英汉委婉语

English and Chinese Euphemisms and Cross Cultural

Communication

1.0 Introduction

As a linguistic phenomenon, Euphemism exists in all kinds of languages. It is widely used by all walks of life. Every one of us will adopt it in our daily communication more or less. Beside the familiar linguistic role, it is also a cultural and social phenomenon. That is to say, euphemism is a reflection of the social culture in the language. Long-term since its production, it has penetrated in all aspects of people’s life including the most general ones and the complicated and serious ones. It plays an important role in the interpersonal communication. Euphemism can make the communication more polite and more efficient, as a result, to achieve some positive effects, self-esteem maintenance, mentality balance, as well as conflicts and misunderstanding elimination included. In the progress of interpersonal communication, euphemism has already become a kind of essential lubricant to make the unpleasant and embarrassed things accepted, and change people’s life more wit, relaxed and humorous. To some extent, euphemism is like a mirror of social psychology reflecting a profile of social cultural phenomenon.

Linguists like Hugh Rawson(1981), Leech(1985), Neaman ＆Sliver(1983), Ayto(1993), Liu Chunbao(1990) and Zhong Gonggui(1996) started their study of English and Chinese euphemisms in their respective field very early. They carried out collection and classification of euphemisms and compiled dictionaries of euphemisms. Their research mainly focused on the fields of dictionary compilation, rhetoric, and semantics. However, euphemism not only falls into the category of rhetoric, but also some other disciplines such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and philosophy. The study of English and Chinese euphemisms means a lot to both theory and practice. On the basis of the knowledge of similarities and differences between English and Chinese euphemisms, a contrastive study is made in this paper.

This thesis is divided into six chapters:

In chapter one, an introduction to the importance of euphemism in communication and

previous study of euphemism is given. Chapter two mainly focuses on some general understandings of euphemism. Chapter three and four, a contrastive study is made between English and Chinese euphemism revealing their similarities and differences. In chapter five the functions of English and Chinese euphemisms in cross cultural communication is discussed. In the last part, chapter six concludes the paper.

2.0 General Understanding of Euphemisms

2.1 The Origin of Euphemism

The English word “euphemism” originates from Greek. The prefix “eu -” means good. The meaning of the “stem”is speech. Then, the plus of the meaning of these two parts makes the literally meaning of the word which is “words of good omen” or “good speech”. Some people call the euphemisms as the fig leaf of languages. The fact is that, in ancient Greek, people generally spoke words of omen which are actually euphemisms, during a sacrifice. For instance, the Eriniyes who wear black robes with a whip, sword and torch in their hands respectively are usually titled with a good name, the Kindly ones or the Eumenides. The reason lies in that people believed that given a good name could calm those three ferocious demons more or less, or at least could avoid their attention. Actually, all divine no matter good or evil could not be addressed disrespectfully by name at that time, because the name of the divine is the embodiment of the divine. Once being called, they could show out immediately. And facing the divine is very important. Even names of places like the Black Sea were generally not referred to directly, instead to use the good name the Euxine or the Friendly Sea in order to avoid the great calamity while voyage. Ancient people’s puzzle towards the great power of nature led to their reverence and worship which is actually the origin of religious and euphemism. The Greek culture was widely spread to all European and America countries latterly. As the time went and the society developed, factors apart from the religious reasons, such as the ethnical norms, the federal privilege, feelings of likes and dislikes, communicative needs, and preference to the elegant instead of the vulgar have changed the content of English euphemism greatly.

