| 英汉语言中的性别歧视现象 |
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摘要 语言作为人类交流的工具，能够折射社会,语言中的性别差异反映出了社会的偏见,很多语言中都存在着对女性的性别歧视现象。在英汉两种语言中就都存在着不同程度的性别歧视现象，这些现象在字词，表达和一些俗语谚语中表现尤为突出。同时也有其产生的文化根源。本文旨在分析英汉两种语言中的性别歧视现象，并简要探讨现象背后的原因历史文化根源。 关键词 汉语,英语,性别歧视,现象,文化根源 Abstract Language, as the important tool of human communication and thoughts interflow, reflects the minds, attitudes and cultural backgrounds of the language-creator and user. The gender differences show the society’s bias . There are discriminations based on gender in many languages, Also in English and Chinese .Especially in vocabulary, expression, proverbs, etc. which are discriminated against women .This thesis is on the sexism in English and Chinese and try to analyze the cultural reasons of gender discrimination in language Key words English and Chinese, sexism, phenomena, Cultural reason 1. Introduction Language, as the important tool of human communication and thoughts interflow, reflects the minds, attitudes and cultural backgrounds of the language-creator and user. Humans began to study the formation of language in the late period of 18th Century,. Language is formed in course of the Productive forces and social activity of human beings, offering service to the public, which was the reason why we say language is the reflection of the actual condition of the whole society. With the development of society, the language was limited by human’s living style, thinking forms, manner and behavior, values and cultural backgrounds（王振亚 2001: 18）. The creation of words and characters is tightly related to human thoughts. In human society, the male stands in the leading status. The male is regarded much stronger and more powerful than the female. The physical differences between male and female decide the difference of their different roles in the society. The leading status of male and the affiliation status of female lead to the sexism phenomenon in language. In both English and Chinese, the masculine word is widely used as a generic, while feminine words tend to be exclusive. For instance, the word “man” can be referred as to the whole human being, while, the word “woman” can’t; in short phrases, the masculine word usually appear before the feminine word, eg: King and queen, brother and sister, father and mother, boys and girls, husband and wife, Adam and Eve, man and woman. The masculine words usually imply a positive feeling which refers to power, status and leadership. While feminine words, on the other hand, hold a negative meaning to show weakness. The sexism phenomenon generally appears at vocabulary, expression, proverbs grammar and meaning(宋引秀 2002: 37). With the social development and the continuous improvement of the social status of women, especially with the upsurge of the feminist movement, the feminists has created many ways of avoiding the sexism phenomenon, many of which have been taken into effect, such as using person to substitute man when necessary, chairperson takes the place of chairman. It was obviously that only by reducing the sexism in language can the society will be fair. It’s impossible to change the leading status of male, so, it’s hard to eliminate the sexism phenomenon. Though it’s a tough work for us to thoroughly eliminate the sexism discrimination in the society, it’s still a stage for the female to express their own thoughts, and let people have attention to the discrimination phenomenon in language. 2.1. The causes of sexism in English language So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This is at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken. (The Bible) In tradition western culture, male is believed to be the creator. In the Bible, the Lord God is male, and so is Jesus Christ. The story can be regarded as a case to show that man is born with the ability to create. Influenced by the Bible, people tend to hold the idea that Adam, as a male, was the first human being to be created from the beginning of human race, so the male is put to be the first gender in language. Man came to the world first while woman made from one of man’s ribs was created just as help meet for him. And she was not created until all other animals failed to meet the satisfaction of the man. From the order of the birth, it is obvious to see the different importance of man and woman. Man and woman are not equal at all because woman is only a part of man, which itself is the discrimination against women. It is said in the Holy Bible that the first sin is also committed by the woman. She was tempted by the snake into eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and having the man eat, too. At last, the woman was punished to bring forth children in pain and was ruled over by the man. From above, the superiority of men and inferiority of women is clearly seen. The Holy Bible is actually a book of men. As Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries, it can not deny that this helps to set and consolidate the inferiority of women. 2.2. Sexism in English vocabulary It was until the 20th century that the status of female improved. People get the information of discrimination and prejudice attitude towards female from the world media. From the teachers, parents, companions and other social relationship groups, the idea of sexism spread to everyone in the world media, which make the sexism to be a common phenomenon. There is a case recorded in history about the origin of sexism. In the nursery of the past time, the newly-born baby would each have a tag attached to the caring bed, which clearly say I am a boy or It is a girl. In the past hospital of some western countries, the boy is named as I, while the girl it. From this case, we can see how ridiculous a thing it is, The status of women was determined from that moment she was born. 2.2.1 The over-generality of masculine word Male and female, as two components of human race existing in the world, are supposed to keep the equality in English lexicon (vocabulary). However, seen from the whole society, the