英语本科毕业论文英汉委婉语中文化内涵的对比研究

1、绵阳师范学院本科生毕业论文(设计)题 目a comparative study of culturalconnotations in english andchinese euphemisms英汉委婉语中文化内涵的对比研究专 业英 语（师范英语方向）院 系外国语学院学 号1004020436姓 名xxx指导教师xxx 副教授答辩时间二一四年四月 论文工作时间：2013年09月至2014年04月英汉委婉语中文化内涵的对比研究姓 名：xxxx指导老师：xxxx摘 要：委婉语是人们在各种社会交往中为谋求彼此理想的交际效果而创造的一种普遍的语言形式。它不仅是一种语言现象，而且是一种文化现象。国内外对于

2、委婉语的研究，许多学者主要集中在社会语言学、修辞学和语义学等方面，然而对不同文化背景下的委婉语的对比研究较少。本文主要基于前人的研究，对英汉委婉语中的文化内涵进行对比研究，旨在发现英汉委婉语的异同，从而，减少英汉两种语言使用时的误用，加深对中西文化交流中的差异性理解，实现和谐的交际目的。 关键词：委婉语；文化现象；文化内涵；交际目的；对比研究a comparative study of cultural connotations in english and chinese euphemismsundergraduate: xxxsupervisor: xxxabstract: euphemi

3、sm is a universal linguistic form that is created by human beings in various communicative activities in order to achieve their ideal communicative goals. euphemism is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a cultural phenomenon. at home and abroad, euphemism is mainly studied by scholars from th

4、e aspects of sociolinguistics, rhetorics, semantics, etc. however，there are fewer studies on the comparative analyses of euphemisms of different cultural backgrounds. based on the previous studies, this paper makes a comparative study of cultural connotations in english and chinese euphemisms. it ai

5、ms to find out the similarities and differences between them. consequently, it aims to reduce the misuse of euphemisms, to deepen the understanding of differences of cross-cultural communication and to accomplish the good communicative goals in english and chinese. key words: euphemism; cultural phe

6、nomenon; cultural connotation; communicative goal; comparative studycontents1. introduction12. origin, definition, classification and formation of euphemism22.1 origin of euphemism22.2 definition of euphemism32.3 classification of euphemism42.3.1 traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemisms42.3.2

7、 unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms42.4 formation of euphemism53. theory of euphemism64. comparative study of cultural connotations74.1 language, culture and euphemism74.2 euphemisms of reproduction, aging, diseases and death84.2.1 euphemisms of reproduction84.2.2 euphemisms of aging84.

8、2.3 euphemisms of diseases94.2.4 euphemisms of death94.3 euphemisms of marriage and family104.4 euphemisms of occupations and poverty104.5 euphemisms of deities and devils115. conclusion12bibliography13acknowledgements141. introductioneuphemism is a universal linguistic phenomenon, which is widely u

9、sed in human communicative activities. as we all know, like the ornament and lube of human language, euphemism enables people to avoid some unpleasant, embarrassing, and direct communicative situations. it keeps the communication going on. hence euphemism plays a crucial role in human daily life, ju

10、st as robert william burchfield wrote in his work fair of speech: the uses of euphemism (1985), “a language without euphemism would be a defective instrument of communication.” as a common linguistic phenomenon, euphemism has been studied for a long time at home and overseas. in western countries, s

11、cholar george blunt, in the early 1580s, coined the word “euphemism” and defined it as “a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word”. in 1981, british linguist hugh rawson compiled a dictionary named a dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk, embodying the research achievements of euphemi

12、sm. most importantly, the preface of this dictionary is one of the greatest papers of euphemism study. in the dictionary, hugh rawson not only talked about the history of euphemism study but also discussed the definition, features, classification and related aspects. in 1985, american scholars judit

13、h s. neaman and carole g. silver published a dictionary called kind words: a thesaurus of euphemisms. this dictionary has great referential value of euphemism study. in the dictionary, judith s. neaman generally defined euphemism as “replacing an offensive or unpleasant term for an inoffensive and p

