People
use language to communicate either through speech or written. “A
language
is
a system of communication
which
consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the
people of a particular country or region for talking
or
writing.”(Collinsdictionary.com,2018). Language
is an aspect of human behavior. Language also can be considered as a
key aspect of human intelligence. It refers to the words that we use
and
how we use it to achieve what we want. However,
it is often noticed sexism in language. Sexism
is discrimination of a person based on their gender, especially on
women.
Sexism
in language is the use of language which underestimate
members on one sex, mostly
women,
showing gender inequality also
it often suggest an inherit male dominance and superiority.
Feminists
believe that English language is sexist.(Holmes,2013).
Men
and women were socially different and language
reflected that. These social rules have changed
but we still notice language discriminations and sexism. Sexism
in English is built up during a long period of language development,
which leads to the variety of the causes. (Trudgill, 2001). A
language that excludes either men or women when discussing a subject
that is addressed to both sexes is called sexist language. Like using
the word mankind instead of humanity and using titles such as
fireman, policeman etc. On the other hand there are ways that someone
can consider what language they use in their every day life and try
to avoid unfair
or untrue attitudes to a particular sex, especially women. There
are a lot of factors that caused the appearance of sexism in language
such as social, physiological,religious and psychological but there
are a lot of ways as well to
avoid
the
use
of
sexist
language.

“Sexist
language is one example of the way a culture or society conveys it’s
values from one group to another and from one generation to the next”
(Holmes,2013)
Sexism
in English has appeared
long time ago and there are some factors that caused it is
appearance in language. These factors are social, physiological,
religious and psychological. Starting of thousands years ago
according to Bible, man is superior to woman and it is made very
obvious that they are not equal.(Genesis
1:26-27)
Also
the first sin was committed by a woman who was later punished. These
show the superiority of men in Christianity. Furthemore men are
physically
stronger
than women which contributes
to the believed
fact that men are stronger and more important from social and
economical aspects. Moreover
the
hard-working man and the housewife stereotype was
dominant to a
lot of
societies. Women
were dependent
by men, always stayed at the house taking care of the kids and the
house. This
patriarchal system was dominating the majority of the societies.
Sexism
in the society existed, so the language was affected as well.
Considering
all of the above women are presented as weak. Women are in
subordinate status in the society. Women
started
to pay attention to their speech by being more gentle and elegant and
they used
more polite words than men
so they get approval from the society. This
is why women try to brace up their status through their speech and
language in general. That
is another evidence of men being superiors. As Robin Lakoff (1975)
said “Our use of language embodies attitudes as well as referential
meanings. Woman’s language has it’s foundation the attitude that
women are marginal to the serious concerns of life, which are
preempted by men”. A
research has shown that men are more likely to be referred to with
positive words such as intelligent, on the other hand women are often
called
silly. Other terms related to sexuality or appearance of women are
often used as well.(Romaine,
2000).

The
identification of sexist language occur in morphology,
semantics and syntax
as well. English
morphology is actually structured to take the male base form and put
a suffix to show the gender. For example actor-actress. “The use of
an additional suffix to show the gender is seen as conveying the
message that women are unnatural or abnormal” (Holmes,2013)
One
of the biggest problems in sexist language is the generic masculine
pronoun. The lack of an “epicene” equivalent of he and she is
obvious+

.
It
was used to use “he” to cover both sexes. In addition all
subjects are male. For example “When a colleague writes a review,
he should proofread carefully”. That immediately
proves that the colleague is male but we must include both genders in
the word “colleague”.

A
lot of nouns that show profession are considered inherently
sexist
as well. For example fireman, fisherman, barman, chairman etc. In
semantics also notable are the words like spinster and bachelor. Both
describe unmarried adults but the male term has a positive overtone
and the female term a negative one to it.
Another
example
that proves gender biasis assuming that the subject in all sentences
is male is
for
example “Every athlete took his own bag to his room” That makes
people assume that the athletes were all male. People
usually connect jobs with either men or women. For example “That
firefighter
is good to his job” or ” That nurse is good to her job”. This
proves that some people tent to belive that it is not normal for
women to be highly paid and involved in technical and manual jobs.
Another
problem according to Suzane Romaine (2000)
is
using the term “woman doctor”. That makes people assume that
doctors are men, so a woman who is a doctor must be marked about it.
Suzane Romaine (2000)
in her research found that the usages of the characterizations such
as “lady doctor” and “woman doctor” were extremely
often compered to the “male doctor” etc. Women are more likely as
well to be addressed by their first names but men are more likely to
be called by a title or/plus last name. Food
characterizations
are not missing. Words such as “sugar, honey and sweetie” are
often used to refer to a woman.

Whether
on purpose or not, sexist language shouldn’t
appear to
someone’s speech. Along
women’s liberation movement people starting to consider the
language they used and the importance of it.
Avoiding sexist language can be difficult to impossible but the most
valuable thing to consider is each problem has it’s own great
solution. There isn’t an easy way to cure sexist language. First
of all people
need to remember to
rework sentences to plural to avoid gendered pronouns and possessive
adjectives.(Romaine,
2000).This
will create a more grammatically correct sentence. For
example “When a student runs at the field, he should be careful.”
to “When students run at the field, they should be careful”.
Another tip to avoid sexist language is to replace a noun subject
such as “him” with a pronoun “the writer”. Moreover
not using phrases like “Oh, man” and “You guys” will help
limit sexist speech. Using
the pronoun “it” will help as well. For example “The driver is
in it’s car” , “The student will submit it’s essay today”.
This
is unlikely to be used so often by English language speakers but it’s
an other effective way to avoid sexist language. Instead
of words with “man” in them like “mankind” use words like
“humanity” etc.
In
a word avoid any language use that makes unnecessary and arbitrary
gender distinctions. A
lot
of writers hundreds of years ago such as Matthew, Louis Carroll and
Shakespeare used non sexist language in their writings. Avoiding
sexist language doesn’t only require to pay attention to your
speech but to actually believe that women and men are equal in the
society.

Conclusively
sexist language is caused by many factors. These are social,
physiological, religious and psychological and
mostly it is cause by the belief of the society that men are
“stronger” than women. Sexism in language can be demonstrated
with may different kinds of evidence. Words for women have negative
connotations even where the corresponding
male terms designate the same state or condition for men. Sexist
language can affect the syntax, morphology and semantics of the
language. The use of sexist language undermines the goal of a
non-discrimmatory
society.
Above
all, the last few years the role of women and men in society has
changed dramatically. And that have caused
a decrease in the use of sexist language. Native speakers are now pay
more attention to their speech and language
in a hope of a non discriminatory language and society.