A Comparison between Chinese and English Taboos(2)

numbers, either in nativity, chance or death. ”

C. Religion

Religion is a fertile field taboo terms. As I mentioned above, To English, in religion, black means grief and death. Black Friday, here Friday refers to the Friday before Easter day, Jesus was suffering at that day. Based on the nation s culture, background and traditional custom, people in English-Speaking countries use black Friday to symbolize the disaster. Another typical example is that Christian cannot refer to God or God s name. “The Ten Commandments forbid people to take the name of the Lord your God in vain . So it is considered very rude to say god dame or goddamned ”. The words such as “God,” “Jesus,” “damn” and “hell” etc, are considered holly and only properly used in religion. If they appear in daily communication, they will make people unpleasant and disgusted. So people always try to avoid using these taboo words directly. They would like to use their euphemisms “Gosh,” “Jeepers creepers,” “dash” and “heck”. Some people also avoid referring to the devil, which is considered disrespectful. So they use “the deuce”, “the dickens”, “old Nick” to substitute “the devil”. We can find similar examples in Chinese. In religion, people use some complimentary address to refer to awesome gods, e.g. “大帝”, “大圣”, “佛陀 (Buddha)”. Another example is that, tiger is regarded as the divine animal near the Changbai Mountain situated in the Northeast of our country. Therefore, there was the custom of “tiger is the god” in ancient times. People avoided calling the “tiger” directly and gave the tiger another name, “山君” or “山佛爷”.

In certain societies, words with religious connotations are considered profane if used outside of formal or religious ceremonies. In Western countries, some Christians believe that it is disrespectful for the misuse of God or God s name. Christians are forbidden to take the Lord s name in vain and this prohibition has been extended to the use of curses, which are believed to have magical powers.

Chinese is under the influence of Confucian virtue. The etiquette of Confucius and Mencius and Mencius requires appropriate language in social activities, not lie or talk nonsense.

Other taboos:

There are many other aspects of taboos between Chinese and English, like age, name, disease and death, etc. they are also very important. To understand them well will help our English major to know more about English. I will not list them one by one in this paper.

III. Conclusion

In short, by comparison, we can find that both Chinese and English taboos reflect people s psychology for good will, for safety and fortune and pleasantness. The Chinese and English people restrict their words and deeds through taboos, trying to keep a harmonious relationship between human and nature, or between people and society. They are a reflection of people s pursuit of freedom and equality. Therefore, it is of great significance to improve the cross-cultural communication capabilities by learning taboos. Taboo, as a part of the language, is closely influenced by culture, history and other issues. When person have conversation with a foreigner, grammatical mistakes tend to be more tolerant in their native voices. However, disobeying the rules of courtesy is considered to be not polite. Communicative ability not only includes language skills, listening, reading, writing, but also include culture communication. If we understand the differences of taboos between Chinese and English culture, language arts and the use of communication, we can resolve the misunderstanding and embarrassment and more easily communicate with each other. In fact, taboo is a cultural phenomenon of various nations in the world, but only the content and form are different. And it will be not only beneficial to the improvement of the quality of cultural attainment, but also more easily in communicating by comparing and analyzing the verbal words. People can not only promote mutual understanding, but also avoid unnecessary conflicting in different culture. However, communication receives setbacks or failures, because the gap between reality and aspiration is bound to the actual communication. Taboo, as a part of language, plays a significant role in the actual communication.

Hope that the discussion about taboos will help us improve our communicative competence and reduce miscommunications and conflicts in cross-culture communications.

Works Cited

Language and Culture 邓炎昌 刘润清 著

Hass M.R. Interlingual Word Taboos. London:Cambridge University Press,1951

S.I.Hayakawa. Language in Thought and Action. London:Penguin Book,1999

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周淑清. 禁忌语和委婉语[J]. 佛山大学学报, 1996,2.p72

庄和诚. 禁忌语词纵横谈[J]. 现代外语, 1991,3.p28