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摘 要

语言是记录文化的重要符号系统。语言中的性别歧视反映出社会等级的权力关系，彰显男性的主导地位。本文在前人研究的基础上，描述英汉语中的性别歧视现象，并从文化的角度加以分析。

本文首先阐明“性别歧视”的定义，并且列举其表现形式及其成因；接着分别从婚俗、谚语、词汇、人际称谓、词序和词义等方面分别列举英汉语中的性别歧视现象；然后从文化角度分析英汉中语性别歧视的异同点，并提出减少语言中性别歧视的建议。最后得出结论，语言中性别歧视的消除取决于社会的进步程度。

关键词：性别歧视；语言；文化角度；英语；汉语

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. Sexism in English and Chinese 3

3.1 Weddings (man-centered) 3

3.2 Proverbs and Idioms 4

3.3 English Vocabulary and Chinese Character 4

3.4 Interpersonal Appellations 5

3.5 Word Order 6

3.6 Word Meaning 6

4. Comparing Sexism in English and Chinese from the Cultural Perspective 7

4.1Similarities 7

4.2 Differences 9

5. Methods of Reducing Sexism in Language 10

5.1 Using Gender-neutral Language 10

5.2 Adjusting Word Order 11

5.3 Using Other Words 11

5.4 Other Methods 11

6. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

For a long time, we live in a man-oriented society. Men are always in the dominant place to control centralized state power, while women are the target to be discriminated. Women, as part of human beings, their existence and thought are usually neglected, suppressed and depreciated. An English writer writes: “The extent of civilization is always closely related to the degree of women’s liberation.” (Kramsch, 2000: 10) Influenced by the French industrial revolution and the anti-slavery movement in America, famous English author M. Wollstonecraft advocated that ‘Women dominate themselves’ in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. (Zhao Ronghui, 2003: 34) With the development of the second women’s liberation movement in the 1960s, people came to realize the prejudice against women and sexism in language.

Each language represents one profound culture. Culture consists of all the shared products of human society. (He Shanfen, 2005: 33) This means not only such material things as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family patterns, languages. (Den Yanchang and Liu Runqing, 1994: 3) Sexism in language is the reflection of various antiquated ideas, feudal conventions and bad customs in different cultures. Its reinforcement in social inequality and sexual prejudice against women hinder the development of society.

This thesis attempts to present a systematic comparison of sexism between English and Chinese from a cultural perspective and to give some advice on how to reduce the sexism in language. More importantly than all of that, the aim is to deepen people’s understanding of the sexism in language so as to make social progress.

2. Literature Review

The sexism in language has remained a hot topic among linguists for a long time. Till now, many scholars and linguists have focused on this topic in an attempt to eliminate the sexism in language. American scholar, Allen Pace Nilsen (1990: 22) holds that the users of English value women for their sexiness and men for their success in his book Sexisn and Language. Danish linguist, Otto Jesperson (1922: 33) has pointed out that English is the most masculine language in his book Growth and Structure of the English Language. And he is the earliest linguist who focuses on ‘gender language’. David A. Lillie (2009: 54) provides some solutions to eliminate sexism in English. David Moser (2007) finds out that the sexism exists in Chinese characters, idioms and proverbs and so on. Chinese linguist Yang Yonglin (2004) has also done a great contribution to the research of sexism in English. Besides, some famous Chinese scholars like Shao Zhihong (2013) and He Shanfen (2005) also have done contrastive studies between English and Chinese in terms of rhetoric and semantics.

As a whole, all these studies help to pave a way for the author to make an analysis on the sexism in English and Chinese from a cultural perspective and give some advice on how to reduce the sexism in English and Chinese.

2.1 Definitions of Sexism

The word “sexism” was first created by American feminists who were inspired by “racism”. Sexism in language is the use of language that devalues members of one sex, almost invariably women, and thus fosters gender inequality. (Hou Xu, 2010: 144) According to Webster New College Dictionary, sexism is the prejudice or discrimination based on sex, especially discrimination against women. And Oxford Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary has a similar definition of “sexism”, that is “prejudice or discrimination against people, especially women because of their sex.” From these three definitions, we can generally consider that sexism in language is the prejudice or discrimination against women.

