Abstract:This paper, starting from words, exposes sexism in the English language through the examples of structure, meaning and metaphor, and analyses its social, economic, cultural factors and its trends of development. The paper is aimed at arousing people's attention to sexism in language, with a view to gradually weakening or eliminating sexism in language to achieve gender equality. Sexism in English reflects the subordination of women and social prejudices against women in the social life of English. Although women have secured equal rights and status in many ways, the concept of discrimination against women still exists in social life and thought. In order to eliminate sexism in language, the most important thing we need to do is to eliminate misconceptions of sex discrimination in the society and in people's thinking.

Key words: English vocabulary; sexism; equality; social status

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Reasons for Sexism in English Vocabulary1

2.1 Physiological and Psychological Factors

2.2 Social Status Factors

2.3 Culture Factors

3. Sexism in English Vocabulary4

3.1 Lexical Structure

3.1.1 Affix

3.1.2 Compound Words

3.1.3 Word Order

  3.2 The Meanings of the Words

3.2.1 The Generalization of the Male Words

 3.2.2 Commendatory and Derogatory Meanings

  3.3 Lexical Metaphor

 3.3.1 Animal Metaphor

 3.3.2 Food Metaphor

     3.3.3 Good Metaphor

4. Changes of Sexism in English8

  4.1 Neutral Words

  4.2 Creation of New Words

5. Conclusion.9

Bibliography.10

Acknowledgements11