Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

The inference that language is a reflection of the thoughts and attitudes within society runs throughout language research, specifically, the existence of sexism within language has been explored extensively. The majority of work done in this area generally targets a dictionary listing of male-attributed words and a comparison in semantics with their female counterparts. For instance compare the terms "master" and "mistress," or "sir" and "madam." Both "master" and "sir" are terms of respect, while "madam" and "mistress" have acquired rather derogatory meanings. According to many feminist essayists, the English language is rooted in the glorification of masculinity, the sustenance of male dominance, and the derogation of femininity. The latter being instituted through the peroration of language used in reference to women (Schulz, 1975). A study conducted by Nilsen (1977) investigated 500 dictionary words that had either a masculine or feminine connotation. Nilsen found 385 masculine terms compared with only 132 feminine. For words that had a negative connotation, "feminine" connotated words outnumbered the "masculine" ones 25 to 20 (Nilsen, 1977, p. 220). Nilsen has also suggested that along with a negative image, women ar