2021-03-28 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – woman & women
2021-03-28
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – woman & women
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง woman = ‘WOOM-uhn’
ออกเสียง women = ‘WIM-in’
-woman(suffix) = combining form of ‘woman’
Dictionary.com
SYNONYM STUDY FOR WOMAN
Woman, female, lady
are nounsreferring to an adult female human being,
one paradigmof gender and biological sex for adult human beings.
Woman is the general term.
It is neutral, lacking either favorableor unfavorable implication,
and is the most commonly used of the three:
a wealthy woman; a woman of strong character, of unbridled appetites.
In scientific, statistical, and other objective use,
female is the neutral contrastive termto male
and may apply to plants and animalsalso:
104 females to every 100 males; Among lions, the female is the chief hunter.
Female is sometimes used in disparaging contexts:
a gossipy female; a conniving female.
Lady meaning “refined, polite woman”
is a term of approvalor praise:
a real lady in all things; to behave like a lady.
When usedas a form of address,
lady may bepolite or neutral in tone:
Ladies, did you hear about the new brunch menu with bottomless mimosas?
However, in the singularit is often perceived as rude:
Hey, lady, I don’t have all day.
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR WOMAN
Although formerly woman was sometimes regarded as
demeaningand lady was the term of courtesy,
woman is the designationpreferred by most modern female adults:
League of Women Voters; American Association of University Women.
Woman is the standard feminine parallel to man.
As a modifierof a plural noun,
woman, like man, is exceptional in that
the plural form women is used:
women athletes; women students.
The use of lady as a term of courtesy
has diminished somewhat in recent years (the lady of the house),
although it still survives in a few set phrases (ladies' room; Ladies' Day ).
Lady is also used, but decreasingly,
as a termof reference for women engaged in occupations
considered by someto be menial or routine:
cleaning lady; saleslady. See also girl, lady, -woman.
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR -WOMAN
Feminine compounds ending in -woman
are equivalent to the masculine compounds in -man.
When the person referred to is a woman,
the feminine form is often, but not always, used:
alderman, alderwoman;
assemblyman, assemblywoman;
chairman, chairwoman;
congressman, congresswoman;
spokesman, spokeswoman;
businessman, businesswoman.
However, some formsending in -man are applied to women,
and occasionally terms in -man are specified by legal code:
Alderman Dorothy Lavelle.
In general,
the practicein current edited written English
is to avoid the -man form in reference to a woman or the plural -men
when mixed sexes are involved.
Instead, a sex-neutral term is used:
councilmembers rather than councilmen and councilwomen; representative or legislator rather than congressman or congresswoman.
See also chairperson, -man, -person.
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Woman & women
The singular“woman” probably gets mixed up with the plural “women”
because although both are spelled with an O in the first syllable;
only the pronunciationof the O really differentiates them.
Just rememberthat this word
is treated no differently than “man” (one person)
and “men” (more than one person).
A woman is a woman—never a women.
Collins COBUILD English Usage
Woman - lady
1. used as a noun
You usually refer to an adult female person as a woman /'wʊmən/.
His mother was a tall, dark-haired woman.
The plural of woman is women /'wɪmɪn/.
There were men and women working in the fields.
You can use lady as a polite way of referring to a woman,
especially if the woman is present.
We had a visit from an American lady.
There is a lady here who wants to speak to you.
Be Careful!
It is almost always better to refer to someone
as an old lady or an elderly lady, rather than an 'old woman'.
I helped an old lady to carry her shopping.
She is an elderly lady living on her own.
If you are addressing a group of women,
you call them ladies, not 'women'.
Ladies, could I have your attention, please?
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
2. 'woman' and 'women' used as modifiers
Woman is sometimes used in front of other nouns.
She said that she would prefer to see a woman doctor.
You use women in front of plural nouns, not 'woman'.
Women drivers can get cheaper car insurance.
Be Careful!
