A Comparative Analysis of English and Chinese Euphemisms from the Perspective of Communication Functions.doc

contents 从交际功能看英汉委婉语a comparative analysis of english and chinese euphemisms from the perspective of communication functionscontentsabstract.ikey words .i摘要.关键词.introduction.1i. the function of taboos.3 a. the euphemism of death.3 b. the euphemism of disease.5 ii. the function of avoidance of vulgarity.6 a. the euphemism of sex.6 b. the euphemism of the parts of body.7 c. the euphemism of excreta.7 d. the euphemism of marriage and pregnancy.8 iii. the function of politeness.9a. the euphemism of being old.9b. the euphemism of handicapped.10c. the euphemism of poverty.11d. other euphemisms：dismissal，unemployment，appearance .12.the function of concealment.13a. political euphemism: international situation, diplomacy.13b. economical euphemism: economic crisis，tax, unemployment.13c. martial euphemism.14. the function of compliment .14conclusion.16acknowledgements.17bibliography.18abstracteuphemism is a widespread linguistic phenomenon, which is not only a social language phenomenon, but it is also a cultural phenomenon. it plays an important role in eliminating misunderstanding or conflicts among people，and harmonizing interpersonal relationship. this thesis makes a contrastive study of the english and chinese euphemism to discover the similarities and differences between them. it discusses euphemisms mainly from the perspective of communication functions including function of taboos, function of avoidance of vulgarity, function of politeness, function of concealment, and function of compliment, which are of considerable value and guidance to our foreign language learning and teaching, intercultural communication, translation, dictionary compilation and so on.key wordseuphemism; taboo; politeness; concealment; compliment 摘 要委婉语的创造和使用是人类语言中的一种普遍的现象。它不仅是一种社会语言现象，更是一种文化现象。它具有消除误解和摩擦，协调社会人际关系的重要作用。本文试从交际功能角度，即避讳功能、避俗功能、礼貌功能、掩饰功能、褒扬功能五大方面入手对英汉委婉语进行比较研究，通过英汉委婉语的对比，我们可以了解两种语言以及中西方两种文化的共性和个性，这对外语学习与教学、跨文化交际、翻译、词典编纂等具有较大的指导意义。关键词委婉语；避讳功能；避俗功能；礼貌功能；掩饰功能；褒扬功能 introductioneuphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in different cultures. from the moment it is coined, it plays an important role in peoples daily communication. they are embedded so deeply in our language that most of us, even those who pride themselves in being plainspoken, never get through a day without using them. like robert burchfield wrote in his book fair of speech: the use of euphemism, “a language without euphemisms would be a defective instrument of communication” (126). the word “euphemism” comes from the greek eu, meaning “good”, and phene “speech” or “saying,” and thus means literally “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. as a kind of figurative device, euphemism has been defined differently. euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive one (rawson,1). in china, chen wangdao was the first person who gave euphemism a definition, in his introduction to rhetoric, the definition reads, “one kind of figures of speech, saying something indirectly, but connoting and substituting with roundabout and implicit words or even metaphorical” (56). the limitation of the definition of euphemism is broken down by a famous american linguist d. bolinger who points out that “euphemism is not restricted to the lexicon. there are grammatical ways of toning something down without actually changing the content of the message” (148). afterwards, the grammatical ways to form euphemism such as negation, tense, mood and so on have been paid attention to.euphemism can be classified into many types from different angles. according to hugh rawson, euphemism can be divided into two types: the positive and the negative from the angle of semantics. euphemism also can be divided into “unconscious euphemism” and “conscious euphemism” (rawson, 3). according to their contents, euphemisms can be classified as “euphemism of disease, euphemism of death and so on”.though much ink has been spilled on euphemism, they are studied in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis byboth linguists at home and abroad and so far there is a shortage of contrastive research between languages. to unveil the universal and peculiar features of euphemisms and to better understand euphemism in a particular language, a contrastive study is a must. this thesis makes a contrastive study of english and chinese euphemism with an attempt to explore and demonstrate their differences and similarities from the perspective of communication functions in the hope of enhancing intercultural communication between countries and enlightening and guiding english learners a bit in their language learning, translation studies etc. i. the function of taboosa. the euphemism of deathbecause of the dread of some things and phenomenon, people are unwilling to speak or dare not to speak, but sometimes they have to express this meaning, thus they learn to use the euphemism. death is the most terrible event to most human beings, which means the end of existence. as a consequence, it is a forbidden area in almost every culture. however, people must face it no matter whether they like it or not. to avoid mention directly the word “death”, which probably will arouse unhappy feeling and frighten people, lots of euphemisms are created to substitute for it. some death euphemism express