Similarities and Differences Of EnglishChinese Euphemisms in Culture30

1、英漢委婉語(yǔ)在文化上的異同similarities and differences of english-chinese euphemisms in culturecontentsabstract1keywords.1i. introduction.2ii. literature review4iii. euphemism and culture.7iv. the similarities of english-chinese euphemisms in culture71. the human body82. disease and death 83. sex84. social status

2、 or grade85. age86. religion8v. the differences of english-chinese euphemisms in culture.91. culture background92. value orientations.10 3. cultural custom.11 4. ethics and moral concepts12vi. conclusion.13references14similarities and differences of english-chinese euphemism in cultureabstract: euph

3、emisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. the term “euphemism” comes from the greek, of which eu meaning “well” or “sounding good”, pheme means “speech”, and the whole term literally means good or pleasant speech. as an indispensable and nat

4、ural part of language, euphemism has been arousing wide interest. many linguists and scholars have studied this linguistic phenomenon from the perspectives of rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. when we carry on the contrast of the similarities and differences of chinese and englis

5、h euphemisms, we can find that the euphemisms in these two languages are actually implanted in its own culture, which is the chief aim or purpose of this thesis, that is, to tell us the differences of euphemisms of both the english and chinese languages in culture.keyword: english and chinese euphem

6、isms, orientations of culture, the similarities and differences 摘 要：委婉語(yǔ)是用一種不明說(shuō)的、能夠使人感到愉快或含糊的說(shuō)法代替具有令人感到不悅的含義或不夠尊敬的表達(dá)法。從辭源角度看，在英文單詞euphemism中，eu 是希臘前綴，意為“好”；phemism意為“說(shuō)法”，整個(gè)單詞euphemism的字面意義為 “好的說(shuō)法”。委婉語(yǔ)是語(yǔ)言中不可或缺的一個(gè)組成部分，引起了人們廣泛的關(guān)注。許多語(yǔ)言學(xué)家、學(xué)者已從修辭學(xué)、語(yǔ)言學(xué)、語(yǔ)用學(xué)及社會(huì)語(yǔ)言學(xué)的角度對(duì)委婉語(yǔ)進(jìn)行了廣泛研究。目前，這方面的研究碩果累累。本文將借鑒其他學(xué)者的研究成果，通過(guò)

7、對(duì)比英、漢委婉語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)言及文化特征，對(duì)英、漢委婉語(yǔ)進(jìn)行充分地對(duì)比分析。在進(jìn)行委婉語(yǔ)映現(xiàn)的英、漢文化對(duì)比時(shí)，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)英、漢委婉語(yǔ)相似的“外觀”實(shí)際上根植于相異的“文化內(nèi)涵”, 從各自文化中的可以看出英、漢委婉語(yǔ)差異。關(guān)鍵詞：英漢委婉語(yǔ)， 文化價(jià)值，異同之比較i. introductionfrom the time the word came into being, there followed, at an undetermined but one assumes decent interval, private, harsh, and dirty words. invention here is

8、 the mother of necessity, the need for euphemism arose. epstein (1985:56)in every society there are certain things that are not supposed to be speakable or mentioned directly. a fair number of words in english are labeled as frivolous, vulgar, or at least inconsiderate. but in the communication, in

9、order to maintain social relationships and exchange ideas, people have to resort to a kind of language form, which can make distasteful ideas seem acceptable or even desirable. this type of language is defined as “euphemism in linguistics, which is represented in a variety of forms and used for a va

10、riety of reasons. much research has been done on euphemism because of its prominence in language since the word was coined. a lot of great works came into being during the study of euphemism, which lay a solid foundation for further research. in 1936, in his book the american language, american ling

11、uist, mencken, fully discussed why hundreds of euphemisms had been born and became popular on the basis of american history and social cultural background. his book has become a valuable legacy for euphemism study. in 1981, british linguist hugh rawson compiled a dictionary of euphemisms and other d

12、ouble talks, which embodies the achievements of research on euphemisms over the decades by many british and american linguists. in its tenpagelong preface, hugh rawson not only traced the history of euphemism, but also widely accounted for characteristics of euphemism as well as its definition, clas

