英语专业毕业论文浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异.docx

英语专业毕业论文浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异.docx

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英语专业毕业论文浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异

英语专业毕业论文--浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异

英语专业毕业论文--浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异第18页ContentsAcknowledgements…………………………………………………………………IEnglishAbstract……………………………………………………………….……IIChineseAbstract…………………………………………………………….……….IIIChapter1Introduction………………………………………………….……………11.1Thedefinitionofeuphemism……………………………………….……11.2Thefeaturesofeuphemism……………………………………….………21.2.1Nationalcharacteristic………………………………………………21.2.2Regionalfeature……………………………………………….……21.2.3IndirectandImplicit………………………………………………31.2.4Universality…………………………………………………………31.2.5Humor………………………………………………………….……31.2.6Vagueness…………………………………………………….……4Chapter2Euphemism,LanguageandCulture………………………………………52.1Thedefinitionofculture…………………………………………………52.2Languageandculture……………………………………………………62.3Euphemismandculture…………………………………………………6Chapter3AComparisonAboutEnglishandChineseEuphemism…………………83.1Euphemismsfordeath……………………………………………………83.2Euphemismsforoldage…………………………………………….……93.3Euphemismsforpoverty………………………………………….……103.4Euphemismsformarriageandpregnancy………………………………113.5Euphemismsfordisease…………………………………………………12Chapter4Conclusion………………………………………………………………14References……………………………………………………………………………15AcknowledgementsThisthesisisaresultofcontributionsfrommanysupportingindividuals.Duringtheprocessofwriting,Ihavereceivedvariouskindsofhelpfrommanypeople.Becauseoftheirhelp,Ihavefinishedwritingthisthesissosmoothly.Here,Iwanttorendermysincerethankstoalltheteachersandclassmateswhohavegivenmetheirhelpinthelastfouryears.Thehelpisnotonlyoneofthemostimportanttreasuresdeservingcherishingallmylife,butalsowillbeaperfectguideinmylifeinthefuture.Mydeepestgratitudegoesfirstandforemosttomysupervisor–Ms.PengQiying.Inthisshortbutsufficientperiod,shehasgivenmemanygoodsuggestionsforthematerialsandthewaysoforganizingideas.Withoutherconsistentinstructions,thisthesiswouldnothavereacheditspresentform.Mysincerethanksarealsoowedtoalltheteacherswhohavetaughtmeduringthefouryearsofmyuniversitystudy.IalsothankthelibraryofGuizhouUniversityandthelibraryofourcollegeforprovidingmewiththefacilitiesandsourcesthatIneededformyresearchandwriting.Ialsoacknowledgemysincerethankstoallmyclassmatesandfriendswhohaveenrichedmylifewiththeirgeneroushelpandpreciousfriendship.Thefinishingofmythesisisnotanendbutanewbeginning.IbelievethatIcandobetterandbetterinmyfuturelife.Thankyouagain,mysupervisor,myclassmatesandmyteachers.AbstractOneofthemostimportantwaysforourhumanbeingstocommunicatewithothersislanguage.Languageisanimportantmeansforpeopletomaintaintheirsocialrelationship.However,therearemanythingswhicharesupposedtobeunspeakable.Manywordsalsomakepeopleembarrassedandunhappy.So,inordertoavoidtheoffensivenessandmisunderstandings,peopleusuallyusetheindirectorpleasantexpressionstoreplacewiththoseunpleasantandrudewordsincommunication.Wecallthateuphemism.Euphemismplaysanimportantroleinpeople’ssocialcommunicationandexistsinalmosteverycultureandsociety.Inordertohelpthelanguagelearnertounderstandeuphemismbetter,thisthesismainlyexplorestheculturaldifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseeuphemisms.Inchapterone,theauthorintroducesthedefinitionandfeaturesofeuphemism.Inchaptertwo,theauthorintroducestherelationshipbetweeneuphemism,languageandculture.ChapterthreeismainlyacontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismfromtheseaspects:

euphemismsofdeath,poverty,marriage,pregnancyanddisease.Thentheauthorbringstotheconclusionthatifthelanguagelearnerswanttolearnaforeignlanguagewell,itisbetterthathehasagoodknowledgeofitsculture.KeyWords：

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Chapter1Introduction1.1ThedefinitionofEuphemismVerbalcommunicationisoneofthemostimportantmethodspeopleapplytomaintainthesocialrelationship.Inordertoavoidtheoffensivenessincommunication,peopleusuallyusesomepoliteorpleasantwordstoreplacetherudeorembarrassingones.Therefore,euphemismemerges.Euphemismisacommonlinguisticphenomenoninallcultures,ittakesanveryimportantroleinpeople’sdailycommunication.EuphemismisoriginatedfromtheGreek.Itsprefix“eu”meansgood,pleasant,anditsroot“pheme”meansspeech.Thus,euphemismliterallymeans“tospeakwithgoodwordsorinapleasantmanner”（NeamanandSilver,1990:

32）.AccordingtoAllanandBurridge（1991:

11）,thedefinitionofeuphemismis:

