A Cultural Approach to Verbal Taboos in English and Chinese.doc

a cultural approach to verbal taboos in english and chineseabstract: taboo has become a commonly used word in anthropology and the study of folk custom. furthermore, it has been an important field of learning. according to the international english usage, there are mainly six taboo aspects as follows, religion and god, sex, secretions and excretion, disease and death, social status, and privacy involves age, weight, and income tec. this article will make analysis of two of them in english and chinese in details in the following passages.a. religion and god in english-speaking countries, most people believe christianity or catholicism, so people are strictly prohibited from mentioning gods name, jehovah. in the third of ten commandments, it says “thou shalt not speak my name in vain.” westerners have a strong sense of religion and their thoughts are restricted by religious beliefs and superstitious concepts. they stand in arm of gods and fear of devils and believe that some religious terms or words have a mysterious supernatural power. thus, such religious terms or words as “gods”,” jesus christ”, “heaven”, “devils”, “hell”, “dam” etc. are only mentioned in the serious religious situations, otherwise they are taboos words. however, in the course of interpersonal communication, it is inevitable to speak of “god” sometimes, then people use “all-wise”, the creator”, “kings of kings”, “light of world” etc. to replace god. therefore, people usually say “for goodness sake” or “for crying out loud” instead of “for christs sake”. in english, there is an idiom saying “speak of devils and he appears”, so ordinary people use “the old boy” “old nick” “old poker”, “the good man” etc to refer to satan. in chinese, there are also similar religious verbal taboos. people tend to use complimentary address to call the gods they admire such as “大帝”, “大圣” etc. whereas they try various means to avoid mentioning devils. if a person wants to cite god as his or her witness while making his or her vows, he or she is inclined to use “天” (sky)such as “上苍作证”, “对天发誓”. besides, people also add“爷” after gods name such as “老天爷”, “土地爷”, “阎王爷”, because “爷” is a respectful form of addressing the elder generation in chinese.b. disease and death in the opinion of most people, the greatest happiness in life is to be healthy, so they usually try various means to avoid mentioning names of some serious diseases. in fact, “discomfort” means “sickness”, therefore, when a person says she or he doesnt feel well, she or he implies that she is ill. westerners substitute b.o for body odor, c.c or big c. or terminal illness for cancer, v.d for venereal disease, t.b for tuberculosis, and aids for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, mental diseases are also the tabooed topic. thus, when a person has mental disorder, people usually say “she or he is not all there”, “she or he is a little confused”. as for physical disabilities, people use a “special student” for a “disabled student”, a “visually retarded student” for a “blind student”, and “the handicapped” for the “crippled”. chinese people are afraid of talking about of disease, too. when a person is sick, she or he usually says “身体有点不适”. blindness is usually referred to as “眼睛有点不便”(with some visual inconvenience). death is the eternal taboo topic in the human history. mans birth, aging, sickness and death are irresistible natural laws, but in the depths of people hearts, death is the most unfortunate thing in life, so both english and chinese people closely guard it as a deep secret. sometimes it is to cherish memory of the dead; sometimes it is speak highly of the dead; and sometimes it is only to avoid mentioning the terrible and mysterious word-death. there are about one hundred and thirty euphemistic phrases for death in chinese, and it is almost true of english language. the deepest impression of euphemisms for death goes to the speech delivered by engels in front of marxs gravestone.“on the 14th of march, at a quarter too three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. he had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep-but forever. the gap that has been left by the departure of his mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt.”in his speech, he substituted “cease to think”, “go to sleep forever”, and “departure” for death.it seems to be considerably significant for us english learners to acquaint ourselves with the ways of avoiding verbal taboos in cross-cultural communication. there are four min ways for reference and anyone whos interested and go deeper into it.1. the first method is to avoid mentioning the tabooed fact 2. the second way is to tell white lies on some occasions 3. the third one is to neutralize some taboo words or phrases 4. the last but not least way is to substitute euphemisms for verbal taboos taboo is a common cultural phenomenon existing in both chinese and western cultures. verbal taboo is an indispensable part from language. when we learn a foreign language, we should not only get knowledge of the language itself but also pay considerable attention to the culture embodied in the language. knowing deep cultural difference behind similar phenomena of verbal taboos in chinese and english enables us to understand one another and communicate more effectively with people from different cultures in the modern society of international interdependence. reference1. 杨舒.语言文化比较研究.徐州.中国矿业大学出版社.20072. 邓炎昌.刘润清.语言与文化.北京.外语教学与研究出版社.19893. 葛校琴.英汉语言禁忌的深层文化映现.外语与外语教学.2001(2)4. 胡文仲.文化于交际.北京.外语教学与研究出版社.19945. 庄成余.贺芸.英汉语言禁忌的立