Derivational Discrimination from Gender’s Perspective

李贵枫

Abstract：Vocabulary around the gender has always been a hot discussed debate among people for decades. The essay revolves around the conspicuous and specific difference and related discrimination in gender about the derivation - a kind of word formation. It has a summary of concrete reflections， evolution， resulting meaning and predictions and finally conclusion about derivational vocabulary from gender’s perspective.

Key Words：gender; derivation; discrimination; process; prediction

Ⅰ.Introduction

Vocabulary revolving around gender and sex has always had its charm to appeal to all kinds of people including students， English teachers， amateurs or professions in English from all over the world. Quantities of evidences have shown that vocabulary about gender has indeed something with discrimination. This paper aims at revealing the specific derivational discrimination about English vocabulary and also the process women struggled to reverse the situation and its potential meaning and finally some likely predictions around it.

Ⅱ. Specific derivational discrimination about gender in vocabulary

In general，there are three kinds of main vocabulary groups which are the detailed forms of derivation or can be seemed as derivation in total.There are respectively ‘man and woman’，‘he and she’，‘male and female’.All above-mentioned groups show discrimination to some degree.

Man and woman.In old time and in the range of old English，the word ‘man’ doesn’t exactly mean the male individual，but denotes what means person today.It has nothing to do with gender.But later with the time rolling on and the advent of marriage time，man began to be tied with the gender.Woman is from the old English ‘wifmann’ while man from the old English ‘mann’.It obviously shows the difference between the gender.Later the real discrimination seems to arise.The derivational words generated from man lets us feel the gender tendency. The fixed collocations with man has the amount of 140 while not more than 10 with woman. What comes to people’s mind first when new phrases are generated is ‘man’ not ‘woman’. And lots of important combined words are also the very witnesses ofthis phenomenon. ‘manage， command， manufacture， demand， manipulate， manoeuvre， manifest， chairman and etc.’ All can prove that man is more dominant and has more privilege and much more words to speak than ‘woman’.

‘He and she’ is also another example. According to data statistics from Cambridge University Press based on 0.33 million magazines and newspaper about the frequency of the use of word， ‘he’ ranked the 13th while ‘she’ just 42th. It seems that woman is merely affiliated to the man，because‘he’ is included in ‘she’. And the sentences and idioms all center around ‘he’ not ‘she’. For example， ‘He that has a full purse never wants a friend’ or ‘He that lies down with dogs must rise up with fleas’ and so on， all these idioms which reveals the truth show that people regard man as a priority than woman instinctively. The accumulated culture and traditions are establish on gender discrimination. And also in public circumstances， these expressions have also their power which people may never link it with gender discrimination but it truly does. In 1986， the president Ronald Wilson Reagan of America made a mournful and formal presentation to Columbia Space Shuttle heroes， and he used ‘Man will continue his conquest of space’ to acclaim the heroes committed to space while neglecting there were two women heroes meanwhile. This instinctive behavior and expression show that the gender discrimination arerooted deeply in people and people use it automatically.

Male and female. From a strict definition， this group can not be regarded as derivational words. But with the deep understanding and daily routines， people treat them as what they are now. From the three above-mentioned groups， people begin to presume that woman is just the ‘by-product’ of the man， or woman is not essential.

In the meanwhile， some suffixes also show the gender discrimination rooted in it. ‘-ess，-ette and -ee’ are the very representatives which show woman is the weaker part. ‘-ette’is derived from the feminine affix of French ‘minor and small kind of’ and it expresses inanimate things such as ‘novelette，cigarette， essayette and etc.’And it is used later to describe woman， like ‘suffragette，bachelorette’ and so on. And among them， ‘bachelorette’ is specially the counterpart of the ‘bachelor’ while it was generated， showing the society’s attitude towards the woman. ‘-ess’ is also another common expression way of suffix added to denote woman’s role. Like ‘waitress， hostess， poetess， goddess’. ‘-ee’ is also a kind of gender discrimination， it means passivity between two parts while the other is stronger. ‘employee， nominee’ are common words to show that. The weaker part is showing a feminine usage which unintentionally exposes a kind of discrimination.

Ⅲ.The process women struggled to reverse

Due to various derivational discrimination and intentional or unintentional difference，women began to embark on a long and tough way to advocate for themselves.They wanted to adverse the situation which shows great discrimination for them.Excluded from all kinds of political or entertainment activities，women have been taking actions even until today.

The concept of the gender equality was first widely advocated in French Enlightenment Movement .In 1789，the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights ' passed from the Great French Revolution  established officially the principle of individual rights can' t be infringed， including women.From 'womanize' to 'women's rights'，From 'Women's Liberation' to 'Sex Liberation'，all these concepts reflects the trend that women wouldn't be the affiliated product of men，and they struggled for a fair and individual role they can shoulder.

