英语毕业论文A-Comparison-on-Pragmatic-Functions-of-English-and-Chinese-Euphemism.doc

A Comparison on Pragmatic Functions of English and Chinese Euphemism

Abstract: Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. The term comes from the Greek eu, meaning "well" or "sounding good,” and pheme, “speech." Euphemism plays an important role in our daily communication. From the day it came into existence, euphemism has been functioning to lubricate our communication, help establish a good relationship between human beings and even strengthen social stability. Many linguists and scholars have studied this linguistic phenomenon from the perspectives of rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguists. As a result, achievements in the study of euphemism have been conspicuous. Thus, on the basis of others’ researches, this thesis attempts to do an analysis of pragmatic functions of English and Chinese euphemisms by comparatively analyzing their linguistic and cultural characteristics.
Key words: euphemism; cultural connotation; pragmatic function; communication

1. Introduction

1.1.  Language Variations: Euphemism

In the beginning was the word. There followed, at an undetermined but one assumes decent interval, private, harsh, and dirty words. Invention here being the mother of necessity, the need for euphemism arose. (Epstein 1985). In every society there are certain things that are not supposed to be spoken or mentioned directly. A fair number of words are labeled as frivolous, vulgar, or at least inconsiderate. But in communication, for better maintaining social relationship and exchanging ideas, people have to resort to a kind of language, which can make distasteful ideas seem acceptable or even desirable. This type of language is defined as “euphemism” in linguistics and it comes in a variety of forms and is used for a variety of reasons.
Unlike other figurative language devices, for example, the metaphor of poetry or prose, euphemism aims to surprise and entertain (Lee, 1966), strives to avoid offence by means of circumlocution. As a communicative skill—“telling it like it isn’t,” (Time, 1978), euphemism abounds in our life. Euphemisms are powerful linguistic devices which “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken, ever get through a day without using them.” (Rawson 1981)

1.2.  Definition

No doubt, euphemism is a widely and frequently used figure of speech. As a hot research issue in the field of linguistics, it needs a concise and definite criterion to judge the scope of euphemism.

1.2.1.      English Euphemism

Western linguists think the word “euphemism” comes from the Greek “eu”( meaning “good”) and “pheme”(meaning “speech” or “saying”), and thus it literally means “to speak with good words”. Later on, euphemism is defined differently and more precisely. Some of the definitions are listed below:
(1) That figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasant associations, instead of the harsher or more offensive one that would more precisely designate what is intended. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)
(2) The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted. (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1996)
(3) Euphemizing is generally defined as substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words.(Enright D.J., 1985)
(4) Word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming. (Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, Shanghai Foreign Languages Publishing House, 2000)
(5) Used as an alternative to a preferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or through giving offences, that of the audience, or of some third party. (Allen, K. and Burridge, K., 1991)
As traditional western linguistics restricts euphemism study to the lexicon, euphemisms are, therefore, words or phrases in place of things considered to be rude or unpleasant.
Given from the perspective of rhetoric, all the above definitions are determined in a narrow sense. Many linguists think that the definition of euphemism needs to be framed in a broad sense. American linguist, Bolinger Dwight once pointed out: “Euphemism is not restricted to the lexicon; there are grammatical ways of toning something down without actually changing the content of the message.” Afterwards, the grammatical ways of forming euphemism such as negation, tense, voice, and mood and so on were carefully attended to.
（We deal next with clarifying the term "English euphemism" in this thesis. The term “native English speakers" includes people of many countries---Americans, Englishmen, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and others. Each of these belongs to a culture that is somewhat different from the others, in spite of their common language. Actually, even the language differs somewhat from country to country, although such differences may not be noticeable at first. For example, Lorries in England are called trucks in the U.S.; Americans say "You're welcome" in reply to "Thank you", whereas Englishmen would say "Not at all" or "Don't mention it" or "It's a pleasure". Since we cannot possibly cover all of the English-speaking peoples, the analysis regarding culture conducted in this paper will focus on American one. This is partly because of the political, economic and cultural position of the U.S. in the English-speaking world.）

