Group members: 高婧 杜欢 陈艳秋 沙菲 陈云

ContentIntroduction Literature reviewAnalysis of female namin

g and addressingBrief reflectionConclusion

Reasons men and women are differentiated from each other （ individuality, value image and status)

language are closely linked with the social attitudes of human beings and are affected by their social views and values.

• it is closely connected with language and deeply influences language, because language itself is expressed via different genders.

• the study enables us to form a kind of insight on society and people, and to deepen our consciousness about correlations between language and society.

significance

Literature Reviewhistory• The study of language and gender began i

n 1975 by the publication of three books:• male/female language (M.R.Key ） langua

ge and women’s place (R.Lakoff)• Language and sex: difference and domina

nce (Thorne & Henley)

• with the development of feminist movement, there have been some changes in attitudes towards sexist in language.

• The study of the area are turned back to reexamine of both the difference of men and women manifested in English.

New development

Female Naming And Addressing

• Given names• Family names• Social titles • Occupational titles• Abusive addressing terms

Given Names One’s given name reflects how a pe

rson will be viewed by others.

Females are often given names that express an aesthetic and tender reference while males’ depict power or intelligence. These names though trivial ， do reflect the long-run tradition of people’s prejudice.

•Female are names by flowers, cute small animals and jewelry.

•However, names for men are closely related with war, religion, profession.

FemalesNames after flowers: R

ose Lily Violet Flora Rosalind Lillian Susan

Names after animal: Deborah Salmon Vanessa

Names after jewelry: Pearl Ruby Jade Crystal

Margaret

Males

Names after religion: Abraham Alexander Apollo Pluto David

Names after profession: Carpenter

Names of war: Gerald Herman Martin

Length difference

• Syllables

• affixes

• Women’s name tend to be longer than men’s, with more than one syllables.

• E.g.Katherine, Elizabeth, Amanda While most of men’s names areMonosyllable( 单音节） , for instance, Jim, Fred, John, Bob, Jack etc.

syllables

• Affixes play a major role in lengthening women’s names.

• the female term is seen as a marked term and the male as the unmarked term.

affixes

• Many female names are derived from male ones by adding the suffix “a”

• E.g.

• One interesting naming practice is that once a boy’s name is used widely by girls, they will not be used that name again.

E.g. 50 years ago, Hazel, Marion, Francis, and Shirley were perfectly accepted as male’s names. Today, few parents choose those as their boys’ names.

New discrimination

• In America women’s names are applied to naming some disasters. One typical examples are the hurricanes’ names which are often named after females’ names.

• The first hurricane list was Alice,

Barbara, Carol, Dolly, Edna, Florence, Gilda, Hazel, Irene

Family Name

historyHuman society once underwent the Matriarchal Society, so some surnames used to be matronamic. Dye, most commonly found in Norfolk and Yorkshire, camefrom a pet form of the female given name DennisEvason, originating from the rare medieval female given name EveSisson, taken from the name of the mother Sisley,Cecilie--from Latin Caecilia, which was the name of a Roman virgin martyr of the 2nd or 3rd century who was regarded as the patron saint of music

Patrilineal System of Family Names

However, before long, men began to dominate society .They have enjoyed high social statues ever since, thereby they have always been respected, honored and taken as masters both at home and in society. Arthur, Austin, Baldwin, Collins, Dixon, Edwards, Fort and Gerald are of patronymic origin stem plus affix, such as Johnson (John+son), Jennison (Jan+son) and Sanderson (Sander+son)

Tradition: Change of Female Family Names upon Marriage

At birth female children take on their father's surname and on marriage a woman usually adopts the surname of her husband. Thus, the contribution of women is hard to trace in their families.

One of the candidates in 2008 Presidential Election of the United States of America, Hilary, the former president of Bill Clinton's wife, kept her maiden name "Hilary Rodham" after marriage. But in order to help her husband in the election, she had to change her name into Hilary Clinton though alllegedly a feminist.