commendatory meaning, such as “to be in heaven”, “to be with god”; some neutral, such as “to go”, “to decease”; still some derogatory, such as “to crock”, “to kick the bucket”. people are reluctant to accept the fact that the dead persons have left this world forever, and they employ various strategies to achieve their goal. death is just like “a rest” or some other forms of “non-consciousness”, so the dead just “close their eyes” and “fall asleep”; death is “a journey or a leaving from life” to some specified or unspecified places, so the dead “pass away” and “go to a better place” or even are “in the arms of jesus”; death is an imperative invitation from the authorities in the afterlife, so the dead “ receive the final summons” and have to “answer the call”; death is a loss for those who know the dead, so the dead are “no longer with us” and are “sadly missed”; death is also an end, so the dead “breathe their last ” and are no more (liu chunbao, 173-174).death euphemisms also abound in chinese. chinese death euphemism are more complicated due to the deep cultural connotations, for instance, death euphemisms can indicate not only peoples attitudes towards the dead, but also the identities of the dead. generally speaking, when the dead are respectable and the speakers want to express their profound condolence, they may use “逝世” (sh sh) which literally means to pass away, “长眠” (chng min) which literally means a long sleep, “牺牲” (x shng).which literally means to sacrifice oneself, while if speakers dislike the dead, they might employ phrases like “翘辫子” (qio bin zi) which literally means to brail upward, “完蛋了” (wn dn le) which literally means to be finished, “蹬腿” (dng tu) which literally means to stretch ones leg (zhang gonggui,171-174). there is rigid class order in feudal china. all people should speak according to their different social ranks. different levels of political officials speak differently. therefore, different social ranks use different death euphemisms. death of emperors is called “崩” (bng), death of dukes “薨” (hng), death of senior officials “卒” (c), death of scholars “不禄” (b l), death of the common “死” (s) (zhang zhigong, 163). different death euphemisms apply not only for different levels of officials, but also for different ages. death of babies is named “杏荡” (xng shng); death of youth “夭” (yo); and death of senior people “寿终” (shu zhng) (zhang zhigong, 163).most people in western society believe in christianity. christian culture penetrates into the english language. many euphemisms on death are from holy bible or christian legends and allusions and some of them manifest the philosophy of christianity and its religious interpretation of death. for example, just because god created men with clay and men are created equal, “to die” is called “to return to dust / earth” or “to be called to god” or “to answer the final summons”, or “to hand in ones accounts / to be sent to ones account”. the dead people should report to the god his whole life and wait for “the last judgment”. therefore human beings should do good deeds to “pay charon” who will boat him “across the river styx” and then they can “go to heaven / paradise”.different from the single religion in western societies, the chinese have more than one religion. among them the main religions are buddhism and taoism. for buddhism, death is a doorway through which one passes a different kind of existence. buddhists believe the final goal of life directs at the eternal happiness after mans death that means being free from the painful world. so the significance of this life is only to provide ground the eternal happiness after mans death by means of doing good deeds removing evil in this world. the buddhists choose to remain da-zuo (打坐) when they pass away, which shows that they are not afraid of death and treat it as something naturally peaceful. death with this posture is called “坐化” (zu hu) or “坐蜕” (zu tu). taoists call that process “羽化” (y hu) or “遗行” (y xng) since when they achieves tao, his soul goes to the upper world and only the body is left. this gradually became a death euphemism.b. the euphemism of diseasein the past, many diseases had not been cared well, and some diseases meant the death. therefore people avoid mentioning disease directly. for example, they use “look off color,” which literally means the bad color, to express the body in an unhealthy state. modern medicine usually use abbreviates to replace the full name of the ills, which not only avoid the words people are unwilling to mention, but also express what people want to say. such as “big c” for cancer, “flu” for influenza, “bo” for body odor, “aids” for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, “vd” for venereal disease, and “sars” for severe acute respiratory syndromes and so on. generally speaking, people always hate to be ill. when they talk of the disease, they can avoid mentioning it. thus people create many implicative words which are refined and make people comfort. in chinese some people even are unwilling to refer to sickening, they only say their body uncomfortable. in all ages many names, for examples, ancient famous people huo qubing (霍去病), a great general in the warring states, xin qiji (辛弃疾), an ancient poet, modern star zhang weijian (张卫健) and so on, all express people s hating disease and wanting to have health. because the diseases are unexpectable physical