Phenomena of Sexism in the English lanusge
[Abstract] 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. The thesis analyses sexism in terms of word order，semantic derogation of women，Semantic collocation and change，metaphor in greater detail.
[Key Words] sexism, English language
[摘 要] 语言在社会中所处的地位尤为重要。作为一种社会现象的语言，必然会反映出人类社会的各种社会观念。性别歧视作为这其中的一种,是指把男性视作社会规范和中心,轻视，侮辱女性或使她们显得微不足道。而这一特定的社会现象必然会在语言中折射出来。论文从词序,词义的贬降,语义内涵及变化,隐喻四个方面对英语中的性别歧视现象进行了详细的分析。
[关键词] 性别歧视；英语语言
Introduction
As 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.
Phenomena of sexism in the English language
1.Word order
Sexism in language is 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:
(1) Good morning, boys and girls!
(2) 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 ladies before 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.
2.Semantic derogation of women
Language has a tendency to neglect women, treat women as submission and also demean women. The process of words that refer to women acquiring demeaning or sexual connotations has been widely observed, and has been called semantic derogation.
Non-parallel semantic developments of paired terms
Many sociolinguists have claimed that words become negative when shifted into the female sphere, while male has remained pure and neutral. For example:
(1) King and queen
One is masculine, the other feminine and both mean “ruler of an independent state”. King has retained its initial meaning, but besides the core meaning of queen, queen is also used as “a disparaging term for a gay or homosexual man”.
(2) Wizard and witch
Both of them can be used to refer to people with evil magic powers. Wizard also has a meaning of person with extraordinary abilities, while witch means an ugly old woman.
(3) Sir and madam
Sir and madam both can be used to refer to high status people. Madam is used formerly as a courtesy title before a woman’s given name but now used only before a surname or title indicating rank or office or used as a form of polite address for a woman. Unlike sir, madam is also used to refer to a brothel keeper. There are also many other examples such as lord and lady, governor and governess. The examples cited above demean women rather than men.
3.Semantic collocation and change
Semantic collocation
In English, a word may have different connotations when it is used to describe different sexes. For example:
① imposing
a. He is imposing.
b. She is imposing.
Sentence a means “He is impressive and admirable.” While sentence b could be interpreted to mean that “She is disgusting and apathetic.” When the sex changes, so does the meaning
② loose
Loose seems a neutral word for both male and female. But “a loose woman” reminds people of “a woman considered to be sexually promiscuous” whereas “a loose man” just means “a casual man”.
Semantic change
Besides, words, which begin with either neutral or positive connotations over time, acquire negative implications and finally end up as “sexual slurs”. For example, the term hussy derives from Old English huswif (“housewife”), which means “the female head of the house”. The term gradually deteriorated to “a rustic rude woman” and finally comes to mean “an indecent, impudent woman or prostitute”.
4.Metaphor
Language exists to allow us to communicate with one another. To this end, language serves two purposes: to communicate what our reality is and also what we wish it to be. So if we identify a trait in a language, such as sexism or other forms of prejudice, this only reveals a prejudice that exists in society. Language, in particular metaphor, helps form social reality. There are many metaphors to describe a female. But often it has a totally different meaning.
(1) food metaphor
Some food words can also be used to refer to females, such as cheese cake (奶酪蛋糕——裸体女画)，cherry (樱桃——处女)，cookie (点心——可爱的女人)，crumpet (松脆饼——性感女人)，tart (果馅饼——妓女)，tomato (西红柿——漂亮女人), honey (蜜糖——宝贝、亲爱的), piece (点心——女人)，peach (桃子——漂亮女人) and so on. Men often use these words to express their appreciation to women. It even includes the meaning that men treat women as dolls.
(2) animal metaphor
There are also many words showing contempt for women. They embody sexual discrimination but still enjoy great popularity. For example: chick (小鸡——少女)，kitten (小猫——活泼年轻的姑娘)，bitch（母狗——泼妇），cat (猫——丑妇、贱妇、讨厌的女人)，dragon (龙——倔强的女人)，hen (母鸡——爱管闲事的女人), cow (奶牛——子女多的女人、妓女)，crone (老母羊——干瘪的丑老太婆) and mare-horse (母马——粗声大气、肥胖固执的女人) and so on. [16] These are all pejorative terms for women, because animals are considered to be inferior to human beings on the earth. So using animals to refer to females indicates that females are inferior.
The semantic derogation of women helps to construct female inferiority and because women are confined to negative terms, women continue to be devalued.
Conclusion
Since human being appeared on the earth, there have been existing two different genders-----male and female. On account of the differences between their physiological features and the superiority and inferiority in social activities, men and women are differentiated from each other in individuality, value, image and status, which give rise to variations in their language styles and language uses.
References
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