SexStereotype

倪媛

【Abstract】This paper analyzes the social phenomenon—sex stereotype.The paper illustrates the characteristics of stereotype and discusses about the factors which influence sex stereotypes and the reasons of its existence.And it also found the positive role that sex stereotype plays in the communication.

【Key words】sex stereotypes，differences，viewpoint.

I.Introduce to stereotype

Sex stereotype is not a new topic for sociolinguists，although there are still so many problems which remain unsettled.To understand it，we can first come to stereotype.The term “stereotype”was first coined by the American commentator W.Lippmann in his book Public Opinion （1922）.It consists of two aspects： the opinion of community members towards themselves and that towards other communitys members.No matter they are the same or not，stereotype has the following characteristics： oversimplification，making judgments without distinction，overgeneralization，being influential，obstinacy and changeability.

Besides the above characteristics，and all the stereotypes must be based on communities.Since we can use different way to classify communities，stereotypes also have different categories according to the geographical areas，countries，cultures，races，religions，ages，professions，colors，social status，sexes，and so on.In this paper，the focus is on sex stereotypes and the following questions：

1.How is sex stereotype influenced in language？

2.Why does sex stereotype exist？

II.Sex stereotype

No matter in which country or culture，there is a certain kind of social expectation to peoples sex role—the appropriate behavior of the two sexes.This social expectation forms a relatively stable sex stereotype，which is reflected in every respect of peoples life，especially in language.

According to Atwater（1983），men learn abstract thinking early in their childhood，while women tend to use concrete thinking more，and are more emotion-oriented and relation-oriented.In peoples mind，most women are dependent，passive，quiet（especially in public），tender，fragile，patient，avoiding conflict and hostility，denying their own personality and talents，etc.； whereas mens stereotype is： independent，active，energetic，initiative，aggressive，confident，brave，strong，successful in their word，able to support their family and to protect women，good at controlling emotions except anger，etc..

In language，sex stereotype also widely exists.Scholars have found the differences in language use associated with the sex of the addresser or the addressee，and the differences in language use associated with the sex of person who is talked about.They have also made efforts to alter the language with the respect to the ways sex is or is not encoded.Then what are the differences？

Taking English into consideration，the differences mainly lie in phonetics/ phonology，grammar，lexicon，semantics and pragmatics.

1.Phonetics/phonology differences

Among RP speakers，there is a greater tendency for women to have a glottal stop in consonant clusters of the type found in simply than for men （Trudgill，1974）.

According to many researches，we can see that men are much more likely than women to use non-standard pronunciations.

2.Grammatical differences

As a strategy of communication，interrogative sentences are more used by women than by men.People think that compared with men，women tend to use tag questions more to express their own opinions，because this kind of sentences can reduce the affirmative ton（Lakoff，1975）.Fishman（1980） analyzed the dialogue between husband and wife which he had recorded on a tape.He found that the frequency of womens use of tag questions and general questions is nearly three times than that of mens，that is，87：29.So women try to continue conversation with interrogative sentences，while men just use interrogative sentences to obtain information.

3.Lexical differences

As far as vocabulary is concerned，we can take two aspect into consideration—one is the vocabulary which contains sex differences，the other is the vocabulary which may be used by different sexes.

To understand the first aspect，we can come to the word with-man.The word man itself is ambiguous，because it can mean the whole human beings which include both men and women，or distinguish the male from the female.As a suffix，-man is no longer specific to males，and that a woman can also be a chairman of a meeting or organization.On the other side，it is argued that the suffix continues to retain its reference to mal gender.The only possible and convenient solution is to change the suffix into –woman or –person，therefore we get the word chairwoman，a female or a chairperson，either male or female.But the problem is among so many words ended with –man，how many can be satisfactorily changed into words with –woman or –person？

Not only words ended with –man，but also other words such as executive，doctor seem to be male-oriented.Take the word “surgeon” as an example，when we first read the word，we usually assume that the surgeon is a man immediately.But we know，sometimes “he” would be “she”.This shows that some words do connote sex stereotype.

4.Semantic differences

This aspect also derives from peoples recognition to the outside world.Miller and Swift（1976），for example，observed that once a boys name became popular as a girls name it lost its appeal and usually ceased being used for boys.Names such as Shirley，Leslie，Beverley，Evelyn and Sidney all began as boys names （and were positive），were then used as girls names （and became negative），and now are rarely used for boys.Miller and Swift argued convincingly that ‘once a name or a word becomes associated with women，it is rarely again considered suitable for males and they also observed that the process does not operate in the reverse.

Muriel Schulzs （1975） semantic rules，the semantic derogation of women also shows sex stereotype in language use.According to this rule，words marked for females，used in association with females become ‘pejorated，because irrespective of origin，or intent，words which are marked female are marked negative.

5.Pragmatic differences

Closely related to semantic differences in sex stereotype of language are pragmatic differences.This kind of differences is not shown in an isolated word，but in a certain discourse.Take the case of qualifiers，for example.Women are assumed to be more tentative and hesitant and to use more qualifiers.They use more hedges such as kind of，sort of in their talk.Usually they would say，‘Bill is kind of short，instead of ‘Bill is short.

Even the same term，according to Dale Spender（1980），could be interpreted as a qualifier if used by females and an absolute if used by males，for example：

‘Perhaps you have misinterpreted me.

‘Maybe you should do it again.

Spender thinks the determining factor is more often the sex of speaker rather than the speech，so that when female use perhaps or maybe，it is interpreted as a qualifier； when males use the same terms，the interpretation is that they are using absolutes.

From these examples，we can see that a word without sex stereotype sometimes does reflect peoples prejudice towards different sexes in some certain condition.

III.Summary

As a kind of stereotype，sex stereotype is widely spreading every aspect all over the world.On the one hand，it has some positive effects which may help each gender understand and communicate with each other better.On the other hand，since it also shares characteristics of any other kind of stereotype，the characteristics of oversimplification，making judgments without distinction，overgeneralization and obstinacy may also hinder the two genders from better understanding and cooperation.

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