A Discussion of English and Chinese Linguistic Taboo 浅析中英语言禁忌.doc

A Discussion of English and Chinese Linguistic Taboo 浅析中英语言禁忌 专业： 姓名： 学号： Abstract Language, as the carrier of culture, is created during the process of human beings’ productive labor and serves as the tool of communication to convey the message between people. However, it has been endowed with magic and power in particular language acts. As the old saying goes, troubles come out of the tongue. Superstitious people think that the language itself can bring about fortune or misfortune so that taboos to restrict the use of language are created. Anyone who violates them will get punishment, whereas those who faithfully obey the restrictions of language taboo will get protection. Furthermore, linguistic taboos change with the development of society .The paper firstly analyzes the evolution of linguistic taboo. Secondly, it is indicated in the paper that linguistic taboo exists in almost every aspect of people’s life and is a universal social phenomenon in China and Britain. Both Chinese and English cultures are in agreement about linguistic taboos such as pronunciation taboo, and vocabulary taboo. However, influenced by different cultural backgrounds, ideologies and the concepts of value, Chinese and English linguistic taboos also have differences, as is discussed in the paper from the aspects of taboo subjects, taboo numbers and names. At last, this paper puts forward two effective ways of avoiding taboo, that is, using euphemism and having a good knowledge of the taboo culture. And this discussion would help English learners improve their ability of cross-cultural communication and achieve better communicational effects. Key Words ：linguistic taboo; evolution; similarities; differences i 摘 要 语言是人们在活动过程中产生和发展起来的一种社交工具，其功能就是沟通信息，但在特定的语言行为中，却被赋予了它自身所没有的超人的感觉和超人的力量。社会成员竟认为语言本身能给人类带来某种吉祥或不幸，人为地设置了种种语言禁区。他们相信谁要是违背这些语言禁忌，谁就会受到应有的惩罚。反之，谁要是忠实遵循了语言禁忌的约束，谁就会得到相应的庇护和保佑。语言禁忌会随着社会的发展而变化。本论文首先论述了语言禁忌的演变，接着提出语言禁忌存在于人们生活的各个方面，是一种普遍存在的社会现象。在汉英两种语言中，有些忌讳是一致的。文中分析了中英语言禁忌在语音层面、词汇方面的相似性。