论英汉委婉语在表达方便的不尽相同 [2]
论文作者:英语论文网论文属性:职称论文 Scholarship Papers登出时间:2012-03-23编辑:shayne fan点击率:10015
论文字数:4709论文编号:org201203231523324835语种:英语 English地区:英国价格:免费论文
关键词:euphemismtabooreligiondeathname-addressing Contents
摘要:委婉语是一种不明说的,能使人感到愉快或者含糊的说法,代替具有令人不悦或不够尊重的表达方法.它既是一种修辞手法,也是一种语言现象,委婉语的英文说法来自希腊,意为好的说法。
n of euphemisms. A euphemism is a word or phrase that replaces a taboo word, or that is used in the attempt to avoid either fearful or unpleasant subjects” (Fromkin, 1983 : 256 ). Indeed, the appearance of euphemism results from many fearful things, most of them concerning belief and religion. In old times, people lived in a very low level, so they failed to understand the essence of some natural phenomena, they became superstitious about supernatural even natural powers, or the existence of devils and gods they were too fearful to mention objects related to devils of gods. “when people were unwilling to or dare not say something unpleasant, they had to shun them by using pleasant wordings, to imply something others were reluctant to mention by metaphors (Summers, D & gadsby, A 1998:243),” and to prompt something both speakers and listeners knew but refused to say by indirect expressions, thus creating a lot of euphemisms which last up to date.
The fact that the euphemisms used by a certain community is closely related to its culture causes difficulties in cross-cultural communication. This is particularly so in the case of communication between Chinese and English-speaking people when euphemisms concerning religion are used because of the different religious background in Chinese and Western countries.
Therefore, this paper will make a comparative study of English and Chinese euphemisms in religion in order to help those who use English and /or Chinese in cross-cultural communication to avoid misunderstanding and embarrassment caused by cultural difference.
2 English euphemism in Religion
2.1 Euphemism for Death
Most English and American people believe in Christianity and Christian creeds become the ethical rules abided by the western society. English euphemisms for "death "largely come from the Bible or her legends and literary quotations involving,The Christians believe that all of them must be sent to be in front of God and their behaviors are judged by God at the last judge day(刘纯豹,19930:79-83). The Bible, most of which manifest Christian philosophy. The Christian tradition begins with the assumption that the world is real and meaningful because God created it. Human beings are significant because God created them in his image. God made men by earth ----"to return to dust ". Men were born guilty and should atone, so "to die "is "to pay the debt of nature ". God is the master of all creatures, and men are bound to "be called to God or to answer the final summons "and "hand in their accounts or be sent to their account "pending "the last judgment "made by God. Therefore, men are required to follow a virtuous path to "pay Charon "and "cross the River Styx", and then "pay Saint Peter a visit and”, "go to the Heaven "and finally are able to "be asleep in the Arms of God or “in Jesus” or to ‘lie in”Araham's bosom "and "be at peace ". In this way, men "go to his final reward. And "death "is only "to yield up the ghost ", whereas the ghost is “to launch into eternity ", and one can have "one's name inscribed in the Book of Life "(Rawson, H, 1981). Naturally as Christianity has the most followers in western countries, such euphemisms with religious color are widely accepted by people in the society.
2.2 Euphemism for Name-Addressing
Christianity's influence on English euphemism goes beyond "death ", using the words related
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