Most of the euphemisms in English originate from the Bible. And in both Geoffery

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’s dramas and poems a large number of euphemisms are used. In Britain, the use of euphemism can at least be traced back to 11th century. At that time, the distinction between Genteel V ocabulary and Obscene V ocabulary is made. And the Genteel V ocabulary is actually the precursor of the euphemism. The Chinese people have always attached great importance to the speech morality. As early as in the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius asserted a proposal which in Chinese is “非礼勿视，非礼勿听，非礼勿言，非礼勿动”. And as is recorded in Rite.QUli, “入境而问禁，入国而问俗，入门而问讳”. The so-called “问禁”and “避讳” are the words people used to substitute, the metaphor people used to imply and the indirect expressions people used to hint when they had to say the taboo things. These nice, substitutive, suggestive words are euphemisms. From what have been said above, we can see that the expressive meanings of euphemisms gradually developed before the occurrence the literature. Euphemism is a kind of very common social phenomenon which develops synchronously with the human society civilization.

2.2Definition of Euphemism

Euphemism can also be called periphrasis which exists in all kinds of languages in the world. The literal meaning of euphemism is using of pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases in place of more accurate or direct ones. Its basic feature is to use abstract ambiguous concepts or figurative or commendatory skills to make both sides of the conversation adopt a kind of indirect way to talk about the things which should not be spoke straightly and people don’t need to feel embarrassed when they discuss these things. The American famous writer H.L Mencken regards euphemisms as “gilded words”, while Stefan Kanfer takes them as “cosmetic words”. Both of them make an exactly description of the implication and function of euphemisms undoubtedly.

Though researchers have carried out researches on euphemism for a long time, the definition of euphemism varies from book to book and no agreement has been reached. Here are some influential definitions:

⑴The use of a word or phrase that is less expressive or direct but considered less distasteful, less offensive, etc. than another; a word or phrase so substituted (Ex.: remains

for corpse)

(Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 2010)

⑵The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive

(The American Heritage- Dictionary of the English Lanaguage,2010)

⑶ A polite, tactful, or less explicit term used to avoid the direct naming of an unpleasant, painful, or frightening reality.

(Webster’s Third New International Dictionary,1961)

⑷The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt

(The Random House College Dictionary, 1979)

⑸Mild or vague periphrastic expression as a substitute for blunt precision of disagreeable truth

(Fair of Speech: the Uses of Euphemism, 1985)

⑹A polite word or expression that you use instead of a more direct one to avoid shocking or upsetting someone

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995 edition))

⑺ Use of pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases in place of more accurate or direct ones

(Oxford Advanced Leaner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1993)

Though lots of definitions are made, they share some points: euphemism is a kind of deliberately roundabout implicit rather than declarative expression. In short, euphemisms are good words which make the listeners happy. It is a kind of polite and decent expression people use when they talk about those unpleasant or embarrassed things in human language using process.

3.0Similarities between English and Chinese Euphemisms

3.1 Cultural Similarities

3.1.1 in terms of Formation

There are many ways to constitute English and Chinese euphemisms. The mainly way in which these two languages express their euphemistic meaning are rhetoric devices; grammatical devices; vocabulary devices; pragmatic devices and so on.

⑴rhetoric devices: Ways in which euphemisms are realized by figures of speech such as metaphor, analogy, understatement, periphrasis and metonymy. For example, there are many euphemisms of death which are achieved by metaphors, Such as “to go to heaven” “to be called to God”“go to meet one’s maker” in English and “回家了”“去见马克思了”“永远的睡了” in Chinese. Euphemisms that achieved by understatement are usually used to refer to the thief and to make a judgment of one’s appearance, such as “to take one’s things as own without permitting” and “plain” in stead of “thief” and “ugly” in English and “三只手” and “长相很委婉” in Chinese.

⑵grammatical devices: The grammatical device which is used mostly often is negation. For example, to use the sentence “I don’t think she is kind” to substitute the sentence “I think that she is cruel” is more tactful. In Chinese, “愚蠢的” can be replaced by “不聪明”.

⑶vocabulary devices: to use vague words are one of the most common methods. Instances of using vague words are showed following. The phrase “sub-standard housing”is used to substitute “slum”. The word “affair” is used to replace “sex scandal”. In Chinese, “处境困难”“囊中羞涩” are used to replace lack of money.

