西南大学本科生课程论文论文题目：A Discussion about Racism in English 课程名称：社会语言学任课教师：刘承宇专业：英语班级：2009级（翻译）4班学号：222009310012080姓名：陈小培2012年12月30日西南大学外国语学院制AbstractAs a kind of social phenomenon, racism can be seen in language. There are many expressions which contain racism both in Britain English and American English. As we all know, racism, as a kind of social phenomenon which exists in English language, must function as the tool of social communication and will also influence our social life, such as in the aspect of economic, political, cultural and psychological life.This thesis can be classified into 3 parts.The first part is the introduction. And the introduction contains the definition of racism and the reasons of racism in English language.The second part discusses those vocabularies and expressions about racism in English language. Specifically speaking, we will talk about vocabularies and expressions that used to discriminate against black people, Chinese and Dutch in English.The last part is the conclusion. It will be about how can we treat those expressions about racism in cross-cultural communication.Key words: English language, racism, expressions, cross-cultural communicationChapter1 Introduction1.1 Definition of RacismAccording to the 7th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner‟s English-Chinese Dictionary (2009), the definition of racism is “the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race; violent behavior towards them”. From the definition we can see, racism is the unfair and violent treatment that a race for another. In English, specifically speaking, racism is the unfair and violent behaviors and discriminations that British and American people exert on people from other races or countries. Racism can be seen in many perspectives of our social life, such as in economic, political and psychological life. Overall, racism expressed by language can be classified into two categories as below: one is that the racial discrimination contains in the whole sentence instead of the words which form the sentence. For instance, in Zhang and Liu…s (2005) article, “one Englishman can beat three Frenchmen” and “the Italian are wise before the deed, the German in the deed, the French after the deed”, and there is a similar example in Wang‟s (2000) book: “An American will go to hell for a bag of coffee.” Another is the vocabulary itself contains the implication of racial discrimination, for example, the word “negro” is a despisal for the black people.1.2 Reasons of RacismRace and language are closely related with each other. Once the certain language is mastered by a certain race, this language will be filled strong emotion by the race. Then undue favor for the language would be formed if things go on like this. This kind of undue favor encourages people insist on speaking the language even though defects are obvious, they do not want to change or reform. What‟s more, the development of Ethnocentrism will strengthen this undue favor.In a word, the main reasons of racism are strong national sense of pride and national priority. A race must have its own standard about its behaviors, traditions and manners. And she uses her own standard to evaluate other races. Then the outcome is obvious, that is, the race is superior to others. So, expressions and vocabularies in language emerge automatically. On the strength of economic power, both British people and Americansbelieve they are the strongest in the world, they look down upon any other race. So, English language is full of vocabularies and expressions contain racism meaning.Of course, the reasons of racism are not limited only in national sense of pride and national priority, since national enmities and national conflicts can also lead to racism between different races. Such as in the WWI, the Great Britain and Germany were belonged to different camps, so, the British people called the German “Jerry” and Germen called British people “Tommy”.Chapter2 Racism in EnglishRacism in language is mainly expressed in the system of vocabulary, for in the three elements of language----pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, the reflection of vocabulary on language is the most direct and fast. Meaning of vocabulary can be classified into reference meaning (denotation) and connotation. And racism in language is mainly contains in connotation.2.1 Racism against Black PeopleAs we all know, in the long history of human being‟s development, black people are the most miserable races. For a long period, black people have always be discriminated by the white people and some non-black races. Although black people in America has been liberated, they are still be discriminated by American white people in social life. According to Zeng (2003), the phrase “work like Negro” means “working as a slave or a beast”. In America, the social status of black people is very low. Generally speaking, they belong to the lowest social class. Not only can not they be treated fairly, but also they have been nicknamed many offensive nicknames. For instance, “Negro”, “Negress”, ”Negroid”and “Nigger”are the typical offensive nicknames that Americans gave black people. What‟s more, the truth is not just as below. In English language, expressions