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1、AcontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemism英汉委婉语文化内涵比较ⅠIntroductionEuphemismisacommonlinguisticphenomenonindifferentcultures.Fromthemomentitiscreated,itplaysanimportantroleinpeople'sdailycommunication.Theyareembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatmostofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesonbeingplainspok
2、en,nevergetthroughadaywithoutusingthem.Likeakindoflubrication,itenablespeopletoexpresswhatcan'tbeuttereddirectly.AsRobertBurchfieldwroteinhisbookFairofSpeech:TheUsesofEuphemism,"alanguagewithouteuphemismswouldbeadefectiveinstrumentofcommunication".Rawsonhasalsopointsoutthat"Tosomeextent,actuall
3、y,euphemismsaresociety'sbasiccommonlanguage".However,thislanguagephenomenonisoftenneglectedbyus.Untiltodaytheeuphemismstudiesareveryfewandmostofthesestudiesareconfinedtoindividuallanguage,andthereisashortageofcontrastiveresearchbetweenlanguages.Tounveiltheuniversalandpeculiarfeaturesofeuphemism
4、sandtobetterunderstandeuphemisminaparticularlanguage,acontrastivestudyisamust.ThisthesismakesacontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismwithanattempttoexploreanddemonstratethedifferencesandsimilaritiesbetweenthetwolinguisticphenomenoninthehopeofenlighteningandguidingEnglishlearnersabitintheir
5、languagelearning,translationstudies,cross-culturalcommunication,etc.1.1TheoriginofeuphemismWhentalkingabouteuphemisms,wecan'tneglect"taboo".Inancienttimes,productivitywasinaverylowlevel,theprimitiveswereoftenconfrontedwithbafflingandthreateningsituationsandphenomena,suchasdeath,andtheyfailedtou
6、nderstandtheessenceofthem.Tofindawayout,theybecamesuperstitiousaboutsupernaturalpower,ortheexistenceofdevilsandgods.Intheirmind,everything15wasalivewithspirit,capableofbringingdownblessingsandmisfortunes,andthuslanguagetookuponakindofsupernaturalsense.Thisledtotheforbiddenuseofcertainlanguageth
7、atgraduallybecametaboo.Whenpeopleareunwillingtoordarenotspeakoutsomethingregardedastaboo,theyhavetoshunthembyusingmildsubstitutes,toimplythosethingswhichpeoplearereluctanttomentionandtopromptsomethingbothspeakerandlistenerknowbutr