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西南财经大学天府学院

2015届
本科毕业论文

论文题目：An Analysis of Sexism in English and Chinese
学生姓名：
所在学院：
专 业： 英语
学 号：
指导教师：

西南财经大学天府学院本科学生毕业论文（设计）开题报告表
论文（设计）名称
汉语题目：英汉语言中的性别歧视研究
英语题目：An Analysis of Sexism in English and Chinese
论文（设计）来源
作者自选
论文（设计）类型
A
导 师

学生姓名
Amber
学 号

专 业
英语
调研资料的准备：
1.《Gender Bias in Language》《综合教程I》何兆熊 主编；本文通过列举描述了语言中的性别歧视； 2.《英汉语言中性别歧视的对比研究》周凤娟；本文从构词、姓名称谓等方面对比分析英语和汉语中性别歧视的共性和特殊性； 3.《英汉语言中的性别歧视现象产生的原因及消除策略》张庆艳；本文列举了四个性别歧视产生的原因，提供了六点可行的消除策略
论文目的：
初学《Gender Bias in Language》便引发我深思，日常交流的语言竟然对女性有诸多的消极意义。因此，本文将针对英语和汉语中对女性带有歧视的表达,通过举例的方式,分析语言中性别歧视的现象,深化人们对性别歧视的认识，促进语言和谐。
思路与预期成果：
本文主要通过对语言中的性别歧视研究，分别分析英语和汉语中对女性的消极定义和不重视，并试图提供改善这一现象的可行性方法。
本文所要达到的预期成果主要通过分析英汉语言中的性别歧视现象，使更多人意识到女性在语言中遭受的不平等待遇，旨在日常表达中规避此类现象。
论文大致提纲：
一、 引言
二、 英语中的性别歧视
2.1 称谓词 2.2 派生词 2.3 关于女性的贬义词语
三、汉语中的性别歧视
3.1 汉字的构造 3.2 谚语中轻视女性的表达 3.3围绕女性的隐喻表达
四、英汉语言中性别歧视的共同点
4.1 词序 4.2 关于女性的消极内涵表达
五、改善英汉语言中性别歧视的可行性方法
5.1 采用英语中性词汇 5.2 舍弃汉语中性别歧视词 5.3 不区别对待女性
六、结语
任务完成的阶段内容及时间安排：
2014年11月15日：文献阅读开始
2014年11月30日：完成开题报告（毕业设计的需求分析）
2014年12月20日：完成文献综述；完成毕业设计的系统设计，进行程序编码
2015年1月19日：完成论文的粗钢（论文的框架）
2015年3月中下旬：完成论文终稿（设计成果），并且打印成册，上交论文准备答辩
完成论文嗦具备的条件因素：
1、 对设计所需的文字资料进行收集整理；2、对所收集的资料筛选、过滤、去粗取精，去伪存真； 3、在指导老师的帮助及指导下认真完成毕业论文写作。

指导教师签名： 日期：2014 年11月28日
论文（设计）类型：A—理论研究；B—应用研究；C—软件设计等；
摘 要
无论是几十年前还是近几年，性别歧视（尤其对女性）在西方国家和中国成为一种普遍的社会现象，影响着女性的生活和工作。语言，作为人类的一面镜子，反映着不同国家和地区的文化习俗，人文观念，毫无疑问，也反映着性别歧视。语言中的性别歧视在语言学领域已成为热门话题，众多语言学家进行了很多调查。基于先前的调查研究，本文将分为四个部分说明在英语和汉语中的性别歧视。第一部分将通过称谓词，派生词和围绕女性的贬义表达的例子，介绍一些英语中性别歧视的普遍现象。第二部分通过汉字构成，贬低女性的谚语和关于蔑视女性的隐喻，将列举出一些汉语中性别歧视的典型现象。第三部分将分别阐释英汉语言中的性别歧视的两个共同点，即词序和关于女性的消极涵义。第四部分，通过已有的研究报告，本文将简短分析三个改善性别歧视的方式。我希望人们在使用英语或汉语时，能拥有避免性别歧视的意识，以此促进和谐沟通的氛围和实现男女本质上的平等。

关键词：英汉语言;性别歧视现象;共同点;避免方法

Abstract
Sexism (particularly against women), decades ago or in recent years, has been a ubiquitous social phenomenon, influencing females’ life and work, in western countries as same as in China. Language, as a mirror of humankind, reflects on various culture, convention, and humanistic ideology in diverse countries and districts, as well as sexism without any doubt. Sexism in language has remained a hot topic for a long time among linguists who have already made numerous researches about it. Based on the previous researches, this thesis is divided into four parts to illustrate the sexism in English and Chinese. In first part, some general phenomena of sexism in English will be introduced by means of examples on addressing terms, derivation, and derogatory expressions around women. In second part, some typical phenomena of sexism in Chinese will be listed out in terms of formation of Chinese characters, depreciated women in proverbs and disparaging metaphors around women. In third part, two similarities of sexism in language, word order, and negative connotations for women, will be analyzed respectively. In forth part, this paper briefly points out three methods to avoid sexism in language based on other researches. I hope people will build up an awareness of avoiding sexism when speaking English or Chinese, thus promoting a harmonious communicative atmosphere and achieving the essential equality between men and women.

