英语谚语中的性别歧视

摘要
语言与性别研究一直是语言学家关注的重要课题，国内外诸多的语言学家都对语言中性别歧视这一现象进行了深入研究。

语言是现实社会的一面镜子，能够真实地反映这种社会习俗及价值观念，而作为语言中的精华——谚语更是浓缩了文化的内涵。

本文以女权主义为视角，侧重于对性别歧视在英语谚语中的现象进行研究。

本文首先结合国内外学者对语言中性别歧视这一现象的研究，并结合这些研究探讨英语谚语中性别歧视现象，指出谚语与性别歧视的含义与特点；再从性格、言行、才智、婚嫁、地位等五个方面指出性别歧视在英语谚语中的具体表现；然后从历史、社会、文化三个不同的角度分析了性别歧视在英语谚语中形成的根源，通过对谚语的分析揭示语言中对女性的歧视，从而提高人们关于性别歧视的意识，帮助人们减少，继而消除在日常生活以及语言中的性别歧视现象；最后指出性别歧视在英语谚语中的发展趋势。

关键词：英语谚语；性别歧视；表现；根源；发展趋势
ABSTRACT
The language research in relation to gender has remained on the important topic in linguistics. Lots of linguists who show interest in this field have done many deep and profound researches. Language, a mirror of the real world, could give us a reflection of social customs and values. And the proverbs, the essence of language, are actually a concentration of culture. The thesis aims at specializing in sex discrimination reflected in the English proverbs from the feminist perspective.
Combined with some researches on sexism in English proverbs by scholars home and abroad, the thesis firstly points out the meanings and features of proverbs and sexism. And then the thesis explains the manifestations of sexism through a study of the proverbs applied in English from five aspects: character, words and deeds, ability and wisdom, marriage and social status. Then the thesis has also investigated into the causes of sexism from three aspects: history, culture, society. Through the research on English proverbs, the thesis tries to reveal the sex bias against women in language, and find out solutions to help people reduce and eliminate the sexism in the daily expressions. Finally, the thesis points out the development trend of sexism in English proverbs. Keywords：English proverbs; sexism; manifestation; causes; development trend
Contents
1. Introduction (1)
2. Definitions of proverb and sexism (4)
2.1 Definition of proverb (4)
2.1.1 Meaning of proverb (4)
2.1.2 Features of proverb (4)
2.2 Definition of sexism (6)
2.2.1 Meaning of sexism (6)
2.2.2 Features of sexism (6)
3. Manifestations of sexism in English proverbs (7)
3.1 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about character (7)
3.2 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about words and deeds (8)
3.3 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about ability and wisdom (8)
3.4 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about marriage (9)
3.5 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about social status (10)
4. Causes of sexism in the English proverbs (11)
4.1 Historical reasons (11)
4.2 Cultural origin (11)
4.3 Social factors (12)
5. Development trend of sexism in the English proverbs (14)
6. Conclusion (15)
Acknowledgements (16)
References (17)
1. Introduction
American linguist Edward Spair once said: “Language is a guide to social reality.”
[1]. Language, a mirror of the society, loyally reflects not only a nation’s history and culture, but also beliefs and biases. Language and gender is a popular issue in the area of sociolinguistics. Sex discrimination exists in English speaking communities. Therefore, we can find sexism here and there in English.
Denmark linguist O.JesPersen is the first one to study sexism from the angle of linguistics. In 1923, his book named Development and Structure of English had ever pointed out that English was the most masculine language all over the world. In 1960, as an interdisciplinary subject of linguistics and sociology, sociolinguistics formed and developed fast in USA. The d evelopment of West Women’s Liberation and Feminism studies as well as development of sociolinguistics promoted sexist language studies to a certain extent. Some scholars thought that a kind of new linguistics about equality between men and women appeared. The linguists, Lakoff, Trudgi, KZimmerman, West, Thonle, Henle and Bolinger taken as representatives in the period between 70s and 80s, did further studies on sexism and discussed the causes of sexism in language. In his article Language and Women’s Place, Lakoff pointed out that in the world expressed by the language, the male was in the center and the female’s image was incomplete [2]. Bolinger, in his book, said that this was a phenomenon of sexism in language. Some other scholars such as Lakoff, tried to use all scientific knowledge to describe linguistics.
D.Bolinger, published his books Aspects of Language in 1965 and Language: the Loaded Weapon in 1980, which provided some points for the study of sexism [3]. In 1973, koff, published his book Language and Women’s Place, which elaborated on women’ social place and sexism in language. From the end of 80s to 90s, linguists such as J.Holmes, J.Coates, D.Cameron, M.R.Key, did further studies on differences of sexist language. Their studies emphasized the forms of men and women’s terms.
In our country, the study on sexist language is very late, which began from the end of 70s or the beginning of 80s. With the development of Feminist movement, Chinese scholars gradually switch their study to that of sexism. A lot of articles are published on various periodicals, such as Wang Wenchang’s Chairman or Chairperson―American Women's Movement and Reform of Language. These scholars are the first ones to discuss the influences of sexism on language, especially on English from the
