The Contrastive Studies on Language Taboo in English and Chinese.doc

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1、 中西语言禁忌语对比研究The Contrastive Studies on Language Taboo in English and ChineseContentsAbstract.1Key words.1.Introduction 11.1Literature Review.11.11Two Different Meanings of the Taboo.11.12The Danger of Touching the Taboo.21.13The Positive Sides and the Negative Sides of Taboo.3.The Origin of the Tabo

2、o.4.The Similarities and Differences in Taboo between English and Chinese.53.1The Similarities in Taboo between English and Chinese.53.1.1The Religion, Superstition and Worship-related Taboo.53.1.2The Illness and Death-related Taboo.63.1.3The Posture and Features-related Taboo.73.1.4The Numbers-rela

3、ted Taboo73.2The Differences in Taboo between English and Chinese.83.2.1The Names-related Taboo.83.2.2The Homophonic-related Taboo.93.2.3The Taboo-related Topics. 93.2.4The Animals-related Taboo.103.2.5The Age, Salary, Marriage and Meals-related Taboo.10.The Disadvantages and Development of Language

4、 Taboo.11 4.1The Disadvantages of Language Taboo.11 4.2The Development of Language Taboo.12.Conclusions.12References.13摘要：在英汉两种语言中，都存在着大量的语言禁忌现象。禁忌语的出现与社会习俗，宗教信仰，历史传统等密切关。为加深对中西文化与语言之间的认识，本文从文化角度对中西禁忌语的起源，范畴及异同作了初步的探讨与比较。关键词：文化; 语言禁忌; 异同Abstract: Language taboo is a common social-linguistic phenomen

5、on, which exists in every nation. It is area which a certain religion or custom regards it as something forbidden, not to be touched, spoken of, etc. This paper in a comparative way studies the taboo phenomenon both in Chinese language and English language. Also this paper studies a kind of rhetoric

6、 device, which is used to avoid taboo.Key words: culture; Language taboo; similarities and differences IntroductionWith the development of the economy and society, communication between countries is becoming more and more frequent. English, as a world language, plays a more and more important role i

7、n it. So we need to learn English well and study the culture behind it. For example, language taboo is a very kind of cultural phenomenon. It exists in every language. We can find it in English and Chinese. If we dont know about it, we will not be popular with the foreigners and to a great degree, o

8、ur communication effect will be affected. The taboo is changeable and related to the culture, so in different times and different culture, there exist different taboos. We Chinese also have our own language taboo. This thesis researches the origin of taboo, the similarities and differences of taboo

9、between English and Chinese, and the reason for the existence of language taboo. 1.1 Literature Review1.1.1 Two different meanings of the tabooSigmund Freud thinks, “Taboo has two different meanings. One meaning is sublime and sacred; the other meaning is mysterious, dangerous, banned, and unclean.

10、（Freud 1986）His opinion has been already accepted by all the researchers, it is also the base of translation works on taboo. Maybe he divides taboo into tow parts: Something which religion or custom regards as forbidden, not to be touched, spoken of; general agreement not to discuss something, do so

11、mething. We know that taboo exists in every period and everywhere, it is a complex phenomenon of peoples society and it also has a long history. Taboo exists in different periods, and people must obey it, once you offend it, the nature or people will punish you. No one can explain and demonstrate it

12、. All people respect it and believe in it, they consider it as gods, so it is “sublime”, “sacred”. There are many kinds of taboos in the world, in different time, in different countries, in different areas, among different races have different taboo. It is impossible for people to know them clearly

13、and totally, they just know the taboo in the certain time and in a certain area, if someone offended taboo; he would be punished and even be sentenced to death. If someone offended some taboo in a certain time and in a certain area, he will be looked down upon or be punished by people. 1.1.2 The dan

14、ger of touching the tabooErnst Cassirer thinks,“The danger of changing something into taboo is a physical danger, no matter our action is intentional or not intentional, the effect is same and it is not related to people. Generally speaking, taboo means something cannot be touched, and cannot be tou

