On Gender Difference And Sexism In English Slang

As one of the foci of research in sociolinguistics, gender difference and sexism in language have been studied by numerous experts and scholars, home or abroad. Since Robin Lakoff's research (1975), dozens of experts and scholars, out of many purposes, have studied this topic from various perspectives and levels by using different research methods. Up to now, great achievements have been obtained. However, there is still a lot of room to be improved and developed. One of them is, for example, that language variety as a focus of studying gender difference and sexism is given little attention to, especially in home research field. Gender difference and sexism in language is a natural phenomenon during its use and development, which should be also reflected in other language varieties. As one kind of language varieties, English slang can be used to study gender difference and sexism, which proves a good way to research on this topic. Based on some sociolinguistic theories, this thesis, by using deductive and inductive methods combined with descriptive and explanatory methods, is to have a study on gender difference and sexism in terms of English slang with the reasons underneath the phenomena and the solutions. The purpose of this study is to help us have a deeper understanding of the phenomena of gender difference and sexism in language from a new perspective, the close relation between standard language and language variety and the different social roles of both sexes in western societies. It also helps us have a general knowledge of English slang, thus making good use of slang in a more scientific and flexible way in our life.The first chapter in this thesis states some sociolinguistic theories, some basic concepts and briefly reviews the past study on gender difference and sexism in language with its existing problems. The second chapter introduces the whole knowledge of English slang from five points, to say, its origin, definition, classification, characteristics and its social functions. The third chapter focuses on the analysis of gender difference in English slang from three points: the creation of slang, slang knowledge of each gender and slang use of each gender, among which the third one is the most important. The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of sexism in English slang, which is mainly displayed in four aspects: in some special types of slang, in slang terms referring to each gender, in slang meaning changes and in social attitude toward the use of slang. The fifth chapter, based on what has been depicted and analyzed in chapter three to four, concentrates on the discussion of the reasons underneath the phenomena and the proposals to eliminate sexist English slang. Through the analysis, the author finds that, gender difference and sexism in English slang, besides the influence partly caused by the biological factors of both sexes, is mainly caused by social, historical and cultural factors. Therefore, the best way to better sexist slang is to change or eliminate completely the prejudice against women in society, only by which can sexism in English slang be completely eliminated. Finally comes the conclusion part. It summarizes the basic conclusion of this research and points out the limited points, and it also puts forward the future research topics.