跨文化交际背景下的中英文禁忌语对比研究---毕业论文.doc

【标题】跨文化交际背景下的中英文禁忌语对比研究 【作者】谢玲铃 【关键词】比较；英国禁忌语；中国禁忌语；跨文化交际 【指导老师】王 露 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionIn China, “入境而问禁；入国而问俗；入门而问讳” 1 have been a norm of behavior for thousands of yearsSimilarly, in west，“when in Rome，do as the Romans do”is also the norm of westernFor the purpose of successful intercultural communication, both east and west people all emphasize on the studying the knowledge of taboos. And linguistic taboo exists universally in almost all of the languages and culturesThe violation of linguistic taboo is regarded impolite and offensive，but people from different cultures do not all agree on what are linguistic taboos and what should be tabooedEven taboo in the same thing may have different implications，since people from different cultures have established different social customs and cultural orientationsIn intercultural communication，they may interpret each others  speech and behavior in accordance with their own beliefs and values and adopt different politeness strategies to achieve their goalsAt the same time，with the development of transportation, information technology  and the globalization of economy, communication between people from different cultures are increasingly frequent and extensiveIn this process，people are increasingly conscious of the existence of cultural diversity, and they gradually notice that differences produce great barriers to social or intercultural communication.Human tolerance and desire for communication do help to reduce these differences and enhance mutual understanding but there are still some aspects such as some taboos that are beyond peoples acceptability because of its sensitiveness，misunderstanding ,unhappiness，conflict or even disastrous consequences may occur due to the violation of certain taboosConsidering what have been mentioned above, when intercultural communication occurs more frequently and more extensively, a systematic study of linguistic taboos in intercultural communication becomes an imperativeMastering taboos knowledge in Chinese and English helps to cultivate intercultural competenceIt is particular conducive to the management of interpersonal and intercultural conflicts，and enables people to produce harmonious relationshipsAs James Thurber has said in The East and The West, “Precision of communication is important, more than ever, in an era of hair-trigger balances when a false or misunderstood word may create as much a disaster as a sudden thoughtless act”2II. Literature ReviewA. The Definitions and Features of TabooOxford English Dictionary defines taboo as：words likely to be considered offensive, shocking or indecent by certain people(though not necessarily by everyone)In Chinese taboo is regarded as the indelicate or dirty wordTaboo is explained by the Modern Chinese Dictionary as the prohibited words or actions. According to modern linguists Robinett，taboo is a principle or criterion erected by society, which can prevent people from bad actionAs Wardhaugh states：“taboo is one way in which a society expresses its disapproval of certain kinds of behavior believed to be harmful to its members，either for supernatural reasons or because such behavior is held to violate a moral code”. Generally speaking, taboo has about it a sense of something unapproachable，and it is principally expressed in prohibitions and restrictionsLinguistic taboo，as a common social cultural phenomenon in both east and west, exists objectivelyIt has three features as below1. Temporality With the development of the society, some linguistic taboos changed and some disappeared or lost their original meaningIn the Qing dynasty the poet Xu Jun(徐骏)was killed because his poem had“Qing清”in his poem“清风不识字，何事乱翻书”But he wouldnt be killed in other dynastiesThe poem“清明时节雨纷纷”is widely loved before Qing dynastyIn English, the word“women” was once a taboo in Victorian Age，It meant mistress and adultery wifeBut now, it lost its original meaning and became a common word2. EthnocentricityEvery ethnic group has its own cultural patternLinguistic taboo，as an ethnic phenomenon, is influenced by the economy, social structure and belief of the whole groupTake age as an exampleChinese people dont care about old ageSometimes, we especially call someone “Zhang Lao张老”, “Wang Lao王老”，for respectBut this is totally unacceptable in English-speaking countriesIn their opinion, “old老”means useless，and people will feel offended if they are described to be oldSo women keep their age secret in the English-speaking countries and seldom talk about age3. Context-reliability  The usage of taboos is limited by the social conditions and the psychological factorsThe context confines the usage of the taboosIn formal situations like social gatherings and banquets，people will pay more attention to taboos，which can be used in private situationsA lot of Chinese taboos are confined by the special contexts .For example, “帆(Fan, has the same pronunciation with overturn) ”. In English, “nigger”is a discriminative wordThe African-American can use it and it will not cause serious consequencesBut if other ethnic groups use it, serious conflicts will be causedB. The Definition and Features of Intercultural CommunicationAccording to Asante，in its most general sense, intercultural communication occurs when a member of one culture produces a message for consumption by a member of another cultureMore precisely, intercultural communication is a communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event. 3Frequently the term intercultural communication is used when referring to communication between people of different cultural backgroundsFor instance, if one talks with his or her American teacher, intercultural communication takes placeIf he or she interacts with a Japanese student, there is intercultural communicationIt includes international communication, interracial communication, inter-ethnic communication, inter-regional communication and so on.1. UniversalityNo nation, group，or culture can remain aloof or autonomousIf you touch one part of the world，you touch other partsPeople communicate with others from other cultures in one way or another, especially in nowadays when the world has become a global villageIntercultural communication exists everywhere and all the time in our daily livesNo one can shut it off and live totally alone2. Changeability Intercultural communication is not newWandering nomads，religious missionaries，and conquering warriors encountered people different from themselves since the beginning of timesWith the development of the new technology and information systems，changes in the worlds population and a shift in the worlds economic area, the intercultural communication has become more and more axiomatic and pervasiveThe concrete way of intercultural communication today is greatly different that in the pastIts dynamicSo we should face it in a flexible and dynamic way rather that in a static way3. RelativityIntercultural communication is an integrated process rather than a single activityAll the components are interrelatedThe change of one aspect will certainly bring about changes in other aspects as wellThe study of intercultural communication and people should also take a relational approach, that is，we should study one aspect