Aeuphemismisusedasanalternativetoadispreferredexpression,inordertoavoidpossiblelossofface:

eitherone’sownfaceorthroughgoingoffense,thatoftheaudience,orofsomethirdparty.Manypeoplehavedefinedeuphemism.Therearesomedefinitionsofeuphemismbelow:

（1）mildorvagueexpressionsubstitutedforaharsherormoredirectone.（PocketOxfordEnglish-ChineseDictionary,OxfordUniversityPress,1996）

（2）thesubstitutionofamild,indirect,orvagueexpressionforonethoughttobeoffensive,harshorblunt.（Webster’sDictionaryofAmericanEnglish,RandomHouse,Inc.1997）（3）（anexampleof）theuseofamorepleasant,lessdirectnameforsomethingthoughttobeunpleasant.（LongmanEnglish-ChineseDictionaryofContempo-raryEnglish,LongmanGroupUKLimited,1988）（4）Aeuphemismisapolite,pleasant,orneutralwordorexpressionthatisusedtorefertosomethingwhichpeoplemayfindupsettingorembarrassingtotalkabout,forexample,sex,thehumanbodyordeath.（CollinsCobuildEnglishDictionary,SFLEP,2000）（5）Rhetoricaltrope:

apleasantreplacementforanobjectionablewordthathaspejorativeconnotations.（RoutledgeDictionaryofLanguageandLinguistics,FLERP,2000）InChina,ChenWangdao（1997）definedeuphemismasafigureofspeechinwhichroundaboutandimplicitwordsandexpressionsareusedtosubstitutedirectexpressionstohintthemeaning.“Weiwan（委婉）”isafigureofspeechinChinese.Itisalsocalled“wanqu（婉曲）”or“wanzhuan（婉转）”.AnotherfigureofspeechinChineseiscalled“bihui（避讳）”or“huishi（讳饰）”.Thecombinationofthefigureofspeech“weiwan（委婉）”andthefigureofspeech“bihui（避讳）”inChineseisequivalenttothefigureofspeech“euphemism”inEnglish（LiGuonan,2001:

190）.1.2ThefeaturesofEuphemism1.2.1NationalcharacteristicEuphemismisacommonlanguagephenomenonintheworldculture.However,differentcountriesanddifferentnationsindifferentsurroundingsandsocialenvironmenthavedifferentproductionandlivingmanners,andtheirculturedepositionsarealsodifferent.Soeuphemismindifferentlanguagehassomedifferenceseither.Thedifferencesaretherepresentationofthenationalcharacteristic.Thereisatypicalexampleabouttheword“poor”,itdescribedanyoungwomanwholivedwithhardcondition.Theparagraphusesseveraleuphemismsofpoor:

“IusedtothinkIwaspoor.ThentheytoldmeIwasnotpoor,Iwasneedy.Thentheysaiditwasself-defeatingtothinkofmyselfasneedy,thatIwasculturallydeprived.Thentheytoldmedeprivedwasabadimage,thatIwasunderprivileged.Thentheytoldmethatunderprivilegedwasoverused,thatIwasdisadvantaged.IstilldonothaveadimebutIhaveagreatvocabulary!

”Needy（lackofcommodity）,culturallydeprived（losetheopportunityofeducation）,underprivileged（havinglessmoneyandfeweropportunitiesthanmostpeopleinsociety）,disadvantaged（humble）.Thosefourwordsaretheeuphemismsfor“poor”whichthegovernmentusedtocheatthepublic.1.2.2RegionalfeatureDifferentregionshavedifferentcustoms,sodothelanguage.Forinstance,breadisakindofdailyfoodinBritish,andthephrase“takebreadoutofsomeone’smouth”meanstogooffwithsomeone’sjob.Andthereisanotherexample.AnAustralianwomanmarriedtoanAmericanman.TheyspenttheirhoneymooninAmerica.Andoneday,thecoupleintendedtogotoapartytogether.Butthebridegroomcouldnotfindasuitablefulldress.Thebridetookoutabirthdaysuitthatshegavehimasapresentafewdaysagoandsaid:

“Whynotwearyourbirthdaysuit?

”However,thewholefamilywereallastonishedbecauseinAmericanEnglish,“inone’sbirthdaysuit”istheeuphemisticexpressionof“naked”.Sothisembarrassingsituationwasresultedfromtheregionaldifferencesineuphemism.1.2.3IndirectandimplicitThemostimportantfeatureofeuphemismisindirectandimplicit.Thepurposeofeuphemismistousesomeindirectexpressionstoavoidsomethingthatmakespeopleunhappy.Andthisistheindirectcharacter.Euphemismalwaysgivespeoplehintsinaroundaboutway.Wecaninferthedeepermeaningandintentionfromtheconversation.Forexample:

--“Don’tyouthinkmycookingiswonderful?

”Thegirlasked.--“Areyoufishingforcompliments.”Herboyfriendresponded.Intheconversationabove,theboyfriendnotonlyansweredthegirlimplicitly,anddidnotembarrasshisgirlfriend.Similarly,whensomeoneisill,wealwayssayheisundertheweather.Ifsomeoneismad,wesayheissoftinmind.1.2.4UniversalityUniversalityissomethingthatiswell-knownandacceptedbyallofthehumanbeings.Euphemismalmostexistsineverylanguageandculture.Andeachlanguagehasitsownta