Normally, you just refer to a female doctor, writer etc
as a doctor or a writer.
Only use woman doctor, woman writer etc
if it is necessary to make it clear that you are referring to a woman.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary
wom′an•less, adj.
syn:
woman, female, lady
are nouns referring to adult human beings
who are biologically female,
that is, capable of bearing offspring.
woman is the general, neutral term: a wealthy woman.
In scientific, statistical, and other objective use
female is the neutral contrastive term to male:
104 females to every 100 males.
female is sometimes used disparagingly: a gossipy female.
lady in the sense “polite, refined woman” is a term of approval:
We know you will always behave like a lady.
usage:
Although formerly
woman was sometimes regarded as demeaning
and lady was the term of courtesy,
woman is the designation preferred by most modern female adults:
League of Women Voters; American Association of University Women.
woman is the standard parallel to man.
When modifying a plural noun, woman, like man,
becomes plural: women athletes; women students. nan
The use of lady as a term of courtesy has diminished somewhat
in recent years, although it still survives in a few set phrases
(ladies' room; Ladies' Day).
lady is also used, but decreasingly,
as a term of reference for women engaged in occupations
considered by some to be menial or routine:
cleaning lady; saleslady. See also girl, lady.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary
-woman
a combining form of woman:
chairwoman; forewoman; spokeswoman.
usage:
Compounds ending in -woman commonly correspond to the masculine compounds in -man:
councilman, councilwoman; congressman, congresswoman.
The current practice, esp. in edited written English,
is to avoid the -man form in reference to a woman
or the plural -men when members of both sexes are involved.
Often, a sex-neutral term is used;
for example, council member rather than
either councilman or councilwoman;
representatives or legislators rather than congressmen.
See also -man, -person.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Using 'Lady,' 'Woman,' and 'Female' to Modify Nouns
'Female' doctor? 'Lady' lawyer? 'Woman' politician?
Are any of these not offensive?
Here at Merriam-Webster, we have a number of women editors.
Or is it female editors? Certainly not lady editors, right?
There's currently a split
between the use of 'woman' and 'female' as modifiers,
with some preferring one over the other.
If you're stuck,
consider thatthere's rarely a need
to say something like 'female surgeon';
most of the time, 'surgeon' works just fine.
Gendered modifierslike female, woman, and lady
are a thorny issue in English usage.
All threewords began life as nouns,
with woman and lady showing up very early in the language,
and female showing up in the 1300s.
Lady was used initially as a form of address for a woman
who had run of a householdor who had charge over servants,
and late came to refer to a woman who helda high rank.
Woman has retained its original meaning,
which is now almost 1400 years old: “an adult female human being.”
Female first referred to a woman or girl,
but within about a hundred years of its appearance,
it was also being used of animals
(“Byrdes that ben femalles may not abyde there,” —The Myrrour of the Worlde, 1481).
Unlike lady and woman, however,
female is also a full-fledged adjective,
and the adjectival use has historically been more clinical
and biological than not
(as in, “the female plant” or Alexander Pope’s “goats of female kind”).
There was remarkably little fussing over any of these words.
Until the end of the 1800s, that is.
The arguments began with the bare nouns:
was it appropriateto call a group of women females?
Are all women ladies?
Can you call a group of female human beings
of various ages females orshould you go with ladies or women?
Though advice varied,
it was generally agreed by the beginning of the 20th century that female was a disparaging term
as it made no differentiation between humans and animals
(this in spite of the fact that female was, in previous centuries,
actually preferred to woman and lady);
lady was a fine and polite word
to describe a woman of excellent social refinement or breeding
(in spite of the fact that it was, at that point in time,
often used in informal print and speech
to refer specifically to women who happened to have jobs
that would benefit from being tagged
as above their station,
as with cleaning lady and saleslady);
and woman was the preferred term
to refer to an adult woman (which had always been the case).
All three nounshad been used attributively
(that is, before a noun in order to modify it)
before—woman, in fact, had been used attributively back to the 14th century.