13、sification, and scope of use. the year 1983 saw the publication of kind wordsa thesaurus of euphemisms, compiled by neaman and silver, which is of great value to euphemism study. in 1985, enright d.j. published a collection of essays on euphemism, the uses of euphemism, in which some specific topics

14、 like euphemisms and the media, euphemisms and children, and euphemism and sex, etc. were put forward in relation to the different euphemistic uses in the social field. last but not least, allan and burridge published the book euphemism and dysphemism: language used as shield and weapon, in which an

15、 interesting perspective on the human psyche is to be gained from the study of euphemism used as a protective shield against the anger or disapproval of natural or supernatural beings. this book is of great significance to the study of english euphemisms from the pragmatic perspective. compared with

16、 those flourishing studies on euphemism in western countries, chinese scholars theories on euphemism seem rare. although the research of euphemisms in china has quite a long history and we can find the earliest recordation in the book of songs（詩(shī)經(jīng), scientific and systematic research had not been done

17、 in this field until several decades ago. in 1976, chinese scholar chen wangdao (陳望道,1976) published the book introduction to rhetoric(修辭學(xué)發(fā)凡) which describes a definition of euphemism and studied euphemism from the angle of rhetoric, so the chinese euphemism study in terms of rhetoric is not restric

18、ted to the lexicon level, but is extended to the level of sentence and discourse. during the 70s and the 80s of the 20th century, western theories of linguistics were introduced into china in succession. inspired by the newly introduced theories, some chinese scholars expanded the scope of euphemism

19、 study into the perspective of social functions, and one of the most famous is chen yuan (陳原,1983)，who published the book sociolinguistics, which contributes a lot to the study and analysis of euphemism. in the following years, a number of chinese scholars published many a article to air their views

20、 on euphemism from different angles, such as yu yalun (于亞倫，1984), li guonan (李國(guó)南，1989), shu dingfang (束定芳，1989), etc. all of these papers have widened our vision and enriched the study of euphemism.ii. literature review euphemism as a widely and frequently used figure of speech and a hot research is

21、sue in the field of linguistics needs a concise and definite criterion to judge the scope of euphemism. western linguists think the word “euphemism” comes from the greek “eu”( meaning “good”) and “pheme”(meaning “speech” or “saying”), and thus it literally means “to speak with good words”. later on,

22、 euphemism is defined differently and more precisely. some of the definitions are listed below:1) euphemisms is kind of figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasant associations, instead of the harsher or more o

23、ffensive one that would more precisely designate what is intended. (oxford english dictionary, 1989)2) euphemism is the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted. (websters encyclopedic unabridged dictionary of the english language, 1996) 3) euphemizing is gen

24、erally defined as substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words. (enright d.j., 1985) 4) word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming. (oxford concise dictionary of linguistics, sha

25、nghai foreign languages publishing house, 2000) 5) used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either ones own face or through giving offences, that of the audience, or of some third party. (allen, k. and burridge, k., 1991:18)as traditional western

26、linguistics restricts euphemism study to the lexicon, euphemisms are, therefore, words or phrases in place of things considered to be rude or unpleasant. given from the perspective of rhetoric, all the above definitions are determined in a narrow sense. many linguists think that the definition of eu

27、phemism needs to be framed in a broad sense, one of whom is american linguist, bolinger dwight. he once pointed out: “euphemism is not restricted to the lexicon; there are grammatical ways of toning something down without actually changing the content of the message.”(1981:148) the application of eu

28、phemism (委婉語(yǔ)) has existed in the chinese language for thousands of years, which can be found in the book of songs(詩(shī)經(jīng)). this is a book containing chinese poems composed between the 11th. and the 6th century b.c. the chinese euphemism “習(xí)習(xí)谷風(fēng)，以陰以雨” taken from the mountain gales(谷風(fēng)) indicates that the un

29、fortunate event is going to take place through describing cloudy weather and rain. when emperor wu of the han dynasty (漢武帝, 15687 b.c.) proscribed all nonconfucian and espoused confucianism as the state ideology and abolished other schools of thought （罷黜百家，獨(dú)尊儒術(shù)）, people enjoyed rare ideological free

