Sexual Differentiation And Sexism In English

With the development of Women's Liberation in the western world since the 1970s, the society has undergone a revolution of reforming the English language into an equal and unbiased one. Many scholars and sociologists try to analyze women's way of using language and make comparison between the two genders. Such famous linguists as Peter Trudgill, Robin Lakoff, Don Zimmerman and Candace West have exerted a great influence on the study in this field. It's well recognized that there are great gender differences in almost every language and culture in the world. One of the most important points is to get rid of sex discrimination caused by the use of masculine pronouns he/ man, which is considered one of the subtlest and most controversial topics in the study of sexism in English language. The thesis attempts to discuss the manifestation of sex discrimination in English and the reasons behind it. The reasons why sexism exists are concerned with different roles women and men are playing in a male-dominated society. Based on the theories of some famous linguists such as Trudgill, Lakoff, Zimmerman, and West, the present writer attempts to show, from a sociological point of view, that language differences between women and men do exist in various languages. In the end, the article concludes that knowing the differences between the two genders helps us to have a better command of English learning and western culture as well.