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1、A Study of the Cultural Distinctions between Chinese and English Taboos 【关键词】禁忌语；演变；相似点；不同点I. IntroductionLanguage, 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
2、been endowed with magic and power in particular language acts. As the old saying goes, troubles come out of the tongue. Taboo is a commonly existing cultural phenomenon among nations in the world which regulates peoples language and social communication. The great differences between Chinese and Wes
3、tern cultures directly result in the great difference between Chinese and English taboos. With the consideration of the different cultures and customs, we should avoid using offensive expression. Cross-cultural communication is an important part of modern communication. The phenomenon of taboos can
4、make the cross-cultural communication more appropriate. Evidently, linguistic taboos are a reflection of these social development and the value concepts and beliefs of the culture in which they are born. Taboos have a great influence upon the peoples cultural life and material life. Therefore, taboo
5、s are well worth studying.There are some similarities in English and Chinese linguistic taboos, but different cultures may not all agree on what is or is not a taboo in a specific context. So the differences also exist between English and Chinese linguistic taboos. A lack of knowledge in this field
6、or improper use of linguistic taboos may lead to misunderstandings, conflicts and other unknown serious consequences in the cross-culture communications which is increasingly frequent and wider now. This paper intends to study the evolution of linguistic taboo, to analyze the similarities between Ch
7、inese and English linguistic taboo in pronunciation and vocabulary, and present the differences from the aspects of names, numbers as well as taboo subjects in both cultures. Last but not least, three effective ways are proposed to avoid linguistic taboos.II. The Definition and Evolution of TabooThe
8、 discussion of registers reflects the fact that words of a language are not in the same social status. There are ever words which are socially devalued. They are completely suppressed by the rules of social communication. These words are not allowed to speak at any social activity. But with the deve
9、lopment of society, taboos are also changing.A. The Definition of TabooA taboo is a strong social prohibition（or ban）against words, objects, actions, or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group, culture society, or community. Breaking a taboo is usually considered objectio
10、nable or abhorrent.“It is manifested in language: persons, things and activities that are taboo should not be talked about or should be mentioned in a roundabout way in language. Words and expressions related to these social taboos are linguistic taboos.”1 The above definition shows that Linguistic
11、taboo, as an integral part of language, is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a social phenomenon.The term taboo comes from Tongan, a Polynesian language. The Tongan form of the term is tabu, which has been retained as a variant form of English taboo. In Tongan, tabu means“inviolable” or“forb
12、idden”. The development of taboo may go back to ancient times when people lacked knowledge about the supernatural forces that control the earth and so considered them to be gods. The names of gods incarnate gods themselves; mentioning gods names would bring about immediate harm or danger. It is perh
13、aps the religion-relevant instinct of human beings that spreads taboo into many other fields. The first that is affected is death. Then there are birth, sex, sex organs, natural bodily functions, and others. What acts or words and expressions are forbidden reflects the views and customs of the socie
14、ty, represented by social norms resulting from convention.B. The Evolution of TabooAs we have mentioned above, linguistic taboo is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a kind of social phenomenon. The development of society has influenced the development of linguistic taboo. Like other parts of
15、 language, the origin of linguistic taboo is deeply rooted in the primitive social and cultural background and its change is greatly influenced by the development of human society in order to satisfy human beings needs for smooth communications. With the advancement of science and technology, many p
16、uzzles about the universe are solved, and with the increase of material wealth, human demands for spiritual civilization are also becoming higher. Evidently, linguistic taboos are a reflection of these social development and the value concepts and beliefs of the culture in which they are born. It ex
17、ists in every aspect of peoples life. So if we want to reveal the whole picture of linguistic taboo, we must have a review of the history of linguistic taboo.“The evolution of linguistic taboo has generally experienced three stages according to the history of human society: the primitive superstitio
18、ns stage, the feudal patriarchal stage, and modern democratic stage. But there is no explicit demarcation line between three stages.”21. The Primitive Superstitious StageAs we all know, In the primitive society, people didnt get to know well about nature, most natural phenomena such as lightning, th
19、under, storm, earthquake, were beyond the understanding of human beings. When these phenomena happened, they thought that certain supernatural creatures possessed great power. They thought that if they were loyal to these supernatural creatures, they would be safe or rewarded. If they acted against
20、them, they would be punished severely. As a result, the primitive people created different kinds of gods. They held a strong religious conviction that these gods controlled the world that they were living in. So the first thing they did was to respect these gods through language. There is an example
21、 from the Seventh Commandment of the Ten Commandments in Bible“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” 3 In a word, the earliest linguistic taboo emerged as a result of the ignorance and superstition of the primitiv
22、e people in ancient times.2. The Feudal Patriarchal Stage Feudal society is rigidly stratified. A country of feudalism is usually controlled by the royals and sometimes together with those considered with great power given by god. During the feudal times, people were not equal to the rulers and were
23、 suppressed by their superiors. The distinction between the upper and the lower classes was also reflected in the evaluation of the language used by them respectively. The words of upper class used were considered good and elegant while those used by the lower class were regarded as vulgar and indec
24、ent and should be avoided in the speech of ladies and gentlemen. For example, when referring to“出汗”, duchesses used the word“perspire”, but the female servants used“sweat”; when referring to“吐痰”, the former people used“expectorate”, but the latter used“spit”; As for“月经”, the former used“menstruate”,
25、 but the latter used“bleed”. The maxim“Horses sweat; men perspire; young ladies glow” more or less can reflect the stratified usage of words which have the same meaning in this period.4 In China, during the feudal times, men usually play a dominant role in family. We can see it from the Chinese expr