Key words: language; sexist phenomena; similarity; avoiding methods

Contents
摘 要 iv
Abstract v
Introduction vii
I．Sexism in English 1
1.1 Addressing Terms 1
1.2 Derivation 4
1.3 Derogatory Words around Women 5
II. Sexism in Chinese 7
2.1 Formation of Chinese Characters 7
2.2 Depreciated Women in Proverbs 9
2.3 Metaphors around Women 10
III. Similarities of Sexism in English and Chinese 11
3.1 Word Order 12
3.2 Negative Connotations for Women 13
IV. Methods to Avoid Sexism in English and Chinese 14
4.1 Adopting Gender-Free Words in English 15
4.2 Abandoning the Sexist Words in Chinese 15
4.3 Treating Female as No Exception 16
Conclusion 16
Literature Review 18
Bibliography 26
Acknowledgements 28

An Analysis of Sexism in English and Chinese
Introduction
The disparate usage of language between male and female had aroused linguists’ attentions in seventeenth century, and later, with the flourishing development of sociolinguistics since the 1960s, the relationship of language use and gender difference has been a heated topic among linguists 朱跃. 《语言与社会》[M]. 合肥：安徽大学出版社. 1999
. The language is arranged so that men are identified with exalted positions, and women are identified with more service-oriented positions in which they are being dominated and instructed by men. So the language used to convey this type of male supremacy is generally reflecting the honored position of the male and the subservience of the female. Language invented by both male and female enables male hold a powerful social status, whereas makes female feel inferior to male. Accordingly, sexism in language, a reflection of sexual discrimination in social reality, generally means that men can disgrace, depreciate and humiliate women by derogatory words and expressions both in English and Chinese. During the process of relieving inequality between men and women, people have been struggled in many domains like job market and politics, but what they are supposed to do is firstly to get rid of the
29