3.1.2 in terms of Scope of Use

The scope of use of English and Chinese euphemism is very wide. The use of euphemism is mainly related to taboo. Taboo consists of cultural taboo and universal taboo. Taboo varies from its social and cultural background. Euphemisms that substitute taboos are mainly used in fields like birth, death, illness and old age; sex; excretion; poverty; occupation; politics etc.

Here birth mainly refers to person’s appearance, figure, and some physical defects. For example, transfer “ugly” to “homely” or “plain”; “fat” to “weight watcher”“plumy”and “stout”; “skinny”to “slender”“willowy”“lean”. In western countries, people generally prefer living alone instead of living with their kids. If they are called old , it means that the death is on the way. So they avoid to talk about their ages and lots of

euphemisms concerning about old are produced. For example, “senior citizen”or “seasoned men”; “advance d in age” etc. Owing to people’s longing for health and taboo against illness, all kind of disease especially those serious incurable ones are given euphemistic names. For example, Syphilis and Venereal moist warts are often called Social disease in English or “那种病” in Chinese. Cancer is hard to cure when someone is caught by Cancer, people would use the big C or long disease to refer it instead of speaking it out loudly. Things seem to be the same to heart attack disease. People use bad heart condition to substitute it. In Chinese “sister Lin ” is used to refer to young women who are fragile and easy to catch a cold. “Being ill ” may be replaced by “身体不适”“身体迁安”“有恙”“小恙”“头疼脑热”. “Disable”could be replaced by “手脚不便”. “Insane”could be substituted by “精神不正常”. Death is the most taboo topic in the world. Euphemisms about death are affluent in almost every language in the world. It is said that 102 kinds of euphemism about death exists in English. And Chinese is rich in its euphemisms of death too. For example, “be among the missing”“be no more”“sleep in the Arms of God”“in heaven”“with God”“to fire his last shot”“the last voyage”“out of the picture”“the final kick off” in English; “仙逝”“瑶池添座”“圆寂”“升天”“坐化”“亡”“故”“谢世”“赴黄泉”“翘辫子”“驾崩”“玉陨香消”“殉职”“牺牲” in Chinese.

Sex is tabooed against by people in all part of the world even though it is human’s instinct. So all things related to sex including knowledge, organ, and disease are usually replaced by euphemisms, such as “business”, “street girl”, “the fact of life” “social disease”“My friend has come”.

Now that excretion is related to dirt, when people talk about things related to that, they always try to avoid say it directly. Instead they will use some indirect words. And there comes the euphemisms. For example, “answer call of nature”“pass water”“do number one”“get some fresh air”“powder one’s nose” “wash one’s hands” etc.

People’s desire for wealth is the birthplace of euphemisms about poverty. For example, transfer “poor”to “needy”or “under privileged”; transfer “slum”to “substandard housing”.

In order to release the pressure and emotional hurt of occupational discrimination and reduce the communicative distance between the two sides, names with reputation are

produced. For example, “custodian”or “maintenance engineer”for “janitor”; “landscape-architect” for “gardener”; “tree- surgeon”; “shoe-rebuild”; “house executive”; “street orderly” or “sanitary engineer” for “dust man” and “garbage collector”.

In politics, the press often uses euphemisms to weaken, conceal, and color the facts and truth to in order to achieve some certain political purposes. For example, transfer “aggression”to “involvement”; “death penalty”to “capital punishment”. During the administration of Reagan the government use “revenue enhancement”to substitute its policy of tax increases. In the war of Vietnam, in order to cover their outrage, the American regarded the bombardment in the air as “logistical strikes”or “close air support”. They called the massacre of the civilian as “wasting the enemy”. They even called the “civilian causality” as “collateral damage”.

3.2 Pragmatic Similarities

Euphemism is a kind of valid expressive way in which people adopt to achieve prospective communicative effect in the process of social communication. Euphemism has many powerful pragmatic functions. We will discuss the similarities of English and Chinese euphemism from the following three aspects: to taboo, to avoid the vulgar, to polite.

