毕业设计从交际功能看英汉委婉语.docx

毕业设计从交际功能看英汉委婉语.docx

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毕业设计从交际功能看英汉委婉语

攀枝花学院本科毕业论文

从交际功能看英汉委婉语

学生姓名：

张晓艳

学生学号：

200410208155

院（系）：

外国语学院

年级专业：

2004级英语本科3班

指导教师：

冯霞讲师

二〇〇八年五月

AComparativeAnalysisofEnglishandChineseEuphemismsfromthePerspectiveofCommunicationFunctions

ZhangXiaoyan

UndertheSupervisionof

FengXia

SchoolofForeignLanguagesandCultures

PanzhihuaUniversity

May2008

Contents

Abstract.......……..…........……........……………………………...…………..………I

KeyWords…………………………………………………………………………...I

摘要..........………….…………………….…………...………………………..…........Ⅱ

关键词…….….…..…….….…..…………………………………………………….….....Ⅱ

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….……...1

I.TheFunctionofTaboos…...............................…………………….…..…………....3

A.TheEuphemismofDeath…...............................................................................3

B.TheEuphemismofDisease……………………..………………………….….5II.TheFunctionofAvoidanceofVulgarity…………………………..............6

A.TheEuphemismofSex……………………….………………………………..6

B.TheEuphemismofthePartsofBody………………………..............................7

C.TheEuphemismofExcreta………………………………......................7

D.TheEuphemismofMarriageandPregnancy……………………...................8III.TheFunctionofPoliteness................................................................................…...9

A.TheEuphemismofBeingOld..........................................…………………..….9

B.TheEuphemismofHandicapped........................................................…...……10

C.TheEuphemismofPoverty.........................................................……………...11

D.OtherEuphemisms：

dismissal，unemployment，appearance...........................12

Ⅳ.TheFunctionofConcealment………………………………….............................13

A.PoliticalEuphemism:

internationalsituation,diplomacy…………………......13

B.EconomicalEuphemism:

economiccrisis，tax,unemployment……...……….13

C.MartialEuphemism…………………………………………………………...14

Ⅴ.TheFunctionofCompliment……………………………………………….…...14

Conclusion……………………………………………………………….……….…..16

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………...17

Bibliography……………………………………………………………….…...…….18

Abstract

Euphemismisawidespreadlinguisticphenomenon,whichisnotonlyasociallanguagephenomenon,butitisalsoaculturalphenomenon.Itplaysanimportantroleineliminatingmisunderstandingorconflictsamongpeople，andharmonizinginterpersonalrelationship.ThisthesismakesacontrastivestudyoftheEnglishandChineseeuphemismtodiscoverthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenthem.Itdiscusseseuphemismsmainlyfromtheperspectiveofcommunicationfunctionsincludingfunctionoftaboos,functionofavoidanceofvulgarity,functionofpoliteness,functionofconcealment,andfunctionofcompliment,whichareofconsiderablevalueandguidancetoourforeignlanguagelearningandteaching,interculturalcommunication,translation,dictionarycompilationandsoon.

KeyWords

Euphemism;taboo;politeness;concealment;compliment

摘要

委婉语的创造和使用是人类语言中的一种普遍的现象。

它不仅是一种社会语言现象，更是一种文化现象。

它具有消除误解和摩擦，协调社会人际关系的重要作用。

本文试从交际功能角度，即避讳功能、避俗功能、礼貌功能、掩饰功能、褒扬功能五大方面入手对英汉委婉语进行比较研究，通过英汉委婉语的对比，我们可以了解两种语言以及中西方两种文化的共性和个性，这对外语学习与教学、跨文化交际、翻译、词典编纂等具有较大的指导意义。

关键词

委婉语；避讳功能；避俗功能；礼貌功能；掩饰功能；褒扬功能

Introduction

Euphemismisacommonlinguisticphenomenonindifferentcultures.Fromthemomentitiscoined,itplaysanimportantroleinpeople’sdailycommunication.Theyareembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatmostofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesinbeingplainspoken,nevergetthroughadaywithoutusingthem.LikeRobertBurchfieldwroteinhisbookFairofSpeech:

TheUseofEuphemism,“alanguagewithouteuphemismswouldbeadefectiveinstrumentofcommunication”（126）.Theword“Euphemism”comesfromtheGreekeu,meaning“good”,andphene“speech”or“saying,”andthusmeansliterally“tospeakwithgoodwordsorinapleasantmanner”.Asakindoffigurativedevice,euphemismhasbeendefineddifferently.Euphemismsaremild,agreeable,orroundaboutwordsusedinplaceofcoarse,painful,oroffensiveone（Rawson,1）.InChina,ChenWangdaowasthefirstpersonwhogaveeuphemismadefinition,inhisIntroductiontoRhetoric,thedefinitionreads,“onekindoffiguresofspeech,sayingsomethingindirectly,butconnotingandsubstitutingwithroundaboutandimplicitwordsorevenmetaphorical”（56）.ThelimitationofthedefinitionofeuphemismisbrokendownbyafamousAmericanlinguistD.Bolingerwhopointsoutthat“Euphemismisnotrestrictedtothelexicon.Therearegrammaticalwaysoftoningsomethingdownwithoutactuallychangingthecontentofthemessage”（148）.Afterwards,thegrammaticalwaystoformeuphemismsuchasnegation,tense,moodandsoonhavebeenpaidattentionto.

