（2014届）毕业论文（设计）题目：浅析英语俚语中的性别歧视现象专业：英语班级：学号：姓名：指导教师：教务处制年月日摘要性别歧视，主要指的是对女性的歧视。
几千年以来，女性在社会、政治、经济方面都受到不平等的待遇。
男尊女卑是社会中长期存在的客观现象，不可避免的反映到语言和语言使用中来，由此形成语言性别歧视。
本文着重分析了英语俚语中性别歧视现象和产生原因以及今后可能发展的趋势。
首先介绍了何为英语俚语以及英语俚语的特征。
然后从四个方面探讨了英语俚语中存在的性别歧视现象，即它主要体现在特殊俚语上、描述两性的相关俚语表达上、俚语词义的变化过程以及社会公众对两性使用俚语的看法上。
接着在前面几章的基础上分析了英语中性别歧视现象形成的根源。
通过分析，发现英语俚语中的性别歧视归根结底还是由深刻的社会、历史和文化等方面的因素造成的。
接着论述了俚语中的性别歧视在今后的发展趋势。
最后是文章的结论部分，最根本的解决办法还是要彻底改变社会中长期对女性的歧视，进一步提高妇女的社会地位，只有这样，才能消除英语俚语中的性别歧视。
关键词：英语俚语；性别歧视AbstractThe sexism mainly refers to the discrimination against women. Thousands of years, women are treated unfairly in the social, political, economic aspects. The view that men are superior to women is an eternal phenomenon in our society. It reflects in the language and language use inevitably. This paper devotes to the study of sexism in the English slang, its cause and the trend in the future. To start with, the thesis introduces the definition and the features of English slang. Then focus on the analysis of sexism in English from four parts: in some special types of slang, in slang terms of each gender, in slang meaning changes and in social attitude toward the use of slang. Then, based on the previous chapters, analyzes the reasons of this phenomenon. Through the analysis, I found that, the sex sexism in English slang is mainly caused by social, historical and cultural factors. Then, expounds the developing trend in the future. Finally comes the conclusive part, the best way to get rid off sexism in English slang is to change the prejudice against women in society, improve women‟s status, only by this way can sexism in English slang be completely eliminated.Key words: English slang; sex sexism1．IntroductionLanguage is a mirror of the society; it reflects the characteristics of a nation. Sex sexism is long-standing issue. This can be found in many cases, for example, Eastern and western women at the disadvantage position in society and women in their family with a subordinate position. At the beginning of the 20th century, linguists and sociologists became interested in the gender discrimination in language. With the development of sociolinguistics and the coming of women‟s rights movement, language and gender research has entered into a period of rapid development. From the development and changes of the language, people can conclude that sex sexism does not only exist in China, but in all the countries. Therefore, how does English slang reflect this sexism phenomenon? Since Robin Lakoff‟s research (1975), many scholars and experts at home and abroad have studied sex sexism in language with various research methods out of many purposes. For example, the outstanding scholars and experts, Yang Yonglin, Bai Jiehong, and so on, have done research about sexist element in the English language, they also have put forward some practical strategies to erase the sexism, but they just have done their research from the aspect of language strategy. Some other experts, Qin Xiubai, Ren Jingsheng have mainly studied both sexes‟ difference in the use of language and its cause out of social and cultural factors.English, as one of the most widespread languages, but there is massive discrimination in it. British writer Payne (1935) has pointed out: The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs. The proverbs from folk are wide spread, reflect the social culture, life, customs and thinking with the language features of concise and comprehensive, vivid, profound and implication. By far, they have done innumerable researches: macro or micro, great achievements have been obtained. However, almost all the studies have chosen standard languages as their research materials. English slang is a very special variety of English. It‟s used limited in earlier days, but nowadays, we can see them in books, newspapers and magazines. It is a fact that slang can be used in many fields in our life. The vigor and color of slang enrich our daily speech. Therefore, the research on slang is very necessary. However, the articles on sex sexism in English slang are rare. Owing to above-mentioned reason, this research is to study sex sexism in English slang. The whole thesis is divided into six chapters, the first chapter is introduction. Chapter two introduces the definition and the features of English slang. Chapter three focuses on the analysis of sexism in English from four parts: in some special types of slang, in slang terms of each gender,in slang meaning changes and in social attitude toward the use of slang. Chapter four based on the previous chapters analyzes the reasons of this phenomenon. Through the analysis, I found that, the sex sexism in English slang is mainly caused by social, historical and cultural factors. Chapter five expounds the developing trend in the future. Finally comes the conclusive part.2. Definition and characters2.1 Definition of English slangAccording to Oxford Linguistic Dictionary (2000), “slang used especially of vocabulary specific for example, to a particular generation of younger speakers; also as in ordinary usage, specific to group or a profession (e.g. …army slang‟), to colloquial style, etc”to some certain slang, it is hard to tell the difference between slang and colloquial style. Here is one of the its definition, the body of words and expression frequently used by or intelligible to a rather large portion of the general public, but not accepted as good; formal usage by the majority” (Flexner, 1975:3) Few linguists have made efforts to clearly define what constitutes slang. Att empting to remedy this, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the f ollowing rules:●It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely to be considered in those contexts a "g laring misuse of register."●Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, orwith a group of people who are familiar with it and use the term.●"It's a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."●It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym". This is done primarilyto avoid discomfort caused by the conventional synonym or discomfort or annoyance caused by having to elaborate further.2.2 Characters of English slang2.2.1 Highly colloquialGenerally speaking, slang is a sort of vocabulary. It doesn‟t have its own grammar unlike standard language. Most slang is simply the substitution of more forceful, emotional or humorous forms for standard words one same meaning may be expressed in various ways by the speaker, that‟s to say, a single slang has quite a few synonyms. On the whole, the life expectancy of slang is short, besides those can rise into standard language as time went by, most slang disappeared very quickly and soon forgotten by people.Slang words are used in social situations, mainly in the oral communicatio n between friends, acquaintances and people of the same social group and whe n chatting on-line. On some friendly occasions, if you talk in a very formal w ay, it will give others a feeling that you are talking with them in a requested tone. Such feeling will make you hard to make friends with them. If you add some necessary slang in you talking, you can have the talking atmosphere mor e easily.For example, if you want to get your friends‟agreement, the friend can understand your feeling, he may say the following sentences: “I will drink that sentence.”It means:”I definitely agree with you.”It is also undeniable that with the rise of naturalism, slang began to enter into English literature. More a nd more writers make good use of slang for vivid characterization. For exampl e, J.D.Salinger‟s work the catcher in the rye uses a large number of contempo rary slang of teenagers.2.2.2 Abundance of synonymsSlang is abundant of synonyms. By the phrase “abundant of synonyms”, we refer to two phenomena. First is that slang almost exists by the side with another more general term for the same thing. Taking “chick” as an example, to some speakers, they use “chick”with the meaning “girl”or “young woman”. The difference between “girl” and “chick” can be according to the person who uses this word. Some say “this girl is my sister”, others “this chick is my sister”. “Girl”is the general term for “chick”. Second is that there is many slang words, which have the same meaning. This characteristic of slang greatly helps enrich vocabulary. According to research, there are over 300 words referring to the meaning “drunkenness”. Some of these slang words or phrases refer to the intoxication, some describe the heaviness and stillness and others the lightness after drinking. These reveal vivid images of a drunkard fromdifferent aspects.2.2.3 Transience of slang’s lifeGenerally speaking, slang is transient. It spreads very quickly, also, it is unstable and temporary. Slang is the unstable element of English and its life expectancy is generally short. Usually a popular slang of this year may no longer be heard next year or some slang once used by one generation may sound Greek to the next. The use of slang is closely related to the circumstances where it is used. If the circumstances change, the slang will disappear too. Without circumstances in which it is initiated, it cannot be well understood. Without specific circumstances, slang loses its sense correspondently or will become unintelligible. But not all the slang disappears soon after its birth. Some exist decade after decade, century after century, never becoming dying out soon. For example, the word “booze”, it formed as early as in the Middle Ages, now it is still ranked in some slang in some dictionaries. It is often said that a slang term stops to be slang when the dictionary takes it in. This is not really case. You will found many slang terms selected in the dictionaries are still slang terms.2.2.4 The possibility of rising into standard language.Some slang words have the possibility to rise into standard language. Though short life expectancy it has, some slang words gain the approval of the most population and rise into Standard English in the end. This is called ennobling, which is another characteristic of slang. For example, “jazz” and “cold war”, when they first appeared, they are doubted by people, but now nobody will think they are still slang. They have become common-core words and absorbed by the Standard English. Another example is “TV”, its short form is “television” and “TB”, the shortened from “tuberculosis”. When they were first appeared, were both used as slang, but now no one can find them in dictionaries as abbreviations of standard vocabulary.3. Sex sexisms in English slangSexism, in the Oxford Advanced Learner‟s English-Chinese dictionary, it means that disapproving action based on the ideas or belief that the members of one sex are less intelligent, able, and skillful, etc, than the members of the other sex, especially that women are less able than men and those particular jobs and actions are suitable for women and others are suitable for men. In this sense, it keeps women in second-class status. Just as Rosemary Radford Ruether (1993: 165) believes that“s exism 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.” From these definitions, we can find that sexism is the practice of discriminating against people because of gender especially for women.According to carefully research, it is found that sexism exist in English slang. This chapter mainly analyzes the sexism phenomena in English slang from four chapters. 