Download Conclusion and suggestioN

CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
4.1
Conclusion
As I have stated before in the previous chapters, sexist language is defined as
words, phrases and sentences that exclude gender. The language has either the
masculine or feminine form. After all, I found some languages used in the novel that
direct to sexist expression. The sexist expressions that I found are further classified
into three kinds of sexist expressions; non-parallel structure,lexical asymmetry and
generic words. The generic words are further divided into two kinds of generic forms
of ‘he’ and ‘she’. From these kinds of sexist expression, I find many pairs of
masculine and feminine word form for each kind of sexist expression.
The first kind of sexist expression is non-parallel structure. I find 9 pairs of words
that belong to non-parallel structure in the novel. This kind of sexist expression is
similar to binary antonym. For example, words like boy&girl have clear definition
which defines boy for male child and girl for female child. So basically these words
are called as non-parallel structure and it can be simplified as binary antony since
people know this term in common. After searching the meaning from the context and
dictionary, the usage of those words is only to define male or female child which
means the contextual and lexical meanings are similar. For some cases like the word
stud and whore, both words are known to have negative meaning. However, the
definition of whore in dictionary shows that there are some terms that have the
similar meaning with it, which are sluts, and pros. If we see the comparison between
the word stud with whore, sluts and pros, women has the words that contain negative
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meaning more than men. Therefore, I think that these terms are sexist sincemen only
have one word, stud, describing men who have sexual relationship, while women in
contrast have three terms, whore, sluts and pros. So, based on the theory of Parks &
Robertson (1998) about sexist language, non-parallel structure is one of the kinds of
sexist expressions that excluding gender.
Second kind of sexist expression is lexical asymmetry. I find 7 pairs of
masculine and feminine word for. However, it is different from non-parallel struture
because the feminine word form has the base word from masculine word form which
is added with the suffix –ess. For example, the word waitercan be used to identify
male gender. On another occasion, a female waiter is called waitress which word
comes from the base word of masculine form. This creates the perspective that
feminine word from comes from masculine which makes people think women’s
status is below man’s status or in another word, women are inferior to men.
Furthermore, the definition for women based on dictionary is similar to the usage in
the novel yet it has additional definition which directs to negative impression. For
example, the word mistress has two definitions based on Cambridge (2005)
dictionary as I have explained in chapter 3. The usage of mistress in the novel is
based on the second meaning of the lexical meaning, which is not a female master
but a woman who has sexual relationship with married man. Since the usage directs
to negative impression for women, so the words belong to lexical asymmetry are
sexist.
The third kind of sexist expression is generic words ‘he’ and ‘she’. I found 21
sentences that contain the sexist expression direct to generic ‘he’ while 9 sentences
direct to generic ‘she’. The usage of generic ‘he’ considers that male is more superior
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than female. For example the word snowmancontains the masculine form ‘man’
which makes the expression is used only for male. On the other hand, the usage of
teacher directs to generic ‘she’ because the usage of this word is based on the context
which means it relates to the story from the novel saying that women are supposed to
be the teacher. This makes people think that being a teacher is mostly occupied by
female. Therefore, I think that generic words either ‘he’ or ‘she’ has the meaning of
excluding gender so both are sexist expressions.
Furthermore, the questionnaire results show a different perspective between
women and men. For example, most female respondents which are about 52% of the
respondents, answer the word driver refers to woman and 40%
of the male
respondents answer the word driver as refers to man, while the other 8% of the
respondents answer for referring to both man and woman. Thereafter, I conclude that
the word driver based on the contextual meaning or based on the story of the novel
refers to generic ‘he’ while the perspective of more than a half of the respondents
defines it as generic ‘she’. Therefore, the word can be referred to either generic ‘he’
or ‘she’.
In the whole conclusion, I think that the words, phrases and sentences are
sexist if it has the means to exclude either gender and contain masculine or feminine
word form which means that those three criteria, non-parallel structure, lexical
asymmetry and generic words are considered sexist. In addition, the contextual and
lexical meaningsplayan important role to decide whether the words, phrases and
sentencesare sexist. Moreover, I think that the referents also play an important part
to define sexist expression as theory of referring expression from Hurford, Heasley,
& Smith (2007). People who do not know much about English vocabulary might not
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be aware to use the sexist expressions in their daily language whether it is oral or
written. At last, I think that most of Margaret’s works portray women’s
discrimination which lead most of her works to the feminism movement. Therefore,
her works either poetry or novel could be containing sexist expressions.
4.2
Suggestion
In any kind of study, there might contain the imperfection. Hence, I would like
to suggest those who are interested in the further research on English sexist language,
to find more samples on generic ‘she’ since I only found a few of feminine word
form while mostly contain masculine word form. Then, the research can be widened
to find another word form that is sexist not only from novels but also from movies or
dialogs and give the alternatives to replace the sexist expression.For the readers, I
think it’s better for us to enhance our knowledge on language that we use every day
so that we will not use the sexist expression and we can even avoid using sexist
expression by using the alternative items. It is for the better acknowledgement for
both genders, male and female in the society so that there discrimination of gender in
language can be erased.