Even the woman is of high social status; it is the same with her

• Charlotte Brontë (British novelist who wrote Jane Eyre) is identified as Mrs. Arthur B. Nicholls

• Amelia Erhart (the first person attempts to circumnavigate the world along the Pacific Ocean)is identified as Mrs. George Palmer Putman;

• Helen Hayes (an American actress gained the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre") is identified as Mrs. Charles MacArthur

Female Social Titles

Social titles refer to those words used by people engaged in certain social activities, reflecting their relations in social life.

Function:

Social address titles can reflect both social identity and people’s attitudes like respect to the addressee.

The English language distinguishes women’s courtesy( 礼貌 ) titles on the basis of marital status （婚姻状况） , but not those of men.

This discriminatory practice is said to mark the availability of women in terms of marriage (sex) and reinforces the view that a woman is the property of a man (either her father or her husband).

The use of titles is asymmetrical( 不对称 ) For example: Woman——— Miss/Mrs./Ms. Man ———— Mr. All adult men, young or old, married or unma

rried, may be addressed in the form of “Mr.+last name”.

“Mrs.+last name” is usually used to address a married woman with the last name being her husband.

“Miss” is the way of addressing an unmarried woman, used alone or with her last name.

• The impression that women are the property of men and that women have no linguistic identity of their own are still adopted in some English-speaking countries in which the woman is simply addressed as “the wife of a man” .

E.g. the former Prime Minister in UK is commonly known as Mrs. Thatcher instead of her own name.

This has been observed particularly in work situations where it is not uncommon for a male boss or superior to address his female secretary, assistant or office clerk by means of her first name or even an endearment, such as sugar, darling, sweetie, girlie, etc. It need not be said that the female workers cannot reciprocate in similar terms to address her male superior.

• Women——like children——tend to be called by their first names where men would not be. And they are also called by endearment terms like love, dear, honey and so on.

• But if a woman calls a man dear she is normally either older than him or intimate with him. A man can choose to call any woman dear unless she is directly in authority over him. It does not matter if the woman is older, of higher status or a total stranger.

• It can be seen as a sign that

females are generally held in less respect than males in the English-speaking society.

In a word, men are named according to their social status in society whereas women are named according to their relationship with the man or men in their lives.

Male-centered Occupational Title

• 1 morphological asymmetry “-ess” “-ette” “-trix”

• 2 Masculine generic occupational terms

• morphological marked male-female pairs

• feminine suffix masculine nouns

• 1.change the gender reference of the word;

• 2. attaches a meaning of triviality, of lesser status or dependence to the term.

“-ess ” ： shallow, contemptuous and derogation

“manageress”• the female manager of a laundry or cake

shop• not the female manager of a bank “governor” is a man who exercises a

sovereign authority in a colony, territory or state while “governess” is a nurse maid.

“-ette”: derogative meaning negative and sexual connotations

• “Copette” is not as tough or reassuring an image as “cop”.

• coquette 妖娇女性 ; 风骚女性• soubrette 喜剧中风流机灵的女侍 ; 扮演此种角色的演员 ; 轻浮的女人

“-trix”

• legal language “executrix ” 女遗嘱执行人 “testatrix ” 立遗嘱的女人（ testator ）

• masculine terms • refer to all members of a class sentence

s containing generic masculine terms are supposed to be predominantly male images.

• “spaceman” implicates women cannot fly ro

ckets, walk on the moon, etc. • “All men are born equal.”

male bias in thought

• Female counterparts are often absent1. prestigious occupations :doctor, lawyer, judge,

and professor2. occupations with strong male associations :pilo

t, bricklayer, officer, sailor3. Men are expected to monopolize the high statu

s professions, while women can only do service or trivial work :

woman doctor, woman engineer; lady judge, lady lawyer ； anchorwoman   新闻节目女主持人

dressmaker 裁缝 , nurse, secretary and milliner n.   女帽制造 , 贩卖商 , are related to women.

problems of the generic masculine

• cognitive confusion and the confusion it generates can lead to exclusion of the female

e.g. “saleswoman”, “chairwoman” and “congresswoman” are newly created, but they do not function as the masculine ones.

