On The Sexism In Chinese And English From The Cultural Perspective

The sexism in language has remained a heated topic among linguists for a long time. Great progress has been made in the study on the sexism in English since the seventeenth century.With the development of the study, linguists try to discuss the reasons of the sexism in English and the effective ways to eliminate sexism in English. Sexism exists in Chinese as well as in English, but the gender language study in China is still in its infancy. With foundation of the People's Republic of China and the improvement of women's social status, linguists in China gradually realized the importance of studying the gender bias language and gender difference.Based on the previous research, this thesis is a tentative endeavor to make a comparative study of the sexism in English and Chinese, such as: the sexism in word order, the sexism in naming and addressing, the sexism in word formation, the sexism in idioms and mass media etc. by way of analysis, comparison, statistics, induction and deduction and also to discuss the cultural factors of the sexism in language, such as: the influence of history, religion, traditional ideology, society and courtesy. The writer also makes an attempt to suggest some feasible strategies to eliminate or at least weaken the sexism in both Chinese and English. The writer draws a conclusion that the weakening or eliminating the sexism in language lies in the social change; in other words, the improvement of women's social status is the basis of the reform.