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1、AContrastiveStudyofEnglishandChineseEuphemism1.IntroductionIneverysocietytherearecertainthingsthatarenotsupposedtobespeakableormentioneddirectly.Afairnumberofwordsarelabeledasfrivolous,vulgar,oratleastinconsiderate.Butincommunication,forbettermaintainingsocialrelationshipandexchangingideas,peopleh
2、avetoresorttoakindoflanguage,whichcanmakedistastefulideasseemacceptableorevendesirable.Thistypeoflanguageisdefinedas“euphemism”inlinguisticsanditcomesinavarietyofformsandisusedforavarietyofreasons.Unlikeotherfigurativelanguagedevices,forexample,themetaphorofpoetryorprose,euphemismaimstosurpriseand
3、entertain,strivestoavoidoffencebymeansofcircumlocution.Asacommunicativeskill—“tellingitlikeitisn’t,”euphemismaboundsinourlife.Euphemismsarepowerfullinguisticdeviceswhich“areembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatfewofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesonbeingplainspoken,evergetthroughadaywithoutusingthem.”Eu
4、phemismshascloserelationshipswiththeculture,andittrulyreflectsthelifeandvaluesofpeopleandtheirhistory.Euphemismisaparticularlygoodmediumforaccesstotheforceoflanguagethathasprovidedaneffectiveapproachtounderstandthehumanmind.ThestudyofChineseandEnglisheuphemismcanhelpusunderstandtheChineseandwester
5、nculturesandpromotetheinternationaldevelopment,becauseeuphemismiswidelyusedininternationalnegotiations,Sothereisagreatneedforustostudyeuphemism,especiallythecommunicativeprinciplesofEnglishandChineseeuphemism.Theeuphemismexistsrelativelytodirectspeech.Euphemismisthe“lubrication”oflinguisticcommuni
6、cation.Asaresult,achievementsinthestudyofeuphemismhavebeenconspicuous.Thus,onthebasisofothers’researches,thisessaywilldoacomprehensiveanalysisofEnglisheuphemismsandChineseeuphemismsbyanalyzingtheirlinguisticandculturalcharacteristicscontrastively.2.DefinitionofEuphemism2.1.ThedefinitionofEnglisheu
7、phemismTheword“euphemism”isderivedfromtheGreekword“euphemismos”,whichmeans“fairspeech”.Theprefix“eu”means“good,soundwell”andthe“phoneme”means“saying”or“speech”.Andthustheliteralmeaningof”euphemism”is“tospeakwithg