从委婉语看中西文化差异英语专业毕业论文.doc

毕 业 论 文英文论文题目：Study the Chinese and Western cultures From the Euphemisms中文论文题目：从委婉语看中西文化差异 姓 名： 秦耀峰 学 号：090300432320004 学习中心： 弘成上海学习中心 专 业： 英语（商务方向） 指导教师：杨宏 二一 二 年 七 月毕业论文承诺书提示：根据北京语言大学网络教育学院论文写作的规定，如发现论文有抄袭、网上下载、请人代写等情况，毕业论文一律不及格。同时取消学士学位申请资格。毕业论文不及格者，可申请重写一次，并按重修缴纳费用。本人承诺：本人已经了解北京语言大学的毕业论文写作的有关规定；本人的论文是在指导教师指导下独立完成的研究成果。整篇论文除了文中已注明出处或引用的内容外，绝没有侵犯他人知识产权。对本论文所涉及的研究工作做出贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式注明。签 名：_ _ 日 期：_摘要目录1 Introduction11.1 The Origin of Euphemism11.2 The Definition of Euphemism12 The Classification of Euphemism32.1 The Positive Euphemism and the Negative Euphemism32.2 The Unconscious Euphemism and the Conscious Euphemism33 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism53.1 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism in Terms of Formation Device53.1.1 Phonetic Device53.1.2 Lexical Device63.2 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism in Terms of Culture73.2.1 Euphemisms of Old Age83.2.2 Euphemisms of Poverty83.2.3 Euphemism of Deities and Devils in English94 Conclusions11Study the Chinese and Western cultures From the Euphemisms摘 要Euphemism is a widespread culture phenomenonSo far most of its studies deal with individual culture and languageThere is a shortage of contrastive research between two culture and languagesTherefore，this thesis tries to make a contrastive study of the English and Chinese euphemism to discover the similarities and differences between themFirst the author introduces the origin and the definition of euphemism as well as the classification of euphemismThen the author makes a contrastive study of the English and Chinese euphemisms in terms of formation devices and cultureEuphemism is a language phenomenon，So it can be analyzed from the phonetic，lexical，figurative and grammar aspectsEuphemism is also a culture phenomenon，So it can be analyzed from cultural aspectsThe contrastive study is made in several main types of euphemisms-the euphemism of old age，the euphemism of poverty，the euphemism of occupation，the euphemism of unemployment，the euphemism of sex，the euphemism of death，etcThrough the contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemism，we can lean the similarities and differences between the two languages and the two cultures，which are of considerable value and guidance to our foreign language learning and teaching, intercultural communication，translation，dictionary compilation and so onThe essay studies the importance, necessity and purpose of politeness in conversation, Keywords: euphemism contrast language cultureIntroduction 1 IntroductionEuphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in different culturesFrom the moment it is coined，it plays all important role in peoples daily communication They are embedded so deeply in our language that most of us，even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken，never get through a day without using themLike a kind of lubrication，it enables people to express what cannot be uttered directly1.1 The Origin of EuphemismWhen talking about euphemisms，we cannot neglect tabooIn ancient times，productivity was in a very low level，the primitives were often confronted with baffling and threatening situations and phenomena，such as death，and they failed to understand the essence of themTo find a way out，they became superstitious about supernatural power, or the existence of devils and godsIn their mind，everything was alive with spirit，capable of bringing down blessings and misfortunes，and thus language took upon a kind of supernatural senseThis led to the forbidden use of certain language that gradually became tabooWhen people are unwilling to or dare not speak out something regarded as taboo，they have to shun them by using mild substitutes，to imply those things which people are reluctant to mention and to prompt something both speaker and listener know but refuse to say out by direct expressionsTo the things that have to be mentioned，people work out indirect terms to replace themThus euphemisms come into being1.2 The Definition of EuphemismThe word euphemism comes from the Greek euMeaning good and pheme meaning speech or saying，and thus it means literally to speak with good words (Carroll 2000:34)Later on，euphemism is defined differently and more preciselyIn the Concise Oxford Dictionary，it is described as “substitution of mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or direct one(Carroll 2000:491)”It is taken as substitution，restraint，softened expression，mock modesty, metaphorical speech，verbal extenuation word in verbal good taste，over delicacy of speech，affected refinement of language in Webster Word History (Mish 1989:283)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 expression” (Mish 1989:56). Euphemism is roundabout and mild word，so it call execute the speakers psychological necessity to soften the shock of realityBut many linguists think that the definition of euphemism needs to be determined in a narrow and broad senseTraditional western linguistics restricts euphemism study to the lexicon. Euphemisms are therefore words or phrases in place of things considered to be rode or unpleasant Euphemisms of such kind ale called euphemisms in the narrow senseThey are the conventionally established one，which are widely met in our daily life. In China，euphemism sale mainly expressed by using indirect words，phrases，sentences and even discourses that are applied mostly in literature writings to achieve some vivid and aesthetic effectIt can be found very often from ancient times tjll nowadaysThis phenomenon has close relationship with Chinese traditional cultural psychologyChinese