To Seek the Cultural Difference from the Comparison of the Expressions of “Death” in Chinese .doc

毕业论文（设计）To Seek the Cultural Difference from the Comparison of the Expressions of“Death” in Chinese and English1. Introduction1.1 The relationship between culture and language Language is closely related to culture. Language expresses and embodies cultural reality. Language is the principal meaning whereby we conduct our social lives (Claire Kramsch, 2000：3). Language plays an important role in humans activities, which is an indispensable part of human life.A languages structure is the total of the languages users and their life styles, which includes the geography environment, popular legends, allegories, mythology, social history, customs, religions, value, art, etc.Language has obvious cultural characters, which can be shown as follows: first, language has its own regular pattern; second, language is characterized only by human; third, language can be learnt only in the postnatal time, it can not be passed on to the next generation by gene. Language is related to its race closely, so usually the same race uses the same language. It is the national culture that makes people chooses the language they use.Language and culture are closely related. They can not be separated and they affect each other. Language is an important part of culture. People consider it as the keystone of culture. It is claimed that culture would be impossible without language. Meanwhile, language is influenced and shaped by culture, and it reflects culture.Every nation lives and works in a certain natural environment, which is reflected by its language. People from different regions may have different languages. They use different words to express their views towards their environments. It is believed that the way people view the world is determined wholly or partially by the structure of their native languages. Therefore, there is a great difference between Chinese and English cultural backgrounds. And because of the difference, the two languages are quite different from each other. There exists a great difference in the usage of languages. Both Chinese and English are affected by their mother languages and the communicative styles penetrate into language communication. Thus, Chinese and English speakers often make mistakes or fail in cross-cultural communication. 1.2 Language socializationWith increasing communication among different countries in the world, people realize the importance of the communicative ability of foreign languages. And people pay more attention to language socialization.Language is the product of a society, which is the sign system carried on as before by human from generation to generation. All peoples languages must be restricted by different essentials of the societies. National language, as a big essential of the culture in the nation culture system, must be with some national characters. In order to meet the requirements of cross-cultural communication, we have to put language into the system of society and culture to have a comparative research, then we can recognize the inherent regular and the languages cultural forms.Language socialization can be searched from these aspects: first, different nations have different languages. In many situations, a language is just a symbol to distinguish it from the others. The relationships between different languages pronunciations and semantics can be explained only by socialization. And it is the reason why there are so many languages in the world; second, even the same nations languages are different in different areas. For example, there are seven dialect systems in Chinese, all of which are different from each other and we can not find any essential differences from the people themselves of different areas. One of the most revealing opportunities for studying language socialization is in the case of children growing up bilingually, for they manage not just to keep the two languages separate, but to learn quickly which language to use to which person (Bernard Spolsky, 2000: 44).2. Culture about “death” in Chinese and English2.1 Cultural identityIt is widely believed that there is a natural connection between the language spoken by members of a social group and that groups identity. By their accent, their vocabulary, their discourse patterns, speakers identify themselves and are identified as members of this or that speech and discourse community. In modern, historically complex, open societies it is much more difficult to define the boundaries of any particular social group and the linguistic and cultural identities of its members (Claire Kramsch, 2000：65).We should avoid two cultural tendencies. The first one is to take the western culture as the centre, which considers that the western value is the only reasonable general value. The other one is culture conservatism, which considers that the process of Chinese modernization is a process of the losing in cultural identity, so the western languages are repelled in order to keep Chinese culture not be changed with other incoming cultures.About “death”, there are different cultural identities in Chinese and English because of the difference in geographical environments, religious faiths, traditional cultures and thinking methods. Thus, different cultures about “death” occur in these two languages.2.2 Cultural stereotypesIn cross-cultural communication, the cultural stereotype refers to some inflexible statements about a category of people, and these stereotypical statements are applied to all members of the group without regard for individual differences (Ren Xiuzhen, Wang Hongwei, 2006). It is assumed that everyone from a group has certain characteristics and allows no room for individual differences, so it is by no means the same as information about another culture. Although culture stereotypes can be positive as well as negative, both types are equally distorting