资源描述：
《英汉委婉语文化内涵比较10》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。
1、ⅠIntroductionEuphemismisacommonlinguisticphenomenonindifferentcultures.Fromthemomentitiscreated,itplaysanimportantroleinpeople'sdailycommunication.Theyareembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatmostofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesonbeingplainspoken,nevergetthroughadaywithoutusingthem.Likeakindo
2、flubrication,itenablespeopletoexpresswhatcan'tbeuttereddirectly.AsRobertBurchfieldwroteinhisbookFairofSpeech:TheUsesofEuphemism,"alanguagewithouteuphemismswouldbeadefectiveinstrumentofcommunication".Rawsonhasalsopointsoutthat"Tosomeextent,actually,euphemismsaresociety'sbasiccommonlanguag
3、e".However,thislanguagephenomenonisoftenneglectedbyus.Untiltodaytheeuphemismstudiesareveryfewandmostofthesestudiesareconfinedtoindividuallanguage,andthereisashortageofcontrastiveresearchbetweenlanguages.Tounveiltheuniversalandpeculiarfeaturesofeuphemismsandtobetterunderstandeuphemisminap
4、articularlanguage,acontrastivestudyisamust.ThisthesismakesacontrastivestudyofEnglishandChineseeuphemismwithanattempttoexploreanddemonstratethedifferencesandsimilaritiesbetweenthetwolinguisticphenomenoninthehopeofenlighteningandguidingEnglishlearnersabitintheirlanguagelearning,translation
5、studies,cross-culturalcommunication,etc.1.1TheoriginofeuphemismWhentalkingabouteuphemisms,wecan'tneglect"taboo".Inancienttimes,productivitywasinaverylowlevel,theprimitiveswereoftenconfrontedwithbafflingandthreateningsituationsandphenomena,suchasdeath,andtheyfailedtounderstandtheessenceof
6、them.Tofindawayout,theybecamesuperstitiousaboutsupernaturalpower,ortheexistenceofdevilsandgods.Intheirmind,everythingwasalivewithspirit,capableofbringingdownblessingsandmisfortunes,andthuslanguagetookuponakindofsupernaturalsense.Thisledtotheforbiddenuseofcertainlanguagethatgraduallybecam
7、etaboo.Whenpeopleareunwillingtoor15darenotspeakoutsomethingregardedastaboo,theyhavetoshunthembyusingmildsubstitutes,toimplythosethingswhichpeoplearereluctanttomentionandtopromptsomethingbothspeakerandlistenerknowbutrefusetosayoutbydirectexpressions.Tothethingsthathavetobe
