New Words in American Feminist Movement (From 18th century to 1920)

I. Introduction

As we all know， in a broad sense， sex discrimination is a kind of sexual prejudice， which mainly refers to the discrimination against women. This phenomenon exists all over the world and in all aspects of social life， so there is no doubt that there exists bias in English language.

Ⅱ. Sexual Discrimination in American English

Sexism， broadly speaking， mainly refers to the discrimination against women. Language is an indispensable carrier of culture and language itself is a kind of cultural phenomenon. It can be referred to the famous Spair-Whorf Hypothesis. The hypothesis greatly influenced the relationship between language and culture.

2.1 Semantic differences between male and female

2.1.1 Different meanings between masculine and feminine nouns

Generally， in English many synonym nouns are asymmetric like bachelor， spinster. If they were used to describe women， the meaning of those words degraded or more or less connected with derogatory sense.

2.1.2 The same description with different meanings

In English， the same word has different meaning when they are collocated with feminine noun or masculine noun. For example:

Imposing

A. An imposing man

It means the man is pretty impressive and respectable.

B. An imposing woman

It means the woman is contemptible and sternly cool.

2.2 Personification

Modern American slang often compares women to food， plant or animal. The words often relate to their gender and present age. As women are growing old， the descriptive words comparatively change.

2.3 Address

In English， all man are called Mr.， But according to different marriage situation， women are respectively called Miss or Mrs. They believe the married woman cannot concentrate herself on work for their responsibility of educating children and managing housework.

Ⅲ. The Cause of Such a Phenomenon

What caused feminist movement? After seeing the sexual discrimination phenomenon in American English， we are eager to ask ourselves about the reasons.

3.1 Historical factors

Traditionally， man occupied many important positions in the social life， whereas women just focused on looking after their family members， educating children and doing housework.

3.2 Cultural factors

The division of social labor also reflects in culture. Men created the outside world， arts， literature， science， philosophy， and even language. In fact， The Bible has claimed clearly that men created the world， whereas women were only man’s rib.

3.3 Psychological factors

Because of the cultural and social factors， women were always considered to be the weak. Shakespeare once said in Hamlet， “Frailty， thy name is woman.”

Ⅳ．New Words in American Feminist Movement

4.1 Derivation

In English， some basic nouns indicate the gender， but words themselves have no distinguishable gender sign. Feminists believed that words which end with “-man” showed the discrimination against women such as statesman， chairman， policeman. For fighting against their unequal rights and status， people used the suffix “-woman” to eliminate sexual discrimination. For example: Chairman/ Chairwoman. At 1699， the word “chairman” was replaced by the new word “chairperson”. Using “-person” to replace the suffix with sexual discrimination sign is the best way to eliminate sexual discrimination.

4.2 Personal pronouns

“he or she”，” she or he”， “him or her”，” her or his” can be used to replace “he”. For example: A student’s main task at school is to try his or her most to study hard instead of trifling through his or her youth. “The” plus “noun” was used in order to avoid using pronoun such as “he” or “she”， “him” or “her”.

4.3 Changes in address

Feminists insisted that the address like “Miss” or “Mrs.” actually has offended women’s secret. Feminists complained that men have such right to know women’s marriage status. In modern western society， women are willing to be called Ms. Smith or Ms. Johnson.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

In the 19th century， women in America were unable to vote and after marriage had no control of her property or her children. Overall， during the rapid development of feminist movement feminists have gained some positive results in their fight against sexual discrimination and deepened the language reformation. The change in English has freshened language communication and prevailed sexual equal consciousness. So through the analysis of those neologisms in feminist movement the paper wants to reveal at the period of 18th century to 1920 Feminist Movement is one of the major causes of word changes by the way of comparisons， quotations and examples.

Works Cited：

[1]Bolinger， Dwight. Aspects of language. New York: Harcourt， Brace world， Inc， 1968.

[2]Bonvillain， Deborah. Language Culture and Communication: The Meaning of Message. New York: Prentice-hall， Inc， 2002.

[3]劉墨.“婦女解放運動與英語詞匯.”四川外國語大學學報.2002 (22).

[4]季小明.“語言中詞匯層面的性別歧視現象芻議.” 牡丹江教育學院學報.2007 (25).

作者簡介：

孟斐（1986-），女，陜西漢中人，陜西師范大學外國語學院碩士研究生，研究方向：英語學科教育