and destructive.The problem lies in equating the racial, ethnic, national identity imposed on an individual by the states bureaucratic system, and that individuals self-ascription. It has to be noted that societies impose racial and ethnic categories only on certain groups: whites do not generally identify themselves by the color of their skin, but by their provenance or nationality. They would find it ludicrous to draw their sense of cultural identity from their membership in the White race (Claire Kramsch, 2000：67).2.3 Culture about “death” in ChineseIn China, culture is led by Confucianism, so Chinese concept about “death” is deeply affected by Confucianism. Confucianism attaches importance to “birth” more than “death”. People at that time take an attitude of evading and avoiding “death”. Confucius once said, “not know how to be born, how to know to die”, which means if we did not know the meaning of “birth”, then we would not know the meaning of “death”. In their opinion, the world of “death” is unknown, so people should pay more attention to the life they are living. “Death” has been put out of the problem of philosophy and life for a long time. It is shown that Chinese has a sense of fear about “death”.Confucianism takes life as a carrier to realize humans social value. It considers that humans life will be meaningful only by realizing the social value. “Loyalty” and “piety” are the core of the life value, so all the meaning of human life is to follow loyal and filial.In Confucianism, human can realize social value by the following three methods. The first one is to achieve virtue, which means to follow the sages instructions and carry forward their ancestors gods in order to set up a morality model for their younger generations. When there are some contradictions between morals and life, no doubt they will choose to sacrifice themselves to achieve morals.The second one is to render meritorious service, which means to achieve outstanding merits and achievements during lifetime in order to pursue the familys consummate reputation.The last one is to achieve in teaching, which means to be successful in literature, and to write books to give younger generations some spiritual wealth. All of these Confucianism thoughts encourage people of good will to sacrifice themselves for the motherland and for their ideal. But these kinds of thoughts about “death” seem not to be workable enough, because Confucianisms view about life and death are separated from the real life and the three ways to achieve ones value above are too difficult to most of the common people. 2.4 Culture about “death” in EnglishIn England and other English countries, the concepts about “death” are quite different from those in Chinese. They dare to face death squarely. Its purpose is to pursue the value of life and attach the importance of life. Though this seems similar to Confucianism, in fact, there are a lot of differences between them. In English culture, people do not think highly of the social value of life, but they pay more attention to peoples happiness and experience during the lifetime. They do not seek a long life or prolong their life painstakingly. They lay stress on the lifes quality. The encouragement of painless death in the modern western society is an example to certificate how they lay stress on the lifes quality. They encourage people to enjoy their life. They think that their value can be realized only with a good understanding of death. One of the important elements which influence the English culture most is the culture of Christianity. Christianity believes that “death” does not come from the God, but come from humans sins. In fact, Holy Bible tells us that originally human would not die. The reason why people would die afterwards is because of their sins.Christians do not fear death. Whats more, they even expect to pass away at an early date. In their opinion, people can enjoy an eternal life better after death. They take death as a door. When they cross this door, they are not entering dark, but going into another bright world. What death brings to them are not separation and despair, but a happy and eternal life. Thus Christians face death with an optimistic attitude. They expect to meet their god and have a happy life in heaven.3. The expressions of “death” in Chinese3.1 “Death” in literary worksBecause of the taboos in expressing “death”, there are a lot of different expressions about “death” in Chinese. The examples are given as follows (Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian, 1999):Emperors death: “崩”、 “驾崩”、 “山陵崩”；Common peoples death: “过世”、“过去了”、“过了”、“去了”、“走了”、“返乡”、“回去”、“离开”、“长眠”、“先走一步”、“老去”、“作老人”、“作古”、“千古”、“上西天”；Under ages death: “夭”、“夭折”、“短折”、“夭亡”、“殇”、“夭殇”、“早逝（英年早逝）”、“夭逝”、“天逝”、“弃养夙殒”、“天服之殇”、“早夭”；Taoist priests death: “羽化”、“登仙”、“兵解”；Beauties death: “香消玉殒”、“天妒红颜”、“红颜薄命”；Image saying: “见马克思”、“见老祖宗去了”；Other euphemisms: “辞世”、“与世长辞”、“辞去人世”、“百年之后”、“寿终正寝（男）”、“寿终内寝（女）”、“成为故物”、“呜呼哀哉”、“已故”、“大去”、“仙逝”、“安眠”、“安息”、“往生”、“驾鹤西归”、 “风去楼空”、“天妒英才”、“南极星沉”、“驾返瑶池”、“音容宛在”、“师表长存”、“杀身成仁”；The expressions of “death” in Chinese above show us profound cultural background.TheDreamsofRedChamber(红楼梦) is the best example to support the points of Chinese culture about death. In this work, many expressions are used to decribe peoples death. For example, “如今从梦中听见说秦氏死了，连忙翻身爬起来，只觉得心中似戳了一刀的，不觉的哇的一声，直喷出一口血来”,“林黛玉焚稿断痴情，薛宝钗出阁成大礼”,“苦绛珠魂归离恨天，病神瑛泪洒相思地”(Cao Xueqin, 1987：792). Here Lin Daiyus “death” is not expressed by the word “die”, but we can still feel the shadow of death to the heroine, and we can feel her struggling with life and her attitude to love. We can also see how painful she was while her love vanished into thin air. If we were just told that Lin Daiyu was dead, then we might just feel that a soul was leaving her body and we might not feel sadness strongly.Besides, there are also a lot of different expressions of “death” in poems, such as the following sentences of Qu Yuans poems:“国殇”: “身既死兮神以灵，魂魄毅兮为鬼雄”。