scholars have long been advocating the literature norm that people write articles that are full of rich and bright colors，but they should create implicitlyThrough defining euphemism in narrow and broad sense，we can have a better understanding of euphemism and can easily understand the indeed intention of the expressions.12A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism 2 The Classification of Euphemism2.1 The Positive Euphemism and the Negative EuphemismAccording to Hugh Rawson，euphemism can be divided into two types：the positive and the negative from the angle of semanticsThe positive euphemisms also can be called stylistic ones，which “inflate and magnify the word meaning，making the euphemized seem altogether gander and more important than they really are”(Rawson 1989:1)The positive euphemisms include the many fancy occupational titles，which save the egos of workers by elevating their job statusFor example，”sanitation engineer” is the euphemism for“garbage collector”，and ”custodian” is the euphemism for “janitor”They also include many institutional euphemisms，which convert “madhouse” into “mental hospital”， “college” into ”universities”This kind of euphemism is usually used widely in the official language and some other formal styles.The negative euphemisms are extremely ancient，and closely connected with the taboosThey are also called “traditional euphemisms”They deflate and diminishThey are defensive in nature，offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directlyIn many cultures，it is forbidden to pronounce the name of God，so Jesus Christ, Christ， goodness is for God and My Gum for My GodMany tabooed subjects such as sex， disease， death， excretion， bodily function，etc, should be euphemized in this way.2.2 The Unconscious Euphemism and the Conscious EuphemismAll euphemisms，whether positive or negative，may be used either unconsciously or consciouslySo euphemisms also can be divided into unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms (Rawson 1989:3)The unconscious euphemisms refer to those of which original denotations have been forgotten by people for a long timeFor example，the word“cemetery”(from the Greek word for sleeping place or dormitory , serves as a euphemism for graveyardThe word indisposition is a euphemistic expression for diseaseThese words mentioned above，because of their long time use，users are not conscious of their original meaningsConscious euphemisms are differentWhen employing this kind of euphemisms，people not only know their original meanings，but also understand the referred meaningsFor example，in a dinner party，a lady stood up and said that she wanted to powder her noseIn a word，euphemisms like this stand for something else，but everyone pretends, that something else does not existIt is essentially duplicitous nature of euphemisms that makes them attractive to those people who have to hide and find it convenient to lie about what they are doing3 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism3.1 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism in Terms of Formation DeviceThe English and Chinese languages respectively belong to different language systemsThe English is alphabetical language and the Chinese is ideographic language，so there are differences in their formation devicesBut the two languages also share something common in linguistic structure，and there are also similarities in their formation devicesGenerally speaking，there are four basic devices-the phonetic device，the lexical device，the figurative device and the grammar devices3.1.1 Phonetic DeviceWhen we encounter words that we dare not speak directly，we may distort their sounds or change their spelling for the euphemistic purpose(Liu 2001: 10)This way is called phonetic distortion，which is much acceptable in English because its writing is alphabeticPhonetic distortion includes reduplication and distortion of pronunciationetcThere is reduplication like “Pee-pee or “Wee-weefor”Piss” and there are distortions of pronunciations like Gripes for Christ , Gad for God and so forth(Neaman 10-11).There is no direct link between Chinese character and its pronunciationTherefore we can find less phonetic distortion in Chinese and the most common used deviceis assonanceFor example，instead of speaking”解溲”(ji su)which means the excrement，we use”解手”(ji su)，bacause”溲”(su)and”手”(shu)sound similarSometimes，homophone is another good way, since there are so many homophones in ChineseTake this as an example，”那几个小子是孔夫子搬家，尽是书(输)啊，In Chinese,”书”which means”book”and”输”which means “fail” share the same sound “sh”The tone of a Chinese character also can be used to realize euphemismFor example，in Qin Dynasty of ancient China，to avoid the taboo on the name of the emperor “赢政”(Yng Zhng)，the first month of the lunar year”正(Zhng)月”was changed into”正(zhn曲月”(Guo 100). Besides，Chinese has a very unique way in the formation of euphemism：character separation3.1.2 Lexical DeviceVague words and expressions can blur the undesirable yet explicit associations that taboo words arouse(Liu 2001: 12)So in both English and Chinese，people use vague words and expressions to create euphemismsFor instance, in difficulty is used to mean in debtto have an accident to mean to have an unfortunate accident,a woman of the street to mean a prostitute, to do violence to sb to mean to rape，a man of doubtful taste to mean”a man of bad taste”，”the needy to mean”the poor”, “friend”，”companion”，”partner” and ”roommate” to mean ”the homosexual”(Liu 2001: 12)Similarly in Chinese，to encourage those who lag behind in doing things，people often speak of them as“后进”instead of“落后”；to help juvenile delinquents to turn