A Comparative Analysis of Death Euphemisms Between Chinese and English.doc

本科生毕业论文（设计）题目A Comparative Analysis of Death Euphemisms Between Chinese and English 姓名 学号 200910201110 院系 外国语学院 专业 英语 指导教师 职称 副教授 曲阜师范大学杏坛学院教务处制16A Comparative Analysis of Death EuphemismsBetween Chinese and EnglishA ThesisSubmitted toCollege of Foreign LanguagesXingtan CollegeQufu Normal UniversityIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsBy Zhao YaqiUnder the Supervision of Peng Fang ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My profound gratitude goes first and foremost to thank my tutorPeng Fang, who has read my drafts meticulously and offered me academic and constructive suggestions on composing the paper. Without her help, the thesis could never have been brought to its present appearance. I am also extremely grateful to the teachers of my undergraduate courses whose invaluable advices are indispensable to the completion of this thesis. Their encouragement and help are worthy of high acknowledgments. My special thanks must be paid to those students who kindly and seriously wrote the compositions, which were used as the corpus in this study. I also give my sincere gratitude to my roommates who offered me valuable advice and hearty encouragement in the process of writing this thesis. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the writers whose works I quoted in this thesis.摘 要委婉语作为人类社会中的普遍现象，有着悠久的历史。并在人们的日常生活中起着重要的作用。随着禁忌语的出现，委婉语也应运而生。作为委婉语的重要组成部分，关于死亡的委婉语在当今社会得到越来越多的重视。本文试图通过中英死亡委婉语的对比来探究深层次的文化内涵。第一部分讲述委婉语的定义及前人所作的研究。第二部分提供委婉语的理论背景。三四部分具体阐述中英死亡委婉语的不同及出现不同的原因。本文还结合以上发现提出如何在跨文化交际中正确使用委婉语的策略。关键词：死亡；委婉语；对比分析；文化ABSTRACTEuphemism is a widely common phenomenon in human society which has a long history and plays an important role in peoples daily life. With the emergence of taboos, euphemism came into existence in response. As an important part of euphemisms, death euphemism has been given more and more emphasis in the modern world. This paper attempts to address the contrastive analysis of death euphemisms between Chinese and English to explore deep cultural connotations. Chapter one talks about the definition of euphemism and the previous studies about it. Chapter two elaborates on the theoretical backgrounds and bases. Chapter three classifies the death euphemisms in Chinese and English respectively and elaborately. Chapter four probes the factors that cause these differences between Chinese and English. Based on these findings, we can have a good understanding of different cultural characteristics in both Chinese and English. This paper will further propose some suggestions on how to use death euphemism correctly and properly in cross-cultural communications.Key words: death, euphemism, comparative analysis, cultureCONTENTS0. Introduction11. Euphemism and death euphemism11.1 The definition of euphemism11.2 Previous studies21.3 The aesthetics of euphemism32. Theoretical background32.1 The relationship between language and society42.2 The relationship between language and culture42.3 Pragmatics and politeness principle53. Classification of death euphemisms in Chinese and English53.1 Death euphemism in Chinese53.1.1 Death euphemism of religious people53.1.2 Death euphemism of hierarchy63.1.3 Other death euphemisms73.2 Death euphemism in English83.2.1 Death euphemism of religious people83.2.2 Death euphemism in hospital and war93.2.3 Other death euphemisms104. Comparative analysis of death euphemisms in Chinese and English104.1 Difference of religion104.2 Difference of hierarchy114.3 Difference of social patterns125. Death euphemism in cross-cultural communication135.1 Pragmatic errors in cross-cultural communication145.2 Strategies to avoid pragmatic errors in cross-cultural communication146. Conclusion15Works Cited160. IntroductionAs a universal phenomenon, euphemism and taboo are closely connected. The need to communicate is a key characteristic of human society and language is the most important tool to maintain social contact, so we try to avoid impolite taboos that cause unpleasant or do harm to our relationships. Euphemism helps to avoid impolite expressions and develop a harmonious communication and human relationships. It uses gentle and implicit language to substitute for the impolite or ominous words. Death, as a common cultural phenomenon, often brings about a sense of fear and resistance, so death euphemism seems more acceptable for us. Death euphemism is just like a lubricant, which promotes the interpersonal relation and acts as a bridge to link our souls. In recent years, there are more and more death euphemisms with various expressions in Chinese and English, but the usage is not necessarily the same. Death euphemism is a cultural phenomenon, which can reflect such cultural elements as religion, traditional value, social patterns and so on. So these different expressions are determined by the deep cultural factors. This study mainly deals with the contrastive analysis of death euphemisms between Chinese and English from the perspective of culture and cross-cultural communication.1. Euphemism and death euphemismThis part mainly deals with the history and the concept of euphemism. The major components of this part are the definition of euphemism, the previous study and the aesthetics of euphemism.1.1 The definition of euphemismThe word “euphemism” is derived from Greek that means “saying something good” or “speaking good words and better manners”. According to British linguist Hugh Rawson, Euphemisms are powerful linguistic devices which “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those on being plainspoken, ever get though a day without using them” (245). The modern English dictionary explains euphemism like this: “an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is” (681). For example, “Pass away” is a euphemism for “die”, and “User fees” is just a politicians euphemism for taxes.The existence of euphemism is in company with taboo. Death is a typical taboo. We always use a kind of euphemistic or polite words to refer to die instead of the direct or stiff words out of respect. According to Shu and Xu, “Euphemism is doomed to substitute unceasingly, and this is decided by the essence of euphemism” (17). With the development of globalization, there is more extensive and frequent contact among different countries. The distinctions of different cultures determine that there is inevitably misunderstanding or puzzle in our communications. Euphemism manifests its importance. For example, in European countries, “pass away” is a euphemism for die. We should understand these euphemistic expressions so that we will not make mistakes or feel embarrassed.1.2 Previous studiesPrevious researches have been done with respect to euphemism at home and abroad, mainly concerning the following two aspects: definition and function. According to Leech, lexical meaning falls into conceptual meaning and associative meaning. He points out that the associative meaning of euphemism is of most importance from the perspective of semantics. “Many studies in euphemism have been so far restricted to the level of lexicon” (Shu 1). Euphemism is a strategy to mediate interpersonal relation and is a linguistic as well as social phenomenon. It has psychological and social functions, positive and negative functions, among which the social function is the most important. Scholars abroad have studied this term several years ago. Euphemism is “used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face” (Allen and Burridge 18). In 1981, British linguist Hugh Rawson compiled a dictionary A dictionary of euphemism and other doubletalk, summing up some accomplishments about euphemism studies of British and American linguists. From the previous studies, we find that there are few researches of contrastive analysis between Chinese and English or in the aspect of cognitive linguistics. We should innovate and achieve a breakthrough on the basis of the studies of these distinguished scholars.1.3 The aesthetics of euphemism Before talking about the aesthetics of euphemism, we should pay attention to aesthetic linguistics. It is concerned with the aesthetic characteristics of language, daily speech activities and speech act, which acts as a social activity as well as aesthetic activity. It is mainly concerned with the beauty of speech, with the following feature: The speaker chooses the proper language in the proper context. That is, the utterance fits the social background as well as the textual background. Chinese culture is the combination of the beauty of form, content and context. Symmetry is regarded as a beauty in Chinese culture. Many ancient poems and buildings were in symmetry, there is no exception of death euphemism. We often use 珠沉璧碎、葬玉埋香、玉陨香断to refer to the death of a beautiful woman. We can also see aesthetics through the function of euphemism. Using the polite words rather than taboos brings us a sense of pleasantness and enhances interpersonal relations. It gives rise to different results to describe one thing through euphemism and taboo respectively. That is the charm of language.2. Theoretical background The relationships between language and society, between language and culture offer theoretical backgrounds for death euphemism, which are discussed in section2.1 and section2.2 respectively. In section2.3, the foundation is illustrated from a new angle - pragmatics, especially in terms of politeness principle.2.1 The relationship between language and societyThere exists a familiar phenomenon in our daily life, technically named phatic communion, which refers to a communication intended to establish or maintain social contact. In my opinion, it is similar to euphemism to some extent. Language has the following three functions, the experiential function, the interpersonal function and the textual function. They are reflections that there exists a close relationship between language and society: First, social structure may influence or determine linguistic structure, and the varieties of language we use reflect our regional, social or ethnic origin. Second, the values of a society also have an effect on its language. For example, “what words belong to taboo are determined by the values of a society. This also explains the reason why people tend to use euphemisms in certain situations.” (Miao 153)2.2 The relationship between language and cultureLanguage and culture are closely intertwined. Language definitely reflects its culture; at the same time, language also plays a crucial role in the construction of the shared view of reality held by speakers of a common language. Particular cultures have unique ways of speaking and communication. (Miao 157)When faced with death, different people have different response or expressions according to their cultures, religions and social patterns. This will be discussed in the next chapter. So it provides a theoretical background for death euphemism, and different death euphemisms are used in different cultural backgrounds.2.3 Pragmatics and politeness principlePragmatics is a branch of linguistics which refers to the actual use of language in the specific context. Language is a tool whose interpersonal function is the most important. Death euphemism is a specific reflection of pragmatics. One