Re-examining Gender Bias In English From New Perspectives

Traditionally, linguists engaged in the study of gender bias in English lay much emphasis on lexical asymmetries and speech differences between men and women and their research work is often conducted in a context-free and static way. They tend to believe that the English language itself is sexist and they take it as their mission to try to make English less " sexist" via neutralization.The author of this thesis believes that gender bias in language is more an individual opinion and an ideological product than a mere linguistic phenomenon and can be detected by examining individual's linguistic habits within contexts.By analyzing some pieces of real discourses under the guidance of transitivity system and mood and modality system of the Systemic Functional Grammar and the theory of Discourse Roles, the author reaches the conclusion that gender bias is buried deep in people's linguistic habits and that a critical discourse analysis will arouse people's awareness of its pernicious effect and reduce its control over people via language.