摘要委婉语不仅是一种社会语言现象，还是一种文化现象。它用一种更加礼貌的方式来表达那些令人不愉快或尴尬的谈话。死亡委婉语是委婉语中最典型也是重要的部分之一，反映了特定民族的历史、宗教、社会心理等诸多特点。本文通过对比分析英汉两种死亡委婉语的相似性和差异性，探讨了中西两国在价值观、社会风俗、封建文化以及宗教信仰方面的文化差异。旨在帮助读者了解与掌握死亡委婉语，提高其在跨文化交流中的交际能力，使其在跨文化交流中更加顺利。50345

毕业论文关键词: 委婉语；死亡；中西方文化

Abstract Euphemism is not only a socio-linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon, which is a more polite way when people talk about unpleasant and embarrassing things. Death euphemism is an important and typical component of euphemism, which emerges with particular cultural backgrounds and reflects the characteristics of history, religious, customs and social psychology, and many other aspects of a nation. Based on the analyses on similarities and differences of Chinese and Western death euphemism, this paper tries to explore the cultural differences of values, social customs, feudal culture and religious beliefs between the East and the West, so as to help readers learn death euphemism and then enhance their cross-cultural communicative competence, thus creating smoother communication.

Key words: euphemism; death; Chinese and Western culture 

On Cultural Differences of Chinese and Western Death Euphemism

Contents

摘 要 i

Abstract ii

I. Introduction 1

II. Euphemism and Death Euphemism 1

2.1 Definition of Euphemism 1

2.2 Causes of Death Euphemism 2

III. Similarities and Differences of Chinese and Western Death Euphemism 3

3.1 Similarities of Chinese and Western Death Euphemism 4

3.2 Differences of Chinese and Western Death Euphemism 5

IV. Cultural Differences Reflected by Chinese and Western Death Euphemism 7

4.1 Social Values 7

4.2 Social Customs 9

4.3 Feudal Culture 9

4.4 Religious Beliefs 10

V. Conclusion 12

Bibliography 13

Acknowledgments 14

I. Introduction 

“Without euphemism, the world comes to halt because of the frication and resentments would arise among people” (Enrich 12). With the development of the human society, euphemism plays an increasingly role in our daily life. Meanwhile, in any society, any culture, language taboos exist, and the most common, and the most typical taboo is probably “death”. Death euphemism is an important and typical component part of euphemism, which has a significant influence on people’s life. In1995, Enrich published his book, Fair of Speech, the use of Euphemism, in each paper, he just focused on a certain aspect of euphemism using. Neaman and Silver published Kind Words: A Thesaurus of Euphemisms, which has a significant reference value for euphemism learning. Because of the mystery and the fears of death, people are afraid or unwilling to talk about it. Therefore, death became a taboo topic of all mankind. The death euphemism also appeared in the national language. When each language came into being, it would be influenced and constrained by the culture, religion, moral values, customs, psychological and aesthetic interests of the nation and so on. Death euphemism has also given its historical and cultural background; it carries an abundance of cultural information through the particular perspective of death euphemism. Through it, we can get a glimpse of the psychological structure, ways of thinking, religion and culture, local culture, tradition accumulated aspect, social behavior and values criterion of a particular nation. So it’s necessary for us to study death euphemism. By comparing the similarities and differences of Chinese and Western death euphemisms, this paper will further explore the cultural differences of Chinese and Western countries.