3.1 Sexisms in special types of slangAccording to analysis and comparison, it is found that sexism in English slang doesn‟t appear in all types of slang but is clearly reflected in three types: sexual slang, derogatory slang and criminal slang. Here we mainly talk about the first two kinds which aim more at women.Derogatory slang refers to those offensive and derogatory terms which refer to specific cultural and racial groups. If you use this kind of slang, it will cause offence or harm. For example, boogie, coon, jig, kink, soofty, etc. these words referring to a black person; shonnicker, shonk and shylock for a Jew; pong, chink and chow for a Chinese person; frog for a French; hun and fritz for a German; yank for an American and so on.Sexual slang is a set of linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite or improper. Some common examples include the term blow job for fellatio or wanking and jerking off for male masturbation.Many derogatory& sexual slang terms which aim more at causing offence to women, the reason lies in women‟s traditionally unfavorable status in society, and also because of men‟s tendency to view women as sexual objects and to control women‟s sexuality (Johnson, 1977). Such as old bag, biddy, bimbo, bitch, brush, gold-digger, moo, mare, lady, man-eater, mort, mystery, old boot…all are used derogatorily to refer to women of all kinds, but there are only some words such as puff, pansy, nancy, skirt-chaser and shirt lifter used derogatorily to describe men. (quo. From oxford dictionary of modern slang, 2001)3.2 Sexisms in slang termThe sexism against women in society occurs frequently. Women‟s importan ce is mainly because of their youth, sex and beauty. Nilsen(1976) and Dundes(1976) draw attention to their comparison to food, plants& animals. They are b eautiful, but they are closely related to women‟s age and appearance. The follo wing are some slangy words from The book of slang by Dennis Anderson(198 3):1) Women as food, such as cheese cake(portray the shape of female body); mutton(mainly describe middle aged or elderly woman dressed to look young); tomato (beautiful girl)2) Women as animal, such as bitch(prostitute); butterfly(light women); dr agon(stubborn woman); shrew(bad-tempered woman); cat (vicious woman); b at(prostitute)3) Women as plants, such as rose(beautiful girl); daisy(pretty girl); shrin king violet(shy woman); wall flower (shy girl in the party); cling vine (woma n who depend on man)The above slang words describe woman‟s edibility; woman is being tasted, viewed and assessed through their appearance, sex and age. Nilson (1982) fro m American used …chicken metaphor‟to describe a woman‟s life:In her youth, she is a chick, and then she marries and begins feeling coo ped up. So she goes to hen parties where she crackles with her friends. Then she has her brood and begins to henpeck her husband. Finally she turns into an old biddy.On the contrary, men‟s role in the society is very positive. They don‟t relate to food, plants or animal, they are described by whose words that is very positive. Sometimes, people use animals to describe men to show that men are strong and brave. Lion implies men are brave; tiger implies that men are energetic, strong and fierce. Because of different views about men and women, the most popular slang terms to describe a man are dude, guy and bastard; while the most common listed terms to describe a woman are chick, broad and bitch, from which we can also know that women and men are treated unfairly in society.3.3 Sexisms in slang meaning changesSexism does not only exist in the slang terms for both sexes, but also exists in the change of meaning of many slang words.Some words with positive or neutral meaning when they were originated but later became negative words occur more frequently in the words referring to women than men. A typical example is the slang term cow. At the very beginning, the word cow means “milk or cheese”, then it means “ugly person, male or female”, later it refers only to females who are stubborn, stupid and unpleasant, finally it means a prostitute. Cow change its meaning from neutral to negative. The word cat is a good case whose meaning change from positive to negative. Cat refers to an expert, who is appreciative of jazz originally, then it refers to bad person, finally it usually refers to a vicious woman or a prostitute. Another case is many slang words refer to positive implications when used to men but negative when used to women. Take fox as an example, when used to men, it implies that men are smart. But when used to women, it means a woman who is sexually attractive with the feeling of contempt.So, it can‟t be ignored that the sexism phenomenon in language can also be found from the change of meanings of many slang terms.3.4 Sexisms in social attitude to slang useWith the unequal social status