15、ched hasty. But the purpose and the way you access it cannot be considered.” (Gan 1985) I dont think no matter our action is intentional or not, the effect of taboo is the same and it is not related to people. In ancient time, the nature or their leaders might punish people who offended the taboo. I

16、n primitive time, our ancestors had low intelligence and knew little about the nature, they tried their best to adapt themselves to living environment. In my opinion, taboo at that time means people cant touch something or eat something and anything else, or they will be injured, so we can say the t

17、aboo at that time is the experience which people summarized in a certain meaning. It helps them to improve their living ability, the taboo only affects their living condition, they obey it in order to lead a safe life, it is closed to people. In class society, the rulers decided what the taboo was.

18、In Chinese history, different dynasties had different taboo, people had no right to decide what the taboo was, they just follow their rulers, the rulers made taboo in order to be good to themselves in superstition field, for example, they didnt allow people to say or write their name and even the wo

19、rd has same pronunciation with a character in their names, who did it would be sentenced to death. In Qin Dynasty, many writers were sentenced to death because of using words which ruler banned, though we think it is ridiculous, it is a fact. But in some dynasties, rulers didnt mind people saying or

20、 using their names, so people at that time can do it freely and safely. So the taboo is decided by the rulers, there is no regular taboo in class societies, so taboos effect is different, not the same, it is also related to people. In modern society, taboo is passed by our ancestors, because the wor

21、ld has varieties of human cultures, taboo is different, and the difference mainly reflected in language, if you visited a foreign country or a race, you must know what is not to be said, or you would not be popular with local people and even cant stay there any more. Generally speaking, a person who

22、 offends taboo in modern society cant be sentenced to death. Above all, we can see that taboo is related closely to people and its effect is changeable in different time and in differentAreas.1.1.3The positive sides and the negative sides of tabooJames George Frazer，in his famous master piece The Go

23、lden Bough， says: “If some certain actions results are unpleasant and dangerous to him, he will naturally be careful and dont do things like that in order not to accept such results. In another word, he doesnt do things that will bring them disasters according to their misunderstandings on the relat

24、ionship between reason and result. In short, he makes himself obey the taboo, positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”, while negative witchcraft says”dont do it, avoid to something happening”.(James 1987). His opinion both has advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, he po

25、ints out that positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”. I agree with him, taboo is very mysterious to us, everyone wants to know if he offended taboo, what would be given, it is the curiosity effect, if the witchcraft tells us exactly and correctly, it is useful and valua

26、ble to us. His opinion both has advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, he points out that positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”. I agree with him, taboo is very mysterious to us, everyone wants to know if he offended taboo, what would be given, it is the curiosity effe

27、ct, if the witchcraft tells us exactly and correctly, it is useful and valuable to us. Then everyone can avoid disasters that brought from offending the taboo, but it is impossible to become true, witchcraft exists long time. In class society, the witchcraft has already come out, but still many peop

28、le got disasters even lost their lives. I believe that the witchcraft tells people what you do will bring to you what result, why still many people be injured? I also believe that people must be in deeply belief on witchcraft. Then, what is the reason causes such result? Furthermore, he says that “w

29、hile negative witchcraft says doesnt do it, avoid to something happening”. I dont think this sentence is negative. As we know, the world is changeable and complex, the world changes, the taboo changes. There are many different cultures in the world, so it surely has many different kinds of taboos, i

30、t impossible to know all of the taboo, we researchers can only know the especial examples, what about witchcraft in past period? I think scientific result is much more correct and exact than witchcrafts. The origin of the taboo Taboo is a cultural phenomenon, which exists in every countrys communica

31、tion. Taboo plays a very important role in the world culture; it is also a complex phenomenon of folk culture and has long history. In the international academic circles, the term “taboo” (taboo or tabu) is used to refer to this common and complex phenomenon of world culture; it was the local dialec

32、t of Tango islanders of Polynesia in south Pacific. It means “sacred” and “untouched”. It was brought in English by English navigator named Coke in eighteenth century. Every culture contains taboo in the world, and the taboos change depends on the periods change. （Wan 2001）In crossing-culture commun