perspective of Western Feminist movement. In other words, they begin the study on differences of sexist language. Up to the end of 80s, compared with those studies of sexism in language in the western countries, Chinese scholars pay their attention to differences of sex. They observe and study differences of men and women’s term from the angle of intonation, tone and lexicon. Sun Rujian published his book Sex and Language[4] and Bai Jiehong published Sexist Language and Linguistics, which elaborated on the study on sexist language from the angle of social psychology and pragmatics [5]. Qin Xiubai discussed sexist language from the angle of history, society and culture, and provided a new angle of studying sexist language for us in her article published on Modern Foreign Languages [6]. Kong Qingcheng objectively analyzed a phenomenon of sexism existing both in English and Chinese in his article [7]. Zhuang Hecheng, a very famous linguist who published Sexism in English Lexicon, discussed sexism in English from the aspect of lexicon [8]. Chen Lin published her article Sexism in English Advertisement to put sexism into a different aspect to study its character. The field of these researches is broader than before, which makes other linguists grasp the relationship between language and sexism more accurately [9].
The proverb, a special form of language, is a kind of idiom. It is very popular among the people, and contains very deep implication in sentences. It is also a kind of folk literature. The proverb is human being’s crystal of wisdom, and embodiment of concise language. The proverb is always iconically co mpared to “clea r mirror of a nation”and “living fossil of language” by linguists. Among the researches of sexism in English proverbs, linguists mostly study the definition of sexism and proverb, sexism reflected in proverbs, its origin and tendency. In 2000, Xu Zhixng, Li Lifang and Li Liming wrote an essay Sexism in English Proverbs. They said that people put women at a very low position, and linked them with some bad habits [10]. For instance, they thought women were very stupid and loved to gossip. In their essay, they also talked about tendency of sexism in English language. Then A Probe into the Causes of Sexism in English Proverbs was written by Yang Qing, Yu Xiangyue in 2003. They put a lot of emphasis on the causes of sexism. Their paper probed into the causes of sexism from the three aspects: historical reasons, cultural origin and social factors. It was thought that the phenomenon indirectly reflected women’s social status in different periods of social development and had close relations with women’s status and its changes [11]. In 2005, Zhang Lin, Liu Wanqiu published an article Sex Discrimination in English Proverbs, which analyzed the phenomenon of sex discrimination in English proverbs in the five aspects of character, words and deeds, ability and wisdom, marriage
and social status; it also discussed the root of the phenomenon from the angle of social linguistics [12]. Rong Nannan, a postgraduate of Heilongjiang University, wrote a thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts entitled Sexism in Chinese and English Proverbs in 2007. The thesis aimed at specializing in sex discrimination reflected in both English and Chinese proverbs from the feminist perspective. The thesis probed into the phenomenon through a comparative study of the proverbs applied in both languages from different aspects [13].
This essay from one aspect—English proverbs analyzes sexism and finds out its origin. However, in this aspect, the researches made by scholars home and abroad are not very rich and profound. Therefore, this thesis aims at studying sexism in English proverbs, and understanding the values and philosophy of life of people from English-speaking countries, which is helpful for making English communications successfully.
2. Definitions of proverb and sexism
The proverb, a special form of language, is a kind of idiom. The proverb is very popular among the people, and contains very deep implication in sentences. It is always iconically compared to “clea r mirror of a nation”and “living fossil of language” by linguists. “Sexism”, derived from the word “racism”,is created by American feminists. Sexism is the phenomenon resulted from physiological sex.
2.1 Definition of proverb
2.1.1 Meaning of proverb
A proverb (from the Latin proverbium), also called a byword or nayword, is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. A proverb is a kind of folk literature. It is human being’s crystal of wisdom, and embodiment of concise language. Proverbs, as one of the varieties of English language, reflect its social customs and cultural connotations. British writer William Penn once said: “The wisdom of nation lies in their proverbs.”[12] And some people thought that proverbs were daughter of daily experiences. The proverbs are the product of cultural concepts and a mini social encyclopedia. People put a high value on proverbs, which have become an encyclopedia for people to recognize life, seek opinion of the world, and strengthen people’s will. It reflects culture, life, custom and mode of thinking. As a product in some special cultures, the proverbs, this ancient way of language manifestation, are bound to present a nation’s social life.