2.2 Performance of Sexism

Sexism can be regarded as discrimination against women or men. In most cases, it refers to the former, which is discrimination against women. As to the performance of sexism, generally speaking, it refers to discriminating women by considering them invisible or trivializing them by perpetuating notions of male supremacy. There are mainly three kinds of sexism in language. First is to use masculine words to summarize both sexes; second is to add discriminatory meanings to feminine words; the third is reflected in the word order.

2.3 Reasons of Sexism

There are many reasons for sexism in language. Some typical reasons are as follows. Firstly, social role and status will lead to the emergence of sexism. British linguist Peter (2008: 32) once said, “female’s social status is no less firm as male’s and usually lower than that of male’s in our society.” Peter’s ideology was greatly influenced by the social environment at that time. In western society, men are valued in terms of what he can do while women are judged by how she appears. Man’s important social role and dominated status set him in a high position, while woman’s subordinate status set her in a low position which is often to be discriminated. Male-dominance and female’s being subordinate is thus exposed through the conveyance of language. (Hou Xu, 2010: 144)

Secondly, when it comes to economic aspect, women are considered as subordinates of men. Up till now, in most conditions, men usually occupy senior positions with a considerable salary, however, women remain in fundamental positions with an average salary. In today’s material world, compared with men’s great economic strength, women are inevitably to be discriminated.

Thirdly, social division of labor is also a crucial factor. No matter western countries or eastern countries, people take the division of labor for granted: men are usually considered to be the breadwinner of their families, and they should work outside to earn more money; however, women are usually suggested to be housewives, and they should stay at home to manage the domestic chores. Gradually, the division of labor forms unequal social status between men and women, thus leading to sexism in language.

3. Sexism in English and Chinese

There exist many aspects of sexism in English and Chinese，for this part, the author chooses some representative aspects of both languages respectively.

3.1 Weddings (man-centered)

No matter in English-speaking countries or in China, marriage has greater influence on women than on men. Marriage makes women subjective to their husbands. In western countries, after getting married, women have to change their surnames to be consistent with their husbands’. For example, a woman named Elva Wharton, after getting married with her husband Edward Jackson, Elva gets her new name “Elva Jackson”.

Similar conditions also exist in China. Before the foundation of new China, in order to show women’s marital status, women who got married had to add their husbands’ surnames ahead of their own full names. Till now, in some parts of China, such as Hongkong and Macao, this convention still remains. The chief secretary in the administration in Hongkong named Chen Fang Ansheng is the executant of this convention. From her name, one can easily know that her husband’s surname is Chen. In most parts of China, though women don’t need to change their surnames, they are often referred to as someone’s wife. Yet, it’s hard to know men’s marital status according to their names in both China and English-speaking countries.

3.2 Proverbs and Idioms

There are many English proverbs which are exclusively used to describe stupid and ignorant women. For example, “A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold”; “Words are women, deeds are men”; “Men make houses, women make homes”; “A man is successful, a woman is sexy”. These proverbs are all reflections of the discrimination against women. They show that men are more valuable and talented than women. And women often gossip and are always related with housework.

Similarly, in Chinese proverbs and idioms, it’s easy to find the epitome of sexism, especially prejudice against women. For instance, “嫁出去的女，泼出去的水”(which means a married daughter doesn’t belong to her parents anymore), “女子无才便是德”(which means innocence is the virtue for women), “红颜祸水”(which means a dangerous beauty). These all show disrespect for women. Similar to western countries, women suffer lower social status and are less valuable than men. Proverbs are the reflection of culture.

3.3 English Vocabulary and Chinese Character

As to English vocabulary, many unmarked vocabulary are deemed as masculine words, such as: president, judge, kingdom, hero, doctor, engineer, professor and entrepreneur. Most feminine words, however, are marked. They are often added with free morphemes like “female”, “lady”, “woman”, “wife” or “girl”, or end with suffixes like “ess”, “ette” or “ine”, such as: female president, lady veterinarian, woman judge, housewife, girl doctor, hostess, usherette, heroine.

