On gender markers in Chinese

Abstract

On gender markers in Chinese. In this paper we study the ways in which gender is marked in Chinese. Beginning with the radicals that denote gender, three pairs of gender markers that function as morphemes in some cases and as nouns in others are studied. These are “男 / 女” (nán/nǚ, man /woman, male / female), “公 / 母” (gōng / mŭ, male / female) and “雌 / 雄” (cí / xióng, female / male). We also study the semantic symmetry and asymmetry in the animate world and the inanimate one. It is concluded that the linguistic sexism that has been detected in Chinese is rather a consequence of social and cultural sexism. This presentation of gender markers in Chinese, on the one hand, helps the understanding of the Spanish-speaking students of Chinese in learning; And on the other hand, shows us how the Chinese students of Spanish interpret the marked and unmarked forms in their mother tongue and to what extent this concept of the natural gender may affect the acquisition of the grammatical gender.