A Contrastive Study Of Sexism Between English And Chinese

Sexism in language has for a long time remained a heated topic among linguists, especially sociolinguists. Since 1960s, with the rise of Second Wave of Feminist Movement, the highly progressed consciousness of social equality, and sufficient development of sociolinguistics, sociology and women's studies, linguistic sexism has drawn great attention in western academia.Sexism in language is actually the reflection of various ideological dross, outmoded conventions and bad customs in a particular culture. Sexism in language arises as the result of the influence of certain social and cultural factors on language. It in turn has certain influence on people's mode of thinking, conduct and social culture construction. The prevalence of sexism in language will inevitably have a negative effect on language learners and users, causing misleading barriers in their cognitive development. If we turn a blind eye and take a laissez-faire attitude to it, sexism in language will reinforce people's sexual prejudice and social inequity, which is harmful to social development and progress. Therefore, it is sexism in language will reinforce people's sexual prejudice and social inequity, which is harmful to social development and progress. Therefore, it is of great significance to face up to the problem of sexism in language.The investigation has revealed common sexist practices in English and Chinese. Certain features of the English and Chinese languages condition women to be inferior and second-class citizens, and condition men to be superior and first-class citizens. The English-speaking people and Chinese people live in the same patriarchal society, on the belief that male is the superior sex and many social institutions and much social practice are then organized; language only reflects men's point of view and interests. Owing to these determinant factors that attribute to a sex-biased language this commonality is not surprising if one accepts the belief that there is a close relationship between language and society. Word structure, word order, and proverbs, together help to reflect sex stereotype and reinforce the subordinate status of women.In English, woman is only man's rib. In Chinese, wife is only husband' s贱内,内人,贤内助. Man is portrayed as the spokesperson for all human beings, the assumption being that the world is males unless proven otherwise. Most occupational terms are understood to refer to males and will be occasionally include females. Woman is portrayed as sexual object whereas man is portrayed as `rational' creature. She submits to men, serves men, pleases men, charms men and is abused by men. She represents Eve,she represents阴,and she represents evil. And these are the images of women in the Western philosopy and in the Chinese culture. However, as English and Chinese are two different languages and each language has its own linguistic system, the ways that sexism manifests itself vary.Based on the previous research, this thesis is a tentative endeavor to make a contrastive study of the sexism in English and Chinese systematically, conduct related researches and analyses on it, and provide feasible solutions so as to eliminate the negative effect of sexism in language on people's cognitive pattern and mode of thinking, and be of help in creating a better social developing pattern with social equity and harmony. It is expected that future work in this field will re-examine the conclusions in this thesis and offer confirmations and further refinement to the results obtained here. This thesis consists of seven chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction which explains the concept of sexism, gender and sex , gives a brief literature review on the studies of sexism by scholars home and abroad, and explains the purpose of writing this thesis and its main contents .Chapter Two applies the approach of contrast, and gives a relatively systematic analysis and explanation of sexism in English in various aspects such as word formation, word order, the generic use of masculine terms, Semantic derogation of female-related words, appellation, metaphors and proverbs. Chapter Three analyzes sexism in Chinese from the perspectives of the word formation, word order, women's names, generic masculine , name lists and proverbs.Chapter Four is the core part , which focuses on the similiarities and differences of sexism between English and Chinese.Chapter Five is devoted to the discussion of linguistic strategies in minimizing or avoiding linguistic sexism.Chapter Six is conclusion of the thesis. It mainly explore the positive implication of the study on foreign language teaching by connecting sexist language with teaching work. From the perspective of English teaching, suggestions and guidelines on how to avoid sexist language in classrooms are given with examples. And typical examples are listed to show English teachers how to design class activities creatively.