2.1.2 Features of proverb
Longman Modern English Dictionary gives a definition of “proverb” that a brief familiar maxim of folk wisdom, usually compressed in form, often involving a bold image and frequently a jingle that catches the memory. So we can see the features of proverbs as followed.
(1) Originating from and circulating in non-governmental circles.
The proverb is a form of folk literature, and folk literature is a kind of literature created and passed on by oral form, and continuously revised by the collective. Most of the proverbs in English are created by the majority of laboring people, but not by the minority of writers in literary, also not by the ranking officials and noblemen in luxurious saloons and theatres. As we know, lots of peasants on farms, workers in factories, hunters in woods, sailors on the sea, cooks in kitchens and housewives, etc get proverbs from manufacture and labor. In order to sum up these experiences and introduce them to descendants, they make those experiences and lesson s from their lives and fights against nature into another kind of language using words not of imposing stature but strong, capable and easy to remember. This kind of language after long time’s thinking becomes proverbs at last. The contents of proverbs are very plentiful and range over lots of aspects, particularly contain profound moral.
(2) Abundant in content, profound with meanings, full of philosophy, providing much food for thought.
English proverbs mostly express moral outlook of people, display noble moral character, and inspire people. They also become good teachers and helpful friends of people, and many people take them as their guide to action. English proverbs not only contain abundant contents, but also have their profound connotations and philosophic meanings. People who read them will get the upper brunt of soul, and receive endless experiences and edification.
(3) Concise language, vivid image,easy to read.
Language of English proverbs is highly condensed and concise. Only a few words can contain much plentiful content, explaining a deep principle, which make people think deeply, provide food for their thoughts, and realize many profound ideas. Due to their origination from laboring people, the language of English proverbs which has few uncommon words is very easy to understand and easy to grasp. Because the proverbs are imparted by the oral words, they are easier to spread and remember.
(4) Harmonious metre, easy to speak.
The reasons why the English proverbs can spread so widely, accepting their abundant content, with concise language and rich philosophy, etc, has a very important element—harmonious metre. English usually use alliteration, rhyme, or alliteration plus rhyme to increase beautiful phonetic rhyme.
2.2 Definition of sexism
2.2.1 Meaning of sexism
According to Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, sexism is “prejudice or discrimination based on sex; esp. discrimination against women”.While in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, sexism is defined as “unfair or unreasonable discrimination between the sexes; unreasonable maintaining of traditional sexual rules (e.g. that men are strong and women are weak)”.Therefore, sexism is a system of beliefs and practices that affirm the dominance of men over women. Apprehended by most people as “only natural”sexism pervades social relations and institutions, affecting everything from people’s domestic arrangement to their career choices. With the arrival of the feminist movement within English speaking countries, attention has been given to changing the structures which support and promote sexism within the society. One of these structures is language. Sexism in language is the phenomenon that when you use the language, it shows discrimination against women. Sexist language has been defined as “words, phrases, and expressions that unnecessarily differentiate between females and males or exclude, trivialize, or diminish either gender”. [14]
2.2.2 Features of sexism
Sexism is a kind of discrimination, especially, against women. Thus linguistic sexism refers to the language that favors one sex, especially, the male, and diminishes the other sex, particularly the female.
Sexism registers as sexist language in English. Sexist language as many people pointed out not only encodes stereotyped attitudes to women and men, but also is an example of the way that a culture or society conveys its value from one group to another and from one generation to the next. Some linguists in their essay offer examples of sexism in language and the ways in which the English language reflects a sexist culture. According to them, sexist language is any language that expresses “stereotyped attitudes and expectations or that assumes the inherent superiority of one sex over the other. Sexist language includes words, phrases, and expressions that unnecessarily differentiate between women and men or exclude, trivialize, or diminish either gender.”
[14]
3. Manifestations of sexism in English proverbs
3.1 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about character
(1) Weakness
Woman is made to weep. (女子生性好哭。