for male and female in society, women sometimes can‟t use language freely while men can use language without many limits. I n people‟s thought, women should use their language very carefully; they should better choose nice, pleasant and elegant word. There should not have coarse words in their mouth.Slang was regarded a very low language in the past, because it was a cant at that time. Therefore, women should not use slang. Some researchers thought that slang was a language of fools. So, many people, male or female, think that the use of slang is more suitable for males. We can find this sexist attitude towards the use of slang in de Klerk‟s (1990, 1992) research.4. OriginsThe sexism in English slang and its long existing are not coincidence, to a large degree, by historical, social and cultural forces.4.1 Historical perspectivesSlang is created by some special groups, such as hooligans, bandits, criminals, etc. which are mostly made of males. So, slang was controlled by male at that time. Males renew slang terms and words frequently to avoid others understanding them.Therefore, more and more slang terms appearing among women around these men. Then, women tried to learn and use them. To some extent, it strengthened the use of slang terms. But what women know is far less than men slang-users. Thus, it can‟t be denied that sexism appears when slang is created.Nowadays, slang is more and more popular among people in different groups and even women begin to create slang terms. Generally speaking, their influence is still very small and weak.4.2 Social realitiesSexism in slang is partly because of historical reasons, but the deeper fact or is the social realities which are reflected by language. So, I will trace socia l factors from labor division and Socialization.4.2.1 Labor divisionWestern society assigns tasks, activities and rights according to sex like eastern society. There are two periods in early society---matriarchal and patriarchal. In matriarchal society, women ruled men. With the development of productive forces, men became stronger than women in many aspects. Then the patriarchal comes. Men ruled the society. We can found clues in Simone de Beauvior‟s (1990) essay Woman as other:She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject; the Absolute-she is the other.In this society, women were second-class citizens; they had few rights and little contributions to work in arts or literature and science.Today, with development of democracy and women‟s struggling for higher social status and equal treatment. They are also playing more and more part in society. However, it is still a slow and long process for women to improve their social status because sexism against women in deeply-rooted.4.2.2 SocializationSocialization is a term used by sociologists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologists, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society.Children learn their proper behavior from role models, toys, children‟s literature and educational institutions. They accept the sexism against women in the textbooks and develop according to gender stereotype. In a word, a person‟s socialization is mainly realized by education and influence of mass media.Education can socialize people into different roles in the society. In these children‟s stories, girls and boys are frequently described as “boys are”, “girls do”, which can be proved in Girls, Boys and Language written by Swann (1992):But there is also a concern about continuing, more general effects: that the female and male image conveyed to pupils contribute to their sense of what is normal for girls and boys and women and men in our society; that children‟s reading material helps reinforce gender as a social division, and perpetuates inequalities between girls and boys and women and men.Apart from books that may convey inequality in education, the public media in people‟s socialization is worth to draw attention. Such as fairy tales, Disney movies, TV, radio and newspapers really have a great influence on people‟s view about gender roles. By watching “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, “The Seven Dwarfs”, children know that if females want to success, she should be beautiful. By reading “Little Miss Muffet”, children know that girls should be tearful and boys should be active and adventurous.4.3 cultural perspectives (the influence of Bible)Women in the west have often been discriminated in the religion. Women are just used in reference to earthly matters while men are used to mostly spiritual matters. So, the Bible will be taken as an example to discuss this. In the Bible, women are described as the appendage which can be justified in the process of creating man and woman. It was said that women were just made of a rib of the man. So, she is doomed to be appendage of man. Also, the name woman means …she was taken out of a man‟according to the Bible. (The following excerpts are from Bible):And Adam said, this is now bones of my bones, and flesh of me fleshes; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. (Holy Bible, 1978, Genesis, 2:18-24)Wives, submit yourselves to your husband, as unto the lord. For the husband isthe head of wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church…therefore as the church is submit unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husband in everything. (Ephesians 5: 22-24)From the quotations, we