| The research of English sexist language began in the 1920 s, and now it has developed into a relatively independent social linguistics research branch until now. From the perspective of diachronic linguistics, nowadays the research on language and gender has already entered the fourth stage— the reform reflecting and cognitive studying stage. Linguists begin to pay attention to the cognitive process and the causes behind the sexist language. They also begin to consider the relationship between the language structures of abstract symbol system and the language functions of social expression tools.Based on the Conceptual Blending Theory(CBT), the thesis discussed the cognitive mistake behind the sexist language by using the Conceptual Integration Networks(CIN) models. The research scope in this paper is the sexist language in English which contains sexist words, phrases, paradox in proverbs and humor. In this study, corpus-based approach and quantitative analysis are the main methods to research the sexist language. In order to guarantee the credibility and accuracy of the language study, the author did the quantitative research of sexist language based on corpus.All the sexist language data in this thesis are discussed separately based on the CIN models, and are described in detail in Chapter Three about Simplex Networks in semantic derogation, Mirror Networks in generic masculine, Single-scope Networks in sexist metaphor and Double-scope Networks in sexist paradox. During the mapping process, there are mutual effects among mental spaces and any sexist elements in the input space may be projected into the final blend during the mapping process. Then, sexist languages are formed eventually. Unpacking principle was applied in this thesis to rebuild the cognitive process of meaning and explore the effective solutions to solve the sexist language problem.There is no doubt that sexist language is the roadblock in the way of gender equality. Therefore, some effective solutions are proposed to eliminate the sexist language from the linguistic dimension and social dimension. It is not easy to eliminate English sexism in a short time. In essence, language policy and social stereotype should be changed in order to eliminate sexist language fundamentally.The research result shows that sexist language can cause the cognitive impairment and intensify the degree of gender discrimination. Therefore, knowing about the cognitive process of sexist language process can help us find out the feasible ways to solve the problem. For example, human can eliminate the sexist language by using the reform of language policy and purify our language environment. The thesis tires to analyze sexist language from the perspective of CBT for the first time and the results proved that CBT does have a strong explanatory power for sexist language analysis because this theory can explain many complicated linguistic phenomena. Meanwhile, cognitive research perspective helps us to comprehend sexist language more completely and deeply and make a contribution to promote gender equality. |
