如以—er, --or 结尾地名词实则是个中性词,但人们将之看作男性名词,所以如是女性则在前面加woman,如：a woman doctor. Man 一词不但可以指男人,成年男人,而且作为“人类地总称”,而woman 则不然.许多职业名词常以man 作为后缀,尽管干这工作地有许多女性.he 和she 地单数中性人称代词用he 表示,因而我们常见Nobody in the class can be proud of his English.这类说法,尽管教室中有男有女.1． 2 称谓上地表现a) “把女性当做男性地附属品,而这一观点充分体现在英语称谓词当中.Mr. 是对一位男士地尊称, Mrs.则是一位男子地太太地尊称,女性地称谓也就依附于男性了,如: 丈夫是John Smith 具有博士学衔,于是可以称这对夫妇为Dr. andMrs. John Smith.假如丈夫没有学衔或职称,那只能称为Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. 假如妻子是博士,丈夫没有学衔或职称,妻子地名字叫Marry随夫姓后只能称呼为Marry Smith. Miss是用来称呼未婚女性地称呼.Mr.却既可以称呼未婚男性,也可以称呼已婚地男性.女性从称谓马上就可以识别出婚姻状况,而对于男性却无从知晓,而且女性结婚后改随夫姓,这样自己地姓就完全被遗忘了.b) 许多职业名称如doctor,professor,engineer,等对男女都适应,可是人们习惯于把他们跟男性联系在一起.而对于女性则成了一个标志项,往往要加上woman,lady,或female等词加以限定.如：female judge, lady doctor, woman lawyer. 这些从一个侧面反映出旧社会中地位较高地职业为男子所垄断,相反地,teacher, nurse , secretary, model 等人们一般认为是女性,如为男性时前面要加上male 或是man.如male nurse, man teacher. 这些除了历史现实情况有关,也可以说是一种社会偏见.”[2][P85-86]2.女性语言语意贬低地表现“英语中,与女性有关地词语地贬化大大多于与男性相关地词语.曾有人做过统计,与prostitute意思接近地词大约有500多个,而与whole-monger(嫖客)意思相近地词只有65个.此外这一点还表现在对于与女性相关地词语地含义地贬化上.在英语中,任何词只要与女性有关,其意思就要变质,这个词就会成为贬义词.同一个词用与男性和女性身上可以引起极为不同地联想,甚至是有完全不同地意思.用与男性常常带有褒扬或赞美之意,而用于女性常常带有贬低或轻蔑地意思.例如,professional一词,用在男性身上和女性身上可能会引起地联想却大相径庭.He is a professional.让人联想起体面地职业,如律师,医生等,而She is a professional 很多英语国家地人会理解为She is a prostitute.很多女性词原来和与其相对应地男性词具有同等地地位,可以在相同地状况下和条件下使用,但是后来只有女性词带上了否定地色彩.用于男性地词往往是褒扬地.而用于女性时则带有贬意.如governor和governess这一组词,Governor其含义是“总督”“州长”等,governess则指“家庭教师”甚至“情妇”.Master 指地是“主人”“大师”等,而mistress指地是“情妇”之意.再如：call boy 指地是旅馆地男服务员,而call girl指地是通过电话联系召唤地妓女,词义截然不同.”[3][P121-122]3.语言性别定势“修饰同样性格特征地形容词也有男女有别,并且带有明显地褒贬色彩.语言搭配可以明显地说明语言地性别定势.男性是包括勇敢.安全.成就等一切高尚品质地象征,而女性则是柔弱.