stereotypical utilization of sexism in language. Thus, it is of vital importance for people to enhance their awareness of avoiding sexual bias
when communicating with the opposite gender, especially for men. This essay will describe specific phenomena of sexism in English and Chinese separately, helping people have a distinct understanding of it and build up an awareness of avoiding it.
I．Sexism in English
In western culture, there is a household story in The Bible that the God created Adam, the first man, from the earth at the very beginning of the world, and took a rib from Adam to create Eve, the first woman. It is probably how the thought that man is the master and woman is merely his subordinate and the discriminatory language against women that often treats them as secondary start. Briefly speaking, English places more emphasis on men than women through the contemptuous languages to ignore women in certain respects and exaggerate the weakness of women in some negative aspects.
1.1 Addressing Terms
Language, specifically addressing term, is a magic tool with a function to give everyone a particular name, enabling all human beings to know each other and show social relations between them. The most convincing example of sexism in English is the social meanings embedded in Mr. Miss. and Mrs. For male, whether single or married, they are addressed as Mr., a general term amongst men. For female, however, single ladies are entitled Miss. (plus their families’ name) and the wives are called Mrs. (plus their spouses’ name), which indicate the courtesy titles for women are based on their age and marital status but no same standards are required to call men. It is not difficult to find that the asymmetry of appellation can be the powerful evidence of sexism in English.
Another vivid example of sexism in English is Sir and Madam, which is the most frequently used pair of words among people. Sir is used as a polite way of addressing a man whose name you do not know, or before the first name of a man and a baronet, or a form of address by children in school to a male teacher. As the equivalent of Sir, Madam is surly used when speaking or writing to a woman in a formal or business situation 霍恩比著，王玉章等译. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary: the seventh edition.
北京：商务印书馆. 2009
. Along with the social development, Madam has no longer been solely used in a formal or business situation, as its meanings have been extended with negative connotations. It is Madam nowadays that can be used to describe a young girl or woman who expects other people to do what she wants, and a woman who is in charge of the prostitutes in a brothel2. The example above makes it crystal clear that the connotations of female appellations are not equivalent to those of the male appellations which are positive and active.
In English, a group of generic pronouns are related, with same probability, to men and women, whereas they ignore women by allowing masculine terms to be used in lots of special circumstances. For all English learners, He is definitely an acquaintance. He is perhaps the most well-known example of sexism in English to be specifically to refer to males and commonly to refer to human Guimei He. An Analysis of Sexism in English. [D]. Qingdao University of Science and Technology 2010
. For example, everyone has his own fate. Obviously, everyone here is associated with every single person, including both men and women. But to meet the requirement of simplicity in English, he covers all the possibility of male and female thus showing the gender bias against female. The same he-covers-all phenomena are also represented in the following old sayings:
He who has health has hope;
He who knows nothing doubts nothing;
He who stands alone has no power;
He who does not respect others deserves no respect from others;
He who risks nothing gains nothing;
He who knows most speaks least.
The use of He as a term occasionally to encompass female suggests the universal thought of male’s superior status, and makes women grammatically invisible thus remaining them inferior.
1.2 Derivation
In the records of human history, the physiological and psychological differences between male and female have contributed to shape into the man-centered society. When words, such as actor and actress, show up in pairs, people have no difficulty in recognizing masculine one as it has no special marks and it is the root of the feminine one, which manifests female is a subordinate of male in general sense.
Derivation, a common way of word formation, forms a word with meaning and category distinguishing from that of its origin through the addition of an affix. In English, masculine words are endowed with power to signify both male and female, and many feminine words come from them by adding a suffix such as –ess, -ine, -ette,-trix. If people want to glorify someone who made a great achievement to their country or hometown, they would like to give a title, hero, to the person. If that person is a female, then she will be called heroine which comes from hero by adding “-ine”. Another typical pair of words denoting sexism is governor and governess, the former is a leader in charge of the government or an institution while the latter changing –or to –ess is just a female menial tutor.
Here are some of such pairs of the words: actor and actress; waiter and waitress; host and hostess; usher and usherette; governor and governess; prince and princess; duke and duchess. These pairs of words note the importance and priority of male in English lexicon. Simply to learn English, people are capable of memorizing words by recognizing the suffix as well as differentiating the masculine and feminine words, but from the perspective of equality, female is considered as a secondary, humble and passive group, compared with male.
1.3 Derogatory Words around Women
Vocabulary, as a major carrier of word meaning, mirrors the linguistic discrimination against women in English. The meanings of many words referring to male and female are basically equivalent, but with the revolutionary of history, words for female gradually acquire disapproving implications and are attached with derogatory meanings.
Here tick off some representative expressions. King and queen are both originally relevant to the noble leaders of a country, and king, up to now, still has its royal and positive meanings while queen is adhered to the derogatory meaning--- a male homosexual who dresses like a woman or a third party to a family. 于春迟，申葳 Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社. 2008
--- in different contexts. Besides, bachelor and spinster are used to describe the marital status of a single man and woman. The former has another meaning referring to the first degree at college and university, the latter, different from the commendatory meaning of the former, has a connotative meaning that is specifically for a woman who is no longer young and seems unlikely ever to marry.
Except for such words in pairs with derogatory meanings to female, slang, as an informal language ordinarily spoken by some particular groups of people, displays sexism in English, incisively and vividly. Talking about humiliating words and expressions, slang, in most cases, is involved with female. Hellcat, virago, vixen, bitch, slut, chippie, etc. are all to make a chump out of women, so how about men? Although there are some expressions to insult men, most of them have something, more or less, to do with women. Let’s take son of a bitch as an example. It insults women first then to reach the goal of humiliating men. Effeminate, womanish, hen-pecked resemble that in the same way. Other expressions with disparaging meaning, Black widow, Black Maria, Hurricane Sandy, so long as they are relevant to disasters or terrible characters, have to link up with female 卢智慧, 浅析英汉语中的性别歧视现象, [D], 湖南：中南大学外国语学院, 2009
.
II. Sexism in Chinese
China, a prestigious country with a longstanding reputation in the world, has over five thousand years’ history and fruitful culture represented by a substantial number of refined scholars and intellectuals in different kinds of fields. Confucian culture that hoists its own unique banner in China has enhanced the Chinese traditional value, Man superior to woman which was primarily established as patriarchal replaced matriarchal society and had gradually become a central ideology with the flourishing of the feudal system. It has a tremendous impact on Chinese people’s demeanor, lifestyle, and the unique language especially the Chinese characters, the only existing ideograph 冯英杰, 英汉语言中的性别歧视现象及其文化根源, [D], 河南：许昌学院, 2009
. Accordingly, sexist phenomena in Chinese are much distinct and straightforward.
2.1 Formation of Chinese Characters
Similar to English, sexism exists in Chinese whose basic morphemes are the individual Chinese characters. Among the thousands of millions of Chinese characters, “女” (nv in pinyin, meaning “female”), a pictographic character, has the direct connection with gender bias in the language. Lots of words composed of “女” contain the contemptuous and disdainful meanings about women. For instance, “妓” (ji in pinyin) signifies a prostitute or a whore, “姘” (pin in pinyin) means to have unethical sexual relationship with someone else rather than their spouse, “妒” (du in pinyin)