and phrases about the word “black”contain derogatory sense more or less. And the word “black” is always been related to evil things, devil and dirty things. For example, blackguard, blacklist, black mark, black sheep and black lie, etc. And in English culture, black is a kind of miserable color, so widows should dress in black. And black is also a evil color, so the evil magic is called “black art”. All in all, black is a color against white. White peopleuse the word “black” to discriminate against the black.2.2 Racism against DutchThe social status of the Dutch in English countries is not better than black people, since we can also find the truth from the English language itself. The racial discrimination against the Dutch can be dated back to hundreds of years ago. The Great Britain and the Netherlands had waged war against each other in order to fight for the maritime supremacy, and from then, the two countries had become enemies. And the racial discrimination against the Dutch can be found in expressions about the word “Dutch”, that is, according to Liu(1990), “those expressions which are about ‘Dutch’are always offensive”. For example, “Dutch act” means committing suicide; “Dutch auction” means dishonest business; “Dutch comfort” means useless comfort; “Dutch defense” means fake defense; “Dutch widow”is used to describe a prostitute; “Dutch uncle”is used to describe a person who is arrogant and always curses others. And if you hear a people saying: “Well, I‟m a Dutchman”, then his real meaning is that he does not believe you. And according to Wang (2000), “Dutchmen have become the byword of ‘he is not a man’in Chinese”.2.3 Racism against FrenchmenThe racial discrimination against Frenchmen is mostly because of governance that French for the Great Britain. The essence of “French disease” is syphilis; “French letter” is a different expression for the condom; “French lunar pill” refers to pill that will cause an abortion; “French novels/print” is a book or a picture contains obscene content. Besides, Americans had created many phrases and expressions to scoff at and mock Frenchmen. The phrase “French way/trick /culture” means making love, so, “French lesson” refers to lessons that teach skills about making love. According to Zeng(2003), the phrase “excuse/pardon my French” means “Excuse me, I must curse”, for example, “Excuse the swear words I’ll use. Excuse my French, but he is a bloody nuisance”.2.4 Racism against ChineseWhether in Britain or the United States, Chinese people are always being discriminated by the white. In 19th century, many Chinese immigrants were working as coolies, so, from since then, Chinese people were labeled “people with no mind”onpurpose. And according Li(2001), “Chinese” even can be used to refer to heroin, “Chinese white” refers to high-concentration heroin, and “Chinese red”refers to common heroin. And according to Qian(1981), “China-man’s ch ance is a phrase to portray a hopeless expectation, and the origin of the phrase can be dated back to the Gold Craze in American history, since only after Americans panning for gold can Chinese people start to pan.” And in American English, the essence of the phrase “China syndrome”is “disastrous accidents”.Chapter3 ConclusionFrom the above analysis and discussion we can learn that the existence of racial discrimination in English language is an evitable truth. For we English language learners, on the one hand, we must admit the existence of racial discrimination in English language, and on the other hand, we should not exaggerate the functions of those expressions and phrases about racial discrimination. The reason is that with the development of our society, all kinds of languages are changing all the way. Since racism is just a language phenomenon in English, it will change as time pass by. We should treat racism in English with changing eyesight. That is to say, with the development, expressions and phrases about racial discrimination in English will change or even disappear in the future, so we English language learners should treat those expressions and phrases with a proper attitude.As we are all English language learners, it is inevitable that we will communicate with other native speakers or some other English language learners from other countries, so we should carefully use those expressions and phrases about racial discrimination in order not to hurt people from those cultures which are discriminated by English language. So, we must choice proper expressions and phrases when talking with people from other cultures in English, especially people from India, the Netherlands, France and those black people.Last but not least, if we must use those expressions and phrases about racial discrimination, we should first make clear that those expressions are only suitable for informal situations, that is, we can not use those expressions in form situations. Before ourspeaking, we should make clear the field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse so that we can make a good cross-cultural communication.References1.Oxford Advanced Learner‟s English-Chinese Dictionary (7th ed.). (2009). Hong Kong:Oxford University Press.2.张宜波，刘秀丽，2005，英语中的种族歧视探讨，《中国海洋大学学报》，3：82.3.汪榕培，2000，《英语词汇学研究》。