Comparative Study On Taboo Words Between Korean And Japanese

In Tongans, the term "Taboo"("Tabu" in Chinese) means "the prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred and consecrated or too dangerous and accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake." In our daily life, due to social customs, beliefs and other reasons, some specific language or words were banned. These specific language or words are called Taboo. Taboo is a complicated issue, which is not only common linguistic phenomenon, but also the general cultural phenomenon. Taboo is a multi-disciplinary topic which including lexicology, etymology, semantics, rhetoric, history, folklore and other related disciplines. Although these features show the importance of research, it also brings great difficult to this study.Under those humankind general psychological effects, for express the taboo words the substitutes are exist in the universal language of humanity. For example which are considered such as death, disease that induce fear and sexuality and excrement that is regarded as unclean are common taboo which is trying to replace with substitute. In contrary, taboo words have very close relationship with specific social culture. Because of the difference of every religion, societies, geographical environments and different lifestyles, the reflecting cultural phenomena taboo words and the replacing expressions also have the differences.This dissertation based on general linguistics, comparative linguistics and rhetoric theory to compared Korean and Japanese two languages’taboo words. This thesis had comparative analysis of the full range of South Korea and Japan Taboos character and individuality, which is based on clearified concept of taboo words from South Korean and Japanese that based on summing up the previous researchs and documentations, Analysis of its causes and characteristics, types and alternatives level of South Korean and Japanese Taboo words.This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter1introduces study purpose, pilot study, study object, study approach and the theoretical background of this study.Chapter2is the occurrence reason and property of taboo word. The occurrence factor of taboo word can be divided into psychological factor and social factor. The psychological factor of occurrence of taboo word is that the mentality of avoiding unfortunate and pursuing happiness from fear, and the other one is that the mentality of using elegant expression instead of unpleasant expression. The social factor can be religious faith and the language manner. In addition, taboo word has the nature of wide-ranging, regionality, contemporaneity, hierarchy, ethnicity, and temporality.Chapter3explored the types of the taboo words in Korean and Japanese. First, this chapter explored the academic point of view and according to the object, and divide the types of the taboo words into nine parts, which in relation to the object of fearsome, death, disease, sex, physiological excretion, physical deformity, vocation, crime, immoral behavior, agedness and so on. Then this paper tries to explore object of taboo words in Korean and Japanese and what kind of appearance it shows from the expression. This paper also explores the types which in common in Korean and Japanese with a wide scope, it is about the object of external diameter, death, disease, sex, physiological excretion, physical deformity, vocation, crime, immoral behavior, agedness and so on. The ginseng-digger’s jargon and the names used in taboo words are only exist in Korean, and which taboo words exist only in Japanese are jargons of itsuki, hunters, fishers, merchants, peasants, weddings, entrance ceremonies, funerals, visiting hospitals which be used on special occasions.Chapter4discussed the replacing mode of Korean and Japanese tabooed words. In terms of phoneme, vocabulary, rhetoric, there are both the difference and similarity between two languages. The Korean tabooed words are composed with sound remove, sound add, spelling add and remove, sound changes, homophonic of numbers. There is no phoneme corresponding mode in Japanese tabooed words but sound changes and homophonic patterns. Two languages both have replacements of Chinese ideograph, foreign language, abstract language, synonym, ancient language etc. Native language only existed in Korean; antonym replacement, affix mode, archaism and baby talk replacement only existed in Japanese. The tabooed words both in Korean and Japanese are composed of rhetoric methods with metaphor, personification, ellipsis and beautification. The biggest difference between Korean and Japanese substitute patterns is personification and ellipsis. Anthropomorphic animals and things often show a neutral meaning in Korean, in contrary, but the gender distinction clear performed in Japanese. Two languages are also different in ellipsis that taboo words will be omitted or euphemistic expressed in Korean, but Japanese will omit unnecessary parts of the taboo words and further omit euphemistic expression.