Analysis on the Phenomenon of Gender Discrimination in English 英语专业毕业论文.doc

1、ContentsAbstracti摘要iiIntroduction11. The Definition of Gender Discrimination 22. Phenomena of Gender Discrimination22.1Gender Discrimination in Names22.2 Gender Discrimination in English Vocabulary32.2.1 Word- Formation32.2.2Generic Nouns and Pronouns32.2.3 The Prejudice of Female Words 4 2.2.4 Gend

2、er Discrimination and Job Titles 42.2.5 Word Order. 52.3 Gender Discrimination in English Proverbs52.3.1 From the Perspective of Role52.3.2 From the Perspective of Marriage 52.3.3 From the Perspective of Manner62.4Gender Discrimination in the Metaphor62.5Gender Discrimination in the Meanings of Engl

3、ish Words63. The Causes of Gender Discrimination 6 3.1 Economic and Social Factors73.2 The Cultural Reasons73.3 The Psychological Reason74. Ways to Eliminate or Avoid Gender Discrimination84.1 Try to Use Neutral Terms84.2Avoid Using Third Person Pronouns 84.3 From the Perspective of Society9Conclusi

4、on10Bibliography11AbstractIn society, people usually treat women as weaker ones and discriminate against them. We can see the phenomenon of gender discrimination in some fields, and it also was found in English language. Actually, language play an important role in our life, and language treat woman

5、 and man equally without any discrimination, it have no gender discrimination, but users give it color with gender discrimination and think that women are inferior to men. Gender discrimination is a phenomenon that takes the male as a centre, but insult or look down upon female .Language as a mirror

6、 or a social tool, gender discrimination is reflected through language. And the special phenomenon reflects social ideas and customs of human beings. And this paper is attempt to the study of gender discrimination in the English language and ways to eliminate or avoid gender discrimination. At the b

7、eginning, the paper analyses the phenomena of gender discrimination in English and they are shown and discussed in following three aspects: English vocabulary, English proverbs and idioms, and the meanings of English words. In nature, social, historical and cultural reasons and the psychological fac

8、tors for the occurrence of gender discrimination in the English language were traced in this paper. Last but not the least, gender discrimination exist in language, we should avoid or eliminate it in many ways. Treat men and women equally, pay more attention to some life details. Key words: gender d

9、iscrimination phenomenon factors ways to eliminate摘要在社会中，人们通常将女性看作弱势群体歧视她们，在许多地方我们都能够看到这种性别歧视的现象，在英语中也不例外，事实上，语言在我们生活中扮演了十分重要的角色，语言本身对男女是一视同仁的，没有任何的歧视，但是使用者赋予它了歧视的色彩，并认为女性低于男性。性别歧视倾向于男性，轻视女性。语言是一面镜子，是一种社会的工具，性别歧视通过语言反映出来，这种特殊的想象反映出了社会思想以及人类的习俗。本文致力于研究英语中的性别歧视想象，以及消除或避免性别歧视的方法。在开头，文章从英语词汇，谚语和词义这几个方面介

10、绍了性别歧视的现象，从社会文化，历史，生理等方面分析了英语中性别歧视存在的原因。最后一点也是不可忽视的一点，在语言中存在性别歧视，我们应该避免和消除它。平等的对待男女，注重生活的细节。关键词：性别歧视 现象 原因 解决办法- 11 -IntroductionGender discrimination also know as sexism, sex discrimination. It is a special phenomenon that exists in society and country .It reflected in language, we called it “discr

11、imination of language”. And language is a carrier of culture, it would reflect traditional social value and the national consciousness of one country. Language also is a mirror of social life, many things are reflect in this mirror, such as people traditional thought that discrimination against wome

12、n. In society, women devote a lot, but the gender discrimination is still exists in some fields, and even in language. In English, though people have equal rights, there are a lot of unequal rights between men and women. It is also reflected in language. English is one of the most widespread languag

13、es. From the development of the language, the idea of people think that women are inferior to men does not only exist in China, but also it in all countries .Women is weaker than men, in British or American, there is a massive discrimination in it .English be regarded as the super masculine language