胆怯地象征,是摆设于饭桌之上令人欣赏地花瓶而已.英语中有manly courage, masculine charm,强有力地男人是charismatic(具有超凡魅力地).而强有力地女人是domineering(盛气凌人地)；对诙谐.幽默地男人用witty(聪明机智地),对女人则用sarcastic(尖刻.好挖苦地)；男人勃然大怒称为outraged(义愤填膺地)；女人却称作hysterical(歇斯底里地)；称好奇地男子curious(有求知欲望地);对女人则称nosy(多管闲事地).”[4][P48]总之,女性词总是和不愉快地事物相联系,女性词地变化意义真是随处可见.4．男女先后地语序“表示男女两性地词汇排列地顺序上,除了英语中客套语“Ladies and Gentlemen“以外,其他阴阳称呼语地并列无一例外地遵循阳性在前,阴性在后地规则.语言地性别歧视现象也就一目了然,如：Mr. And Mrs. Smith (史密斯夫妇) ；husband and wife (夫妻) ；Kind and Queen (国王和王后) ；father and mother (父母) ；brothers and sisters (兄弟姐妹) ,等等.”[5]P23-24]5在英语谚语中地表现5．1 地位.“如A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.(稻草男儿抵得上金玉女子).If husband be not at home, there is nobody.(丈夫不在家,等于说没人).Man, woman, and devil arethree degrees of comparison.(男人.女人和魔鬼三个等级分贵贱).这些大男子主义色彩地谚语集中反映了妇女受欺凌.歧视地社会地位.”5．2 婚嫁.“A fair face is half portion(姿色颜,嫁妆半).Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can(娶妻不忙,嫁女宜速).It is harder to marry a daughter well than to bring her up well.(养女易,嫁女难).反映重男轻女地思想和把女性商品化地倾向.”5．3 言行.“如Words are women, deeds are men.(女子巧舌,男儿实干).Husbands are in heaven whose wives scold not. (老婆不唠叨,丈夫就像在天堂里).Many women, many words; Many geese, many turds (鹅地屎多,女人地话多).女人常常被拿来与动物相提并论,多话地行为男女都有,根据生理科研表明,女子大脑中语言中心地溶积比男子大地多,女性喜欢与人交流,这算不上是女人地缺点.”5．4 才智.“Long hair, short wit. Woman have long hair and short brains(女人头发长,见识短).When an ass climbs a ladder, we may find wisdom in women. (毛驴登梯时,女人才有才智).男人一方面鼓吹“女子无才便是德”,而当女子循规蹈矩之后 ,又骂女人头发长见识短.”5．5 品德.“ fair woman without virtue is like palled wine.(美女无德,淡酒一杯).Virtue is faire far than beauty.(美德远胜美貌).”5．6 特征.“oman is made to weep.(女子生性好哭). Frailty, thy name is women(弱者,你地名字是女人).”[6][P71-72]二.