资源描述：
《A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Euphemism》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、AContrastiveStudyofEnglishandChineseEuphemism1.IntroductionIneverysocietytherearecertainthingsthatarenotsupposedtobespeakableormentioneddirectly.Afairnumberofwordsarelabeledasfrivolous,vulgar,oratleastinconsiderate.Butincommunication,forbettermaintainingsocialrelationshipandexchangingideas,peopleha
2、vetoresorttoakindoflanguage,whichcanmakedistastefulideasseemacceptableorevendesirable.Thistypeoflanguageisdefinedas“euphemism”inlinguisticsanditcomesinavarietyofformsandisusedforavarietyofreasons.Unlikeotherfigurativelanguagedevices,forexample,themetaphorofpoetryorprose,euphemismaimstosurpriseanden
3、tertain,strivestoavoidoffencebymeansofcircumlocution.Asacommunicativeskill—“tellingitlikeitisn’t,”euphemismaboundsinourlife.Euphemismsarepowerfullinguisticdeviceswhich“areembeddedsodeeplyinourlanguagethatfewofus,eventhosewhopridethemselvesonbeingplainspoken,evergetthroughadaywithoutusingthem.”Euphe
4、mismshascloserelationshipswiththeculture，andittrulyreflectsthelifeandvaluesofpeopleandtheirhistory.Euphemismisaparticularlygoodmediumforaccesstotheforceoflanguagethathasprovidedaneffectiveapproachtounderstandthehumanmind.ThestudyofChineseandEnglisheuphemismcanhelpusunderstandtheChineseandwesterncul
5、turesandpromotetheinternationaldevelopment,becauseeuphemismiswidelyusedininternationalnegotiations,Sothereisagreatneedforustostudyeuphemism,especiallythecommunicativeprinciplesofEnglishandChineseeuphemism.Theeuphemismexistsrelativelytodirectspeech.Euphemismisthe“lubrication”oflinguisticcommunicatio
6、n.Asaresult,achievementsinthestudyofeuphemismhavebeenconspicuous.Thus,onthebasisofothers’researches,thisessaywilldoacomprehensiveanalysisofEnglisheuphemismsandChineseeuphemismsbyanalyzingtheirlinguisticandculturalcharacteristicscontrastively.2.DefinitionofEuphemism2.1.ThedefinitionofEnglisheuphemis
7、mTheword“euphemism”isderivedfromtheGreekword“euphemismos”,whichmeans“fairspeech”.Theprefix“eu”means“good,soundwell”andthe“phoneme”means“saying”or“speech”.Andthustheliteralmeaningof”euphemism”is“tospeakwithg
