Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Gender Discrimination

Sexism in language has received widespread attention in the recent thirty years. It has been proved that sexism exists in the domain of word-formation, word order and even the system of naming, addressing and titling. Whereas these findings are mainly based on the analysis of some typical examples, Wardhaugh regards it as "a topic which seems to invite'large'arguments based on'small'data". Presently, corpus-based researches with infinite data collection are still rarely seen. In addition, Chinese language has not drawn adequate attention in sexism studies. Even scholars in China have shown a preference to studies in English language. Moreover, almost all previous studies focused on one language, lacking a comparative mode across languages.English language is most widely used in the world and Chinese language has the largest number of speakers. As the main representatives of cultures in the East and the West, the two languages belong to Indo-European family and Sino-Tibetan family respectively with different development courses and different writing systems. A comparative study between the two will help to understand basic traits of language deeply and to reveal the fundamental structure in Eastern and Western cultures. A comprehensive study of sexism in both Chinese and English languages and a comparison of their cultures will offer great help in reference materials in identification of language, culture, thought and national psychology as well as in understanding of language and culture.Apart from this, a study on language and gender will also show a great practical value. A knowledge of sexism in language will help to enhance a mutual respect and peaceful coexistence between the two genders and thus to achieve a harmonious language and social environment. Findings in language and gender study can be utilized in language planning and the making of language policy. For example, national language reform in China shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China involved much of the outcome from such researches; other countries, especially the United States, make an annual non-sexist guidance to regulate accurate language use in mass media and public issues. Findings from the language and gender studies can also direct the teaching of English and Chinese as a second language, providing rules of standard language use, avoiding sexist expressions and lessening the intercultural misunderstanding between the two genders.The relationship between language and culture is rather complicated and subtle, and the essence of it is hard to be revealed by traditional research methods. Chaology, started in the 1980s, studies chaotic state and movement from a perspective of intuition and integrity and shows a great value of application in complication, uncertainty, disorder and randomness studies. Adopting Chaology as the theoretical background, the dissertation will make a comprehensive interpretation of sexism in word formation in both Chinese and English languages.Focusing on points mentioned above, the dissertation will launch an empirical study on the self-built Chinese and English corpora. The English Sexist Vocabulary Corpus in the research is based on the data mainly collected from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary with a reference to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, An English-Chinese Dictionary and other English dictionaries, whereas the Chinese Sexist Characters Corpus in the research is based on the data mainly collected from Shuowen Jiezi with a reference to the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary and Xinhua Dictionary of New Words, etc. There are 57,100 English entries in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary,9,353 characters and 1,163 variants, altogether 10,516 characters in Shuowen Jiezi and 56,000 entries in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. All these dictionaries are authoritative and rich in their word collection, capable of guaranteeing the representativeness of the data collection in the study.With a comparative method (comparison of synchronic and diachronic studies; and comparison across languages), the dissertation first makes a codification of data in the two corpora, analyses sexism reflected in words of the two languages, then makes a synchronic and diachronic comparison with the reference to new words, and lastly launches a trans-language comparison on sexism of word formation in Chinese and English languages.Findings of the dissertation prove the generality of male superiority in Eastern and Western cultures and the existence of female discrimination in word formation in Chinese and English languages. Usually,'male'words are associated with favorable connotations while 'female'words with derogatory or even sexual connotations.Sexism is shown differently in Chinese and English languages:there are many characters in Chinese describing females'physical beauty and their positions in the family clan, indirectly showing the discrimination against them; whereas English language shows a more direct sexism with a lot of words labeled as sexist words with discrimination against females in the dictionary. Such differences are due to the Chinese culture's emphasis on social status and family bond and Western culture's emphasis on individualism.The dissertation is a tentative research with the focus on sexism reflected at the morphological level. Its findings will be valid only at the level of words.