性别歧视地原因语言是文化地一部分,并对文化起着重要地作用,语言又受文化地影响,反映文化.反映一个民族地历史特征.语言性别歧视是社会性别歧视地真实再现,其产生地根源并不在语言本身,而由于历史文化.宗教心理.社会角色和地位等方面地不平等,才造成语言地性别歧视.具体而言,主要有以下方面地因素.1．历史背景：“性别歧视作为一种社会现象是有其历史根源.人类社会早期,男女本是平等地.在母系氏族社会中,由于母系血统在社会群体中地重要性,女性居社会统治地位.妇女在原始社会物质生产中地重要作用,是其受到社会尊重地经济基础.随着生产力地发展和私有制地出现,男性在经济上地地位地逐渐上升,母系氏族制被父系氏族制取代.从此男性对女性地歧视成为延续千年地社会问题 .男子是社会地主宰,女人只是男子地附属品,她地价值局限于生殖.进而对妇女抱有偏见,认为妇女智力低下.大脑较小.缺乏天赋.简单幼稚.社会还用道德和法律等手段,维护和支持歧视妇女地社会现象.”英语语言中地性别歧视及其变化(二)2009-10-30 10:14:32 来源: 作者: 【大中小】浏览:109次评论:0条2．文化意识地影响：“在西方地文化中,《圣经》地地位举足轻重,其蕴涵地价值观念有着广泛地社会基础.在进化论提出之前,关于人地起源之说早已流传千年.上帝是万物地创造者.在宣传基督教地艺术画面上,上帝地形象是男性地,拯救世界地又是他地儿子基督.上帝首先创造了亚当,然后为了给他一个伴侣,才取其一根肋骨造了夏娃.因而女性理所当然地成为男性地附庸或派生物.因为她是为男性而造地.这个世界地主宰是男性.而且,夏娃禁不住撒旦地诱惑而偷吃了禁果.女性就与头脑简单.非理性.背叛.欺骗.邪恶.诱惑等贬义词密切相连.”[7][P306]3．社会角色和地位：千百年来,男性和女性在家庭中和社会中扮演着不同地传统角色：男主外,女主内.社会分工地不同使男性在社会生活中占主导地位.男性身强力壮,被看成是主宰一切,女性则被看做是软弱无力地依附者,活动范围仅限于家庭,做家务和养孩子.男性在社会体制占据着支配地地位,代表着权利；女性则处于权势地从属地位,仅仅是点缀和装饰.女性结婚后就得冠于夫性.如前面所提到地当妇女介入某些行业时,就需要特别加上标识.不加标识,就没有属于自己地独立身份.加上了,又突出了性别。
试论英语中的性别歧视现象
而如果我们知道一位女性还未婚， 则用不同的称谓 Ｍｉ 。 ｓ 也就是说， ｓ 对于男性来说，从称呼中我们看不出其婚姻状况，但女性的称谓却 语言与性别的关系是社会语言学的一个重要研究方向， ０世 目了然，这一点本身就说明了男女性称谓反映出其在社会上的不 从２ 纪６ ０年代开始，国内外学者从不同角度对语言中的性别差异进行 平等状况，男性可以以统一的称呼保留一定的隐私，但女性就必须 了系统科学的研究，性别语言差异已成为社会语言学研究的一项重 完全袒露自己的婚姻状况。同时，我们也看到 Ｍｒ ． 是对一位男子的 要内容。２ Ｏ世纪 ７ Ｏ年代中期以来，社会语言学中的性别歧视成为 尊称，而 Ｍｒ则是对一位男子的妻子的尊称，女人离不开男人，她 ｓ ． 许多人关注的对象。这里将主要探讨英语中的性别歧视。 们不过是男性的附席，这同样表明在社会中对于男性的尊重远胜于 英语 的性别歧视 女性。 英语中充斥着性别歧视语，虽然近年来也有人对于性别歧视也 另外，大部分表示男女 的词语以男先女后的顺序排列 ，如 ｕ ｂ ｎ ｎ ｆ ｏ ｓ ｉ ， Ｏ ａ ｇ ｔｒ ｒ ｔｅ ｉ ｒ ｅ ａ ｌ ｎ ｎ ｔ 有对男性的语言歧视现象展开过讨论，但我们不得不承认对于女性 ｈ ｓ ａ ｄａ ｄｗｉ ，ｂ ｙ ｎｄｇｒｓ Ｓ Ｄａ ｄｄ ｕ ｈ ｅ ，ｂ ｏｈ ｒａ ｄｓｓｅ ， 的性别歧视更为典型和普遍。这里我们以英语为例，分三点更为具 ｆ ｈｒ ｎ ｏ ｅ ａ ｅａｄ ｔ ｒ ｔ ｍ ｈ 。如果我们把这些词的顺序颠倒过来，就不符合英 体地来谈性别歧视在社会中的表现。 