英语专业毕业论文浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异.doc

ContentsAcknowledgements.IEnglish Abstract. IIChinese Abstract.IIIChapter1 Introduction. 11.1The definition of euphemism. 11.2The features of euphemism.2 1.2.1National characteristic2 1.2.2Regional feature.2 1.2.3Indirect and Implicit3 1.2.4Universality3 1.2.5Humor.3 1.2.6Vagueness.4Chapter 2 Euphemism, Language and Culture.5 2.1The definition of culture.5 2.2Language and culture.62.3Euphemism and culture.6Chapter 3 A Comparison About English and Chinese Euphemism.8 3.1Euphemisms for death8 3.2Euphemisms for old age.9 3.3Euphemisms for poverty.10 3.4Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy11 3.5Euphemisms for disease12Chapter4 Conclusion14References15Acknowledgements This thesis is a result of contributions from many supporting individuals.During the process of writing, I have received various kinds of help from many people. Because of their help, I have finished writing this thesis so smoothly. Here, I want to render my sincere thanks to all the teachers and classmates who have given me their help in the last four years. The help is not only one of the most important treasures deserving cherishing all my life, but also will be a perfect guide in my life in the future.My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor Ms. Peng Qiying. In this short but sufficient period, she has given me many good suggestions for the materials and the ways of organizing ideas. Without her consistent instructions, this thesis would not have reached its present form.My sincere thanks are also owed to all the teachers who have taught me during the four years of my university study. I also thank the library of Guizhou University and the library of our college for providing me with the facilities and sources that I needed for my research and writing.I also acknowledge my sincere thanks to all my classmates and friends who have enriched my life with their generous help and precious friendship.The finishing of my thesis is not an end but a new beginning. I believe that I can do better and better in my future life. Thank you again, my supervisor, my classmates and my teachers.AbstractOne of the most important ways for our human beings to communicate with others is language. Language is an important means for people to maintain their social relationship. However, there are many things which are supposed to be unspeakable. Many words also make people embarrassed and unhappy. So, in order to avoid the offensiveness and misunderstandings, people usually use the indirect or pleasant expressions to replace with those unpleasant and rude words in communication. We call that euphemism. Euphemism plays an important role in peoples social communication and exists in almost every culture and society. In order to help the language learner to understand euphemism better, this thesis mainly explores the cultural differences between English and Chinese euphemisms. In chapter one, the author introduces the definition and features of euphemism. In chapter two, the author introduces the relationship between euphemism, language and culture. Chapter three is mainly a contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemism from these aspects: euphemisms of death, poverty, marriage, pregnancy and disease. Then the author brings to the conclusion that if the language learners want to learn a foreign language well, it is better that he has a good knowledge of its culture. Key Words：euphemism, definition, feature, culture, difference摘要语言是人与人交流的最重要的方法，也是保持社会关系的重要方法。然而又很多东西是不能直接说的，有很多词语会让人尴尬和不愉快。因此，为了避免冒犯以及误会，人们在交流的时候通常用一些间接的以及令人愉快的表达来代替那些令人不高兴的粗鲁的词语。那些词语就叫做委婉语。委婉语在人们的日常交流中扮演着重要的角色。委婉语是为了避免禁忌语，且存在于各种文化和社会中。为了帮助语言学习者更好的了解和掌握委婉语，这篇论文主要讨论了英语委婉语和中国委婉语在文化上的不同。在第一章，作者介绍了委婉语的定义和特点。在第二章，作者介绍了委婉语，语言以及文化三者的关系。第三章主要是对比有关死亡，贫困，婚姻，怀孕和疾病方面的中英委婉语。由此得出结论，如果想要学好一门语言，就有必要了解这门语言的文化。关键词：委婉语；定义；特点；文化；差别Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 The definition of EuphemismVerbal communication is one of the most important methods people apply to maintain the social relationship. In order to avoid the offensiveness in communication, people usually use some polite or pleasant words to replace the rude or embarrassing ones. Therefore, euphemism emerges.Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures, it takes an very important role in peoples daily communication. Euphemism is originated from the Greek. Its prefix “eu” means good, pleasant, and its root “pheme” means speech. Thus, euphemism literally means “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner” (Neaman and Silver, 1990:32). According to Allan and Burridge (1991:11), the definition of euphemism is: A euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either ones own face or through going offense, that of the audience, or of some third party. Many people have defined euphemism. There are some definitions of euphemism 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 more pleasant, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant. (Longman English-Chinese Dictionary of Contempo- rary English, Longman Group UK Limited, 1988)(4)A euphemism is a polite, pleasant, or neutral word or expression that is used to refer to something which people may find upsetting or embarrassing to talk about, for example, sex, the human body or death. (Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, SFLEP, 2000)(5)Rhetorical trope: a pleasant replacement for an objectionable word that has pejorative connotations. (Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics, FLERP, 2000)In China, Chen Wangdao (1997) defined euphemism as a figure of speech in which roundabout and implicit words and expressions are used to substitute direct expressions to hint the meaning. “Weiwan (委婉)” is a figure of speech in Chinese. It is also called “wanqu (婉曲)” or “wanzhuan(婉转)”. Another figure of speech in Chinese is called “bihui (避讳)” or “huishi (讳饰)”. The combination of the figure of speech “weiwan (委婉)” and the figure of speech “bihui (避讳)” in Chinese is equivalent to the figure of speech “euphemism” in English (Li Guonan, 2001:190).1.2The features of Euphemism1.2.1 National characteristicEuphemism is a common language phenomenon in the world culture. However, different countries and different nations in different surroundings and social environment have different production and living manners, and their culture depositions are also different. So euphemism in different language has some differences either. The differences are the representation of the national characteristic. There is a typical example about the word “poor”, it described an young woman who lived with hard condition. The paragraph uses several euphemisms of poor:“I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I was not poor, I was needy. Then