)
Frailty, thy name is woman. (弱者，你的名字是女人。

)
It is no more pity to see a woman weep than to see a goose go bare foot. (女人哭如鹅光脚走路，根本不值得可怜。

)
The upper proverbs always use tears and fragile glass to represent women’s weakness. We can explain this phenomenon from physiology and sociology. Physiologically, the nervous system of the female is not as stable as male’s, and the female’s mood is likely to get influence from the special physiological state.Socially speaking, women’s weakness seems right and proper, because women are endowed with weakness in the public’s eyes. And in such a case, women are also willing to depend on protection from men, but men are always a disappointment to them. Therefore, women always feel a loss of identity, because men are not as strong as their words, which makes those women who emphasize emotive experiences weep alone.
(2) Vanity
Every woman would rather be beautiful than good. (女人爱美不重德。

)
The more women look in their glass, the less they look to their house. (女人成天照镜子，无心照管家务事。

)
Tell a woman she is fair and she will soon turn fool. (跟女人讲她长得漂亮，很快她就会晕头转向。

)
These proverbs emphasize virtue and at the same time play down good look. Actually, men are the same as women placing great emphasis on appearance. When they try to select mate, they demand the opposite having both good look and great capability. In men’s eyes, “the smell of an onion from the mouth of the lovely is sweeter than that of a rose in the hand of the ugly.” (美女口中葱蒜臭，胜过丑女手中玫瑰香。

). Male’s measure of selecting mate is gentleness and prettiness, and the female always stay at a passive position. Therefore, men have to use every conceivable means to pursue beauty to cater for them. So pursuit of vanity is the choice that women have to choose, and the arch-criminal still is weakness.
(3) Malignity
Women are the devil’s nets. (女人是万恶之源。

)
No thing agrees worse than a lady’s heart and beggar’s purse. (女人的心和乞丐的钱包一样，糟糕透顶。

)
Women are the snares of Stan. (女人是撒旦设下的陷阱。

)
These proverbs contain obvious sexism. God felt that making woman was a big mistake. He thought she was the origin of evil, because Eve violated God’s prohibition and tempted Adam to eat apples. And then God drove them out of Garden of Eden and inflicted severe chastisement on human beings. In order to punish Eve, God made her obey her husband and stayed in a subordinate position forever. In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus created a very beautiful goddess——Pandora and gave her a box full of evils. Zeus told her that she couldn’t open it. However, Pandora broke the promise and opened the box. At the same time, all kinds of evils spread around the world. In some proverbs, they describe women as obstinate criminals behind the scenes.
3.2 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about words and deeds
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，丈夫就像生活在天堂里。

)
Many women, many words; Many geese, many turds. (鹅的屎多，女人的话多。

) The above proverbs comment on women being talktive, and we can find that women are usually compared with animals. Goose is a kind of bird species which is always connected with women’s world. Generally speaking, “speechful”goose walks and clucks along the path of a small village, which looks like the group of people who are fond of talking endlessly and maligning. According to a physiological research, the capacity of language centering in women’s brain is more than men’s. The female like to communicate with others, which is not a shortcoming. As for prate, this is a way for women to release their pent-up emotions. Men don’t understand the needs of women and are unwilling to communicate with them.
3.3 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about ability and wisdom
A woman’s advice is never to seek. (女人的建议一文不值。