14、leasant one”. according to american social and cultural background, american linguist menken, discussed hundreds of euphemism phenomena in his work the american language and talked about the reasons of derivation and popularization. it is of great value for euphemism researches. for many western tra

15、ditional linguists, they only studied euphemism from lexical aspects. since bolingers study, some linguists start to focus on the grammar means of euphemism formations, such as tense, tone and voice.in ancient china, the study of euphemism is greatly involved in taboo and folklore. the avoidance of

16、taboo and the expression of euphemism were firstly recorded in the work of lu rong, a ming dynasty scholar. for a long time, with the pioneer mr. chen wangdao, most modern scholars studied euphemism from rhetorical aspect. in 20th century, theories of foreign sociolinguistics were introduced into ch

17、ina. according to these theories, many chinese linguists were interested in the social functions of euphemism. in 1983, mr. chen yuan published a book named sociolinguistics, in which he made detailed analyses of euphemism. in this book, mr. chen yuan not only talked about the history of euphemism a

18、nd the background of society and mind but also used many examples to analyze the features of euphemism formation and usage. later on, many chinese scholars studied euphemism from different aspects and have got lots of further achievements. whats more, euphemism is relevant to human cultures. it is c

19、ulture-loaned in that certain contextual euphemism reflects certain cultures. in english and chinese, euphemism is also an indispensable element. lots of linguists and scholars at home and abroad have interest in euphemism study from different aspects. among these researches, many scholars mainly fo

20、cus on the study of euphemism itself, ignoring the communicative and practical functions of language, ignoring the underlying meaning of language phenomenon. in other words, they do researches from one language instead of two or more comparative languages. in this paper, the author uses the comparat

21、ive way to study the cultural connotations in english and chinese euphemisms. and the author intends to solve three problems in this paper. first of all, what are the similarities and differences of euphemism phenomena in english and chinese? secondly, what are the cultural connotations implied in e

22、nglish and chinese euphemisms? last but not least, how to avoid certain mistakes of euphemism in cross-cultural communication. through these comparative studies, this paper aims to compare the euphemism in english and chinese from the view of cultural connotations and to make people have a clear vie

23、w on the theories and cultural connotations of english and chinese euphemisms.2. origin, definition, classification and formation of euphemism2.1 origin of euphemismlanguage can be generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communications. language is human-specific in a

24、ccordance with the definition. its development profoundly relates to human activities. in primitive society, human was unable to understand and explain some natural phenomena or natural power. therefore, as one of the features of human beings, language is naturally related to certain natural phenome

25、na or blessing and disaster caused by natural power. thus, human beings endowed language with a power that surpassed language itself. whats more, they considered that language was the source of good and bad fortune. who were displeased with this source, they would be penalized by the source. on the

26、contrary, who were pleased with this source, they would be blessed by the source. naturally, taboo came into being. it does not allow people to do, use or talk about a particular thing as people find it offensive or embarrassing. nevertheless, people have to use or talk about some offensive or embar

27、rassing things in daily life. what should they do? it is really difficult to handle. on the one hand, people want to express some taboo subjects; on the other hand, they have to avoid the punishment of language. in light of the fact, taboo engenders euphemism. when people are unwilling to talk about

28、 the taboo things directly, they can use good, indirect and pleasant words to replace them. this linguistic phenomenon is called euphemism. taboo is the original motivation of euphemism. where there is a taboo, there is the euphemism.2.2 definition of euphemismin western countries, the english term

29、“euphemism” stemmed from greek. the initial part “eu-” means “good, well”; the stem “pheme” means “speak”; and the last part “-ism” means “action or the result”. so the whole word “euphemism” means “speaking well of something” “good speech” and “words of good omen”. however, different scholars and l

30、inguists defined the nature of euphemism differently. the following are some typical definitions of euphemism.1) 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)2) an indirect