14、 which is a man centered. From womens rights movement in 1960s, gender discrimination is the main topic which feminist linguistic to research. This paper is aimed at analyze the phenomenon from four aspects: names, proverbs and the meaning of words in English. And research the reason of why those ph

15、enomena are exist, Understanding the phenomenon of gender discrimination in English language helps people study the language, and correctly treat the changes of the language in the historical development. And it help to cause peoples attention, and to find the way to deal with it .At last this paper

16、 also proposes ways to eliminate the gender discrimination in languages. The purpose of this paper is to weak up peoples consciousness, improve womens social position. People should pay more attention to treat men and women equally. People know how to avoid gender discrimination of language in commu

17、nication and create an equal language environment.1. The Definition of Gender Discrimination According to the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese dictionary, the discrimination is the practice of treating somebody or a particular group in society less fairly than other. It means unfair. Gender

18、discrimination means discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation. It similar to the word “sexism”, have the meaning of the unfair treatment of people, especially women. Gender discrimination is an attitude or an actual behavior that usually discriminates against females, on the basis of the a

19、ssumed superiority of the other sex. 1Previous studies on sexism show that sexism is a social phenomenon, taking a male-as-norm attitude, prejudicing, insulting or rendering women invisible. In English, there are many words reveal the connotation of gender discrimination. Gender discrimination is ne

20、gative discrimination .And it always reflects in women, women get the dirty in society, people treat females are unfair. From these definitions, we can see the discrimination is the practice of discriminating against people just because of their gender. The expression of unfair assumption about gend

21、er difference is the gender discrimination of language. Such as a proverb in Afghanistan: “If you see an old man, sit down and take a lesson; if you see an old woman, throw a stone.” This sentence contains a strong color with gender discrimination for women. The roles of women are always inferior, p

22、eople treat them are unequal.2. Phenomena of Gender DiscriminationThis paper presents the phenomenon of gender discrimination from four aspects: Gender discrimination in names, vocabulary, proverbs and the meaning of English words. Show and discuss gender discrimination in English.2.1Gender Discrimi

23、nation in NamesName is a part of language. On the face of it, name just the symbol that people can distinguish each other. Actually, it represents the social attitude .Names play an important role in our society. In some extent, it also reflects the expectation of parents to their children. But the

24、gender discrimination exists in names.When people choose names to their children, they always bring social attitude and their subject ideas into consideration .Names have got hopes of parents. They choose the male name with those things that related to right and power. And name of men always reflect

25、 the characteristics of bravery, rights, power and full of dreams and ambitions. For example, Neil (it means a winner), Harold (as a general), Richard (meaning strength) and ect. However, the meaning of mans name is different from womens name .Womens names usually use the words meaning graceful, lov

26、ely and beautiful. Such as rose is one kind of flower, Diana with the meaning of goddess of the moon, and it is a symbol of grace and dignity. Susan means kind and graceful. And another hand, in English counties, Children are always following their father names when they are young. 1 And when they g

27、et married, women will follow their husbands names. And people called them as “Mrs. plus her husbands surname”. In other words, a married woman has no right to be treated like an unmarried lady. But to a man, its different. For instance: In English-speaking countries, people call the wife of Henry J

28、ames “Mrs. James”. And Madame Tussauds, Madame Curie will be no exception, they are well known, but people know little about family names of them. They also followed the surname of their husband. From the names of male and female, we can see womens subordinated position women. And if a womans husban

29、d is dead, she would reserve her husbands surnames until she remarried. Thats influenced by social attitude. Women are merely a part of their husbands and just an extension of their husbands.2.2 Gender Discrimination in English VocabularyEnglish had evolved from the society that dominated by male, s

30、o the phenomenon that people are look down upon and reject women are unavoidable exists in English vocabulary. This phenomenon is reflecting the gender bias of society, and women feel insult, even though people didnt mean to hurt them in communications .However, a lot of expressions and meaning that

31、 tainted with gender discrimination have emerged .There are many words revealing gender discrimination in English and generally goes to four groups.2.2.1 Word- FormationFrom the perspective of word-formation, morphology of words are different because gender. At first, the gender discrimination is re

