ComparisonofEnglishandChineseEuphemism(1)

ComparisonofEnglishandChineseEuphemis

Science&TechnologyVision

外语论坛

科技视界

2012年8月第23期

ComparisonofEnglishandChineseEuphemism

陈佳瑜

李雯雯

浙江

绍兴

（浙江越秀外国语学院英语学院

312000）

【Abstract】Languageisanessentialtoolforhumancommunication,andeuphemismisquiteimportantwhenuselanguage.This

paperattemptstoanalysisthesameanddifferentaspectsbetweenEnglishandChineseeuphemism,andtrytohelppeopletocom-municatemorefreelyunderdifferentcultures.

【Keywords】Euphemism；Difference；Culture

0Introduction

Euphemismisawaytouseindirectwordsorphrasestoin-

communicationisthemostimportantmeansbywhichpeoplemaintaintheirsocialrelationship.Thougheverynationhastheirowncharacteristiconpolitics,economyandculture,theirmindabouttabooisthesame.Duringtheircommunication,ingdirectanddefinitelanguagetotalkaboutunpleasantnesswillundoubtedlydispleasebothsidesandpossiblyaffecttheirrelationship.Undersuchconditions,theuseofeuphemismmaybethebestway.Peopleuseeuphemismismainlybasedonthreeaspects,theyareavoidingtaboo,showingpolitenessandconcealingtruth.Eu-phemismismorethanarhetoricaldevice.It’sacommunicativemeans.Itisasocialneedorevenasocialpressurewehavetogiveinto.Incommunicationwithothers,wecanuseeu-phemismtohelppeopleformapositivecommunicativeatmo-spheretoestablishharmonioussocialrelationshipsandeventu-allytoachievethecommunicationgoals.

steadofdirectonestomakethewordsorphrasesmoreaccept-able.

Euphemismhasthehistoryofathousandyearsofevolutionandwidelybeenusedinvariousfieldsofsociallife,reflectingthecustomandpeople’svaluesoftwoculturesinsomedegree.BothEnglishandChineseeuphemismhassimilaritiesintherangeofuseandcommunicativefunctionofeuphemism,butbecauseofthedifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseculturalvalues,therearestillsomedifferencesinformationandcultureofEng-lishandChineseeuphemism.Thispaperstudiesthesimilarityandindividualityofeuphemismthroughthecontrastandanalysisabouttheseaspectsanddiscussestherightwaytotranslatethee-uphemismtoknowhowtoproperlyhandletheseeuphemisms.

1TheSamePointsofEnglishandChineseE-

uphemism

1.1

Rangeofuse

Withthedevelopmentofthesociety,euphemismhasperme-atedintovariousfields.Chinaandwesterncountrieshavetheirowncharacterandnationalcustomsintermsoftaboos.But,stilltherearesomesameareasoftaboosexistinginthetwosocieties,becomingthecommonuseareas.Forexample,theEnglishandChineseEuphemismsbotharecloselyrelatedtothedeath,preg-nancy,disease,occupation,crime,sexandexcretionetc.1.2Communicativefunctionsofeuphemism

nguage

2DifferencesBetweenChineseandEnglishE-

uphemism

Asfaraslinguisticpatternsofformingeuphemismareconcerned,EnglisheuphemismandChineseeuphemismnoton-lysharesomeincommonbutalsohavetheirrespectivemeans.EnglishbelongstotheIndo-EuropeanandChineseisaSino-Tibetan.Thedifferenceisverybig.

Ononehand,youcancomparetheformationoftheEng-lishandChineseeuphemismfromphoneticdevice,lexicalde-vice,rhetoricaldeviceandrhetoricaldevice.

Onanotherhand,thedifferencesinEnglishandChinesee-uphemismismainlybecausetheculture.Differentcultureshave

作者简介：陈佳瑜，女，汉族，浙江杭州人，浙江越秀外国语学院英语学院0903班学生。

指导老师：李雯雯，女，汉族，浙江人，于浙江越秀外国语学院从事英语教学工作多年，浙江师范大学硕士学位，讲师，研究方向是英语教育教学。

SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGYVISION科技视界205

ComparisonofEnglishandChineseEuphemis

Science&TechnologyVision

2012年8月第23期

科技视界

外语论坛

differentreligions,practicesanddifferentconnotations.Eu-phemismisrelatedtotheculture.Differentculturesshowdiffer-entattitudestowardsthesamething,whichisdeep-rootedinacountry’sculturalenvironment,havinganinherentassociationwiththecountry’shistory,customs,values,nationalcharacter,etc.,andsuggestingthebasiccharacteristicsofacultureinacomprehensivemanner.Theculturalcharacteristicsofeu-phemismremindusthatacertainfamiliaritywiththeculturalbackgroundofeuphemismsisessentialtothedecodingofeu-phemism.

Societyisdevelopingandchangingconstantly,soislan-guage.Asacommonlanguagephenomenon,euphemismisalsochangingcontinually.Thefastspeedofmetabolismcompelsustotakethedynamicfeatureofeuphemismsintoconsideration.ThroughthestudyaboutthecomparisonofEnglishandChineseeuphemism,wecanlearnaboutlotsofbothsimilaritiesandpe-culiaritiesofthetwolanguages,eventwoculture,whichisvalu-ableandguidancetoourforeignlanguagelearningandcross-culturalcommunication.S

【Bibliography】

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3Conclusion

Euphemismasacommunicativetoolisappliedeverywhere

OxfordUniversityPress，1985.

［2］nguageandCulture[M].Shanghai:ShanghaiForeign

inallhumansocietiesandusedinallhumaninteractions.Fromtheaboveanalysis,wecanseethattheEnglishandChinesee-uphemismhavemanysimilarities.Afterall,bothEnglishandChinesehavedifferentculturalbackground,historyanddevel-opment.Theexpressionofeuphemismformandculturalconno-tationarealsovarying.Euphemismhasbeenanaturalpartofthesocialfieldwhichreflectshumanityandtellsusthevalueofculture.Duetotheculturaldifferencesbetweenthedifferentso-cieties,euphemismmayleadtocross-culturalbarriers.There-fore,itisessentialtoknowtheproperwaystousetheeu-phemismsinsocialcommunication.

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［3］Liszka.J.J.EuphemismasTransvaluation[M].LanguageandStyle,1990.［4］Neaman.JS.andSilver.C.G.KindWords:AThesaurusofEu-

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［5］邓炎昌,刘润清.语言与文化[M].外语教学与研究出版社，1998.［6］潘敏.英汉委婉语的对比分析[J].淮阴工学院学报，2004.

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