The Comparison between English and Chinese Taboos 英语(毕业论文).docVIP

The Comparison between English and Chinese Taboos Abstract: With the development of economic globalization, the needs of Intercultural Communication have been increased. As we all know, languages have tight connection with cultures, people with different culture backgrounds will run into kinds of problems, misunderstanding and collision. To solve the problem, many linguists have done a lot research. A great quantity shows that language is part of the culture and is also the carrier of culture, the use of language reflect the connotation of the culture. Language can’t express the deep and comprehensive meanings without culture backgrounds, social culture context and communicative context. Taboo exists in each culture as a special language phenomenon, there are huge differences of Taboo words among the different cultures and people seem offensive without knowing the taboo in other people’s language. So, the research and study become significant. This paper will focus on the difference between English and Chinese taboos, aiming at improving the sense of culture and improve the ability of intercultural communication. Key words: Intercultural Communication Taboo 1. Etymology The term taboo comes from the Tongan tabu, related to the Maori tapu. Its English use dates to 1777 when the British explorer James Cook visited Tonga (Encyclop?dia Britannica Online 2012). Its Chinese use dates from ancient times. In the Book of Rites ,taboo was mentioned a lot of times, we can infer that ancient Chinese take taboo as important custom .The book was published in western Han dynasty, lasting from 206 BC to 24 AD. A taboo is a strong prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for common people to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment, which almost exists in each culture as a special language phenomenon. 2 .Purpose and Significance The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of taboo words and