In terms of Chinese characters, many derogatory words have the radical component “女”(which means female), such as “奸”, “娼”, “妓”, “奴”, “婢”, “妖”, “嫖”. (Zhao Ronghui, 2003:89) Similarly, there still exist many unmarked Chinese characters which refer to masculine words. Besides, most feminine words are marked with the Chinese character component “女” .For example, “女司机”, “女市长”, “女厂长”, “女科学家”, “女企业家”. Those superfluous suffixes, morphemes and character components added to feminine words obviously reflect discrimination against women.

3.4 Interpersonal Appellations

In western countries, some male bosses may call their female subordinates “sugar”, “darling” or “sweetie” to show intimacy or to philander with those subordinates. However, female bosses rarely choose this kind of appellation. English linguist Spender (1990: 65) once indicated that, “It would be detrimental to men’s dignity when using feminine words to call them. Conversely, it would not.” Here is another example, in western countries, no matter whether a man has married or not, we can always call him “Mr. someone”. But when it comes to women, it changes. An unmarried woman should be called “Miss”, while a married woman should be called “Mrs. someone”. From the appellation of woman, it’s easy to know her marital status. This is really unequal to women.

In Chinese feudal society, men and women occupy unequal social status. Men always occupy the dominating status. At that time, husbands give their wives many disrespectful names, such as: “贱内”, “拙削”, “糟糠”, “内人”, and “贱妾”. Their appellations to wives reflect their feudal ethical conception—husband guides wife. Besides, men often call young and beautiful girls “小妞” or “妞儿” which indicate frivolous meanings. However, there doesn’t exist any similar appellation to man. Gender inequality is perfectly embodied in interpersonal appellations. On a deeper level, it shows social inequality.

3.5 Word Order

When it comes to two genders, in most cases, the order is ‘male first, female second’. For example, in English there are “he or she”, “king and queen”, “father and mother”, “boys and girls”, “husband and wife”, “men and women”. There is only one exception ‘ladies and gentlemen’.

Likewise, the word order in Chinese is also “man first, women second”. For instance, “男女”, “夫妇”, “公婆”, “爷爷奶奶”, “男孩女孩”, “男耕女织”. (Zhao Ronghui, 2003: 100)

There exist various reasons for this order, but normally one who is culturally dominant can occupy the first place. Men with higher social status are always treated with more respect, while women with lower social status are often placed in a second position. The word order in both English and Chinese shows severe discrimination against women.

3.6 Word Meaning

Word meaning is sometimes culturally-specific. In English, the word “man” means “a person” or “people in general”. In western countries, an unmarried man is called “bachelor” while an unmarried woman “spinster”. According to Longman Dictionary, “bachelor” refers to an unmarried man who is regarded very suitable to be chosen as a husband; “spinster” refers to an unmarried woman, usually one who is no longer young or seems unlikely to marry. Even the same word has different meanings when it describes different genders. Take the adjective “imposing” as an example, “an imposing man” means an impressive and admirable man; while “an imposing woman” means a daunting and unsympathetic woman. The phrase “man on the street” means an ordinary person; while “woman on the street” means a prostitute. (Shao Zhihong and Shao Weiying, 2013: 93) In addition, there are many polysemantic words carry insulting meanings against women, such as “cow”, “bat” and “doll”. Regardless of their lexical meanings, those words are still used to refer to stupid and lazy women, even prostitutes.

It’s similar in China. There exist many Chinese characters which are exclusively used to insult women. Such as: “鸡”, “破鞋”, “母夜叉”, “狐狸精”, and “母老虎” (which contain exaggerated and depreciative meanings against women). Those words, apart from their original meanings, have extra contemptuous meanings against women. In Chinese, an unmarried man is usually called as “单身汉”，while an unmarried woman has nicknames like “老处女” or “老姑娘”. Masculine words or words used to describe man usually carry positive meanings, however, feminine words or words used only to describe women often carry disrespectful and humiliating meaning.

4. Comparing Sexism in English and Chinese from the Cultural Perspective

By comparing sexism in English and Chinese, such a conclusion can be drawn that both of the two languages obey the ideology that men are superior to women. Languages, like cultures, reflect different ideology, ethos, concepts and customs as well as different cultural traits. The sexism in language is actually a part of cultural ideology, which refers to the attitude that closely related to cultural values.

In general, similarities surpass differences on the sexism between English and Chinese. In this part, the author will introduce similarities and differences respectively.