30、dom and had to be careful with their words and deeds or they would be punished or even executed. because of this euphemism ( 委婉語(yǔ) ) developed and flourished in chinas feudal society.the chinese equivalent for “euphemism” is “委婉”，“婉轉(zhuǎn)”，or the most popular one “婉曲” containing “婉言” and “曲語(yǔ)”.“婉言” means “s

31、ubstituting an implicit expression for an explicit one”, while “曲語(yǔ)” implies the original meaning through describing things relevant to it. lets compare:1) 我嘗想：公文書(shū)里罷黜一個(gè)人的時(shí)候常用 “人地不宜”四字，總算是一個(gè)比較體面的下臺(tái)的借口。（梁實(shí)秋駱駝祥子）2) 阿劉啞告訴，姓孫的那幾個(gè)人打牌，聲音太鬧，給法國(guó)管事查到了，大吵其架，自己的飯碗也砸破了，等會(huì)就得卷鋪蓋下船。（錢(qián)鐘書(shū)圍城）example 1 falls into“婉言” ,u

32、sing an implicit parlance to reduce the provocation. example 2 belongs to“曲語(yǔ)” in chinese, or “periphrasis” in english respectively. so it is apparent here that “euphemism” in english and “委婉”in chinese are similar in that both are used to indicate “mild”, “agreeable”, “roundabout” expressions in pla

33、ce of coarse, painful, and offensive ones.the various definitions of euphemism presented by chinese scholars are similar to those given by western scholars, too. chen wangdao (陳望道) was the first person, who gave euphemism（in his words “婉曲”and “諱飾”）a definition. in his introduction to rhetoric (修辭學(xué)發(fā)凡

34、)，he defines the euphemism as “婉曲辭”, which means “to say something indirectly, but connoting and substituting it with roundabout and implicit words or even metaphorical expression.”(說(shuō)話(huà)時(shí)不直白本意，只用委曲含蓄的話(huà)來(lái)烘托暗示的叫婉曲辭); chen wangdao says that when we speak of tabooed things, we do not “call a spade a spade”

35、, but use pleasant expressions to cover them up “諱飾辭格”(說(shuō)話(huà)時(shí)遇有犯忌觸諱的事物，便不直說(shuō)該事該物 ，卻用旁的話(huà)來(lái)裝飾美化的，叫做諱飾辭格。)at the beginning of the 1980s, chen yuan(陳原) defined euphemism from the socialcultural perspective. he said “euphemism more or less originates from taboo; euphemism is to use pleasant, implicit and less

36、 offensive wordsto substitute the language taboo.” the definition put forward by chen yuan combines the euphemism (婉曲辭) with taboo words (諱飾辭格) and reveals the direct relation between euphemism and taboo, which has been widely accepted by chinese linguists.though scholars at home and abroad have def

37、ined euphemism differently from different perspectives, the above-mentioned definitions share some features:1. the purpose of using euphemisms is to avoid directly speaking out the unpleasant or taboo reference like death, the dead, the supernatural, etc. 2. euphemism is a kind of polite and roundab

38、out modes of expression.3. euphemism is used to soften or beautify the unpleasantness of reality.from the above, we can find there exist the similarities about euphemism at abroad and home, but there are more or less different due to the different culture. the following we will mainly talk about the

39、 relationship between euphemism and culture. iii. euphemism and culture euphemism, as an indispensable part of every language, is a mirror of morality, customs, politics, life style, social psychology, etc, which itself cannot exist without social culture, of which expressions used in sensitive area

40、s tend to pick up negative connotations and be replaced by euphemisms. for example, we are sensitive about death, the word “grave digger”, being often replaced by “undertaker”, originally a general word for someone who assumes a job or a mission; later on the word “undertaker” was replaced by anothe

41、r latinate word “mortician”. we are sensitive about bodily functions too, and we can find there are many euphemisms for “bathroom” (itself a euphemism, replacing the earlier euphemism “toilet” from the french “toilette” originally a cloth used in shaving or hairdressing). knowing euphemism well mean

42、s more than merely mastering the pronunciation, words and grammar, but means learning to see the world as native speakers do, and means learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, and learning to understand their “l(fā)anguage of the mind” as wel

43、l. the relationship between euphemism and culture is obvious: euphemism, as a culturallinguistic product, displays its multiple relations with culture; it changes along with the development of society, and varies with the variation of the context. it is a reflection of culture which carries vestigia

44、l patterns once dominant in a society. within a single culture, whether acceptable or forbidden, the subjects and portions of euphemisms have varied from one historical period to another and understanding of the culture underlying euphemisms enables us to catch the meaning of euphemism conveyed. iv.

