The custom of naming always connects with one’s sex, caste, strength, or features。 From the naming convention of one society, we can have insight into people’s attitudes to both genders。 The naming custom in English language is an important window through which we can find that some important evidences support the idea of gender bias in English world。 Most communities attach great importance to marking the child’s sex when choosing a name。 This thesis will try to explore the phenomena of sexism in English names, its causes and discuss the methods to avoid it。

This issue will try to explore the phenomenon of sexism in English names, its causes and discuss some methods to solve it。

2。 Literature Review

 Concern with the linguistic treatment and representation of women is said to be a characteristic of the second wave of the women’s movement which started in late 1960s and early 1970s, mainly in the west of English speaking countries。 Feminist scholarship and investigations into the sexism in language started in the mid-1970s。

2。1 The definition of sexism

Works or dictionaries in different areas define sexism in different perspectives。 According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, it means—unfair or unreasonable discrimination between the sexes, unreasonable maintaining of traditional sexual roles。 Therefore, sexism is a system of beliefs and practices that affirm the dominance of men over women。 Helgeson makes a more neutral definition on sexism from psychological angle: the effective (feeling) component of one’s attitude toward the sex category or prejudice toward people based on their sex。 Linguistic sexism refers to various sexist phenomena in language use。 According to Coats linguistic sexism can be any of the following four categories:

1) Language that favors one sex over another, e。g。 Frailty, thy name is woman ( Shakespeare 46 );

2) Language that belittles one sex, e。g。 Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can;

3) Language that makes one sex invisible, e。g。 Man is the highest form of life on earth。 His superior intelligence, combined with certain physical characteristics, has enabled man to achiver things that are impossible for other animals。

4) Language that masks sexual discrimination, e。g。 You know boys are boys, but you must be a good lady。

    In a short word ,linguistic sexism can be defined as certain kind of prejudice or attitude in language use on genders。 As a matter of fact, even we make such pisions, linguists still can not find the sexist evidences in language exactly and comprehensively。 For sociolinguistics, language is not only semiotic expression, it is a kind of politicized language, a kind of cultural stereotype, power ideology, social attitudes, or reflection of a kind of cognitive patterns。

2。2 The research of sexism home and abroad

Early works on sexism in language involved documenting the various ways in which language could be understood as being sexist。They have pointed out that the English language is inherently sexist because it carries certain assumptions about gender roles。论文网

The early works in the language and gender were carried out at a time when women in the western world were fighting for their equality and liberation。 As a result, lots of attention was focused on the sexism reflected in the language, and the devastating social consequences of such a language。 The emergence of the current thought within academic circle—which can be loosely called “feminist/ postmodernist” -led to different ways of thinking about gender and to a further emphasis on the importance of language and linguistic theory。 Language was and is seen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy。 For example, feminist Dale Spender, spoke of the English language as being “man-made” and as being an important contributor to women’s oppression。(Spender 200)