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  3. The use of deferential language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Ja

The use of deferential language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Ja

admin2021-07-08  1
问题     The use of deferential language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy; she "treads softly(谨言慎行)in the world," elevating feminine beauty and grace to an art form.
    Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the feminine linguistic(语言的)ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential "women’s" forms, and even using the few strong forms that are known as "men’s." This, of course, attracts considerable attention and has led to an outcry in the Japanese media against the defeminization of women’s language. Indeed, we didn’t hear about "men’s language" until people began to respond to girls’ appropriation of forms normally reserved for boys and men. There is considerable sentiment about the "corruption" of women’s language—which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and morality—and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are regularly carried out by the media.
    Yoshiko Matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of the highly deferential forms as older women. This highly polite style is no doubt something that young women have been expected to "grow into"—after all, it is assign not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to indicate a change in the nature of one’s social relations as well. One might well imagine little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older women—in a fashion analogous to little girls’ use of a high-pitched voice to do "teacher talk" or "mother talk" in role play.
    The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change—of social change and of linguistic change. But it is most certainly not a sign of the "masculization" of girls. In some instances, it may be a sign that girls are making the same claim to authority as boys and men, but that is very different from saying that they are trying to be "masculine." Katsue Reynolds has argued that girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out. Social change also brings not simply different positions for women and girls, but different relations to life stages, and adolescent girls are participating in new sub-cultural forms. Thus what may, to an older speaker, seem like "masculine" speech may seem to an adolescent like "liberated" or "hip" speech.
Which is not a character of a typical refined Japanese woman?
选项 A、Modesty and delicacy.
B、Beauty and grace to an art form.
C、A little masculine.
D、Influenced by Confucius on gender norms.
答案C
解析 细节题。文中第一段提到了典型的日本女人受到孔子思想的影响，谦虚、优雅；只有C选项不是日本女人的典型特征，故选C。
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