Group members: 高婧 杜欢
陈艳秋 沙菲 陈云
Content
Introduction
Literature review
Analysis of female
naming and addressing
Brief reflection
Conclusion
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.
significance
• 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.
Literature Review
history
• The study of language and gender began
in 1975 by the publication of three books:
• male/female language (M.R.Key）
language and women’s place (R.Lakoff)
• Language and sex: difference and
dominance (Thorne & Henley)
New development
• 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.
Female Naming And
Addressing
•
•
•
•
•
Given names
Family names
Social titles
Occupational titles
Abusive addressing terms
Given Names
One’s given name reflects how a
person 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.
Females
Males
Names after flowers:
Rose Lily Violet
Flora Rosalind
Lillian Susan
Names after religion:
Abraham
Alexander Apollo
Pluto David
Names after animal:
Deborah Salmon
Vanessa
Names after jewelry:
Pearl Ruby Jade
Crystal
Margaret
Names after
profession:
Carpenter
Names of war:
Gerald Herman
Martin
Length difference
• Syllables
• affixes
syllables
• 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 are
Monosyllable(单音节）, for
instance, Jim, Fred, John, Bob,
Jack etc.
affixes
• 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.
• Many female names are derived from male ones by
adding the suffix “a”
• E.g.
New discrimination
• 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.
• 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
history
Human society once underwent the
Matriarchal Society, so some surnames
used to be matronamic.
Dye, most commonly found in Norfolk and Yorkshire, came
from a pet form of the female given name Dennis
Evason, originating from the rare medieval female given
name Eve
Sisson, 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.
Even the woman is of high social
status; it is the same with her
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.
• 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
unmarried, 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 Englishspeaking 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
sentences containing generic masculine
terms are supposed to be predominantly
male images.
male bias in thought
• “spaceman” implicates women cannot fly
rockets, walk on the moon, etc.
• “All men are born equal.”
• Female counterparts are often absent
1. prestigious occupations :doctor, lawyer, judge,
and professor
2. occupations with strong male
associations :pilot, bricklayer, officer, sailor
3. Men are expected to monopolize the high
status 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 nouns
Metaphor 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 powers
Witch: 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, animals
Sexist words to devalue women,
humiliate women of their
appearance, personality,
identity and so on.
Food
Hiraga(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
Hedong lion---河东狮
lion—a brave, strong,
or fiercely cruel man
a comparison of
connotation in abusive terms
Table:
Abusive terms
Connotation for male
Connotation for female
dog
As half-serious chiding
A 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 woman
A sexually unattractive
woman
Positive force
and association
Positive or
neutral
connotation
Triviality and lower
status, unfavorable
association
Negative connotation
“praise him, blame her” (扬男抑女)
Causes of sexism
Sexism in naming and addressing terms is not
formed in one day, but built up in the long period
of language development.
Cultural factor
Social factor
Psychological factor
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 factor
Because 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)
Conclusion
The 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.