1.2.2.      Chinese Euphemism

The Chinese equivalent for “euphemism” is “委婉”，“婉转”，or the most popular one “婉曲” containing “婉言” and “曲语”; “婉言” means “substituting an implicit expression for an explicit one” while “曲语” implies the original meaning through describing things relevant to it. Let’s compare:
(1) 我尝想：公文书里罢黜一个人的时候常用 “人地不宜”四字，总算是一个比较体面的下台的借口。（梁实秋《骆驼祥子》）
(2) 阿刘哑告诉，姓孙的那几个人打牌，声音太闹，给法国管事查到了，大吵其架，自己的饭碗也砸破了，等会就得卷铺盖下船。（钱钟书《围城》）
Example 1 falls into“婉言” ,using an implicit parlance to reduce the provocation. Example 2 belongs to“曲语” in Chinese, or “periphrasis” in English. So it is apparent here that “euphemism” in English and “委婉”in Chinese are similar in that both use mild, agreeable, roundabout expressions in place of coarse, painful, and offensive ones.
The various definitions of euphemism presented by Chinese scholars are similar to those given by westerners. Chen Wangdao (陈望道) was the first person who gave euphemism（in his words “婉曲”and “讳饰”）a definition. In his Introduction to Rhetoric (《修辞学发凡》)，the definition reads, “婉曲辞” means “to say something indirectly, but connoting and substituting it with roundabout and implicit words or even metaphorical expression.”(说话时不直白本意，只用委曲含蓄的话来烘托暗示的叫婉曲辞); Chen Wangdao says that when we speak of tabooed things, we do not “call a spade a spade”, but use pleasant expressions to cover them up is “讳饰辞格”(说话时遇有犯忌触讳的事物，便不直说该事该物 ，却用旁的话来装饰美化的，叫做讳饰辞格。)
At the beginning of the 1980s, Chen Yuan(陈原) defined euphemism from the social–cultural perspective, “Euphemism more or less originates from taboo…; euphemism is to use pleasant, implicit and less offensive words…to substitute the language taboo.” The definition put forward by Chen Yuan combines the euphemism (婉曲辞) with taboo words (讳饰辞格) and reveals the direct relation between euphemism and taboo, which has been accepted by Chinese linguists.
Though scholars at home and abroad have defined euphemism differently from different perspectives, the above-mentioned definitions share some features:
(1) The purpose of using euphemisms is to avoid directly speaking out the unpleasant or taboo reference like death, the dead, the supernatural, etc.
(2) Euphemism is a kind of polite and roundabout mode of expression.
(3) Euphemism is used to soften or beautify the unpleasantness of reality.
. Comparison of English and Chinese Euphemism
       2.1. Comparison of Cultural Connotation
Language is an integral part of culture and it is the keystone of culture. Language is the primary tool that a culture uses to transmit its beliefs, values, and norms. Language provides a way for people to communicate with other members of their own culture or members from another culture. It also provides people a way of thinking. Social scientists maintain that without language, culture would not be possible.
On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. Language reflects culture. People value certain things and do them in a certain way. The language they use reflects what they do and value. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking (Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing, 1989). Language and culture are inseparably intertwined. According to Kramsch (2000), when language is used in communication, “It is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways”. Language and culture are closely related to each other. They interact with each other and the understanding of one requires the understanding of the other.
Euphemism is pervasive in our daily language. Euphemism, as a form of language, is also greatly influenced by culture. The culture of a people has an effect on people’s ways of avoiding taboos and their choice of euphemisms. Almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning directly, even when there is such a term in the language. When such a notion or thing has to be referred to, people will choose a different term or phrase that sounds better. Euphemism is a reflection of culture. Patrick Hartwell points out those euphemisms are a natural part of the social world of words and they tell us a good deal about the values of a culture. Euphemism changes with the development of a society. The tabooed subjects of a society and euphemisms employed to substitute them may vary from one culture to another or from one historical period to another within a single culture. Even people who come from the same culture in the same historical period may use euphemisms differently according to different social contexts.
Many English-speaking countries are composed of immigrants from different races. Their societies are called “melting pots”, which means different traditions and values can combine with each other in such pots, and everyone can have equal opportunities. In order to avoid the implication of racial discrimination, the word “race” is often replaced by “ethnic origin”. And for the same reason, “nigger” is replaced by “Negro”, “colored” and “black”. The case is quite different in China. Although there are so many nationalities in China, people unite together, despite their different customs. There is no racial discrimination; therefore, there is no need to use euphemisms with regard to race.
In English, people should try to avoid such topics as age, income, marital status and weight, while Chinese people can talk about this information in public (He Ziran, 1988). The differences of topics of conversation between English and Chinese are pointed out in “Western Manners” (College Core English, 1991). The subjects to be avoided are: bodily functions, or anything connected with the more private parts of the body, details of birth, details of unpleasant illness; income or salary of friends, or prices of their possessions; the age of the person one is talking with; personal questions or remarks, such as, “Why don’t you get married?” “I should think you would want to have some children”. Some of these are allowed in Chinese society, but they are all taboo in formal western society (Shao Hongzhi, 1997).
The westerners pay much attention to their privacy, which can be seen in such sayings as “A man’s home is his castle” and “Mind your own business.” Therefore, we should pay special attention to the issues concerning privacy during the cross-cultural communications.
Euphemism is a common phenomenon when people use language, which is not only a social language phenomenon, but it is also a cultural phenomenon. We all need to communicate in our daily life or in diplomacy. However, because of the difference of life habit or custom and the taboo of different culture, we must learn to use Euphemism to avoid embarrassment or unhappiness. Therefore, through linguistic facet, this paper tries to research into communicative function of English Euphemism in certain language condition by special examples. Only when can we know how to make use of Euphemism in different background and environment, we can use the proper Euphemism to minimize hurt to people and to achieve the purpose of effective communicative Euphemism reflects all kinds of social mentality and social communicative function. Euphemism is also widely used in every field, so it is good for us to study English and do effective multi-cultural intercommunication.

2.2. Comparison of the Basic Pragmatic Functions

2.2.1. Taboo Function

Euphemism originates from verbal taboo, and verbal taboo originates from religious superstition, which reflects the importance of social psychology in the origin of euphemism. Taboo and euphemism are two closely related cultural and linguistic phenomena of human society. We can’t talk about one without referring to the other.
Almost any of the cultures in the world has its own taboo. The word “taboo” is from Polynesian, meaning “sacred” or “accused”. And there are two aspects of verbal taboo: one is word–fetishism; the other is the forbidden use of language. In uncivilized and crude society, the primitives were often confronted with puzzling and threatening situations and phenomena, such as death and diseases. As they couldn’t understand and explain the extraordinary events and performance, success and failure, they worshiped, and even dreaded the supernatural. Such psychology leads to superstition, and then developed into Fetishism. The specific language was also defied, that is, Word Fetishism. Out of the worship of gods and ghosts, their names must be avoided. So their names became the earliest taboo words, and other words used to replace them became the earliest euphemisms. From the origin of euphemism, we can see that taboo is the first function of euphemism. Euphemism has been using for a long time, and it is closely related to taboo. In fact, euphemism dates back to the language taboo in the early period of human civilization. When people try to avoid and give up taboo words, they have to find another word to replace this vacancy at the same time. Hence, people created euphemism.”  
Though science and technology are highly developed today, the word “death” is the taboo words to all nations. Thus there are a lot of euphemisms related with it. “Such as pass away, answer the final c