语的语言习惯了。 这说明男尊女卑是一种普遍的现象， 而特例“ａｉ ｌｅ ｄｓ １重男轻女。这一特点很典型地表现在取名以及称呼上。从取 ａｄｇｎｌ ｎ ． ｎ ｅｔｍｅ”仅是社交场合中常用的客套话，源于把女子看做弱 ｅ 名字上我们能很清楚地看到重男轻女的社会特点。在男权社会中， 者 ，需 要男子扶 助。 男性才是家庭的重心，血统、亲属关系和头衔都是以男性为主。家 ２忽视女性。男性词如通性名词 ｍａ 和人身代词 ｈ ． ｎ ｅ的范化是 庭中只有男孩才能以父亲的名字命名，如 Ｈ ｎ ｏｄ Ｉ ｅｒ Ｆｒ 沿用了父亲 忽视女性的存在的显著表现。 ｙ Ｉ 英语语言以男性为规范， 把男性的语 Ｈ ｎ ｏｄ ｅｒ Ｆ ｒ 的名字，而女性婚前随父姓，婚后随夫姓，似乎她们本 言作为标准和主体，处于统治地位的是男性的语言 （ ｙ 公共场合语） ， 身只不过是一个附属，并无男性那股在家庭以及社会当中有着无可 而女性语言 （ 私人场合语）只是一种附属和变体。英语本身没有性 替代的作用。 （ｅｄｒ ｇｎｅ）的区别，许多职业名称，如 ｄｃ ｒ 医生） ｐｏｅｓｒ 教 ｏｔ （ ｏ 、 ｒｆｓ （ ｏ 重男轻女的现象从称谓中也能看出端倪。我们都知道，在正式 授）等对男女都适用，可是人们却总习惯于将它们与男性联系在一
英语语言中的性别歧视现象及其发展趋势研究
英语语言中的性别歧视现象及其发展趋势研究□ 常美红 杨洪娟山东科技大学外国语学院[摘 要] 英语语言中性别歧视现象存在已久，受到人们的普遍关注。
本文从日常可见的语言现象中列举代表性范例，探讨英语语言中的性别歧视现象，探究其背后的原因，并推理英语语言中性别歧视现象的发展趋势。
[关键词] 性别歧视；性别语言；语义不平等；中性化[中图分类号] H0-0 [文献标识码]A [文章编号] 1009-6167（2021）01-0057-041 性别歧视的定义明确“性别歧视”在本文中的定义是行文的前提。
在《韦氏新大学词典》（1983）中，“性别歧视”一词意为“基于性别的偏见或歧视”。
因此，客观来说，“性别歧视”一词所指向的对象可以是男性、女性，甚至是跨性别者。
而本文中的“性别歧视”一词主要指对女性的歧视。
从男权社会形成之初，这种性别歧视的思想就已经初现雏形，至今也并没有随着人类社会的发展而消除。
以“女权运动”为主的一系列社会运动也在进一步提醒人们社会中性别歧视问题的严重性。
本文以英语语言中性别歧视现象为研究对象，探究其表现及发展趋势。
2 英语语言中的性别歧视现象在英语语言中，性别歧视既是一种个人的思维认知，又是一种社会现象，它在社会中主要表现为性别语言的差异。
本文从词法、句法、语义三个层面探讨英语中的性别歧视现象。
2.1 词法中的性别歧视词法是英语语言中能清楚体现出性别歧视现象的基础语言层次之一。
而在这一领域中，最能体现性别歧视问题的是词缀和复合词。
在英语词汇中，与女性有关的词往往通过给一个中性词或与男性有关的单词添加词缀而形成。
这一现象可以用语言学家Greenberg所提出的标记理论来解释（王发怀，1999）。
在多对分别代表男女两种性别的对应词中，绝大多数男性词没有标记，而女性词带有标记，而这里所说的“标记”大都是通过在男性词后添加后缀而产生的。
英文中与女性有关的常见后缀之一是“-ess”，通常出现在与职业相关的名词之后以提高此职业中的性别区分度。
英语语言中的性别歧视及其变化
英语语言中的性别歧视及其变化作者：白杨来源：《文存阅刊》2019年第01期摘要：受到传统观念的影响，性别歧视现象一直都存在着，不仅是在我国，西方国家也存在着男女不平等的现象。
在英语语言中，性别歧视语是性别歧视的一种表现形式，具体表现为对女性的轻视和侮辱性语言，比如在称谓语中，英语谚语中以及词义的不对称现象等。
本文对英语中性别语言歧视的表现形式进行深入研究，并对目前性别歧视语的更新与变化进行探讨。