masculine word is used too much in a general sense, which might make the female avoidably becoming invisible to the society. In English, the using rate of words “he, man, his, him, mankind” is rather high. “He” can be referred to both male and female. E.g. One should bear responsibility for himself and his family . He who plays with fire gets burn. Man, not only has the reference to male, but refers to the whole human race. These “mans” can all show that man can be used generically to refer to both male and female. However, woman, on the other hand, can’t be used to stand for the opposite gender. Another case is that, there are many words describing professions which are suffixed with “man”, but still many female are working in these fields. E.g. fireman, policeman, postman, milkman, salesman, statesman, chairman, etc. 2.2.2 Woman as the exception Some words which don’t work as the symbol of male in form but are usually treated as masculine words. In Britain or some other English speaking countries, words like judge, doctor, lawyer, surgeon, professor, etc. are taken for masculine word which are supposed to done by man. When we hear people say “My cousin is a doctor.” We will intend to think that this doctor is a male. If we want to refer to woman who does such a job, we may add woman, lady, female, etc to the origin words. Here, the phenomenon shows that the man keep rather high social status in the past, cause the female to hold an outsider feeling towards such kind of jobs. On the other hand, some low status professions like teacher, nurse, secretary, model, which are intended to be taken as female work, might well be added with a male before the head when we refer to works for male. Such language habit is unavoidable when related to some historical facts, but it still reflects the social discrimination towards female. 2.3. Sexism in word meaning (expression) In traditional western society, women, as the second sex after male in general, suffer from discrimination in life related to economy, judiciary, and family. Under the law of ancient Rome, there was no female citizen but Rome citizen and his wife; female were stupid, weak-minded, and had no right to take part in politic life and keep politic independent status. While, male, on the contrary, was the director and inspector of this strong mainstream. Human society has been dominated by men for thousands of years of linguistic evolution that led to many inappropriate meaning towards many words in English. 2.3.1 Evil metaphors using on woman In English, women are metaphorized as food, plant, and some animals for entertainment. Food: dish, tomato, apple (pie), peach. Animal: bird, hen, chick, lamb, pigeon, bunny, pussy, bitch, cat, doll, cow. Those cases all shows that the man “Judge by appearances "," contempt of women”. There’re even cases that many animal words have been evolved to derogatory meaning when referring to women. Bat means bitch or prostitute. Dog, chicken, also refers to a degraded woman. 2. 3.2 Sexism in proverbs Proverbs are the production of experience in long-term social practice and experience, It is a treasure house of folk literature, reflect the ethnic society in all aspects of life as a small encyclopedia. No equality between men and women, women affected by prejudice, in such a male-dominant society, the traditional concept of the patriarchal and the phenomenon of discrimination against women is also reflected by proverbs. The following are examples of various types of English proverbs which clearly show the discrimination views of women. 1. Proverbs show women are stupid. Women have long hair and short brains. 2. proverbs show the low morality of women Women is the origin of all evils 3. Proverbs show the status and role of women in family. A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold. 4. Proverbs show the inequality relationship of male and female. Married man turns his staff into a stake. All those above are just several cases which can show that the discrimination toward women in the society. This is not an occasional phenomenon, but has profound origin in history, culture, and society. 3. Sexism in Chinese In China, the phenomenon of discrimination was produced after the end of the matriarchal society, which instead is the patriarchal society. These values was influenced by Confucian culture later, 3.1. The cause of sexism in the Chinese language 3.1.1 Historical background China has gone through a long history of feudal society. Women are treated as the weaker sex and they realize their own values through their marriage to man. As is known to all, the name in China is consisted of both surname and last name. Many surnames keep a component of “女”, like娲、姜、姬、姚. The reason for that is because at the beginning of the whole society in China, the female were at a rather respectful status. At this period of time, China was in a matriarchal society, in which female was not only in a freedom condition, but also enjoyed the high worship from the society. With the development of the productive force, people generally began to realize the actual function of male in bearing offspring. In order to establish the authority of father, the unique status of father must be confirmed, as a result of which the Male dominated the society. 3.1.2 Religion Psychology In Chinese culture, religion plays an important role in sex discrimination. Racial discrimination exist some aspects in Chinese, there is China’s main nationality is the Han nationality. Certainly in western countries also exist a lot of problems. When people face to choose their job, some companies can receive men and the Han nationality. 3.1.3 Economic status and social roles In Chinese women’s status is always lower than men’s in their life. In traditional china women must be engaged in doing housework and take care of their children. They can not find a decent job when they must take care of their children at home. Because in Chinese social environment their husband just busy with job. Therefore women can lose economical ability. Meanwhile women’s social roles can be lower. No matter how hard work, women’s roles can not change in social development. 