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A Cross-culturally Contrastive Study Of Euphemism In English And Chinese

Posted on:2011-11-22Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360308977075Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
A general review of the history of euphemism research both at home and abroad shows that linguists have already conducted a lot of studies in this field mainly from the perspectives of rhetoric, society, and language use. Most of such studies focus their attention on a particular language. Rare are the studies directed to the euphemism exploration on the basis of cross-cultural angle. What is more, few studies have paid due attention to euphemism translation between Chinese and English. To fill up these two gaps, the thesis makes a contrastive exploration of euphemisms in Chinese and English on a cross-cultural basis, and advances some strategies for the translation of euphemisms between Chinese and English.The thesis first reviews the past and present researches of euphemisms before giving its definition and classification. Then comes a contrastive analysis of euphemisms in the two languages from the perspective of their formation, generating principles and law of development. After that is a discussion on communicative functions of euphemisms by means of a contrastive and systematic analysis in terms of cultural features, including those concerning religion and social values. With that, the thesis moves to another question closely associated with the study, i.e., the difficulties in euphemism translation between Chinese and English. Some translating strategies have been advanced. Finally, the thesis clarifies the main findings of the study and points out the enlightenment drawn from the research for cross-cultural communication and the English language teaching.The major findings of the research can be reduced to the following three points.1) Euphemism is a linguistic phenomenon on the basis of social communication. There are many similarities between euphemisms in Chinese and English. Their formations both follow such rules as the principle of distance, the principle of relation and the principle of pleasantness.2) Euphemism is a cultural phenomenon. The different manifestation of euphemisms in Chinese and English reveals the different cultural values behind the two languages.3) The key to the successful translation between English and Chinese euphemisms lies in the unification of denotative meaning and rhetorical meaning.
Keywords/Search Tags:euphemism, English culture, Chinese culture, contrast, translation strategies
PDF Full Text Request
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