Abusive addressing terms for female Definition

Abusive addressing terms for female are unfriendly, insulting terms to address females, conveying quite unpleasant affections, in which females are humiliated.

Category:

Two major types of abusive addressing terms for female:

Common nounsMetaphor use of words

Common nouns There are many pairs of masculine and feminine

words in English. The assumed equivalent words referring to men and women do not actually have the same connotation.

Bachelor: an unmarried man who is likely to be happy for being free from the care of a family

Spinster: an unmarried woman, especially an older one (usually to express disapproval)

Wizard: a man who has magic powersWitch: a woman who has magic powers used for evil things

Also, there are many abusive common terms for women, while there have no equivalent terms for men. Often, these abusive words for female are related with sex.

Wanton: a woman who is immoral, lewd and unchaste( 荡妇，水性杨花的女人 )

Hussy: a woman who behaves in a way that is considered shocking or morally wrong （粗野女子，荡妇） SEX

Metaphor use of words

Women --- names of food, plant, animalsSexist words to devalue women, humiliate women of their appearance, personality, identity and so on.

FoodHiraga(1991:45)comments that the" women

are food for men to eat”, which shows women’s passive image and subordinate status.

Plants The semantic prototype ( 典型） of male is

a gigantic tree while that of female is flowers.

The only one is“ pansy”( 脂粉气男子 , 同性恋男子 )

“ a disparaging term for a man or boy who is considered effeminate( 女子气的） ".

However, if plant names are used to address female, they often have insulting meaning as follows:

clinging vine—a woman who overly depends on a man emotionally;

shrinking violet—a shy woman;

Animals

Nilsen(1977:33)pointed out that the uses of animal names to address persons show expectations or attitudes to males and females.

bitch—a woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing or a lewd woman; 母狗 --- 泼妇

tiger—a fierce, determined man

lion—a brave, strong, or fiercely cruel man

Hedong lion--- 河东狮

Abusive terms Connotation for male Connotation for female

dog As half-serious chidingA joy, gallant fellow

A woman inferior in looks, character

A prostitute

bitch Somewhat whimsical A spiteful, domineering woman

A lewd, immoral woman

pig A person who in someway behaves like a dog

A immorally sloppy womanA sexually unattractive

woman

Table: a comparison of connotation in abusive terms

Positive force and associationPositive or

neutral connotation

Triviality and lower status, unfavorable associationNegative connotation

“praise him, blame her” ( 扬男抑女 )

Causes of sexism

Cultural factorSocial factorPsychological factor

Sexism in naming and addressing terms is not formed in one day, but built up in the long period of language development.

Cultural factor The Bible--- woman are created to meet men’s needs

Physiological differences between men and women

Men are strong, brave, muscular and responsible.

Women are weak, timid, shy and subordinate.

Social factor

A long-stereotyped notion of a division of labor--- men and women are playing different roles in society.

Socialization--- behave like yourselves, men or women.

Psychological factorBecause of weakness, they mould

themselves to be inferior in their potential sub-consciousness. And the standard language women use can show their submission and politeness.

solutions

Improvement of female status: its social foundation

Feminist movement: awareness enhancement

Linguistic research: academic support 1.Avoid using generic masculine words. 2.Restructing the words of sexism. 3. Gender neutralization. He--- they, we, us… use gender-free words (teacher,

employee…) 4. Symmetrization( 对称） . (Mrs, Miss---Ms)

ConclusionThe sexist terms in naming and

addressing have been pointed out, but it is not enough. A desire to change the particular and sexist nature of female language has been expressed and we have engaged in various types of linguistic reform and language planning.

To sum up, our study not only arouses people’s awareness against sexism in language, but also proposes scientific, basic ways to help people to achieve sexual equality in linguistic domain.

Sexism in language covers not only naming and addressing terms but also other linguistic terms such as slang and idiom, and proverbs.

It is beyond the scope of our thesis to do a full-scale research on it, so that our study has some limitations.

Hence future researchers may try to make a systematic analysis on the sexism of them.