31、 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. (oxford advanced learners english-chinese dictionary, 7th edition, 2009)3) mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in a place of coarse, painful, or

32、offensive ones. (hugh rawson, 1981:3)4) there are grammatical ways of toning something down without actually changing the context of the message. (d. bolinger, 1981)5) substitute an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using in words. (neama

33、n and silver, 1983)in china, most scholars study euphemism mainly from the rhetoric, and they regard euphemism as a kind of figure of speech. chen wangdao was the first person to make a definition of euphemism that“委婉是修辞的一种，即说话不直白本意，只用委曲含蓄的话来烘托暗”(修辞学发凡陈望道，1979). tang songbo defined euphemism in his

34、work 汉语修辞格词典, 汉语“委婉”或称“婉转”;最普遍的名称是“婉曲”，“婉曲”又分为“婉言”和“曲语”两种，都“不直接说出本意”，不过前者“故意换一种含蓄的说法”，而后者则是，“通过描述和本意相关的事物来烘托本意”.from the mentioned definitions of euphemisms both in english and chinese, we can get the following main points. firstly, euphemism has two levels of meaning that is original meaning or lit

35、eral meaning and implied meaning or euphemistic meaning. secondly, euphemistic words are the substitute of unpleasant, embarrassing, offensive and direct words. it can be called “good word”, “comfortable word”, “mild expression” etc. thirdly, euphemism has three general functions that are to avoid i

36、rritation and make people comfortable, to remove rudeness and make people polite and to abandon staleness and make people novel. 2.3 classification of euphemismaccording to different criterion, euphemisms can be divided into different types.2.3.1 traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemismsaccord

37、ing to whether the expressions are in relation to taboos or not, euphemisms can be classified into traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemisms. traditional euphemisms can also be called negative euphemisms, which are relevant to taboos. in this case, euphemisms and taboos convey the same informa

38、tion, which seem two sides of a coin supplementing each other. in case of expressing something directly, such as birth, death, illness, sex, nakedness and excretion, it is coarse, impolite and ungracious. nevertheless, if people express indirectly and euphemize these mentioned aspects, it is elegant

39、, polite, and gracious. for example, “death” can be replaced by “breath ones last” “fall asleep” “go the way of all flesh” “go west” “decease” “join the majority” “lay down ones life” “pass away” “pay the debt of nature” “reach a better world”.stylistic euphemisms can also be called positive euphemi

40、sms, which have no relation to taboos but relate to compliments. in english-speaking countries, people will magnify and exaggerate some unpleasant things to “good words” in order to show their politeness, respect and to avoid some unnecessary embarrassment, to strive for some cooperating chances. fo

41、r example, “housewife”(家庭主妇) is replaced by “homemaker”(创家者) or “domestic engineer”(家庭工程师); “garbage collector”(垃圾清运工) is called “sanitation engineer”(公共卫生工程师) or “garbologist”(垃圾学专家). most stylistic euphemisms are doublespeak and cosmetic words, which are used widely in government, military and bus

42、iness field. for example, people use the expressions “redeployment”(重新部署), “adjustment of the front”(战线调整) or “strategic movement to the rear”(向后战略转移) to replace “retreat”(撤退).2.3.2 unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemismseuphemisms can be classified into unconscious euphemisms and conscious

43、euphemisms according to whether the euphemistic meanings relate to their original meanings or not. time goes by. the original meaning of a word was forgotten by people, while the euphemistic meaning was remembered. so the euphemistic meaning is misunderstood as the original meaning. to take the word

44、 “indisposition” for example, its original meaning is “unable to do something” and its euphemistic meaning refers to “illness”. in daily activities, because of the frequent use of its euphemistic meaning, people nearly forget its original meaning. however, when people use conscious euphemisms, it is

45、 clear for them that they make a pun in their use. that is to say, they not only know the original meaning but also know the implied meaning of the word. generally, the listener can grasp the actual meaning in conversations. for example, when a lady says “i want to powder my nose” in a formal date,