of intercultural communication in relation to other aspectsWe should take all the components into consideration when study intercultural communicationC. Taboo in Intercultural CommunicationAs we can see，it is impossible to separate our use of language from our cultureIn the most basic sense，when we study another language，we will soon discover that not only the symbols(words)and the sounds for these words are different，but also the rules for using them and the factors influencing them are differentLanguage is the records of culture，so it is the reflection of cultureAccording to Wilhelm Von Humboldt who is the recognized founder of general linguistics，we can explain the relationship between language and culture as below：Every nation puts her special national intellect into language, making language become the carrier and reflection of this national culture. Meanwhile，her language confines the mind and non-verbal activity of men. Thats why some scholars hold that language is part of culture and plays a very important ro1e in itSimilarly, some social scientists consider language the keystone of cultureAccording to them, culture would not be possible without languageOn the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by cultureIt is the reflection of cultureThat means，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 riving and thinkingLinguistic taboo is a very important part of languageIt has something to do with everyone from noblemen to common peopleIn every language，there are linguistic taboos more or lessIn everyday life and work, violation of taboos is regarded as very rude and improper even cause very serious consequencesSo people who are encountering people from other cultures have to pay attention to the different usage of others taboosIn nowadays，intercultural communication between different cultures is becoming more and more frequent and universalLack of knowledge in this part of language especially improper use of taboos will undoubtedly result in misunderstandings，conflicts and other unknown serious consequences in intercultural communicationsIn order not to cause such serious consequences, people should get a deeper understanding of foreign culture and the usage of taboosTo sum it up, intercultural communication involves different cultures and causes the cultural collisionLanguage has taken a significant responsibility during this processIts the bridge connecting different culturesWithout language，it is hard for people from different cultures to carry on intercultural communicationsTaboo is part of language and plays an important role in intercultural communicationsSince different cultures have different taboos，people should pay special attention to them. Comparison of Chinese and English TaboosA. Chinese Taboos and English Taboos1. Taboos on SexIn the western world，there are taboos on sex，certain body partsPeople find it difficult to talk about going to the toilet，and have invented numerous ways of avoiding direct reference to the topicAmong good friends and acquaintances it may be acceptable to directly ask the location of the toilet or mention the bodily functions for which one needs to use it，but in other situations people might ask：Where could I wash my hands? In movies and in television, for example，women often say in a restaurant that they need to go and powder their noses or that they need to freshen up when they need to use the toiletThere are，also a number of different ways to refer to having sex，including to sleeping with，go to bed with and make love, as mentioned by Hughes in the discussion of metaphorical means of avoiding direct referenceIn China，people use a great deal of euphemisms for sexual organs and act，and even for marriage and pregnancy because they have relationship with sexPeople use many euphemisms for toilet and body exertion as well，for example，夫妻之礼，鱼水之欢for sex action，出恭，大解，小解，更衣for exertion，有喜，怀珠，身子重for pregnancyThe intellectuals and the upper classes in ancient China created these euphemisms，because they thought it a shame to mention them directlyIn nowadays，most of such euphemisms are not used any longer by most peopleSome are kept to avoid rudeness and embarrassment in conversation，but in most situations，people just avoid mentioning them for politeness，especially in public and on formal.2. Taboo on GenderRecently due to the development of social equality, gender discrimination has become a linguistic taboo“Gender discrimination” is often based on gender stereotypes of a particular society, i.e. considering men physically strong and women as emotionally sensitiveWith womens Movement in the 1960s and the criticism on the prejudice in language，a lot of traditional words that may show prejudice against women are now replaced by new created words for the femalesThe words showing prejudice against the females are considered to be taboos like chairmen，postman and so on.In Chinese，although women were liberated in the civil revolution，the status of women are enhanced nowadays，there are still some gender discriminations in societyKeeping females away from general education，holding that they are not supposed to participate in any economic activity so theres no need to educate them，is one of the major examples from Asian social setupsWomen are discouraged in other social concerns as well，for instance people will heartily accept a man as their leader even if he has some criminal record in the past，but for a woman itll be impossible to become the leader of a mass(for a social issue)if shed been involved in a minor crimeSome companies only invite applications for a job to the male，and even in the job advertisements，reading“no female” obviouslyIn some areas of the state，feudal thoughts deeply influences thoughts of adults so that some people only like boys and for girls，who sometimes are confronted with miserable destinies，like abandoned， fostered，etc3. Taboos on DeathChinese and English-spoken people tend to avoid mentioning death and illness directly and intentionallyThey are afraid of being ill because it brings forth sad memoryBoth people try to employ roundabouts and euphemisms instead of taboosTaboo on the dead includes the taboo against touching of a corpse and those who are caring for it；the taboo against mourners of the dead；and the taboo against anything associated with the dead(eg，the dead persons name)In the US，attitudes toward death along with sexuality and a huge emphasis on Christian morality and social etiquette，was very stringent and any discussion or jokes about death was hailed a serious taboo，in part of the mourning process and death promotes “mental” graphic imageryThe taboo on naming the dead prohibits any utterance of a dead mans name or any other words similar to it in soundThe Chinese have many taboos where death is concernedYou should avoid attending a funeral and a wedding on the same dayAlso，avoid going to another persons house after going to a funeral wakeEnglish and American people seldom say He died，they will say：He went to get rewards(他去领奖了)，He fell asleep(他躺下长眠了)，He passed away(他离去了),He breathed his last(他咽下了最后一口气). In Chinese，the emperor died，which is called Jia Beng (驾崩)If a person with some social status died，which is called Xian Shi(仙逝) In English culture，death is also substituted，like，joint the silent majority, pas