In English countries，'Mr' can be used both men who are either married or not.But when it comes to women，'Miss' and 'Mrs.' are used according to whether they are married or not.Therefore，women，around 1970-1973， strived hard to create another word-that is 'Ms' which obviously doesn't mean the gender discrimination，shedding an illuminating light on the advocacy for women.In the meanwhile，women also maintain the neutral vocabulary to change the discriminatory situations they confront.For example，using 'person' to replace 'man'，like spokesperson，chairperson as suffixes or personhandle， personscript as prefixes to use.Also，some of them even put forward the idea that we could bring the word 'han' from Finnish in to tackle the discrimination about 'he and she'，which doesn't have any bias on the gender.Though it has not been used or admitted widely.After that，people wanted to use 'everyone and each' to replace 'he'，which still left much trouble behind.And around the 1970s，American English experts advocated that we should use 'freshperson，fresher' to replace the former edition.Until the 1990s，a new word 'themself' was created to replace 'himself and herself' forming a united way of expression.This kind of expression broke up many framed regulations on grammar of English.In‘English Today’ in 1992，Walking through Pilson，the casual observer might easily think themself back in 1945" has already shown up in public magazines，though not widely used neither.But there is one thing which seems to be very successful in reversing the discrimination，that is，the suffixes 'or' and 'er'，which are both not showing any kind of discrimination and used widely.'Inventor， investor，educator，writer，housekeeper and employer' are all specific embodiments.

It is true that women do contribute and strive a great deal in the process of reversing the situation which bothers and assails them.

Ⅳ.The meaning of the women’s struggle of derivational gender

Language is a mirror reflecting the society， which can also stands for the development and progress of the society itself objectively （Li Jingwei 2001）. Lexicon gender neutralization and women’s great contributions to the multiculture are the very signs that the whole society is heading for a high lever of civilization.

Before 1860， there hadn’t been the word of Feminism， which came from the word of Feminisme of French， created by the famous social reformer Joseph Fourier . But at that time， this word didn’t have the meaning of struggle for the discrimination. With time fleeting by， discrimination began to rise up and women also began to lift their flag to change it.

Women’s struggle and liberation is the very evidence that the system and structure of English vocabulary are more and more perfect and elegant. We may not predict accurately which direction and destination the development of these derivational words may go， but we can draw a conclusion that the gender equality will finally achieve.

Ⅴ.The predictions and development of the derivational words about gender in future

As we know， the language is not immutable and frozen. Instead， it changed， is changing and will change. So， we should treat it as a kind of developing object instead of stagnant or stationary thing which has no vividness or life. What we should admit is that over past decades， people indeed try their utmost to reverse the situation which is unfair and cruel for women. The generation of ‘or， er’ is the very evidence that the world is really developing towards a more civilized and fairer society.

But we can not excessively demand too much. Because in the most of the time of human being， people regard the language and words just a tool to express what they want to do， sometimes they will be never aware of the discrimination， even they don’t notice or care about it. So， they just want to say what is the most convenient for them. If what they take for granted and are accustomed to change or turn into another kind of straggling form， they will sure not adapt to it， thus the reform will be a total failure. After all， people are lazy by nature （Andrew Whalen 2016）， and they wouldn’t like to see and accept much too giant changes， especially in what they use everyday. What we should strongly believe is that the future will be bound to be better， as you can see the former accomplishments.

Last but not the least， we should accept the perception that the real respect and equality are not just based on the seeming or superficial cover but are carved in everyone’s heart and deeply rooted. Though we talk or say with words which are related to gender discrimination，if we really respect each other and behave in a courteous manner， it doesn’t really matter whether you use man or woman，he or she，or male or female.

Ⅵ.Conclusion

In the river of the history of the development of derivational gender words， the research and argument of related gender equality have always been the hot spot. Derivation in words’ formation is quite crucial and can not be replaced easily. Gender equality is also an endeavour we should try our best to achieve to make the whole world more harmonious and full of love. Sometimes， they may not be exactly the opposite， but a bilateral group instead. Just like a widely-spread Chinese old saying tells us， the ocean is vast for it refuses no rivers， so is culture. Only if you hold a comprehensive heart， will everything be full of love， so is English.

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Annotation：

① French Enlightenment Movement：an intellectual and philosophical movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century， "The Century of Philosophy".

② Universal Declaration of Human Rights：a historic document that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on 10 December 1948 as Resolution 217 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris， France.

③ the Great French Revolution：a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799， and partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire.

④ Joseph Fourier：a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations.