Gender Differentiation in the Chinese Language

Abstract

Language is one of the most important factors affecting the formation of perceptions, thoughts and behaviors about gender in society. In China, studies on the relationship between gender and language began after the 1980s. The Chinese language, which evolved from pictograms, does not have any prefixes or suffixes indicating gender. However, even though Chinese grammatically does not seem like a sexist language, this does not mean that Chinese is a language that does not demonstrate gender discrimination or classification. Gender discrimination can be reflected in the language in different ways. This article will attempt to answer the question: “How is the inferior position of Chinese women in society reflected in language?” To answer this question, gender discrimination in the Chinese language will be evaluated in terms of Chinese word formation, idioms, proverbs, word order and the third-person singular pronoun. With this objective in mind, this research refers to a Chinese dictionary and uses recent findings about this issue to source the words relating to gender, specifically women. Before analyzing the examples in the Chinese language, it will be beneficial to give a brief background on what kind of language Chinese is. Then, some examples of gender related words, especially consisting of the character 女 (nǚ-woman, female), pronouns, proverbs and idioms will be given and examined.