phenomena, even though someone is ill, he always says a severe disease to be a small one or small one to nothing. there are disease euphemisms in chinese. cholera is called “子午沙” (z w sh), madman “精神病患者” (jng shn bng hun zh), deaf “背气” (bi q), indisposition is expressed that the body is uncomfortable, feet and legs are out of station. in english cancer is called long illness or big c or c.d. (cancer disease), leprosy is hansens disease, constipation is irregularity, syphilis is social disease, mad is mental problem. b.o substitutes body odor. aids is called donkey disease (it is said that african donkey is the infection fountainhead of this disease, so people use it as pronoun of aids). the function of avoidance of vulgaritya. the euphemism of sexevery nation should take their national genes, which determine their states of spirit, ways of thinking and even tendency of behavior. from the ancient time to now, people talk of sex prudently. with the development of human society, there are some open parlances, but the mainstream is that people still talk about it in an implicit, euphemistic way.there are many great differences in attitudes to sex between chinese and some western countries. the english has many expressions about sexual behavior, such as “make love”, “make it”, “to approach”, “sleep together” and so on. the “cohabitation”, which has been a usual phenomenon in western societies, is called the “trial marriage” or “marriage but not churched”; the “mistress” becomes “the unmarried wife” and the “bastard” bravely becomes “the love child” or “the natural child”. these euphemisms to some degrees reflect the acceptance and the permission of people divorce rapidly and hastily. it can be called “to break up”, “to split up” or even “mathruptcy” which is a blending of “match” and “bankrupt”. the funniest euphemism for divorce is “to go to reno”. “reno” is a small town in nevada of america and is famous for the speed in dealing with divorce procedure. after the divorce, we have the “single parent” which refers to those parents who bring up the children after divorce. after these euphemisms are the products of the sex concepts in modern western society.the chinese also have the expressions like “那种事”, “同房”, “圆房” (they all refer to sexual intercourse), “桃色事件” (illicit love affairs), “第三者” (the third person outside the marriage), “外遇” (paramour) and “插足” (put ones foot in others marriage), but until now it is still a traditional society that abides by the sex morals serious and restricted and the psychology about sex is more shy and implicit. also due to two thousand years of accumulation of the feudal society, all expressions concerning sex belong to the taboos. for example, even the married husband and wife are shy to bodycall the others name directly, instead they use “我们那位/那个” (note here instead of the singular form “我”, the plural form “我们” to be more euphemism). in the countryside, they use “孩子他爹/他娘”. this is typically chinese euphemism. in such a kind of society, the marriage and the family relationship are solid and stable and the sex activities are restricted by the social morals. this forms a sharp contrast between the western and the chinese morals and the social values. b. the euphemism of the parts of bodyin english there are many euphemisms about secret parts and private parts of the body. for example, when people want to emphasize somebody “in a natural or primitive state” or his complexion, bodily form, dress, they can express the chinese nude from many different aspects, such as “in adams and eves togs”, “in the buff”, “in the raw”, “showing ones form”, “bottomless”, “topless” and so on. buttocks is a attractive but indirectly spoken part of the body, so the english has “seats”, “rafters”, “backsides”, “behind”, “buns”, “bottom”, “backseats”, “packing place”, “sit-me-down-upon” and so on.in western countries breasts is the second face of women and the erogenous parts. it is not elegant to directly speak “breasts”. people usually use metaphor, substitute and other methods to express breasts from its shape, size, color, function and the location, such as “globes”, “hemispheres”, “melons”, “mountains”, “teacups”, “big brown eyes”, “headlights”, “bumpers”, “milk-bottles” and so on. the chinese has chubbiness and other words, but in the modern chinese, people uses “x” or suspension points when referred to sex or sexual organs.c. the euphemism of excretafrom ancient time to now, in communication, some behaviors especially physiological behaviors are not expressed directly, only sensed not spoken, such as relieving the bowels, some parts of the body, womens menstruation and so on. avoiding philistinism and seeking elegance have been existent since the ancient time. therefore, some taboo expressions come into being. in the different cultures, people have different attitudes to the same physiological phenomenon. in europe, it is a character of the western civilization that people all feel embarrassed at every kind of excreta. menstruation is a necessary physiological phenomenon of the adult fem, but any societies hardly speak it directly. in britain, the taboo of menstruation has at least millennial history and its euphemism has over one hundred kinds, most of which use metaphor. in english menstruation is explained as various “friend”, “auntie”, “cousin”，“sister”, or “blue days”, “feeling unwell”, “the flowers”, “that time o