Abstract:

In the process of human society, there is a common issue that men enjoy higher status than women. Language reflects society, and sexism, as a serious social problem, exists in almost every language. This study illustrates sexism in English addressing terms. The thesis first analyses the phenomenon of sexism in English addressing terms and discusses causes for this phenomenon from four aspects, namely historical factors, social reality, religious influence and cultural elements. Lastly the thesis comes up with some strategies for avoiding sexism in using English addressing terms.

Key words: sexism, English addressing terms, causes

摘要：

在人类社会的历史进程中，通常存在着这样一个常见的问题就是男人永远比女人享有更高的权力地位。语言反映社会现实，性别歧视作为一个严重的社会问题，几乎存在于所有语言中。本论文描述了英语称谓语中的性别歧视问题，首先分析了英语称谓语中的性别歧视现象的表现，并且从四个方面讨论了造成这种现象的原因，分别是历史背景、社会现实、宗教影响和文化因素，最后作者提出了一些策略为了避免在使用英语称谓语中出现性别歧视。

关键词：性别歧视；英语称谓语；原因
 
1. Introduction
The study on sexism in language, as a hot spot of society, especially in English has been protruded for a long time in linguistic domain. It is widely believed that women are not as good as men throughout the world. And sexism is mainly named as the discrimination to female. It is embodied not only in the unequal position of male and female, but also in any language. Language, as a mirror of society, notes the process and changes of society and also reflects social reality. 
Addressing terms are composed of names, titles, phrases or words usually used in addressing someone. There are sometimes amicable, unfriendly, respectful, discourteous, or comradely. As an indispensable social behavior in our daily life, addressing terms highly indicate historical and cultural significance. They can reflect social well-being and value choice of the users as well as the differences in language using between different genders. The differences of addressing terms can also reflect the social influence and various social expectations to different people. In the meantime, different sexes affect and limit the appearance and development of addressing terms. In the 19th century, the research on addressing terms became a trend, and some American anthropologists study on their own societies and races. Many researchers both at home and abroad have obtained certain achievements on addressing terms, such as Jespersen(1922), Bolinger(1968), Robin Lakoff(1975), Susan Ervin-Tripp(1969), and Coates(1986) in the western world, and Xu Lin(2004), Xu Min(2001), Zhu Wanjin(1992), in China.