of the best-known theories in the field of pragmatics is conversational implicature. On the basis of it, there exists the famous politeness principle, including tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy maxim. As social beings, people need to talk politely. In order to be polite, language users deliberately give up direct of stiff ways of speaking and resort to the euphemistic or implicit strategies. One of the functions of euphemism is to avoid liberty and hurting ones feelings. Death euphemism conforms to the politeness principle.3. Classification of death euphemisms in Chinese and EnglishSection 3.1 is concerned with the death euphemisms in Chinese, including euphemisms of religious people, hierarchy and others. Death euphemisms in English are illustrated in section 3.2 at great length.3.1 Death euphemism in ChineseMost Death euphemisms in Chinese are used in religion and hierarchy for these two cultural elements mainly influence Chinese culture through thousands of years.3.1.1 Death euphemism of religious peopleReligion is a cultural phenomenon of human society. Death euphemism reflects religious culture and religion influences the development of death euphemism in turn. In the primitive society, ghost worship enjoyed great popularity. Death means the destruction of body but the soul is still alive, which is just transferred from this world to another. So here are death euphemisms去世、逝世、辞世、转世. In feudal society, Taoism and Buddhism are the two predominant religions. Zhuang Zi once said, “Living is dying, dying is living”. He held the view that life and death were consistent and people should submit to their fate. Death is just changeable with material. So Taoists express death using 遁化、隐化、迁形. Taoism also believed that life was immortal so we had these death euphemisms归道、化仙、升天、仙游、仙逝. There are other death euphemisms such as 如蝉脱壳、蝉蜕、蜕化、羽化升天、驾鹤西游. Buddhism was derived from ancient India and was introduced to China in Dong Han Dynasty. They advocated that the vicissitude of our fortunes is so uncertain in the kaleidoscopic world that only by hard work and doing good deeds can we reach the immortal world, which is the ultimate goal of the Buddhists. Therefore, such death euphemisms as坐化、示灭、归真、归寂、灭度、示寂、圆寂、成佛 firmly embody the cultural characteristics of Buddhism. However, there is no dominant religion in China and the multi-culture does not allow death euphemism to be national. These death euphemisms will be illustrated in the following table clearly.Table1. Death euphemisms of religious peopleReligionDeath euphemisms道教遁化、隐化、迁形、归道、化仙、升天、仙游、仙逝佛教坐化、示灭、归真、归寂、灭度、示寂、圆寂、成佛其它去世、逝世、辞世、转世、如蝉脱壳、蝉蜕、羽化升天、驾鹤西游3.1.2 Death euphemism of hierarchyIn ancient China, feudal domination lasted more than 2000 years and feudal hierarchical system was highly-developed. Many death euphemisms reflected the deep-rooted tradition of respecting the noble and looking down upon the humble. There are death euphemisms intended for the emperor: 山崩灵、宾天、大行. But 弃世、弃堂帐 just indicate the death of common people. These death euphemisms have a definite boundary and no one dare deviate. A Dream in Red Mansions is the best-known classical novel in Chinese history when the feudal hierarchy was in its heyday. The death euphemisms in this novel are beyond count. For example, in Chapter 14, the servant sent by Ms Wang called death咽了气, but the author referred to as 送了殡. Wang Xifeng, being shrewd and bossy, called the death of Jia Mu 归了西 out of respect but did not use euphemism for her own death in that Jia Mu had the highest status in Jia Fu. When Yuan Chun died, the author chose the word甍逝instead of 归了西because Yuan Chun was the royal member. As for Jia Jing, his family called his death 殡天、升天for he believed in Buddhism. All of these death euphemisms reflected the social status of the dead and the class difference.3.1.3 Other death euphemismsDifferent death euphemisms can be shown from different people and different dying reasons, as is illustrated in the following tables:Table2. Different death euphemisms for different people Different peopleDeath euphemisms婴儿没成年幼儿夭折 夭亡 短折少年凋谢妻子断弦老年人见背 身故 去世 过世 故世 辞世 谢世 亡故 就木 疾终美女珠沉璧碎 葬玉埋香 玉陨香断 倩女离魂英雄英勇就义 为国捐躯贤人哲人其萎 兰摧玉折文人玉楼赴召 玉楼修记 地下修文 英年早逝帝王千秋万岁 宫车晏驾有神论者见阎王 归西 归天 信仰马克思主义者去见马克思Table3. Different death euphemisms for different dying reasonsDifferent reasons战 死病死溺死自杀正常死亡意外死亡战争死亡执行公务Death euphemisms马革裹尸一病不起葬身鱼腹自寻短见寿终正寝三长两短光荣殉职3.2 Death euphemism in English English is a young, religious and capital country whose death euphemisms are mainly concerning religion and modern capital life. 3.2.1 Death euphemism of religious people Feudal hierarchical system existed in Britain feudal society for a short time, of which the characteristic bases on the relationship between lords and farmers. The farmers accepted the lands that lords offered and pledged loyalty to them. This kind of feudal system was maintained by the relationship of land rather than etiquette just like China. So there never exist euphemisms that are obviously hierarchical. Christianity is the dominant religion in European countries, so their death euphemisms mostly come from the Bible and the Christian literary quotations. They believe that God creates people by mud and they return to the dust after they die. So “return to the dust” is a euphemism meaning death. People are created criminally and their ultimate is to “pay the debt of nature”, meaning death. It is also believed that God is the king of all creatures, so people should “be called to God” and “hand in ones account” “listen to Gods last judgment”. Only by doing this, people can “be with God” and “join the angels”. Whats more, there are other death e