3.2. Sexism in Chinese vocabulary 3.2.1The component of “女” The discrimination in the Chinese language is generally reflected in the way of using “女” in the formation of characters. Chinese character is originated in Oracle, In it“女”just like a person who kneeling on the ground and the upper body is upright , with the arms bounded on the back ,the pronunciation like “slave”(奴), this keeps a strong atmosphere of discrimination. Many words which contain a rather negative meaning have a component of “女”, such as 妖(demon), 奸(rape), 婪(greedy), 妄(deliria), 妒(jealous), 嫉(jealous), 婊(bitch), 娼(doxy), 妓(prostitute), 奴(slave), 媸(ugly)，etc. These evil meanings obviously show that when ancient people created these characters, they attributed ugliness and evil to women. According to Modern Chinese Dictionary, there are 257 characters which keep the component “女” in Chinese, in which 100 characters keep a negative meaning, 47 keep positive meaning, 18 neutral. We must confess that there are still many positive words that keep the component “女”, too. Such as 妩, 媚(charming), 嫩(tender), 婉, 娇(namby-pamby), etc. However, these comparatively “good” words show that female is for “sight seeing” and entertainment. Man, as the subject of entertainment, still occupies the commanding status in the society. 3.2.2 The word order Many words don’t carry a positive or negative sense themselves; it’s the opinion of the public from the society that departs their meaning, which is to say sometimes it’s people’s practice in daily life that distinguish their meaning. As to the word order, people’s first reaction may put male-first and female-later. From this angle, we can see language keeps flexibility and complexity, and also contains the cognition from the whole society towards the whole world, which involves social, cultural and other factors. When male and female are presented together, it’s usually the masculine word dominating the phrase or put in front of the feminine characters, which make the feminine words, again, laid down to the second sex. This language phenomenon reflects the sexist attitude that males are superior to females in human society. The phenomenon of male-female word order can be easily found in the Chinese language, such as 男女(man and woman), 子女(son and daughter),夫妻(husband and wife), 夫妇(husband and wife),兄妹(brother and sister), 父母(father and mother), 祖父母(grandpa and grandma). 3.3. The sexism in Chinese meaning 3.3.1 他(he) & 她(she) It was not until the year of 1918 that the third person address 她(she) was created. Before, the character “他” was always used to refer to both male and female. We can find this in many compound words like “他乡”, which means a place far from hometown, and 其他 others. Even in the translation of other languages, “他” is also used for representing the pronunciation, such as 马耳他 for Malta, and 维他命 for vitamin. However, seldom have we seen 她 being used in further language combination. 3.4. Sexism in Chinese slang and idioms Chinese slang and idioms also reflect the ideology of showing the discrimination towards female. Due to the deep and profound influence by the idea of man is superior to woman, the sexism can be found in many fields. An ancient Chinese saying不孝有三，无后为大that “there are three unfilial acts, and no posterity is the greatest”. Actually, “no posterity” does not mean that one has no children; it means that one has no boys who will carry on the family name and inherit the family property. We can also find some other cases below: 1. Showing the limit of women’s educational level. 女子无才便是德 Women don’t need to have much knowledge; in a woman, ignorance is a virtue, or an unaccomplished woman is a virtuous woman. 2. Showing the inequality relationship of male and female. 牝鸡司晨，家门不幸 It is a sad house when the hen crows for louder than the cock. 3. Showing the discrimination towards the fate of beautiful woman 红颜薄命 Though she is very beautiful, she is also very unlucky (王金平&翁义明 2006). 4. The Measure to Improve the Sex Equality in Language A certain number of people regard the sexism in language only as the effect from the history. While the point is, some sexism features are not only the negative reflection from the traditional culture in history, but simultaneously are worsening by the subconscious conception and old ideas from people nowadays. A certain measures should be made from now on to reduce the sexism Phenomenon in language. With the development of the society and the up rising of woman’s social status, especially together with the woman’s rights in America, many of revolutions and projects have gradually come out, trying to eliminate the sexism phenomenon in language, which is reflected mostly in English. 1. The neutral words taking the place of single masculine words, such as chairperson—chairman spokesperson—spokesman, humankind—mankind, domestic engineer—housewife, etc. 2. Using double pronoun to take the place of separate pronoun e.g. he/she, his/her – he, his. 3. Trying to create the counterpart feminine words to go along with the masculine words. Businessman—businesswoman, policeman—policewoman. 4. Creating the feminine counterpart pronoun of the masculine ones eg. Ms—Mrs. and Miss(谢丽霞 2004). 5. Conclusion Language is a mirror of the society. Sexism is rooted in society and it is reflected in language. Sexism is an unfair treatment of people, especially women. In reality, the world consists of the two major groups: males and females. Neither of them could exist alone. Without either of them, our human beings cannot live well, let alone the development of society. So the social status of them should be equal. Moreover, they cannot replace each other in some fields. They both made contributions to the human society. The different division of the role between them do not mean that one group is superior than another. 相关链接：教学论文
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