A Cross-cultural Interpretation of Chinese and English Euphemisms20

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1、ACross-culturalInterpretationofChineseandEnglishEuphemisms—InterpersonalCultureandPsychologicalCultureAbstract:Euphemismtouchesuponallaspectsofsociallivesandplaysasignificantroleinpeople’scommunication.Manylinguistsathomeandabroadhavestudiedeuphemismfromtheaspectsofs

2、ociolinguistics,rhetoric,pragmaticsanddiscourseanalysis.Euphemismisnotonlyamatteroflanguagebutalsooneofculture.ThepresentthesisaimstomakeacomparativestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismsintermsofculture,especiallyinterpersonalcultureandpsychologicalculture.Keywords:euph

3、emism,comparativestudy,interpersonalculture,psychologicalculture摘要：委婉语涉及到社会生活的方方面面，在人们的交流中扮演着重要的角色。国内外语言学家从社会语言学、修辞学、语用学及话语分析等角度对委婉语进行了研究。委婉语既是一种语言现象，更是一种文化现象。为了在跨文化交际中成功应用委婉语，本文拟从文化层面，主要从人际文化和心理文化层面分析中英委婉语相似与相异的表现形式,总结这些表现形式背后的文化成因。关键词：委婉语，比较研究，人际文化，心理文化Introduction

4、Euphemismisalong-standinglinguisticandculturalphenomenoninbothEnglish-speakingcountriesandChinaandplaysanimportantpartinpeople’scommunication.Everysociety,everysocialclasshaseuphemismsoftheirown.Enright(1985:29)pointsout“alanguagewithouteuphemismswouldbeadefectiveins

5、trumentofcommunication”.HughRawson(1981:73)alsoaffirms“euphemismsareembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatfewofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesonbeingplain-spoken,cangetthroughadaywithoutusingthem”.Manyscholarsathomeandabroadhavemadedetailedstudiesofeuphemismfromdifferentas

6、pects.Basedontheirachievements,thepresentthesisattemptstomakeacross-culturalcomparativestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismsintermsofculture,especiallyinterpersonalcultureandpsychologicalculture.1.Literaturereviewofeuphemism1.1DefinitionofeuphemismEuphemismisawidelyandf

7、requentlyusedfigureofspeech,andtherehavebeenvariousdefinitionsofitsofar.Theword“euphemism”originatesfromGreek.Theprefix“eu-”means“wellorgood”andthestem“-pheme-”represents“speechorsaying”.Thustheliteralmeaning12ofthewordis“tospeakwithgoodwordsorinapleasantmanner”.Late

8、ron,euphemismisdefinedmoreandmoreprecisely.IntheneweditionofTheOxfordConciseDictionary,itisdescribedas“substitutionofmildorvagueorr