关键词：英语；性别歧视语；表现形式随着人们思想观念的更新，女性在社会上的地位有了一定的提升，英语中的性别歧视问题有所改善。
不过因为语言的更新速度较慢的特点，性别歧视语在英语语言中仍然被广泛应用。
因此，需要对英语中的性别歧视语的表现形式和发展变化进行研究。
一、英语中性别语言歧视的表现形式（一）称谓语中的性别歧视通常情况下来看，基本上很多语言中在称谓这个方面都有程度不一的对女性歧视的情况，欧美文化中，这种问题也同样存在并且在称谓语上表现的极其明显。
在英语的表述中Mr.这个称谓语往往是用在姓氏之前，表示一种对男性的尊重，在称谓的时候不需要考虑称谓对象是否有婚配，即使结婚了仍然可以用Mr.来称呼。
但是在称呼女性的时候，我们都知道有两种称谓语分别是Miss和Mrs.，实际上这种区分称谓的方法是对女性婚否的一种区别，这无疑是一种不尊重的行为，同时，如果我们对一个女士用Mrs.进行称呼的时候，后面需要加的是其丈夫的姓氏，这是为了表现出女性与其丈夫之间的一种不必要的从属关系。
如果进行深入的分析，之所以会出现这种情况就是因为在过去的很长一段时间内，女性在社会中都是处于弱势地位，其丈夫的地位决定了女性的地位。
（二）性别歧视在日常用语以及谚语中的体现除了在男女称谓语上的区别之外，现在一些关于语言性别歧视的研究中还发现，语言对于男女阐述的表意功能来说，英语词汇的发展历程中存在着十分突出的偏重情况。
在英语的表达中，很多词汇都只有男性的用法却没有女性的用法，而另外一些特殊的词汇则只有女性的用法，在男性上却没有相应的用法，这种情况并不少见。
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论英语中的性别歧视及其发展变化在人类的历史长河中,性别歧视是一种普遍的社会现象,它不仅反映在社会生活的各个方面,更反映在语言上。
语言性别歧视是指人们在使用语言的过程中针对不同的性别产生的歧视和偏见,但它多数情况下是指针对女性而言。
随着女性解放运动的发展,英语中的性别歧视语有所减少,但是基于语言的滞后性,性别歧视仍大量存在于英语语言中。
本文多角度分析了英语语言中性别歧视的形成原因,揭示了词汇、语义和习语谚语等方面所存在的性别歧视,并探索了近几十年来英语中性别歧视的发展变化情况。
1英语中性别歧视存在的根源首先,从文化角度看,《圣经》中上帝在创造了亚当之后,又取其一根肋骨造就了夏娃。
受此神话中男女形象的影响,女性生来就被当作男性附属品的观念在西方人的思想中根深蒂固。
英语中因此常常表现出“以男性为本体,以女性为变体”。
其次,从社会角度看,随着社会生产力的发展,男子逐渐占据了社会主导地位,而女性却处于被支配地位,造成了以“男主外,女主内”为原则的两性不同分工。
因此,在英语中一些表示职业、地位较高的名词大都指男性。
而从心理角度看,在西方文化中,女性多以反面形象出现,神话中堕落、善变的女性形象导致后人在思想意识上的偏见,甚至形成女性邪恶的思维定势。
2性别歧视在英语中的表现2.1 从词形的标记角度看性别歧视英语词汇往往以男性为中心,表示男性的词汇一般是“无标记的”,可表示男女两性。
但是,女性的词汇通常是有标记的,只表示女性或女性的某一特征。
(1)基于男女不同的社会分工影响,英语中一些表示职业、地位较高的名词如mayor,doctor,president,governor等,人们在使用这些词的时候,大多数场合指的是男性,若要表明是女性,往往会在词前加上female/woman/lady标记出来。
(2)许多女性名词通常是在男性词汇后加上后缀,如:waiter / waitress,comedienne/ comedian,salesman/saleswoman等。
这些后缀-man,-ess,-tee等都是女性的标记,这些标记显示了女性是男性的附庸和例外。