46、both the speaker and listener know that the lady wants to answer the call of nature. conscious euphemisms are employed widely, because of their duality. people can express some unpleasant, private and embarrassing things with the help of conscious euphemisms. whats more, there are a variety of class

47、ifications of euphemism besides the foregoing classifications. according to time, euphemisms can be classified into instantaneous euphemisms and continuous euphemisms; according to age, euphemisms can be classified into medieval euphemisms, victorian euphemisms, twenty century euphemisms, modern eup

48、hemisms, etc. according to scope, euphemisms can be classified into british euphemisms, american euphemisms, australian euphemisms, male euphemisms, female euphemisms, etc. according to topics, euphemisms can be classified into death euphemisms, sex euphemisms, occupation euphemisms, etc. it is usef

49、ul to grasp the various features of euphemism by different classified ways.2.4 formation of euphemismas is known to all, the main function of euphemism is to help people avoid some things they are unwilling to mention or talk about directly. based on this, most formations of euphemism follow two pri

50、nciples that are pleasantness principle and relatedness principle. the following are eight common ways of formation. 1) compounding(合词法): compounding is a formative process that two or more words are blended together. for instance, “gezunda” means “chamber pot”a term making from this object “goes un

51、der the bed”. 2) backformation(逆构词法): backformation is a formative process that removes the imagined suffix from existing word with some changes. for example, the word “burgle” is formed from the removal and change of the word “burglar” to replace the word “rob”. 3) acronym(首字母组合法): acronym is a for

52、mative process that combines the initial letters of taboos or sensitive terms in order to mask bad things. for example, “bm” means “bowel movement”(大便);“bo” means“body odor”(狐臭);“the big c” means “cancer”(癌症);“x.y.z.” means “examine your zipper.”(请把你裤子的拉链拉上。) 4) clipping(截断法): clipping is a formativ

53、e process that removes the initial part or last part of a word or word group to form a new euphemistic word. for example, “gents” refers to “gentlemans room”(男厕所); “ladies” refers to “ladies room”(女厕所) “con man” refers to “confidence man”(骗子);“vert” refers to “sexual pervert”(性变态者).5) phonetic disto

54、rtion(曲读异拼法): phonetic distortion refers to the process that changes the pronunciation of the taboo word or phrase on purpose in order to be suitable to speak directly. for instance, “gad, gosh, good” refers to god; “jiminy cricket, jiminy cripes, jiminy crackers” refers to jesus christ; “bally, blu

55、ggy, blurry” means “bloody”.in chinese, there are also a variety of examples to prove this formative way.for example, “一切向前(钱)看”“隐(瘾)君子”“步步为营(赢)”“你是高空挂口袋，装风(疯)”。in these examples, the words in the bracket have the same pronunciation with the prior words, which is the phonetic distortion in chinese e

56、uphemism formation.6) rhyming slang(押韵替代法): rhyming slang means the formation of using the words or phrases which have the same rhyme with taboos or slangs to replace the taboo or slang subject. for example, the taboo word “piss” can be named as “cousin sis” or “hit and miss” or “mickey bliss” or “m

57、ike bless” or “rattle and hiss” or “that and this”. 7) respelling of initials(首字母易拼法): respelling of initial refers to the euphemism that is spelled according to the pronunciation of the initial letter of the taboos or sensitive words. for example, “dee” euphemizes for “damn”, “pee” for “piss”.8) eu

58、phemistic punctuation (标点符号法): euphemistic punctuation refers to the use of punctuation to replace some letters in the taboos. for example, “d”stands for “damn”, “sh*/s*/s*t” for “shit”. in chinese, to avoid the name of the emperor “李世民”，the name “ 王世充”has to be written as “王 充”in 隋书.in short, euphemism is in various forms. generally speaking, the formation can be classified into six types, including word-building means, phonetic means, spelling means, lexical means, grammatical means and rhetoric mea