英语专业毕业论文浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异.docx

1、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 Contents AcknowledgementsI English Abstract. II Chinese Abstract.III Chapter1 Introduction. 1 1.1The definition of euphemism. 1 1.2The features of euphemism.2 1.2.1National characteristic2 1.2.2Regional feature.2 1.2.3Indirect an

2、d Implicit3 1.2.4Universality3 1.2.5Humor.3 1.2.6Vagueness.4 Chapter 2 Euphemism, Language and Culture5 2.1The definition of culture5 2.2Language and culture6 2.3Euphemism and culture6 Chapter 3 A Comparison About English and Chinese Euphemism8 3.1Euphemisms for death8 3.2Euphemisms for old age.9 3.

3、3Euphemisms for poverty.10 3.4Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy11 3.5Euphemisms for disease12 Chapter4 Conclusion14 References15 Acknowledgements This thesis is a result of contributions from many supporting individuals. During the process of writing, I have received various kinds of help from m

4、any 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 li

5、fe, 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 instruc

6、tions, 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 sour

7、ces 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

8、my future life. Thank you again, my supervisor, my classmates and my teachers. Abstract One 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 ar

9、e 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. Euphemis

10、m 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 intr

11、oduces 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 dise

12、ase. 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。

13、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

14、别 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The definition of Euphemism Verbal 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 embarrass

15、ing 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 litera

16、lly 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 t

17、hrough 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) (

18、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-Chin

19、ese 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

20、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 impli

21、cit 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 spe

22、ech “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 Euphemism 1.2.1 National characteristic Euphemism is a common language phenomenon in the world culture. However, different countri

23、es 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 characteris

24、tic. 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 need

25、y, 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

26、 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 feature Different regions have different customs,

27、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 coupl

28、e 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

29、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 implicit The most important feature of euphemism is indirect and implicit. The purpose of euphemism is to use some indirect express

30、ions 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 fishi

31、ng 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 Universality Universality 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 ta