45、 the similarities of english-chinese euphemisms in culturethere are certain things that are not supposed to be mentioned directly, people tend to use euphemism to make distasteful ideas seem acceptable or even desirable. this is a common culture phenomenon whatever you are the chinese or the foreign

46、ers. we can divide the similarities of english-chinese euphemisms into six parts. 1. the human body eliminationwhen we express the meaning “going to toilet” we generally use euphemisms “wash one s hand”、“relieve oneself” or “powder her nose” in english; while we should say “洗手”, “解手” ,“去化妝間”in chine

47、se. as for woman menses ,in english we usually say “period”, but“例假, 老朋友in chinese 2. disease and death as for the defective person, we call them disabled person in english, and we use disabled person to instead the cripple in chinese. about death, we use if anything happen to me in english, we can

48、say 有什么三長(zhǎng)兩短 in chinese (means coffin long high, take advantage of pointing the coffin) or similarly there is a phrase “to be with “god” in english, we have “見(jiàn)閻王”in chinese.3. sexas it is believed that sex and sexual behavior are generally considered as “unclean” or “dirty” in which people often use

49、euphemisms. taking the male sexual organ for example we use “cucumber” or “hot dog” in english, and “命根子, 老二” in chinese, about the sexual behavior, people often use “make love” in english , while “云雨” in chinese. 4. social status or grade about the poverty, we use “disadvantaged” or “underprivilege

50、d” in english, and “生活困難，手頭拮據(jù)” in chinese. to indicate the bad student in study, we have “under achiever” or “evade slow student” in english, and correspondingly, people often use “后進(jìn)生，困難生” in chinese.5. age old people in great britain and america do not like the word “old” when talking about their

51、age, thus the euphemism like “senior citizen” (old citizen), “golden ager” (the person of times of gold) have arisen. as “old ”is often associated with “death ”,we often find substitute words as 高齡, 年長(zhǎng) to avoid the word “old ” in chinese. 6. religionduring middle ages, because of the religious rules

52、, people are forbidden to talk about “buttock”, “shank”, “chin”, and “forehead” directly, as they all belonged to forbidden zone in the english language at that time. for example people couldnt use “breast” and “l(fā)eg” in their talking even for describing the chickens, therefore “white meat” and “dark

53、 meat”, etc. came into being. similarly during the period of feudalism in china, there were a lot of taboo rules, for example same or even similar character concerned with 李世民 should be avoided in common peoples name in the tang dynasty. the same case is that we call kong qiu without speaking his na

54、me directly.these common grounds of euphemism reflect the common value of the english and chinese culture and general modes of thinking and the expression manners. they show the human culture have the common characteristic. they also body the different culture influence and permeate each other. v. t

55、he differences of english-chinese euphemisms in culturesapir edward, a famous linguist, said “l(fā)anguage is a guide to social reality”. although there are similarities between chinese and english, they belong to different language system. as different nation has different culture, it the characteristi

56、cs of euphemism may be different greatly due to the different history background, religious beliefs, different customs, etc. 1. culture background as english and chinese belong to different harmonious sound systems, the spelling forms are different to a great extend and it is very easy to change the

57、 wards form in english but chinese is relatively stable. so, on the whole, the form about chinese euphemism is fixed. while a euphemism of in english has wide range methods of word-building, one of the word-building forms of the euphemism is the borrowing from the foreign languages. this is the common situation; we find three sources of synonyms of modern english: native english, french and latin respectively. the aboriginal anglo-saxon words belong to oral language for the common people, who do not share the features of the high society