3.2.1 Taboo Function

No matter in Chinese or Western countries, taboo is the most important reason for people to use euphemisms. In ancient time, people can not explain the natural phenomenon and power correctly and has a kind of worship or even fair towards the divine. They faired and avoided to call the names of the divines. And this is what we called language worship for the reason of spirit worship. In English people use “Old Boy”“the Tempter”“the Big D”“Old Harry”“the Enemy”“Old Nick” to replace the word “devil”. In Chinese people chose “河伯”“祝融”“菩萨”“老爷” to refer to the divine.

The aim of taboos is to avoid referring those things which may irritate people. Death is one of the most taboo things. Chinese has many euphemisms about death. In ancient time, the death of kings is referred as “崩”. The death of the federal princes is called “薨”. The death of the children is called “殇”. The description of a person who dies young is “他被夺

去了生命”. The death of revolutionary who is killed or dies in the battle field could be described as “牺牲” or “英勇就义”. The death of the bad could be called “上西天了” or “下地狱了”. While in English people often use phrases like “go to sleep forever”“fall asleep”“pass away”“pass on ”“close one’s day”“depart to good”“expire”to refer to death. Things which are associated with death are also colored. For example, they use “box”to refer to “coffin”. Use “grave-yard”to refer to “sleeping place”or “memory garden”; use “memorial service” to refer to “funeral”.

It’s out of luck for somebody to be ill. We should not say that somebody is ill or speak out the name of the illness directly in daily communication. This is the general psychology of all people around the world. For example, in English people use “the Big C”“Capital Letter C”“long illness” or “terminally ill” to refer to “Cancer”. Use “accident” to refer to “apoplexy”. Euphemisms can also be expressed by abbreviations such as “AIDS”for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”; “VD”for “venereal disease”; “SARS”for “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes”. In Chinese people use “暗疾” to refer to venereal disease; “身体不好”, “身体不舒服”, “抱恙” to refer to being ill.

Owing to the Chinese thought of “No posterity is the greatest of the three unfilial acts”, there are euphemisms like “膝下凄凉” or “断了香火” in Chinese. And Americans taboo against the number of 13. The taboo function of euphemism has existed for a long time. The concept of taboo is really hard to be removed from the thought of people.

3.2.2 Function of Avoiding vulgar

On formal occasions or in daily communication, people always try to use euphemistic words when the topic is related to sex and physiology. English uses “make love” or “sleep together”to refer to “have sexual intercourse”. There are other euphemisms such as to replace “blue film” by “adult film”; “illicit cohabitation” by “trial marriage”. In English a woman who is pregnant is called “a lady in -waiting”“eating for two”“an expectant mother”, while in Chinese people may say that “她有喜了”or “她快要做妈妈了”. Menstruation which is the Physiological phenomenon of women is often said euphemistically as “My friend has come”, “She is riding the cotton bicycle”, “She has her period” in English or “来事了”“见习” or “来大姨妈了” in Chinese.

Excretion is not convenient to speak directly. Chinese has expressions like “解手”“方

便”“去洗手间”. More things related to toilet exist in English such as “water closet (W.C)”“restroom”“washroom”“women’s / ladies’room”“the powder room”“Mrs. Jones”“men’s / Gent’s room”“the John” etc.

3.3.3 Polite function

Politeness is the mark of human civilization. In the process of communication, people always treat each other with respect in order not to hurt another people’s feeling or dignity to make the conversation go smoothly under a gentle pleasant condition. For example: it’s embarrassed for both sides of the conversation if one forgets to take on his zipper of his trousers. Americans would use “You have lost your license”to substitute “Your fly is open”. Chinese would use “大门没关好”to give him a hint which avoids the embarrassment of direct reference and is full of humor. Besides, people use euphemisms when they talk about defects. Such as use “hard of listening”to refer to “deaf”; “the visually challenged” to refer to “the blind” in English, and use “丰盈”“丰腴”“丰满” in Chinese.