they said it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, that I was culturally deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, that I was underprivileged. Then they told me that underprivileged was overused, that I was disadvantaged. I still do not have a dime but I have a great vocabulary!”Needy (lack of commodity), culturally deprived(lose the opportunity of education), underprivileged (having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society), disadvantaged (humble). Those four words are the euphemisms for “poor” which the government used to cheat the public.1.2.2 Regional featureDifferent regions have different customs, so do the language. For instance, bread is a kind of daily food in British, and the phrase “take bread out of someones mouth” means to go off with someones job. And there is another example. An Australian woman married to an American man. They spent their honeymoon in America. And one day, the couple intended to go to a party together. But the bridegroom could not find a suitable full dress. The bride took out a birthday suit that she gave him as a present a few days ago and said: “Why not wear your birthday suit?” However, the whole family were all astonished because in American English, “in ones birthday suit” is the euphemistic expression of “naked”. So this embarrassing situation was resulted from the regional differences in euphemism.1.2.3 Indirect and implicitThe most important feature of euphemism is indirect and implicit. The purpose of euphemism is to use some indirect expressions to avoid something that makes people unhappy. And this is the indirect character. Euphemism always gives people hints in a roundabout way. We can infer the deeper meaning and intention from the conversation. For example:-“Dont you think my cooking is wonderful?” The girl asked.-“Are you fishing for compliments.” Her boy friend responded. In the conversation above, the boyfriend not only answered the girl implicitly, and did not embarrass his girlfriend. Similarly, when someone is ill, we always say he is under the weather. If someone is mad, we say he is soft in mind.1.2.4 UniversalityUniversality is something that is well-known and accepted by all of the human beings. Euphemism almost exists in every language and culture. And each language has its own taboos, such as taboos connected with sex, death, or body functions. Hence, those taboos are replaced by euphemisms. While we say someone is dead in English, we always do not use the word “die”. We prefer to use “pass away” or “kick the bucket”.1.2.5 HumorUsing euphemisms makes the language more interesting and humorous. It helps the public face something cruel and the unpleasant reality freely and happily. For instance, “push up daisies” replaces “be buried”, “hare-brained” refers to “mad”. “bay window” is a substitution for “belly”, “weekend worries” for “prostitutes”, “to lose ones lunch” for “to vomit”. Nowadays, in some families, husband is afraid of his wife, and this kind of husband is called “hen-pecked husband”. 1.2.6 VaguenessThe formation of many euphemisms are made use of the vagueness of language, it makes the meaning broader. The vagueness of euphemisms can conceal the cruel. Just like the conversation below:Devizes: Is the pain worse?Surtees: It is no great pain, sir. I have been to one specialist, sir? Yesterday，it is ? Devizes: He couldnt be sure. An operation?Surtees: Too late, he said, for that. If I had been operated on long ago, there might have been a chance.After reading the conversation above, we may not understand what they discuss about, what do the “it” and “that” indicate. It is difficult to understand the conversation correctly. Actually, Devizes and Surtees are talking about the cancer. Since cancer makes people unhappy, they use “it” and “that” to replace it tactfully.Chapter 2 Language, Euphemism and Culture2.1 The definition of culture Culture is a large, wide and vague conception. It is really hard to explain the word “culture” clearly. As the world and society are developing, the definition of “culture” is also changing. According to Goodenough (1957:167), culture is “whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members”. Culture, “Being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage”, must consist of “the end product of learning: knowledge”. Samovar and Porter (2000:36), in their book Communication Between Cultures, defined culture as “the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving”. Linell Davis (2001:246) explained “what is culture” in simple words and with vivid metaphor in her Doing Culture: Cross-Cultural Communication. She points out that culture is like an iceberg. Only some of culture is visible. Most of culture is below the surface of our awareness.Spencer-Oatey entented the conception of culture and introduced a number of additional factors apart from values and resultant behaviors or artifacts, including a description of the functions of culture: “Culture is a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms, and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group people, and that influence each members behavior and his or her interpretations of the meaning of other peoples behavior”(2000:4). Culture changes with changing circumstances. Culture is the grammar of our behavior. Culture includes those rules that a public need to know in order to behave appropriately in the society. Just an we learn the grammar of our native language, we learn our native culture grammar unconsciously and apply its rules automatically (Linell Davis, 2001:18-20).Different scholars defined the culture differently for different purposes. In total, all the points perform that culture is all pervasive, including customs and habits, ideas and beliefs, the artifacts made by human beings. Simply to say, culture reflects the whole life of the society.2.2 Language and cultureLanguage is arbitrary. Language is vocal. Language is a symbolic system of human communications. Language is an important part of culture and it is the keystone of culture. Language is also the primary tool of culture to transmit its values, beliefs and norms. When people communicating with others, they can diffuse their own culture to each other, then, get knowledge of another culture from each other. Culture provides people means of thinking, ways of living, and the attitude towards life, either. Many social scientists insist that without language, culture would impossible.On the other side, language refers to the culture. Language is influenced and shaped by culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural background as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking (Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing, 1989:3). According to Kramsch (2000:3), when lan