（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）中英新委婉语的对比研究.pdf

ii 摘要 摘要 作为语言的重要组成部分， 委婉语一直以来都是国内外语言学家们研究的对 象。他们从社会学、人类学、社会语言学、语用学及话语分析等角度对其进行了 研究，但目前对于汉语及英语中新出现的委婉语的研究还比较少。因此，在前人 研究成就的基础上，本文采用比较法对汉英新委婉语进行了研究。本文研究的范 围包括：新委婉语构成方式、新委婉语与交际、新委婉语的来源、新委婉语的心 理基础、文化内涵及新委婉语产生的社会背景。首先本文列举了英汉新委婉语的 构成方式并指出了汉语新委婉语的新的构成方式。接下来，文章对英汉委婉语与 三大语用原则之间的关系进行了探讨。通过比较发现，英汉民族在使用新旧委婉 语时，都遵循了礼貌原则和自我保护原则，但同时却又都违反了合作原则，虽然 在遵循或违反具体的准则方面存在着重点和程度上的不同。其次，本文阐述了英 汉新委婉语的来源及英汉新委婉语在来源上的差别。 英汉新委婉语有着共同的心 理基础，在文化内涵上，汉英新委婉语各自反映了自己的文化观念并在很多方面 有着相似之处。但是与旧委婉语不同，新委婉语跟宗教信仰与典故几乎没有什么 联系。语言和语言使用深深植根于社会文化之中，离开了言语产生的社会文化和 背景，就不可能对语言现象做出全面，深刻的解释。因此在最后本文对于英汉新 委婉语的社会背景进行了初步分析并指出汉语新委婉语的产生跟中国的改革开 放以来的整个社会在经济、政治和科技方面的发展变化是密切相关的。 关键词：关键词：新委婉语， 构成方式， 语用原则， 来源， 心理因素， 文化内涵， 社 会背景 iii abstract as a significant aspect of language, euphemisms have attracted linguists attention for a long time. euphemisms are studied in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, socio-linguistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis by both linguists at home and abroad, yet so far there has been no systematic investigation of chinese and english new euphemisms. this thesis is a tentative endeavor to synthesize the merits and to make up for the deficiencies of the achievements in euphemism studies thus far made in china, focusing on formation of new euphemisms, the relationship between new euphemisms and three pragmatic principles， and the source, psychological base, cultural embodiment and social background of new euphemisms. to address the above-mentioned topics, a contrastive approach is employed. in this thesis, we firstly present the formation of new euphemisms in both english and chinese and point out some new forming methods of chinese new euphemisms. then, we explore the relationship between euphemisms in english and chinese and three pragmatic principles, with a conclusion that these two types of euphemisms, whether new or old, adhere to the politeness principle and the self-defense principle, on the basis of violating the cooperative principle, though there naturally exist some differences as euphemisms are the products of different cultures as iv well as of different modes of thinking. whats more, we probe into the source of new euphemisms in english and chinese and indicate the difference between them. in addition, the contrastive study shows that new euphemisms in both english and chinese have the same psychological base; that they reflect their own cultural values and share some common features and that there is no evidence of refection of the religious beliefs and allusions by new euphemisms especially chinese new euphemisms. all study of language and speech as part of social life is basically one, rooted in the interdependence with social life itself. so we deal with the social background of new euphemisms at the very end of the thesis and the analysis displays the close relationships between chinese new euphemisms and economic, political and scientific improvement of china since the opening and reforming. key words: new euphemisms, formation, the pragmatic principles, source, psychological base, cultural embodiment, social background 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，独立进行 研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何 其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献 的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律 结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名：宋加高 日期：2007 年 1 月 18 日 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，同意学 校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文被查 阅和借阅。本人授权上海交通大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入 有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本 学位论文。 保密保密，在 年解密后适用本授权书。 本学位论文属于 不保密 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名：宋加高 指导教师签名：汪开虎 日期：2007 年 1 月 18 日 日期：2007 年 1 月 18 日 i acknowledgements first of all, my greatest debt of gratitude is to my supervisor, associate professor wang kaihu for his inspiring guidance and timely criticism at every stage of my project. he read different drafts of the thesis, made many insightful comments and polished the language. without his help and guidance, this work would not be possible. i am also grateful to all my teachers at sjtu for their instructions in my ma program, whose lectures are implicitly helpful to the development of my thesis. finally, my sincere thanks also extend to my mother-in-law, my mother and my wife, who have been supporting and encouraging me in my study during the past two years. 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 general background people all over the world try to use mild and agreeable language when speaking of unpleasant or embarrassing facts. almost all people, all the time, seem to have certain things or notions that they try to avoid mentioning directly. sometimes people would like to use pleasant, polite or at least harmless-sounding even flattery terms instead of those considered unpleasant, harsh, blunt or offensive. in awkward situations, euphemism, as an indirect speech, helps people a lot. as a very part of language and a common linguistic phenomenon, euphemisms are so widely used in our daily life. every society, every speech community, every social class have their euphemisms. to speak euphemistically is a universal trait. enright (1985) stated: “a language without euphemisms would be a defective instrument of communication”(p.29). hugh rawson (1981) also affirmed “ euphemisms are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plain-spoken, even get through a day without using them”(p.73). what are euphemisms? why should we speak euphemistically? when euphemisms are used? how can we read into them? such kinds of problems are rather complex. for the circumstances and conditions under them differ from person to person, from profession to profession even from class to class, which means that euphemism