4.1Similarities

4.1.1the Influence of Traditional Ideology

Sexism in language, to some extent, is the reflection of traditional ideology. In China, the book Yin and Yang(which is a famous ancient book in China) transmits the ideology that women are inferior to men. Confucianism also proposes the idea that women and mean person are hard to get along with. The three cardinal guides and five constant virtues put forward by Dong Zhongshu and the three obedience and the four virtues proposed by Mencius and so on, all these traditional ideologies make women the victim of sexism.

In ancient western countries, women’s fate was controlled by men. Women had no other choice but be submitted to men, otherwise they would be killed. The story Joan of Arc is a typical example. Men had the right of killing their wives in ancient times, and women were not allowed to submit the case to the court. Women have no legal rights, but the obligation of obedience. Nowadays, women are endowed with more and more legal rights. Under the influence of those traditional ideologies, discriminations against women gradually spill over into language.

4.1.2the Influence of History

In terms of history, patriarchal society has dominated a longer time than matriarchal society. In patriarchal society, men are always the decision-makers and hold positions of power and prestige. Besides, men often occupy senior positions and are the symbol of power, status and dominance. In contrast, women are always considered as the weak group, and their domains of activity are only limited at home. The patriarchal society has institutionalized the view that men are superior to women.

No matter in ancient China or in western countries, women can be traded freely like commodity. In ancient Roman laws, there are only two kinds of legal citizens, which are Roman male citizens and Roman male citizens’ wives. Women even don’t have legal identities in ancient Roman. In the ancient western upper class as well as in the feudal Chinese society, women are not allowed to work outside, instead, they should stay at home to do the housework and to raise children. History has sown the seed of sexism in people’s mind, thus people gradually apply sexism into language.

4.1.3the Influence of Religion

The ideology that “men are superior to women” and “women are the second sex” are not only restricted to Christianity and other western religions, but also are highly valued by some religions in China, such as: Taoism and Buddhism. Religion plays a leading role during the transmission of culture. In view of women’s roles in traditional religious societies, women are defined as an inferior group related to the evil. Christianity, a powerful religion in western countries, helps a lot to consolidate the idea that women occupy the inferior position. Holy Bible, the most famous masterpiece of Christianity, is actually a book about men. In this book, god has been described as the most powerful divinity, and almost all the important characters are men. According to the Holy Bible, man is the first person created by god, and woman is then made from one of man’s ribs. From the order of birth, it’s obvious to see that man is more important than woman and woman is a subordinate component of man. Influenced by some doctrines in Buddhism, most Chinese disregard women and refer them as the evil. Therefore, sexism in religion actually reflects sexism in culture.

4.2 Differences

Just as there are no two pieces of the same snowflake, so does language. Apart from similarities, there still exist some differences of sexism between English and Chinese.

4.2.1 Derivation in English and Radical Component in Chinese

It’s generally agreed that the most important difference between the two languages is that English is hypotaxis-prominent, while Chinese, parataxis-prominent. As to the written forms, many feminine words in English are derived from masculine words; while Chinese characters are in a separate way. For example, the word “female” is derived from “male” in English. The derivation in English is greatly influenced by Holy Bible which embodies that woman is derived from man. Chinese characters are relatively independent, characters related to women have the radical component “女” and characters related to men have “亻” (which refers to human beings, mostly men). Most Chinese characters that carry derogatory meanings have the radical component “女” but not “亻”. This is because women were taken as devils in ancient China, and some of them were blamed for their exceeding beauty. Furthermore, many unexpected disasters are known as “女祸”(which refers to women’s fault), such as a sudden flood or a precipitate earthquake.

4.2.2 Conceptions of Gender

Another difference is different conceptions of gender between English and Chinese. Chinese value the overall thinking, while western people prefer individual thinking. This opposition is due to their different philosophical background. (Shao Zhihong and Shao Weiying, 2013: 352) One obvious difference between Western philosophy and Eastern philosophy finds expression in the opposites between subject consciousness and object consciousness. Chinese culture insists on the balance of yin and yang. Yin usually refers to inactive, weak and negative things, such as moon and woman; while yang refers to active, powerful and positive things, including sun and man. What it considers as the best condition is the balance between yin and yang. However, western culture insists on the opposition of male and female. It regards male and female as two independent units. Thus, different conceptions exert different impact on the sexism in language.