)
Women have no soul. (女人没有灵魂。

)
When an ass climbs a ladder, we may find wisdom in women. (毛驴登梯时，女人有才智。

)
Long hair, short wit. (女人头发长，见识短。

)
In British history, the chances that women received normal education were less than men, and the higher education was merely for men. Up to the period of Victorian (1837-1901), some colleges were willing to accept a few women. But the expectation for women from people is different from the one for men. At that time, after women receiving education, people hoped they could learn to manage household affairs and foster the quality of tenderness, gentleness and dependence. On the contrary, men were expected to be the host of bringing home the bacon. Ironically, society deprives of women’s equal chances to get education and doesn’t allow them to be as able and efficient as men. Meanwhile, society thinks that women have no knowledge and lack learning talent. Men’s beating the drum for those women with no knowledge is a paragon of virtue, but when women don’t learn anything, they scold women with long hair and short wit; when men scold that women haven’t their own ideas and abilities, they also criticize that women always do wrong and destroy their prestige. In fact, the conflicted expressions of opinions from men show that men need women’s ignorance to show off their talents.
3.4 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about marriage
Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can. (娶媳不忙，嫁女宜速。

)
Daughters and dead fish are not keeping wares. (女大不中留，鱼死不能存。

)
Marry a wife of thine own degree. (娶妻，应与己般配。

)
He that marries for wealth sells his liberty. (娶得富家女，自由受限制。

)
The above proverbs reflect those ideas of looking up to men and women, and also reflect tendency of making women as a commodity. In the views of marriage centring on men, women’s good look is the condition of marrying talented men, getting riches and honor. Taking appearance as a standard to measure women’s value explains that women fall into sadness of becoming a doll in the society centring on men. Although a woman owns rich and good family background, she still suffers from being questioned and doubted.
3.5 Manifestations of sexism in the proverbs about social status
Man, woman and devil are three degrees of comparison. (男人、女人和魔鬼，三个等级分贵贱。

)
If the husband be not at home, there is nobody. (丈夫不在家，等于说没有人。

)
A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold. (稻草男儿抵得上金玉女子。

)
A man is a man though he have/has but a hose on his head. (家贫袜当帽，仍是男子汉。

)
The above proverbs which express strong androcentrism reflect women’s low social position. Wife is just a garment for husband to throw at any time, and a beast for husband to curse and beat freely. A poor man is better and stronger than a common woman. Bible says that the first creature made by God is man. Woman is made by a rib of man. When God creates human beings, he puts man at the dominant position and makes woman depend on the existence of man. So we can see that women’s position is so petty and low.
4. Causes of sexism in the English proverbs
The proverbs reflect culture, life style and customs. And further, the culture of human contains sexism, namely to discriminate women. Therefore the proverbs naturally involve sexism. The appearance, existence and alteration of sexism in the English proverbs are not occasional, and all of them have their deep historical reasons, cultural origin and social factors. This thesis plans to investigate and analyze the causes of this phenomenon from the following aspects.
4.1 Historical reasons
As for the establishment of matriclan in the primitive society, anthropologists point out that the female had the economic authority in hand. Therefore, females took the dominant position in the primitive society. However, when lots of fortunes appeared in the late of matriclan, males became stronger and snatched the control of economic arteries, so females became the ruled object. This is the historical turning point of women’s position. From that time, women always stayed at the bottom of the society and were torn by discrimination, oppression and outrage. From the primitive society to the western capitalist society, men firmly hold women in their hand. During the long historical processes, the discrimination to women becomes firmer and firmer. With the development of movement for women’s rights, women’s social position gradually becomes higher, but weakness and lowliness as words to describe women will not disappear easily, because sexism in people’s minds has become deep-rooted. Although women continuously fight for their higher social position after being awaken, although movement for women’s rights is developing vigorously, although women have indeed played a very important role in societies, to change their social position completely still has a very long process. Consequently, sexism in the English proverbs will still exist.
4.2 Cultural origin
The English proverbs are mainly derived from Greek myth and influential literary outputs (such as plays by Shakespeare). There is much sexism among the above writings.
(1) Sexism originating from Greek myth
The grey mare is the better horse. (妻胜其夫。