is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a cultural and social phenomenon. therefore, euphemisms have close relationship with culture, and they at the same time reflect the lives and values of each society. since different societies have different cultures, and different cultures have different beliefs, values, attitudes, points of view, habits and customs, their criteria for the judgment of euphemisms and their linguistic means of realization of euphemisms are not the same. there is a close inter-relationship between language and society. “society is reflected in language and social change can produce a corresponding linguistic change”(peter trudgill, p.28). as an indispensable part of language, euphemisms also 2 reflect the influences and development of society. since 1980s enormous new euphemisms have emerged both in chinese and other languages as a result of social evolution. obviously the studies of new euphemisms in china and english are of great importance from different points of view. we will make a contrastive analysis of new euphemisms in english and chinese form the perspective of formation, communication, source, cultural embodiment and social background. 1.2 a brief history of euphemisms in english and chinese euphemisms have probably come into being from the very beginning of language. it originated from language taboo. the word “taboo” generally refers to the prohibition on the use of, mention of, or association with particular objects, actions or persons. the term “taboo” borrowed from the tongan language was originally polynesian. captain james cook introduced it into english in the 18th century (onions, 1982:899). because the observance of taboo can be found in many areas besides polynesia, the term “taboo” was brought to sociology and anthropology as a special noun to refer to this kind of phenomenon. taboo is interpreted as one way in which a society expressed its disagreement on certain kinds of behavior thought to be harmful to its members whether it is for supernatural reasons or it is because such behavior is to violate a moral code. in ancient society, those who did something against this would be punished and suffered while those who ingratiated themselves with this would be blessed and benefited. this led to the forbidden use of language and the word-fetishism. taboo and euphemisms are closely related to each other. almost all cultures seem to have some concepts or things that cannot be mentioned directly because they are to be tabooed, so people use euphemisms to substitute taboo words. english euphemisms has been surviving and thriving ever since ancient times. the subject of the earliest euphemisms was undoubtedly religious (numan and silver, 1983: 1). the emergence of euphemisms is closely related to the time background. the anglo-saxon era is the golden age of linguistic freedom and the source of non-euphemistic four-letter words, but great care was taken not to offend political or religious leaders or gods. there are also euphemistic expressions for prostitution, 3 fertility, childbearing and successful seduction. after norman conquest in 1066, euphemisms began to thrive. by the 19th century, middle-and lower-class influence had expanded. they enriched the vocabulary and formation of euphemisms. euphemisms reached their peak in victorian period. as the british empire expanded, the linguistic pattern of the mother country traveled with it and the british euphemisms was developing abroad as well as at home. australians, canadians and americans would coin euphemisms with the local color of their new lands and lives, but the patterns of formation would follow those of the english middle class. by 19th century, there appeared a large number of elegant euphemisms in american language due to the influence of the industrial revolution. to speak gently and elegantly was considered to be a basic virtue in social interaction. the greatest changes in american language were felt after world war i and ii. since 1980s, the richest subjects of american euphemisms were money, disease, politics and war. with regard to the history of chinese euphemisms, some textural research suggests that chinese euphemisms also have a long history. the existence of linguistic taboos generally requires the presence of their corresponding verbal euphemisms, so the history of chinese euphemisms has been developing with the history of chinese taboos. according to the record in zuo zhuan, people in the zhou dynasty began to impose taboos on personal names, so the history of chinese euphemisms can be traced back at least to the zhou dynasty. a large number of taboos emerged in qin dynasty, which were recorded in shi ji. the record in han shu indicated that chinese euphemisms continued to develop in the han dynasty. euphemisms thrived and flourished in the tang and song dynasties. and in the ming and qing dynasties, chinese euphemisms reach its peak (li guonan, 2001:214). during the cultural revolution (1966-1976) some specific euphemisms were also created. for example, when people wanted to buy the portrait of chairman mao, they were not allowed to use the word “买”but “请”. since 1980s, chinese euphemisms have been flourishing as a result of opening and reforming policy. more new euphemisms emerged and thrived in peoples daily lives. 