33、ication, if we go against the language taboo, we will have bad result. In china, taboo also has a long history. In Shangzhou dynasty, taboo had already existed. In Qin Dynasty, taboo had further developed. In Tang dynasty, taboo had been very popular with people.In primitive time, people will be afr

34、aid and evade, when they face something that are strong and ferocious in nature. (Li 1989) For example, when the primitive people were attacked by snake and tigers for several times, they would remember such animals, and formed a fearful concept through memory and impression for several times, so th

35、ey would try their best to escape such animals in their daily lives. Primitive hunters felt nothing to do with the climate, when the climate isnt good; they would stay at homes and protected themselves from danger. Taboo in this time is in the rudimentary stage, while the real danger of taboo is ima

36、ginable. We can see that taboo for primitive people is an effective way they struggle with the nature. So we can say once there existed people, there existed taboo. Taboos existence is earlier than the ghosts and gods. The early taboo is related to the nature and material life, not related to the gh

37、osts and gods. But in the primitive time, in order to live, people should struggle with the nature; they would get some experience, which seems to be mysterious and horrible. The experience had mysterious and horrible strength that bound peoples behaviors. Primitive people considered the nature as a

38、 person who has feeling, emotion and so on, so the primitive ghosts and gods concept formed. The concept of ghosts and gods made the taboo much holy. So taboos consolidation and development are closed to the concept of ghosts and gods. The similarities and differences in taboo between English and Ch

39、ineseWith the development of the society we should communicate with each other in different countries, because the world is becoming smaller and smaller in the modern times. English is the world language, so we should use it to communicate with foreigners. If we go against language taboo, we wont be

40、 popular with the local people or make them feel angry and even make some violent action happen. So it is necessary for us English learners to know the language taboo of English, we are Chinese, so it is also necessary for us to know the language taboo of Chinese. Taboo is closed to the culture, so

41、different culture has different taboo, but there still have some differences and similarities of taboo between English and Chinese.3.1 The similarities in taboo between English and ChineseThough Chinese and English have different culture, they have something in the sense of taboo.3.1.1 The religion,

42、 superstition and worship-related tabooMost English believe in Christianity, so the name of Jehovah is language taboo. The English language researcher Leonard Bloomfield in his master piece language says, on general condition, people avoid using the religion words, for example, God Christ，Jesus，hell

43、，devil and so on. So they use golly，gosh instead of God，using the deuce，the dickens or old Vick instead of the Devil. Chinese adore more Gods, in primitive time, the worship of nature, the worship of Totem, the worship of ancestor, and later the worship of the religion. So the content and pattern of

44、 the taboo are complex and varied. In china, people who believe in Buddhism and Taoism avoid telling lies and wild talk. The Chinese affected deeply by the Confucius thoughts, the doctrine of Confucius and Mencius wore etiquette. It needs people to use proper language when they communicate with each

45、 other, not to tell lies and wild talk.Moreover，people also believe in “door-god”, “god of wealth”, “kitchen god” and so on. During the festivals people who buy god of wealth avoid saying “buy”, he should say “please”；the sellers avoid saying “sell”，they should say “deliver”，or they will blaspheme t

46、he gods. For example, when we are on boat, we cant say “turn over”, “sink”，or it will be unlucky. Some hunters of northern forests in China avoid saying “tiger”，they say “big insect” instead.3.1.2The illness and death-related tabooTo be ill is an unlucky thing, it will bring misery and discomfort to

47、 people. Chinese and English avoid illness, the patients dont want to mention it, and they also dont want the other people to mention it. When people talk about illness, in order to avoid upsetting and comfort people, people created some implicit ways of saying it. For example, to be ill (be out of

48、sorts), illness (disorder), apoplexy (accident), diarrhea (Mexican toothache).In ancient China, people didnt know the reason why people was ill, and affected by the Buddhism thoughts, once people are ill，they consider that people go against the ghosts and gods, or owed illness to the ghosts, the ances