Sexism In English Address Terms

Sexism is referred as the unequal treatment one gender holds to the other gender, typicallymen to women. Language reflects society. As a serious social problem, sexism exists in almostevery language, especially in English. Sexism in language has been a hot issue for a long time.Studies on language and gender have gone through a long history in western countries. Since thelate 1960s and early 1970s when the second wave of the feminist movement started mainly inwest English speaking countries, people began to pay attention to the relationship betweenlanguage and gender.An address term is a word, phrase, name, or title (or some combination of these) used inaddressing someone. Addressing, as an indispensable social behaviour of human society, is ofgreat historical and cultural significance. Scholars both in and abroad have made greatcontributions to the study of address terms. As one important part of language system, addressterms have a close relationship with gender. There also exists sexism in address terms.However, studies on sexism in English address terms are not deep enough andsystematic.This thesis tries to illustrate sexism in English address terms. In this thesis, the authoranalyses the performance of sexism in English address terms, points out the the reasons for thisphenomenon, in the perspectives of historical background, social reality and religious influence,and advocates the introduction of language reforms to reduce sexism in English address termsand to promote the evolution of the language toward the realization of real equality between menand women.This thesis consists of six parts.The first part is an introduction to this thesis, which servesas the basis for the discussion in the following chapters. Chapter One is the literature review ofthis thesis. In this chapter, the author reviews the studies on language and gender both at homeand abroad, and the studies on address terms both at home and abroad. Chapter Two is thetheoretical framework, which illustrates the origin, development and influence of feminism, thedefinition of sexism, the difference between sex and gender, as well as the relationship betweenlanguage and culture. The following three chapters are the main parts of this thesis. ChapterThree is concerned with the performance of sexism in English address terms. Sexism can be reflected in social markers and semantic meaning. In Chapter Four, the author analyses thereasons for this phenomenon, among which the most important ones are historical background,social reality and religious influence. Chapter Five deals with the suggested strategies for theachievement of language equality. The last part is a conclusion, which includes major findings ofthis research, limitations of this thesis, and suggestions for further study.In theory, the research on sexism in English address terms will help us deepen theunderstanding of the universal rules of English language system, broaden our research vision,explain the internal changes and the influence of external factors to language structure itself, aswell as revel the relationship between social factors and language changing. In foreign languageteaching, it can help students overcome the obstacles in intercultural communication, andpromote the development of foreign language teaching. As for its practical significance, It canhelp people understand the difference in language using between genders clearly. It also haspractical significance in communication and understanding between people of different genders;and help people use address terms correctly in daily communication so as to build a new type ofequal, harmonious and friendly address systems.