4.0 Differences between English and Chinese Euphemisms

4.1 Differences in Language Features

4.1.1 Differences in Semantic Features

In the terms of the semantic features, first, the connotations of the English and Chinese counterparts are not totally same. Therefore, when referring to the same thing, words in one language may have derogatory senses and need to be substituted by euphemisms, while words in the other language do not. For instance, in English, the word “bitch” has a sense of “lechery”. And there came the euphemistic expressions like “lady dog” and “girl dog”. The word “dumb”has implication of “stupid”and “dull”. So the word is often replaced by “speech impaired”. However, in Chinese, these two words do not have implications the same with the English ones.

Secondly, in English and Chinese, the degree of stability of the meaning is different. The meanings of the Chinese words are more stable and less changeable, while the meanings of English are on the contrary. This kind of semantic feature of English will

reflect in the use of euphemisms inevitably. In English, many words are euphemisms themselves which are used to substitute some sensitive words. Gradually, they get some derogatory senses and are taken place by other euphemisms. For example, “toilet”is an euphemism originally which originates from French with the meaning of cloth which is used when shaving and women’s hair cutting.

4.1.2 Differences in Characteristics of Word-Formation

First, sometimes English can adopt abbreviation to produce euphemisms that could definitely not be achieved in Chinese. Such as, W.C. is the acronyms of “water closet”; “lav” is formed by cutting the initial part of “lavatory”; “Loo” generates from cutting the final part of “Waterloo”.

Secondly, English has many words which are absorbed from other languages, especially French by the reason that since 16th century, France has a high reputation in the field of cloths and diet culture. A thing can be described by varieties of words among which there are many loan words. The British people think that the borrowed words are more elegant than those native ones. This trend in Britain is particular prevalent in Victorian times. For example, using the French word “linerie” substitutes the English word “underwear”. The French word “derriere”is also used to replace the English word “buttocks”.

4.2 Cultural Differences

Language is the carrier of culture. It is a mirror which reflects national culture and could not exist alone without culture. As a part of language, euphemism could not exist without culture, either. Differences in history and culture, social background, customs and habits play a large part in the differences between English and Chinese euphemisms in terms of usage. And we will discuss this in the following parts:

4.2.1 Differences in Chinese and Western Rank ideas

Chinese attach much importance to peckingorder as a result of the education of the Confucian culture and the feudal patriarchal system. In China, the names of the monarch and the elder are taboos. As the inferior and the younger, it’s forbidden to call their names directly. People must use the relation names or the titles. When give a name to a new birth,

people must keep away from those names to show respect. In the modern society, the names of the superior leadership could not be call directly. Instead, people chose the title to address. However, people of western countries advocate freedom and believe that all men are created equal. There is no taboo about the name. In America, especially, in spite of position, age, and gender, most people like to address directly, and it’s ok for the younger to name after the name of their parents or grandparents.

4.2.2 Differences in Chinese and Western thinking mode

In China, modesty is a traditional virtue. Ancient people used “鄙人”and “犬子” to call themselves their son, while use “足下” and “令郎” to call others and the son of the others. People use words like “哪里哪里” or “过奖了” to show their modesty, when they are complemented. However, in western countries, people will not belittle themselves to elevate others for their advocate of confidence and truth. Therefore, they will accept the compliment with “Thank you!” or “That’s very kind of you to say so”.

4.2.3 Differences in Chinese and Western Values

Western culture highlights the individuality and subjectivity and promotes egoism which is regarded as the core value. They stress protect and respect of personal private life. So they treat their age, income, marriage as privacy. Chinese has been influenced by the Confucianism and collectivism values for a long time. They attach importance to the harmoniousness of the interpersonal relationship and highlight social nature of man. So they do not taboo against talking about personal problems like the western.