32、flected in suffix. The feminine words are marked, but masculine words are unmarked. In word-formation the masculine words are always as the centre, and add a suffix becomes a word of feminine. 2 The masculine word is the main formation of word. Female was regarded as people that based on men. Such a

33、s manager-manageress, steward stewardess, hero - heroine and so on. Those words are evolved from masculine words. This phenomenon reflects a relationship of subordination. Words of feminine are always have those suffix: -ette,-ess, -ine, -goom. Such as usherette, conductorette, the suffix -ette have

34、 an implicit meaning of females and their assistant position. Secondly, it was reflected in compound words that the masculine words as the main. Such as “father figure”, it means leader, but why people dont say “mother figure”. And the word use to refer to our ancestor is “forefather” not “foremothe

35、r”. Though these examples we can see the gender discrimination against women. Women were regarded as cumbersome thing, just as an ornament. From the perspective of word-formation we can see women just as a part of men. 2.2.2Generic Nouns and PronounsIn language use, especially in English, there are

36、many pronouns and nouns are partial to male. Use generic nouns to refer to women and men, but in English language, it use to masculine words that especially use to describe men and commonly use to refer whole human beings. And it also indicates someone that we havent see and dont know what gender is

37、. And this is a rule in English. For example, “All men are created equal”. In there, men indicated human beings. And the word” brotherhood”, it means friendship between compatriots (Including Female Compatriots).But sisterhood just means the love between sisters. On the other hand, masculine words u

38、sually are positive and express the feeling of complimentary. And many compound words which are composed of the word “man” can use to refer to people in general. However, other compound words with the word “woman” are just referring to women. The word “human” means a man, woman or a child, not just

39、have the meaning of man. “Countrywoman” uses to describe a woman who lives in country. This is difference between male and female. From these examples, we can see the word “men” usually use to refer males and females. Let us focus on pronouns, the pronoun “he” is the most well known example of gende

40、r discrimination is exists in language, the use of masculine pronouns “he” and its variants “his”, “him” and “himself” is the significant manifestation. Such as these sentences “Every student must finish his homework.”, “If anyone finds me, tell him I will be back after few minutes” and “Everyone en

41、joyed himself ever so at the evening party.” .Above those sentences, these pronouns and its variants used not sex-specifically .Although it can refer to males, it also can refer to both male and female in general. From above, we can see people treat man as the center, but ignore the existence of wom

42、an total.2.2.3 The Prejudice of Female Words The status of women in English society is lower. And many words of the male ones are positive and affirmative. But used for describe females have been endowed with a belittled meaning. 3For instance, those two sentences: “he is a hard man”. And “she is a

43、hard woman.” The former sentence means the man is work hard. But the later it means the woman is iron hearted. This reflects the treatment of women is different from men. And according to investigation, about 220 words to describe the badness of women, but to men just have 22words. (Lindsey，1990：48)

44、 For instance, the word “mouse” referred to a kind of animal ,but now the word “mouse” refers to an introverted woman. And many other words, “goose” means idiotic woman. “Bitch” means a woman of loose moral. The former meanings of the female words have changed and have the implicit meaning of dispar

45、age. The female words have the tendency that the meaning of words from commendatory to derogatory. Such as “governor and governess”, in old English, his pair of words means male and female leader that have strong power and right. But now “governess” refers to tutor and mistress and governor are stil

46、l keeping the original meaning. The meaning of female words are negative .Language gradually tends to neglect women and demean women. This phenomenon accurately reflects gender discrimination in English.2.2.4 Gender Discrimination and Job Titles A lot of superior job titles about male is existed in

47、English because man always in a centre position. 4In English country and other English-speaking countries, when people referring to the higher post titles, they always associated with masculine words, like professor, lawyer, engineer, surgeon, barrister, and magistrate. If someone say：“My cousin is

48、a professor.” Many people are regarded professors as a man. People use those words of job titles without any mark. But if people want to use those words to designate women, they always add on the word “female”, “lady” or “woman”. Such as these words a womanengineer, a policewoman. On the contrary, babysitter, assistant, model, and housekeeper, those words which in lower status are usually use to refer to women. When people say: “My cousin is a nurse.” People think nurse is a woman or a lady .Why the lawyer must be a man? And why the nurse must be a woman? This phenom