can see clearly the men‟s superiority and women‟s inferiority.In the Bible, almost all the important figures are men. God, the most powerful figure; Abraham, the ancestor of the Jew, who settled in Hara; Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt; the thirteen disciples are all men. When mention some famous women, the way they are mentioned is different from men. For example, Herodias and Willy Laban are famous for their evil deeds; Mary and Elizabeth are famous for their sons. They were requested to stay at home, giving birth to children and doing housework.The Bible is definitely a book of men, it is reasonable to believe this helps to build women‟s inferior position. Therefore, we can not deny that it was cultural reasons in the west that have great impacts on women‟s status in society and the sexism in language. This is also the reason why slang terms about are positive and active while those about women are negative; why slang terms of men sound strong and vulgar than those of women.5. Tendency of sexism in English slangIt‟s known to all that every important historical events or political event even a new invent has a great influence on language (slang).Christian in western world places me n‟s interest at the first place while women‟s main duty is to take care of family and children. It is no doubt has a great influence on gender difference. People‟s values changed dramatically since the industrial involution in 18th century, they began to understand life in a scientific way not religious belief. Nowadays, the young seldom accept the stories in the Bible blindly.For years, women are more and angrier to their unfair treatments. At the climax of feminism, they ask for the equal rights on education, work, social security and other fields. Many women began autarkical and shared the expenses with husband, their status has improves gradually. But the discrimination to women is far from over, only a part of jobs open the door for women, also, the possibility of women‟spromotion is less than men.However, with the development of the social civilization and women‟s status, some words and expresses are out of date; people avoid using the words indicating sexism. In some situations, if we are not sure to the sex, try to avoid using masculine, replace the masculine to neutral terms. For example:Camera man——camera operator; congressman——member of congress; forefather——ancestor; housewife——house maker; spokesman——spokesperson; weatherman——weather reporterHow will the sexism in English slang going? Some slang indicating sexism directly will step down from the stage of history. Nowadays, people gather experience in study and life and popular in oral, temper through a prolonged time, form new slangs eventually. Because women has the same equal rights with men, also, people are tapu to sexism terms, the slang which are forming or will form would carry less and less discrimination meaning.6. ConclusionSexism in English slang is deeply rooted in the historical, social and cultural aspects, there are two ways to solve the problems, that is change social discrimination against women and improve women‟s self-consciousness.People have a prejudice to women, they figure women are less capable and intelligent than men, so women often depend on men. Eventually, this kind of prejudice reflected in the language. So, it is necessary to change social discrimination against women to avoid the sexist language and slang.Because of the sexism from society, quite a lot of women become passive about their life. They didn‟t take any actions to win back rights and fight against discrimination even though they were dissatisfied about it. In order to achieve the equal rights, women should try to develop their self consciousness about their social status. They should take in and active in social activities, strive for every means for improving their life quality. Only when women pay attention to improve self consciousness can our effort for changing social sexism against women in society be accelerated and so do the sexism in language.This essay mainly focus on the sexism form the perspective of English slang, based on the previous studies on gender including some relative sociolinguistictheories. Though analysis, we can see that sex sexism in English slang is mainly reflected in four aspects: in special types of slang, in slang terms for each gender, in slang meaning changes and in social attitude toward the use of slang. As for the reasons of this phenomenon, sexism in English slang is mainly caused by historical, social and cultural factors. Originally, it is western religion that has a prejudice against women, which caused the sexism in English slang but the main reason is the social reality. Thus, only when the discrimination against women in society has been eliminated can sexism in English slang be eliminated.Besides those achieved above, this research has its own limitations. This study is chiefly referred to the basis of historical documents and written texts. Because of the limited conditions, it is hard to carry out the empirical study.Up to now, there are many slang-gendered researches in western countries by experts abroad, but there is few carried out by home researchers, not to mention the English learners. Thus, if such kind of research can be carried out by English learners in the future, it would be much better.。
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