Study on Sexism in the English Language Gou Ying Under the Supervision of He Xuede School of Foreign Languages and Cultures Panzhihua University May 2007 Contents Abstract......……..……………………………………...…………....................………I Key Words……………………………………………........................................……...I 摘要..............................................................................................................................Ⅱ 关键词.….........................................................................................................................…………Ⅱ Introduction………………………………………………………………..........…..…1 I. Phenomena of Sexism in the English Language….....................................................2 A. Male-as-norm Attitude……………………………………………………....2 1. Generic Pronouns………………………………………………………….....2 2. Female as Male’s Appendix...…….………………………………………….2 3. Woman as Exception………….……………….……………………….....….3 B. Semantic Degradation of Woman………………..………………….……….4 C. Word Order…………………………………………………………………..5 D. Sexism in Social Life………………………………………………………..5 E. Sexism in Proverbs and Idioms.......................................................................6 II. Reasons of Sexism in the English Language.............................................................7 A. “Patriarchy” Cultural Stereotype…………………………………………….7 B. Double Criterion of Discourse Hegemony…………………………………..8 C. “Sex Role” munity ………………………………………………....10 D. Results of Theory of Social Identity………………………………………..11 E. Traditional Ethics that the Man is Superior to the Woman…………………11 III. Elimination of Sexism in the English Language………...……………………….12 A. Transformation-Sexist Words Transformed Into Nonsexist Words…….......12 B. Countermeasures to Sexism Caused by the Third Person Pronoun’s General Reference..…………………………………………………………………..14 Conclusion………………………………………………………………