26、essions“三从四德”,“三纲五常” and so on. In order to strengthen their position and to prevent their subjects from violating them, the royals and kings put forward different kinds of prohibitions and bans. For instance, to show their authority and majesty, the name of the emperor and his ancestors should not
27、be mentioned. At the same time, people always avoided speaking out their parents names or even the characters in their parents names. The old saying“古人闻父名而泣” can prove this point. Most linguistic taboos during this period were put into effect by rulers in order to maintain their superior social posi
28、tion and keep the society under their control. However, some of them, because of their deep-rooted influence on peoples mind, still remain in language even after the collapse of the social system. 3. The Modern Democratic Stage In modern society, as a result of the development of science and technol
29、ogy, many natural phenomena are no longer mysterious. Human beings not only constantly improve their abilities to exploit the world where they are living through their great wisdom and knowledge, but also make efforts to explore the extraterrestrial world. Science has much more say in todays society
30、. Thereby, the superstitious elements in linguistic taboos decrease while those reflecting spiritual civilization increase. During such an open-minded period, people value freedom, equality and democracy very much. Many minorities struggle for equal rights with the majorities. As a result, linguisti
31、c taboos concerning racial discrimination arise. For example, in the United States,“nigger” was widely used to call black people in the 1960s but now it is forbidden in normal interaction because such form of addressing shows contempt for the black and goes against the spirit of human rights. In add
32、ition, more and more women step outside their houses to work together with men. They dont want to depend on men any longer. However, the traditional ideas about women stifle the fulfillment of their abilities and they are often treated unfairly in work. This forces women to rise and fight for equali
33、ties with men and more and more men begin to learn to respect women, which will have an influential effect on the language. As a result, taboos on sexist language increase. Besides, in an era of peace, the relative stability of society and the fast pace of life, people dont bother much to avoid thin
34、gs in the objective world. Instead, they prefer living a pleasant and harmonious life. They enjoy spiritual entertainment very much, so they try to avoid those words and behaviors that may make others feel unpleasant to keep the harmonious relationship. Those professions that were looked down upon i
35、n the past are beautified now. The substitution of“sanitation engineer” for“garbage collector” is a good example for this.As a whole, since the third stage, people today show more respect for science and technology and human right so that the superstitious and feudal elements in linguistic taboos te
36、nd to reduce while those reflecting the advancement of human society and spiritual civilization tend to increase.III. Comparison of Chinese and English Taboos There are a lot of words in the world, as the cross-cultural communication is an important part of modern communication, the phenomenon of th
37、e taboo can make the cross-cultural communication more appropriate, so we need to know the similarities and differences between Chinese and English taboos.A. The Similarities between Chinese and English TaboosTaboo words in English and Chinese languages are to occupy an important position, of course
38、, there are also commonalities. There are taboos for death, disease, pronunciation, vocabulary and physical disability, etc in both Chinese and English cultures and they are reflected in their respective language and become a kind of linguistic phenomenon. The similarities of Chinese and English lin
39、guistic taboo mainly embody in the following aspects:1. PronunciationBoth Chinese people and English people believe that saying words that imply misfortunes or disasters may bring them trouble, and they thought misfortunes can be prevented by replacing the words with homophones that have better mean
40、ings. In China, many taboos have been caused by superstitions. In Shanxi province of China, there is a custom that mulberries can not be planted in front of the house and willows can not be planted behind the house, because the Chinese character“桑（mulberry）”sounds the same as“丧（mourning）and“柳（willow
41、）”sounds the same as“绺”. They may indicate that there will be a funeral and something will be stolen. Gamblers wont say“书（book）”, because the Chinese“书（book）” sound the same with“输（defeat）”. It suggests you will lose something or defeated by other peoples in competition or in other fields.Chinese pe
42、ople will not present a clock as a gift in weddings or other ceremonies, because“ clock” pronounces“（钟）zhong”, which has the same pronunciation as“终（end）”, meaning death in Chinese. Many other examples also can be found in Chinese. Some fisherman in South China avoid saying such word as“翻（turn over）
43、” or“沉（sink）” and any other words with similar sounds. In Western countries, there are also many such kinds of examples. When a word sounds the same as a taboo word, it needs changing into another expression. For instance,“in earlier 18th century, the female in English and American countries always
44、tried to avoid using the wordarise（the bottom part of the body one sits on）, which was considered inelegant. So people called the animalass asdonkey”. 5“Neaman made a conclusion that the reason why some words disappeared were related to the fact that their pronunciation are the same as some taboo wo
45、rds”.62. VocabularyThere are a lot of taboo words in Chinese and English vocabulary. Roughly speaking, taboo words can be dividing into four tapes, namely obscenities, profanities, vulgarities, death and disease. Based on this classification, the part will analyze the four types as follows:In any so
46、ciety people do not like to talk about things relating to sexual, sexuality, sexual or excretory and it was regarded as a class of no-regrets indecent words. That is to say, obscene words may cause offence to the social moral principles. Because of the traditions and customs of society and human eth
47、ical reasons, such words in books, newspapers have been long-standing. They usually go out of use in public occasion and cannot appear in literary language. In both English and Chinese, these words are to be avoided in polite conversations, because they may cause strong disapproval. In America, the
48、Sexual Revolution in 1960s and 70s made people more open toward sex, but now words such as“making love” and“having sex with” still seldom appear directly in writing, let alone in conversation. Using trail marriage instead of free love, love child instead of illegitimate child, adult movies substitut
49、e pornographic movies, the facts of life substitute knowledge about sex, and so on. The Chinese people also treat terms on sex seriously. Chinese people always use the expression of“作风问题” or“不正当关系” to show the immoral relationship between a man and a woman.As we all know, pregnancy is a normal physiological phenomenon, but in daily life, people wont say it directly, as it is related to sex. If someone is pregnant,