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Phenomena of Sexism in the English lanusge
（作者未知） 2011/12/3
（接上頁）3) Sir and madam
Sir and madam both can be used to refer to high status people. Madam is used formerly as a courtesy title before a woman’s given name but now used only before a surname or title indicating rank or office or used as a form of polite address for a woman. Unlike sir, madam is also used to refer to a brothel keeper. There are also many other examples such as lord and lady, governor and governess. The examples cited above demean women rather than men.
3.Semantic collocation and change
Semantic collocation
In English, a word may have different connotations when it is used to describe different sexes. For example:
① imposing
a. He is imposing.
b. She is imposing.
Sentence a means “He is impressive and admirable.” While sentence b could be interpreted to mean that “She is disgusting and apathetic.” When the sex changes, so does the meaning
② loose
Loose seems a neutral word for both male and female. But “a loose woman” reminds people of “a woman considered to be sexually promiscuous” whereas “a loose man” just means “a casual man”.
Semantic change
Besides, words, which begin with either neutral or positive connotations over time, acquire negative implications and finally end up as “sexual slurs”. For example, the term hussy derives from Old English huswif (“housewife”), which means “the female head of the house”. The term gradually deteriorated to “a rustic rude woman” and finally comes to mean “an indecent, impudent woman or prostitute”.
4.Metaphor
Language exists to allow us to communicate with one another. To this end, language serves two purposes: to communicate what our reality is and also what we wish it to be. So if we identify a trait in a language, such as sexism or other forms of prejudice, this only reveals a prejudice that exists in society. Language, in particular metaphor, helps form social reality. There are many metaphors to describe a female.（未完，下一頁）
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