4 1.3 an overview of study on euphemisms at home and abroad euphemism, as a common linguistic, cultural and social phenomenon, has attracted peoples attention for a long time. it has been a topic of much interest, especially to sociolinguists. in the early 1580s, the british writer george blunt first used the word “euphemisms”. mencken, the american linguist, wrote the american language in 1936, which devoted a part to the analysis of hundreds of euphemisms on the basis of american society and historical background. in 1981, hugh rawson, a british linguist, compiled a dictionary named a dictionary of euphemisms and other double-talk, whose preface is valuable because of its extensive discussion of the definition, classification, features and domains of euphemisms. in 1983, americam scholars neaman and silver published a dictionary kind words a thesaurus of euphemisms that supplied detailed interpretation of the euphemized items. in 1985, d.j. enright published a book fair of speech, the use of euphemisms, which is a collection of many essays concerning this topic. in 1991, allan and burridge published a book euphemisms and dysphemism, in which euphemisms was studied from pragmatic perspective. in 1993, john ayto published the book euphemisms, which looked at the various ingenious formulae that the speakers of english had come up with to tiptoe around conversational danger areas. other researches include: warrens (1992) research on euphemisms formation, liszkas(1990) on the motivation behind euphemisms, colemans(1992) on historical euphemisms, and kerry hams (2001) on euphemisms motivation and formation. these works have made the remarkable achievements on euphemisms study. the recorded study of chinese euphemisms dates back to zhou dynasty. ancient chinese scholars studied euphemisms mainly from two angles: avoidance of taboos and folklore. qian daxin, was the one who conducted a relatively systematic study of avoidance of taboos. many modern scholars in china have been studying euphemisms from the perspective of rhetoric for a long period of time. a breakthrough is made by chen wangdao in his book 修辞学发凡in which he extended the concept of euphemisms to syntax or even discourse level. zhang zhigong brought the study of 5 euphemisms into the study of lexicology. in the 1970s and 1980s, as the theory of sociolinguistics was introduced into china, chen yuan published社会语言学in 1983 devoting a special chapter to euphemisms, which not only discussed the historical and social background but also revealed the nature of this social phenomenon. other scholars view euphemisms from following perspectives: wan dechun from social psychological linguistics, wu liquan from culture and rhetorics, su dingfang from pragmatics, wu tieping from fuzzy linguistics. in 1996, zhang gonggui compiled a dictionary of chinese euphemisms. though great achievements have been made in the study of euphemisms, so far most of these studies dealt with individual languages. there is a shortage of contrastive researches of euphemisms between languages. 词格与词汇by li guonan in 2001 does give a rather comprehensive contrast. however, as the title of his book suggests, his contrastive study is mainly restricted to lexical level and leaves an important aspect the grammatical level untouched. in this book , emphasis is placed on the similarities other than the differences of euphemistic formations in the two languages. moreover, there lacks a systematic contrastive analysis of the developing laws of english and chinese euphemisms. as far as the study of newly emerged euphemisms in chinese and english is concerned, there are no monographs but a few of published papers such as on the new development of chinese online euphemisms(chen ya, wan jie, 2005), the cross-cultural homogeneity on the basis of common euphemistic devices in chinese and english (zhang hui,2002), the new development of euphemisms(gaoyufen, 2005) and euphemisms in chinese neologism (liu ping, li jianjun), not to mention systematic contrastive study. so the contrastive study of new euphemisms in english and chinese is a must. 1.4 the argument and organization of this dissertation this dissertation mainly aims: 1) to make a contrastive analysis of new euphemisms in english and chinese from perspective of characteristics of new euphemisms, euphemisms and communication, new euphemisms, culture and social background, 6 2) to describe the difference between new euphemisms in english and chinese, 3) to display the influence of social development on euphemisms, and the close relationships between chinese new euphemisms and economic, political and scientific improvement of china since the opening and reforming. the sample euphemistic phrases or expressions are drawn from dictionaries, rhetoric books, english and chinese newspapers as well as the internet. the dissertation consists of five parts: chapter one is an introduction, which gives a general account of the general background brief history of english and chinese euphemisms, an overview of study on euphemisms at home and abroad and argument and organization of the dissertation. chapter two presents the characteristics of new euphemisms: the definition, classification and formation. chapter three probes into the motives for euphemizing, basic communicative functions of new euphemisms in english and chinese, and the relationships between the new euphemisms and the pragmatic principles. chapter four analyzes the source, the developing laws and psychological base, cultural embodiment and social background of new euphemisms in english and chinese. chapter five concludes the whole dissertation briefly and presents the limitations of this study. 7 chapter two characteristics of new euphemisms 2.1definition and classification of euphemisms 2.1.1 definition the word “euphemisms” comes from the greek “eu” meaning “good” and “pheme” meaning “speech” or “saying”, and thus means literally “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”(neaman and silver, 1983:1). and it has been defined differently in different books, dictionaries by different scholars. there are some definitions quoted below. 1) mild or vague expression substituted for a harsher or more direct one. (pocket oxford english-chinese dictionary, oxford university press, 1996) 2) the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. (websters dictionary of american english, random house, inc. 1997) 3) (an example of) the use of a pleasanter, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant. (