Sexism in English 英语语言的性别文化.docVIP

Sexism in English Language 1. Introduction: Sexism, according to the new Oxford Dictionary of English, means “prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.” It, according to Webster Ninth New College Dictionary, means prejudice or discrimination based on sex; esp: discrimination against women. Sexism can be located in the language which is known as sexism in language. Many people have had study on this aspect. Otto Jespersen, a distinguished Danish perspective, is one of the first linguists who do the research on sexism from the linguistic perspective. In his book (1923), The Growth Structure of the English language, he argues that English is the most sexism language as far as he knows. The systematic study of linguistic sexism is from the Second Wave Feminism. Lakoff claims that linguistic discrimination to women located in two ways-sex bias in language and sex difference in language use. His book language and Women’s Place (1975) had direct influence on the systematic study of sex and language. It gives linguistically specific accounts to arouse people reexamine both the differences between men’s and women’s language, and the consumption that men’s language consists of the norm while women are discriminated in English. It plays an important role in struggle against sexism in English society and directs people to pay attention to sexism in language and arouse women’s awareness to escaping from men’s control. In the 1990s, the study has made further advance by feminists represented by Deborah Cameron. In her book Feminism and Linguistic Theory (1992), she not only point5s out sexism assumptions and practices, but also shows how the assumptions and practices are implied in ideology and oppression. This has brought about a greater focus on the analysis of sexist discourses from a critical linguistic perspective. 2. Sexism in English language 2.1 In the word 2.1.1 Morphology Suffix In the 1930’s, the famous lingui