over a new leaf, people speak of them as“失足青年”instead of“青少年犯罪”hence the place where to reform them as“工读学校”instead of青少年犯劳教所”Both English and Chinese words are abundant in their synonymsSubstituting the original words with their synonyms can form euphemismLets examine the following two examples: (1) Do not be so tight with your money. (2 )Even though she had plenty of money，the old woman was very thrifty. In example(1)，the commendatory word“tight”is used to replace the derogative word“stingy”In example(2)，“thrifty”is used to replace “economical” to form a more tender and pleasant expression.Similarly in Chinese，the word“残废”is seldom used，instead“残疾”and“残障” have been widely accepted and usedThough the difference is only in one character, the emotional color is totally different3.2 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism in Terms of CultureEuphemism is a common phenomenon in both English and Chinese culturesBoth of them cover the similar topics as poverty, death，sex，occupation， tcBut the euphemism，as a part of culture，is influenced and shaped by the cultural radiation or social values of a particular societyThere exist more differences between English and Chinese euphemisms due to the different beliefs，social alues, customs, life styles and behaviors of the two different culturesSince the understanding of euphemisms requires the understanding of the culture，a contrastive study will be done in this part in terms of culture E.B. Taylor 1871:, a famous British anthropologist，from an anthropological perspective, first put forward his classic definition of culture in his Primitive cultureHe describes culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society”(Taylor 1871: 19)Sapir stated that culture may be defined s what a society does and thinks，language is a particular how of thought”(Taylor 1871: 74)Larry Samovar and Richard Porter interpreted culture from the angle of communication一“Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge experiences，meanings，beliefs，values，attitudes，religions，concepts of sell the universe，and self-universe relationships，hierarchies of status，role expectations， spatial relations，and time concepts acquired by a large group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving”(Taylor 1871: 23)Different scholars define culture from their respective perspectivesAs time goes on，there will be more and more interpretations of cultureBut these and other definitions all point to the fact：Culture is all pervasive，including not only customs and habits， ideas and beliefs，but also the artifacts made by humansPutting it simply,culture refers to the entire life of a society.3.2.1 Euphemisms of Old AgeSocial value influences euphemism greatlyChinese and English language respectively belongs to eastern and western cultural systemThe great social value differences between the two societies greatly influence the development of euphemisms. Take the euphemism of old age as an exampleThere are numerous euphemisms for old age in EnglishWhich reflect the avoidance of mentioning the old in western societyThis is somewhat due to its loose family structureWhen the children grow up，they live apart from their parents and the society cannot provide sufficient support to the old people，so they have to live by themselves，feeling lonely and dullTherefore the old becomes a word that people avoid to talk about Neaman has humorously points out that“There is no one old in modem mericaHe is either seasoned or well preserved”(Taylor 1871: 166)In fact，he can also become“an elder statesman”01 at least“a senior citizenor vaguely be called“an old aged pensioner” which can also be initialized into “OAP”(Summers et al 1998:935)He is not old but“longer living”He is not“a candle in the windbut“in golden years He is also promoted to“eldedy”，“mature”，“an adult”，“a distinguished gentleman”，“feeling ones age” or “third age”(Liu 2001: 2-6)3.2.2 Euphemisms of PovertyPoverty is a piece of fertile soil for English euphemismIn western society, money is allpowerful and poverty is shameful and should be concealed by the society and the peopleThis leads to the blossom of poveay euphemismsTake this poor young ladys complaining as an example: 1 used to think 1 was poor,” she wrote“Then they told me 1 wasnt poor；I was needyThen they said it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy，that I was cultured deprivedThen they told me deprived was a bad image，that I was underprivilegedThen they told me that underprivileged was overused that 1 was disadvantagedI still dont have a timebut I have a great vocabulary (Waldron 1975:229).This example draws a vivid picture of the amount of the euphemisms for poverty in EnglishBesides these，there ale also many other euphemisms，such as badly off，“less well off”，“indigent”， “down on ones luck and “hard up for money”，etc3.2.3 Euphemism of Deities and Devils in EnglishAs we have discussed before，euphemisms originate from taboosIn ancient times，the productivity is very low，human beings cannot explain the natural phenomena so they become fearful about the supernatural powerThey consider that very thing in the universe has magic powers，even the language has a magic power, and thisphenomenon is calledWord Fetishism”Due to the fear and respect about the deities and devils，their names should be avoidedTherefore，“the subject of the earlier euphemism was undoubtedly religious”(Neaman et al 1990:11)The Ten Commandments in the Holy Bible writes，“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your Godfor the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses hisname”(Neaman et al 1990:20)Therefore the euphemisms of God are numerousFor insta