In western countries, age is a sensitive topic. The old don not like to be called “old people”because they always relate old to weak and ugly. As a result, there are a large number of euphemisms about old such as “the longer lived”“second childhood”“seasoned men”for “old people”; “young town”“nursing homes”“home for adults”“an adult community” for “old people’s home. However, Chinese like to use the old to show their respect and worship. Such as “您老人家”“王老”“老先生”etc. Old can also be use euphemistically to imply high prestige and seniority, for example, “老板”“老总”“老师傅” etc.

5.0 The Functions of English and Chinese Euphemisms in Cross Cultural

Communication

Enright,D.j. said that “Without euphemisms, the world comes to a halt because of the frication and resentments would arise among people.”Since it has been created, it bears the communicative function as lubrication to machine. Making a good use of euphemism plays an important role in cross communication which could reduce fiction and conflicts enhancing Chinese and English cultural exchange.

5.1 Cross Cultural Communication

Cross-cultural communication, also known as intercultural communication, is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbols systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event. It is frequently used to refer to communication between people from different cultures, which implies a comparison between cultures. (A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English, 2002: 138)

5.2 The incorrect use of English and Chinese Euphemisms in Cross Cultural Communication

As we have discussed above, things associated with death, some parts of the body, excretion, sex are tabooed against. People will not talk about these in public. Even everyone knows these taboos; most people do not know how to express with euphemistic words. Besides, difference languages have different expressions to convey these. The same word may have different meaning in different cultural background. If people are not familiar with these, there must be pragmatic failure or even joke in the cross cultural communication.

For new leaner of English, they will use some euphemisms subconsciously which might cause misunderstanding. For example, the Chinese story “半夜鸡叫”was once translated into “The Cock Crows at Mid-night. ”The translation could lead to

embarrassment in English speaking countries, because the word “cock”is a taboo in English which actually means man’s organ of generation. The right translation should be “The Rooster Crows at Mid-night.” Another example is the misuse of the word “gay”. We have a gay party. Owing to “gay” has already been a synonym of homosexual, its original meaning of happy or joy does not exist any more. And a gay party is not a happy and exiting party, but a party of homosexual.

The last example of misuse or misunderstanding of euphemism is a Chinese one. A foreigner who knew very little Chinese came to China. His Chinese friends invited him to have dinner. As soon as they arrived at the restaurant, one of his friend, A, told him that “对不起，我去方便一下”. The foreigner could not understand the meaning of the sentence. Others told him that “方便”means “go to the toilet”. And he got it. While they were having the meal, A said that “希望下次到美国的时候，你能帮助提供些方便.”The foreigner was puzzled. Why should I give you some toilets when you come to America? When they parted from each other, one of his friend, B, said that “我想在你方便的时候请你吃饭”. The foreigner did not know how to answer. B continued to say that “如果你最近不方便的话，咱们改日找个你我都方便的时候一起吃饭”. The foreigner was totally astonished. In this joke, friends of the foreigner did not point out that “方便” in the first sentence is a use of euphemism. As a result, the foreigner used the meaning of “going to toilet” in every sentence he heard that caused a big joke.

All these examples above result in being unaware of the differences in cultural background, values, and traditional customs between the two languages. In cross cultural communication, it’ easy for people to use their thinking mode and values to comprehend words of the other which forms a phenomenon of interference of mother language leading to pragmatic failure finally.

6.0 Conclusion

This paper focuses on two parts: English and Chinese euphemisms and cross cultural communication. A contrastive study in terms of linguistic, cultural and pragmatic aspects has been researched which could help to deepen the understanding of English and Chinese

euphemisms. And function of English and Chinese euphemisms is illustrated with examples at the end of this thesis.

Euphemism and cross cultural communication are two heatedly discussed topics. This paper just makes a skin-deep study of it. More studies should be carried out in order to guarantee the smoothly going of the intercultural communication.

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Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Mrs. Wang, who has given me valuable advice and enlightened me on a number of academic problems concerning my thesis.

Thanks should also be given to teachers and my classmates, who helped me a lot during the accomplishment of my thesis.