4.2.3 Cultural Ideology

In addition, the difference in cultural ideology between English and Chinese also influences the sexism in language. Influenced by Confucianism, the idea of clan is deeply rooted in culture, including language. Compared with Chinese culture, western culture originated from the Greek culture which has been immensely influential on language, philosophy of the whole western world. (Hou Xu, 2010: 202)

Feudal morality exerts a tremendous influence on the sexism in Chinese. The feudal hereditary rule and the patriarch system are deeply rooted in China, thus helping to strengthen the ideology that men are superior to women. Nevertheless, Hellenism and religion have a greater impact on the sexism in English. In Greek mythologies, women are taken as symbols of the evil. The most influential religion in western countries—Christianity also expresses the ideology that women are subordinates of men.

5. Methods of Reducing Sexism in Language

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis makes the claim that the structure of the language one habitually uses influences the manner in which one thinks and behaves. (Gu Jiazuamp;Lu Sheng, 2005: 32) As Sapir (2009: 76) has pointed in his book Language, “in fact, language is a perfect means for each known nationality to communicate and express ideas. A significant premise to develop culture is the perfection of language.” Sexism in language is prevalent. It is necessary to make contributions to the perfection of language. In this part, the author suggests some methods of reducing sexism in language.

5.1 Using Gender-neutral Language

With the development of social progress, neutral language emerges in place of former sexist language. Gender-neutral language means a language has no specific marks in the structure of language. For example, in English, “mankind” should be replaced by “people” or “person”; “chairman” should be replaced by “chairperson”; “salesman” can be replaced by “salesclerk”. Some Chinese characters with humiliations against women should remove the radical component “女” so as to be neutral. Such as: “婢”, “婊”, “妖” (which carry humiliating meanings against women).

5.2 Adjusting Word Order

When regarding to the word order, most phrases in both English and Chinese obey the order—men first, women second. Thus, it’s essential to make some adjustments in word order. For some phrases, women can be put in the first place. Such as: mother and father, sister and brother, girls and boys. It is the same in Chinese, such as: “妈妈爸爸”, “姐姐哥哥” , “女生男生”.

5.3 Using Other Words

In English, the third person pronoun he is used to refer to either a male or a female if not stated explicitly. But now, when choosing pronouns, “he” should not be omnipotent. Accordingly, pronouns like “one” or “someone” is suggested to refer to people of both genders if not stated explicitly. It also works in Chinese. For example, pronouns like “某人” or “有的人” (which means someone) should replace “他”(which means he) if the context is not clear and definite.

5.4 Other Methods

Apart from all the methods above, scholars and linguists can also try to create some new words in order to replace certain sexist words in both English and Chinese. Since new words can enrich linguistic expressions and also ease contradictions between linguistic forms and ideographic functions. (Yang Yonglin, 2004: 29) Sexism exists not only in language, but also in other aspects of our daily life. To eliminate sexism in language, one thing for us to bear in mind is to remove sexism in social roots.

6. Conclusion

To sum up, the author puts emphasis on the sexism in English and Chinese, and analyses it from a cultural perspective. Language is the symbolic representation of people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. (Den Yanchang and Liu Runqing, 1994: 3) Male-dominated culture stands for a civilization with conquerable properties, while feminism symbolizes an equal, adjustable and harmonious civilization. In modern society, though the disparity in division of labor and social status between men and women is narrowing, the long-term thinking mode still imprison people’s mind. (Zhu Wanjin, 2013: 151)

Sexism in language mirrors the ideology of “valuing the male child only”. However, in a sense, female language represents the direction of future development in language. Rosalie Maggio (1989: 72) once said, “It is also necessary to acknowledge that there can be no solution to the problem of sexism in society on the level of language alone”. Thus, it’s high time for us to pay attention to the reform in social civilization, particularly to the research of female language. In order to eliminate the sexism in language, the first thing is to eliminate the discrimination bear in people’s mind. The key to the reform is to improve women’s social status. Finally, the sexism in language may gradually be reduced or even disappear.

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