An Analysis Of Sexism In Language From The Perspective Of Critical Linguistics

There exists a controversy in developing the relationship between language and gender. The controversy hinges on the degree to which one can say that the system of language projects sexist bias. One side of the debate views sexism in language as inherent to the system itself, and this is the "determinist". approach to sexism in language, held particularly by Dale Spender, who claims that sexist language creates a sexist world, which proves to be untenable. The other side of the debate proposes that sexism is encoded into language, either consciously or unconsciously, by users of language. In this way, linguistic practices tend to reinforce and naturalize sexist divisions in society. It also asserts that sexist assumptions and biases are reflected, perpetuated and naturalized in language use. This paper accepts the second view and establishes it as the theoretical prerequisite for the study of sexism in language from critical linguistics perspective.This paper analyzes the sexism in language from the perspective of critical linguistics, employing transitivity, modality, transformation and classification, i.e. the most frequently used analytic tools in critical linguistics to reveal the gender bias against women hidden in several discourses. It aims at enhancing readers' critical awareness and providing feminists as well as other readers with a set of feasible analysis methods to read critically in their daily life.This paper consists of five chapters.Chapter One gives an introduction, outlining the plan of this paper and serving as the basis for the discussion in the following chapters. This chapter presents the objective ofthis study, examines the relation between language and gender, surveys the two traditional approaches to the gender differences in language: the difference/cultural approach and the dominance/power-based approach, and puts forward the methodology adopted by this thesis, that is, critical linguistics approach.Chapter Two surveys the determinist approach and a functional model proposed to account for sexism in language. Androcentrism remains to be the premise of sexism in language and states roughly that men's linguistic behavior fits the view of what is admirable or desirable, while women will be blamed for whatever is considered negative or reprehensible (Coates, 1986: 15). There are two approaches to sexism in language: the "determinist" approach and the "functional" model. Dale Spender's man made language theory is typical of the former approach, which is reassessed and denied in this chapter. This paper accepts the "functional" model proposed to account for sexism in language, maintaining that sexism is encoded into language by language users either consciously or unconsciously, and that sexist assumptions and biases are reflected, perpetuated and naturalized in language use. Based on this view, this thesis studies the sexism in language from critical linguistics perspective, employing its main analytic tools to analyze several discourses to reveal their sexism. The survey of the definition and theoretical bases of critical linguistics also constitutes an important part of this chapter.Chapter Three discusses the theoretical framework of this thesis, elaborating on the major analytic tools in critical linguistics: transitivity, modality, transformation and classification, and explains why they can work to unveil sexism in language. Transitivity facilitates analyzing the imbalanced power and control distribution between men and women. Modality draws on the interpersonal relation between participants. Different naming systems embody the speaker/writer's ideology, and finite modal operators convey the intensity of commentary on possibility of the propositional content. Transformations operate to delete, substitute, combine, or reorder a syntagm or its elements so as to distort certain representation incompatible with the writer's ideology. And classification systems embody people's attitudes and viewpoints.Chapter Four analyzes several discourses extracted from an autob...