(3)在称谓语中,对于女性的标记现象十分明显,如男人无论是否结婚都可以称之为“Mr.”而称呼女人时则需要明确区分其婚姻状况,如:Miss,Mrs.(4)在姓氏命名上,女性婚后随夫姓体现了女性在婚姻上的附属地位,如:Helen Smith 与 Jack Williams结婚后,她的名字随夫姓就变成了Helen Williams。
2.2 从语义角度看性别歧视(1)英语中阳性词汇通常被赋予“大”的含义,而与之对应的阴性词汇则往往带有“小”的含义,这主要表现在表示职业和地位的两性对应词中。
例如:master /mistress 分别指男/女主人,但是master还有大师、能手、院长等褒义,而mistress则有女情人、情妇等卑劣的含义。
call boy指“旅馆里的男服务员和剧院中招呼演员上台的人”,而call girl 则指的是“应召女郎”。
(2)同一个单词用在男女身上,含义却会有极大的不同,这也就是所谓的“褒阳贬阴”现象。
例如public man 指“担任公职”的人,而public woman则指“娼妓”;ag gressive一词若形容男性就是“值得尊敬的,有魅力的”,但在女性身上就可能指其“没有同情心,专横跋扈的”。
(3)比喻词汇暗含性别歧视。
英语中有不少把女性比作食物、动物和植物的比喻词汇,反映了男性轻视女性的态度。
如:cookie 喻义为“可爱的女人”; old hen指爱凑在一起说长道短的中年女性。
(4)以女性名字为某些灾难命名。
在美国,给人们带来灾害的飓风通常用女性名字命名,如席卷了新奥尔良的卡特琳娜(Katrina),袭击了北卡罗莱纳州海岸一带的奥菲莉娅(Ophelia),其它还有丽塔(Rita),威尔玛(Wilma)等,飓风用女性名字来命名,似乎是男性的一种恶作剧,但是其更是男性主导语言霸权的一种表现。
2.3 从习惯用语和谚语角度看性别歧视现象(1)He/man在英语中被广泛用于泛指,这种泛指现象是一种忽略和轻视女性的历史沉淀物,如:“As a man sows, so he shall reap.”(一分耕耘,一分收获),以及著名的《独立宣言》中“All men are created equal”等。
(2)男尊女卑的传统观念和歧视妇女的文化现象在文学作品里都有淋漓尽致的反映。
正如莎士比亚在其作品《哈姆雷特》中所写的一样,“Frailty, thy name is woman。
”(3)英语谚语中也有很多不胜枚举的例子表明女性的卑劣地位,如:No devil is so bad as she devil(最毒妇人心),意指女性的恶毒连魔鬼都望其项背。
分析以上习语或谚语中的性别歧视现象,我们可以得出如下结论:几乎人类所有的弱点都表现在女性身上,女性只配做男性的附庸。
在现实生活中也有这样的例证,如在西方国家的婚礼上,当教堂神父宣布新娘新郎成为合法夫妻时,会这样说道:“I pronounce you man and wife!”,由此可见,当男性步入婚姻时,仍是作为“man”的主导地位,而女性则由woman变为wife,从一个相对独立的社会身份转变为男人的附庸,处于从属地位。
3英语中性别歧视语的发展变化随着社会政治、经济、文化生活的发展,妇女意识逐渐觉醒,许多女权主义者要求同男子同工同酬,而不是区别对待,她们严厉指责了英语中所反映出的性别歧视现象和大男子主义思想,并要求改革或消除英语中的一些性别歧视语。
20世纪60年代,英语中的性别歧视现象引起了众多女权主义者和许多语言学家的关注,人们开始有意识地为减轻和消除语言中的性别歧视现象而努力。
70年代,女权运动的发展给现代英语用词在性别等方面带来了很大的变化。
到了80年代,词汇进一步发展,人们开始避免使用在形态上有性别标识的词。
在90年代的用词变化中,出现了性别中和的现象。
而在21世纪的今天,为追求词义上的对等,创造新词汇的现象越来越多。
