Gender stereotypes through nominative units of military social dialects in English and Chinese

Abstract

This research focuses on the professional ethos, institutional values, and gender stereotypes of the American and Chinese military communities. It examines the military social dialect through axiological and gendered perspectives. Within the theoretical framework of gender roles, it is posited that gender stereotypes shaped by sociocultural and historical contexts, substantially mirror social norms related to professional roles, social hierarchy, and the distribution of power within society. These stereotypes are implemented through anticipated patterns of behavior and gender-specific roles. A special emphasis is placed on gender-motivated nominative units of the military lingo. This socio-cultural research explores 1,224 nominative units in English military sociolect, contrasted with informal Chinese military jargon and discourse. This study supports the hypothesis of traditional masculine nature of the America’s and China’s military environments deeply ingrained with gender stereotypes. In addition, this study empirically uncovers social stereotypes and semantic categories of gender-specific lexemes of informal communicative practices in the cultures under study.