Euphemismcanbeclassifiedintomanytypesfromdifferentangles.AccordingtoHughRawson,euphemismcanbedividedintotwotypes:

thepositiveandthenegativefromtheangleofsemantics.Euphemismalsocanbedividedinto“unconsciouseuphemism”and“consciouseuphemism”（Rawson,3）.Accordingtotheircontents,Euphemismscanbeclassifiedas“euphemismofdisease,euphemismofdeathandsoon”.

Thoughmuchinkhasbeenspilledoneuphemism,theyarestudiedindisciplinessuchassociology,anthropology,sociolinguistics,pragmaticsanddiscourseanalysisby

bothlinguistsathomeandabroadandsofarthereisashortageofcontrastiveresearchbetweenlanguages.Tounveiltheuniversalandpeculiarfeaturesofeuphemismsandtobetterunderstandeuphemisminaparticularlanguage,acontrastivestudyisamust.ThisthesismakesacontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismwithanattempttoexploreanddemonstratetheirdifferencesandsimilaritiesfromtheperspectiveofcommunicationfunctionsinthehopeofenhancinginterculturalcommunicationbetweencountriesandenlighteningandguidingEnglishlearnersabitintheirlanguagelearning,translationstudiesetc.

I.TheFunctionofTaboos

A.TheEuphemismofDeath

Becauseofthedreadofsomethingsandphenomenon,peopleareunwillingtospeakordarenottospeak,butsometimestheyhavetoexpressthismeaning,thustheylearntousetheeuphemism.Deathisthemostterribleeventtomosthumanbeings,whichmeanstheendofexistence.Asaconsequence,itisaforbiddenareainalmosteveryculture.However,peoplemustfaceitnomatterwhethertheylikeitornot.Toavoidmentiondirectlytheword“death”,whichprobablywillarouseunhappyfeelingandfrightenpeople,lotsofeuphemismsarecreatedtosubstituteforit.Somedeatheuphemismexpresscommendatorymeaning,suchas“tobeinheaven”,“tobewithGod”;someneutral,suchas“togo”,“todecease”;stillsomederogatory,suchas“tocrock”,“tokickthebucket”.Peoplearereluctanttoacceptthefactthatthedeadpersonshaveleftthisworldforever,andtheyemployvariousstrategiestoachievetheirgoal.Deathisjustlike“arest”orsomeotherformsof“non-consciousness”,sothedeadjust“closetheireyes”and“fallasleep”;deathis“ajourneyoraleavingfromlife”tosomespecifiedorunspecifiedplaces,sothedead“passaway”and“gotoabetterplace”orevenare“inthearmsofJesus”;deathisanimperativeinvitationfromtheauthoritiesintheafterlife,sothedead“receivethefinalsummons”andhaveto“answerthecall”;deathisalossforthosewhoknowthedead,sothedeadare“nolongerwithus”andare“sadlymissed”;deathisalsoanend,sothedead“breathetheirlast”andarenomore（LiuChunbao,173-174）.

DeatheuphemismsalsoaboundinChinese.Chinesedeatheuphemismaremorecomplicatedduetothedeepculturalconnotations,forinstance,deatheuphemismscanindicatenotonlypeople’sattitudestowardsthedead,butalsotheidentitiesofthedead.Generallyspeaking,whenthedeadarerespectableandthespeakerswanttoexpresstheirprofoundcondolence,theymayuse“逝世”（shìshì）whichliterallymeanstopassaway,“长眠”（chángmián）whichliterallymeansalongsleep,“牺牲”（xīshēng）.

whichliterallymeanstosacrificeoneself,whileifspeakersdislikethedead,theymightemployphraseslike“翘辫子”（qiàobiànzi）whichliterallymeanstobrailupward,“完蛋了”（wándànle）whichliterallymeanstobefinished,“蹬腿”（dēngtuǐ）whichliterallymeanstostretchone’sleg（ZhangGonggui,171-174）.ThereisrigidclassorderinfeudalChina.Allpeopleshouldspeakaccordingtotheirdifferentsocialranks.Differentlevelsofpoliticalofficialsspeakdifferently.Therefore,differentsocialranksusedifferentdeatheuphemisms.Deathofemperorsiscalled“崩”（bēng）,deathofdukes“薨”（hōng）,deathofseniorofficials“卒”（cù）,deathofscholars“不禄”（búlù）,deathofthecommon“死”（sǐ）（ZhangZhigong,163）.Differentdeatheuphemismsapplynotonlyfordifferentlevelsofofficials,butalsofordifferentages.Deathofbabiesisnamed“杏荡”（xìngshāng）;deathofyouth“夭”（yāo）;anddeathofseniorpeople“寿终”（shòuzhōng）（ZhangZhigong,163）.

MostpeopleinwesternsocietybelieveinChristianity.ChristianculturepenetratesintotheEnglishlanguage.ManyeuphemismsondeatharefromHolyBibleorChristianlegendsandallusionsandsomeofthemmanifestthephilosophyofChristianityanditsreligiousinterpretationofdeath.Forexample,justbecauseGodcreatedmenwithclayandmenarecreatedequal,“todie”iscalled“toreturntodust/earth”or“tobecalledtoGod”or“toanswerthefinalsummons”,or“tohandinone’saccounts/tobesenttoone’saccount”.ThedeadpeopleshouldreporttotheGodhiswholelifeandwaitfor“theLastJudgment”.Thereforehumanbeingsshoulddogooddeedsto“payCharon”whowillboathim“acrosstheRiverStyx”andthentheycan“gotoHeaven/Paradise”.

Differentfromthesingl