Newspapers from the 1800s are surprisingly populated with lady doctors, female lawyers, and women scientists.
And these uses went largely unremarked upon until the 20th century.
The first scholar to critically examine
the attributive usesof female, woman, and lady was Henry Fowler,
author of the 1926 Dictionary of Modern English Usage,
and while his conclusions are commonsensical, his manner of expressing himself grates.
In a section called “Feminine designations,”
he claims that women who argue against
the use of gendered words ending in -ess, like authoress and poetress,
are being, in short, whiny and illogical,
and that since the English language is flexible enough
to allow these designations, we had better let it.
There is one interesting note in his jeremiad, however:
With the coming extension of women’s vocations,
feminine vocation-words are a special need of the future;
everyone knows the inconvenience of being uncertain
whether a doctor is a man or a woman;...
For all his late Victorian bluster, Fowler was prescient in one regard:
most of our current uses of gendered modifiers are vocation-related
(lady doctor, woman senator, female restaurateur).
And he has some usage guidance on that score.
Regarding lady, he writes:
Lady prefixed to names of vocations as a mark of sex
(lady doctor, author, clerk, &c.)
is a cumbrous substitution for a feminine designation,
which should be preferred when it exists or can be made;
in default of that, woman or female would be better than lady...
But Fowler had some further thoughts on female and woman.
After noting that the noun female had become “reasonably resented”
as mostly a biological designation, he goes on to say that
It is not reasonable to extend this resentment to the adjective use of female;
but it is the mistaken extension which probably accounts for
the apparent avoidance of the natural phrase female suffrage
& the use of the clumsy woman suffrage instead.
His preference for female over woman seems to be grammatical in nature: he notes that shoehorning woman (a noun) into an adjective’s role is
“mere perversity” when there’s a perfectly good adjective to use instead: female.
Fowler set the tone for the conversation
that would take off in the latter part of the 20th century.
Linguists and scholars who studied gendered language have,
over decades,
formulated the general rule we currently function under.
Lady as a modifier is disparaging at best and should be avoided:
...if, in a particular sentence, both woman and lady might be used, the use of the latter tends to trivialize the subject matter under discussion, often subtly ridiculing the woman involved.
— Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries, 1975
When choosing between female and woman as modifiers, the usage advice is split. Some advocate for woman:
Although it is generally preferable to use woman or women as adjectives...
but allow that female is also an adequate choice:
... there will be times when female seems more appropriate. Use it, however, only when you would use male in a similar situation or when it is necessary for clarification; sex-specific adjectives are often gratuitous and belittling...
— Rosalie Maggio, The bias-free word finder: a dictionary of nondiscriminatory language, 1992
In her book, Lakoff uses female as the gendered modifier of choice, even going so far as to double-gendering with the construction “female comediennes” at one point.
Some of the preference for female over woman is a holdover of Fowler’s grammar point: female is an adjective while woman is not:
As far as the Guardian style guide is concerned, it is simply wrong to use "woman” and “women” in this way, because, it says, they are not adjectives.
— Maddie York, The Guardian11, 17 Oct. 2014
but the animal connotation of female can be hard to shake for some:
Female connotes a biological category. ... I avoid female in my own writing because it feels disrespectful, as if I'm treating the people I'm referring to as mammals but not humans. —Deborah Tannen, quoted in The New York Times Magazine, 18 Mar. 2007
So, while all agree that lady as a modifier is right out
—though we do still see the modifier lady in current English prose
—there’s currently a split between the use of woman and female as modifiers, with some preferring one over the other.
And yet, for all the confusion, there is better advice out there:
It is jarring to hear phrases such as lady lawyer, woman doctor, female booksalesman, and the Air Force’s female airman. It sounds condescending, even if that wasn’t intended.
— Bryan Garner, Garner’s Modern English Usage, 2016
ความเห็น (0)
ไม่มีความเห็น