英语和汉语中的性别歧视的对比研究 Comparative Study of Sexism in English and Chinese.docVIP

Comparative Study of Sexism in English and Chinese Ⅰ.Introduction Language is a kind of social phenomenon(phenomena) and reflects human society. Its existence and development are closely linked to the social attitudes of human beings and to a great extent are affected by their social views and values. Historically and sociologically, our society is man-oriented and man-centered. Women, regarded as a weaker gender in society, are discriminated for a long time and completely subordinated in political life, economic life and even family life in the society dominated by men. Unavoidably, this kind of phenomenon has been embodied in languages. In linguistic aspect, language is bias-based and women suffer from language sexism.The porpuse of the thesis is to probe into the sexual discrimination in both Chinese and English language,and to analyze and summarize the existence and the causes of them. Ⅱ.Literature Review 2.1The Definition of Sexism For the sake of accomplishing a finer study,the fundamental notion-sexist language and its related concepts must be made clear first. “Sexism”refers to discrimination by members of one sex against the other,especially by males against females,based on the thought that one sex is superior.According to Ruether(1993:165), “Sexism is gender privilege of males over females.It is males primarily who have originated this form of oppression,benefited from it,and perpetuated it,legally and ideologically.”In other words,it is a belief system based on the assumption that the physical differences between males and females are so significant that they should determine virtually social and economic roles of men and women. And sexism has manifested itself in different ways in different historical periods and in different cultures. “Sexsim manifests in all form subtle gestures and especially language to exploitation and oppression,and in all human instituttions from the family to the multinational corporation”(Rothenberg,1988:21)The language encode