Comparison between English and Chinese Euphemism

460 Words2 Pages
Contents Abstract and Keywords 1 1. Introduction 2 2. Different Definitions of Chinese and English Euphemism 2 3. Three Principles 2 3.1 Cooperative Principle (abbreviated CP) 2 3.2 Face Principle 3 3.3 Polite Principle 3 4. Communicative Functions 3 4.1 Evasive Function 3 4.1.1 Euphemism of Reproduction 4 4.1.2 Euphemism of Aging 4 4.1.3 Euphemism of Disease 5 4.1.4 Euphemism of Death 5 4.1.5 Euphemism of Sex 6 4.2 Politeness Function 7 4.3 Cosmetic FunctionConcealment of Truth 8 5. Conclusion 8 Acknowledgements 10 Bibliography 11 Abstract Euphemism is not only a common language phenomenon for various languages but a cultural one that can evade mistakes and contradiction and correspond with two participants (two speakers in conversation). This paper focuses on the three communicative functions for comparing English euphemism with Chinese euphemism. That could make people know more about the cultures from China to English speaking countries and improve the relationship between them. Keywords: euphemism; communicative functions 1.Introduction Euphemism means a pleasant, polite or harmless sounding word or expression to mask harsh, rude or infamous truths. (Shi Lei, 2006)That is to say people take some measures to express some words which are hard to say directly or rude in a roundabout way so that they can achieve an ideal communicative result or an individual purpose, and this kind of expression is called euphemism. As people should obey some principles and theories in order to ensure a successful conversation, we have to speak of the Cooperative Principle consisting of four maxims. However, people often violate it during communication for protecting one’s face or avoiding embarrassment or humiliation, here must be referred to the face principle from Brown &Levinson and the Polite Principle presented by Leech. With

More about Comparison between English and Chinese Euphemism

Open Document