以下就是对近年来英语性别歧视语变革的简单总结:3.1 从词形标记角度看其变化(1)女性词汇因加后缀而被标记出来的情况已经有所改观。
如今,在许多没有必要指明性别的情况下,人们尽量避免使用带有-ette, -ess等给人以“女子气”,“浅薄”感觉后缀的标记词汇,因此,许多诸如authoress, poetess等词在字典中已被注明old-fashioned,取而代之的是相对应的“中性”词author, poet等。
(2)在称谓语标记方面也有了一些变化。
例如,近年来,英语中出现了一个崭新的与Mr.相对应的缩写词称谓词Ms。
它通常指任何女性而又不标记婚姻状况。
1973年,美国政府印刷所正式接受“Ms”一词代替“Miss”和“Mrs”,作为和“Mr”对等的称谓,目前该词已被收入各大词典。
3.2 从语义角度看其变化(1)“褒阳贬阴”现象已经有所改善,原有男性或女性特征的词语仍被人们使用着,在词形上并无变化,但是已经不是男性或女性的专属词汇。
例如:mensch原义为“正派、诚实的小伙子”,以前仅用于形容男性,但是,she is a mensch现已用来表示有积极特征的女性。
(2)性别歧视的色彩也正逐渐淡化。
随着社会的发展,人们意识到了性别歧视语给女性带来的伤害,因此开始慎用性别歧视语,政府等相关部门也为此做出了一些努力。
例如,为了维护男女的平等权利,英国就业委员会以立法规定招工广告的中性化,要求慎用“salesman”,“store-man”等词,确保两性都有平等的就业机会。
(3)词汇中性化趋势明显,一些原本只能用“男性”词语描绘的对象出现了中性对等词并受到广泛使用。
如:当所指代的对象性别不确定时,人们尽量使用中性词或者阴阳并用。
1977年,美国劳工部将多达三千个职业名称作了修改,用“-person”等复合新词来代替带有男性标志的“-man”复合词,如:fireman-firefighter;chairman-chairperson;salesman-sa lesperson;(4)与阳性词对应的阴性词出现。
在现代英语中,除了有许多消除性别特征的中性词出现外,英语中也出现了与其相对应的阴性词,如businesswoman, policewoman, congresswoman等。
3.3 习惯用语及谚语上的变化(1)迫于女权主义者的压力以及现代社会文明的发展,一些贬低女性的言语习语已经逐渐淡出人们的视线,而且随着女性在社会生活的各个方面发挥着越来越重要的作用,英语中也逐渐出现了赞美、尊重、的谚语。
(2)以往人们习惯用man代指整个人类,而现在则多用human race/human beings/humankind/people这类词来泛指人类。
(3)在现代公函中皆用Dear Madams and sirs 或Dear Customer/Friend这些形式来代替旧时的Dear sir这一性别单一的称谓来称呼收件人。
3.4 创造新词汇当今英语语言中有时用womyn或wimmin这个词来取代woman, 在该词中再也找不到“man”的影子,足见女性对摆脱男性阴影的强烈渴望。
而且在英语国家语料库里检索wimmin一词,能找到17个相关词条。
随着男女社会分工上差异的逐渐减小,出现了househusband等词。
以上这些现象的出现从多角度反映了语言中性别歧视的发展变化,并从侧面反映了社会生活中性别歧视现象的发展变化。
4 结语随着社会的发展,英语中的性别歧视现象正在得到日趋改善,但是由于语言固有的滞后性以及传统观念的深刻影响,要想消除英语中的性别歧视还需要一个长期演变的过程。
本文通过揭示英语中的性别歧视的表现及其发展变化,希望有更多的人能注意到语言的变化。
除了日常的学习外,还应多学一些社会语言学知识,多阅读最新的英语国家报刊杂志等读物,了解性别歧视在语言中的体现以及当代英语中一些减轻性别歧视的方法,尽量避免因语言变化速度缓慢所造成的学习滞后性。