“怀沙”: “知死不可让，愿勿爱兮”。“忆往昔”: “焉舒情而抽信兮，恬死亡而不聊”, “宁溘死而流亡兮，恐祸殃之有再”。 “悲回风”: “宁溘死而流亡兮，不忍为此常愁”。“天问”: “何所不死，长人何守？”（长人，一说为长寿之人）, “延年不死，寿何所止”, “天式纵横，阳离爱死”。“渔父”: “宁赴湘流，葬于江鱼腹中”。All of the expressions of “death” the poets give us are very suitable for each role in the stories. They not only show us the poets writing skills, but also show us the corresponding cultural backgrounds. We can better recognize Chinese culture in the phenomenon of “death”.3.2 “Death” in euphemisms and taboosIt has been widely recognized that “taboo” is the very foundation of the outcome of euphemisms, euphemisms of death, in particular. And it can be found that both in China and English countries the psychology of taboo is the main root of the production of euphemisms. In the ancient days, people lived in poor conditions, in which both the economic and spiritual life were at low levels. So the worship and fear for nature become widespread among the human world. Our forebears tend to associate some kinds of magic power with the human world, the result of which is the appearance of “word magic”. They would fairly combine words uttered with fortune. Those words, associated with bad or unenjoyable things, make people shiver, and are to be avoided to the best they can. “Death” is considered to be cursed or unfortunate happenings, with the result of numerous euphemisms coming out. Therefore, when talking about “death”, most of us would like to use euphemisms. Originated in the psychology of taboo, thousands of euphemisms come out in Chinese. Such expressions as “安息”, “百岁”, “去世”, “牺牲”, “病故”, “作古”, “去见马克思”, “宾天”, “没了”, “升仙”,and so on, are all the euphemisms of “death”. A common theory holds that death is a taboo subject in most English-speaking cultures precisely for the psychology of taboo. It may be said that one is not dying, but fading quickly because the end is coming. People who have died are referred to as having passed away or departed (Net. 2).4. The expressions of “death” in English4.1 “Death” in literary worksIn English, there are also many different expressions of “death”. For example, “kicking the bucket”, “enter the celestial city”, “dying young”,“on the point of death”, “parting forever”,“dying”, “passing away”,“resting in peace”,“be over”, “be done for”,“losing ones life”,“dying in battle”,“dying at ones post”,“dying (for a just course or for ones country)”,“going our of this world”,“meeting ones death”, “meeting ones end”,“devoting oneself to”, “sacrificing oneself”,“breathing ones last”, etc. (An Intermediate LearnersEnglish-Chinese Dictionary, 2003).Plato (Net. 1) once expressed the death of a soldier in his work literary circles. He said that when he saw his body buring on the firewood, he believed that his soul had left his body and was going into a place called “passage” which took people to enter another life. And Plato advised his readers that people must observe the God to seek welfare and moral excellence, because human spirits are lasting forever.Because In English culture, people think that humans soul can live after their death, so their expressions of “death” always emphasize that they are going into another world, not just dying.4.2 “Death” in euphemisms and taboosIt has been long accepted that euphemism is a special kind of language techniques. Actually speaking, euphemism, itself, is one kind of rhetorical device, but when people talk about “death”, they will prefer to use some rhetorical devices, especially figurative device, to vaguely refer to what we do not want to talk about by metaphor, simile, understatement, etc. Despite different cultural heritages, euphemisms in this part are in common. Both in China and western countries people tend to compare life to a journey. Since life is a journey, everyone may go to the end of the journey, indicating everyone can not avoid death. For example, there are English euphemisms of “death” like “the last sent off”, “to have gone out”, “to go the way of all flesh”, “the last voyage”, and “to launch in to the eternity”. Similar to the metaphor of journey, “death” is also compared to sleep. We may frequently meet such euphemisms as “be at rest”, “go to sleep forever” in English, and “安息”, “长眠”, “长寐” in Chinese. Another example is the euphemistic expression “go to the west” in English, and in Chinese we have the similar one “上西天”. This may be credited to the same natural phenomenon in both countries, where the sun rises in the east and sets in the west (Net. 2).And usually we may not say “die” directly, so to some extent it is a kind of understatement. Besides the examples above, we can find a great many examples of figurative speech in the euphemistic expressions, some of which may take the similar or same form on the account of the similar or same culture. The key point is that we should try to become a sharp observant to find these similarities for the sake of successful communication.5. Comparison of the expressions of “death” in Chinese and English5.1 The difference between Chinese and English expressions of “death” in literary worksFrom the works in Chinese and in English, we will find that there are a lot of differences between the two languages.First, because of the traditional concepts towards death, in the early Chinese literature, writers do not dare to describe the phenomenon about death. But in English literature, writers dare to face death and they use different ways to express “death”, such as Shakespeares “to be or not to be, that is a question”. They think that a writer must learn to write not only “birth” but also “death”.Second, in the English literary works, there are a lot of expressions of “death” showing their optimistic attitude to death. But they also have some expressions with terrible meanings in the works, because they think that people die because of their sins.From the literary works we see that “death” in Chinese literature is always related to hell and retribution, while in