如何促使英语专业毕业论文选词用字的规范化
摘 要:为促使英语专业毕业论文选词用字的规范化,基于人文学科学术论文的文体要求,归纳了选词用字的避用原则。英语专业毕业论文属学术论文,应使用正式文体、书面语。然而,不少论文往往只注重选题内容的合理性,而忽视选词用字的规范性,这样不免使论文出现文体混乱、用语不当等现象。
鉴于此,笔者从英语学术论文的文体角度,对其选词用字进行了研究,认为规范论文语言应遵循以下避用的基本原则:避用偏见语、避用缩略语、避用拉丁缩略语、避用俚语。
一、避用偏见语偏见(或歧视)的种类很多,有性别偏见、年龄偏见、外表和残疾偏见、经济和社会等级偏见等。无论是何种偏见,不管是有意的还是无意的,一旦在论文中出现,其客观性、公正性会随之丧失,说服力也会减弱。因此,在论文中理应避用偏见语。英语毕业论文中的偏见主要以性别偏见为主,以代词形式的性别偏见仍时有出现。例如:As a person growsup, hemustassume responsibilities.Every citizen should know his legal rights.上两句中分别用代词he和his来泛指包括女性在内的所有人,从字面意思上讲排除了女性。而As a per-son grows up, she must assume responsibilities中的she和Every citizen should know her legal rights句中的her又排除了男性。实际上,这两种表达方法都带有性别偏见。为剔除对任何一方的性别偏见,不妨这样表述:A www.51lunwen.com s a person grows up, he or she must assume re-sponsibilities.Every citizen should know his orher legal rights.或:As people grow up, theymustassume responsibilities.All citizens should know their legal rights.按SuzanneWebb[1]和Judith Butcher[2]等的观点,以上四句都使用了包含语( inclusive language)。
就前两句中而言,尽管消除了性别偏见,但在论文特别是一段落中重复或过多地使用he or she, his orher等,会显得累赘,相比之下,后两句表达方式更佳。其次,性别偏见又常与“man”一词、以“-man”为后缀的词或以“man”构成的复合词的使用有关。例如:The dinosaurwas extinct long beforemanwalked theEarth.Most policemen in some cities do little but writeparking tickets.Rebuilding the space shuttlewillcall forextramoneyand manpower, but such an endeavorwill benefitman-kind in the generation to come.上述三句都带有明显的性别偏见。第一句用man来表示人的总称,忽略了女性,因此应将man改为hu-man beings。第二句用policemen,忽视了女性所持的这一职业,应将policemen改为police off论文范文http://www.chuibin.com/ icers。第三句用manpower轻视了妇女在社会中的劳动作用,用mankind也忽略了女性在人类的存在,可将此句改为:Rebuilding the space shuttlewillcall forextramoneyand employees, but such an endeavorwill benefit futuregenerations.为消除性别偏见,在论文写作中下面左栏词语均可以用右栏中性词语替代,具体选词应依上下文意思而定。businessmanbusiness executive, businessperson, store own-er, manager, proprietor, merchantcameraman photographerchairman chairperson, moderator, chair, headclergymanmember of the clergy, minister, pastor, priest,rabbicongressman representative, member ofCongressfireman firefightermailman mail carrier, postalworker, letter carriermankind humanity, human beings, peopleman-madeartificia,l synthetic, manuf actured, constructed,ofhuman originmanpowerpersonne,l employees, staf,f workers, workforce,human resources, efforts, staffing, defence forcenewsman reporter, journalistsalesmansales associate, salesclerk, sales representative,salespersonsportsman sports enthusiast, athletestatesman diplomat, primeminister, statespersonweathermanweather announcer, weather forecaster, meteor-ologist
除此之外,性别偏见有时还以其他形式出现,例如:The insurance policy covers all employees and theirwives.Jane Austen, Mrs. Gaskel,l and George Eliot de-scribed life in the provinces; Dickens described life inthe city.JudgeWallingford hasbeen a poetess aswellas a la-dy lawyer and judge.以上三句仍带有性别偏见,往往不易察觉。第一句中的all employees and theirwives这一表述隐含对女性的歧视,它实际上排除了该职业中的女性雇员。为不偏不倚,可用中性词spouses替代wives。根据RichardMarius和Harvey S. W iener[3](183)的观点,第二句中的Mrs.是英语旧时用法,含有性别歧视之意,应该避用,不妨也用该姓名全称表述如下:Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskel,l and George Eliotdescribed life in the provinces; Charles Dickens de-scribed life in the city.第三句中分别使用了非中性词poetess和ladylawyer,带有职业性别偏见。但通过上下文来表达性别,可巧妙地运用中性词来处理该偏见,将该句改为:JudgeWallingford is a much-published poe,t andshe has managed to keep writing poetry while she hasworked first as a lawyer and then as a judge.同样,类似下面左栏中带有职业性别偏见的词语,可以用右栏中性词语替代。actress actorauthoress authorfemale lawyer lawyermale nurse nursepoetess poetstewardess flight attendantwoman engineer engineer偏见往往是历史因素造成的,常常不知不觉地出现在论文写作中。就此,DianaHacker[4]指出,只要按常理稍加注意,即使是不明显的偏见也是可以判断出来的。