)
As long as we have eyes, or hands, or breath, we’ll look, or write, or talk you all to death. Yield or she——Pegasus will gain her course, and the grey mare will prove the better horse. (只要我们有眼有手，只要我们还有生命，我们就要看要写，就要讲到你们的临终。

屈服吧，否则女佩枷索斯就会大显身手，从而证明女人就是比男人行。

)
Although meanings of the above proverbs contain no sexism against women, when we think of the reason why people make those proverbs go around, we can see that they involve sexism. And further, the word “prove”in the second proverb expresses aspirations of women fighting against sexism, which reflects women’s low position from the reverse side.
(2) Sexism originating from writings by Shakespeare
Frailty, thy name is woman. (脆弱啊，你的名字就是女人。

)
This sentence originates from a famous monologue in Hamlet. We can see that the queen only put her happiness and destiny on marrying a man, which contains lots of blood and tears of women in the class society.
4.3 Social factors
The English proverbs appear at all aspects of social life, and reflect sexism against women. These contents can be basically classified into several aspects. And every aspect has its own social origin, ideas, emotional factor and women’s own reasons.
The idea that man is superior to woman appears among the public because the role played by women in society is not as important as that of men. So women are neglected gradually, and this neglect even becomes a kind of contempt and outrage. At last, this neglect becomes the worship of men, which is a kind of blind adoration. Chauvinism prevails in western countries. For example:
A bad woman is worse than a bad man. (女人变坏比男人更糟糕。

)
In the husband wisdom, in the wife gentleness. (夫要智，妻要柔。

)
Men make houses, women make homes. (男人盖房，女人持家。

)
Virtue is another shackle that women can not shake off. Men destroy women’s virtue, at the same time they emphasize women’s virtue. Women not only bear pressure and hurt from men, but also have to undertake blames from far and near. In analyzing the proverbs about social status, we find sexism is due to women’s low position.
Consequently, men are posted as masters and pursue pleasure, and women can not betray them. For example:
Who has a fair wife needs more than two eyes. (老婆长得漂亮得多长一只眼睛。

) Ask the mother if the child be not like the father. (孩子长得像不像爸爸，妈妈心里最清楚。

)
The society discriminates women from all kinds of aspects. They think that women are very foolish, weak, speechful, and even dangerous. From the angle of society, women’s weakness is innate. Because in people’eyes, women are the weak. For example:
Beauty and folly are often companions. (蠢与美常相随。

)
Trust not a woman when she weeps. (不要相信女人的眼泪。

)
Nothing dries so fast as women’s tears. (女人的泪水干得最快。

)
5. Development trend of sexism in the English proverbs
Due to historical reasons, cultural origin and social factors, the opinions about sexism are deep-rooted in people’s mind, and these ideas have been reflected vividly and incisively. But delightfully, with the development of movement for women’s rights, western feminists have made great efforts to eliminate sexism in English, and also have got amazing achievements, which are reflected in the following aspects.
(1) Gradual loss of masculine words widely used, and replacing them with neutral words. For instance, businessperson, salesperson, chairperson, and police officer are used to replace businessman, salesman, chairman and policeman.
(2) Some changes in the form of address. Ms is used to replace Mrs and Miss; in some countries, women are allowed to use their own family name instead of husband’s.
(3) Adding feminine words after masculine words or changing them into the plural of some neutral words. For instance, someone left his or her bag in the classroom.
(4) The elimination of sexism in legislation. British government has eliminated sexism in legislation, and made some laws to maintain the equality between men and women.
Although movement for women’s rights has got big achievements in changing sexism, this way is very rough and long. Because language is a mirror of society, so sexism and differences between men and women reflected in language are not decided by language’s natural quality, but social values and national mode of thinking. Language itself is neutral, but users can give language some pragmatic colour according to social values. In order to eliminate the phenomenon of sexism in language, we must eradicate opinions about sexism which exist in the society at first. The reform of language must be realized on the basis of social reform.。