中西语言禁忌语对比研究.doc

The Contrastive Studies of Language Taboo in English and Chinese

中西语言禁忌语对比研究

The Contrastive Studies on Language Taboo in English and Chinese

Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………...1
Key words…………………………………………………………………...1
Ⅰ.Introduction …………………………………………………………1
1.1Literature Review…………………………………………………..1
1.11Two Different Meanings of the Taboo………………………………....1
1.12The Danger of Touching the Taboo………………………………...…2
1.13The Positive Sides and the Negative Sides of Taboo………….………....3
Ⅱ.The Origin of the Taboo…………………………………………….4
Ⅲ.The Similarities and Differences in Taboo between English
and Chinese………………………………………………………..5
3.1The Similarities in Taboo between English and Chinese…………………...5
3.1.1The Religion, Superstition and Worship-related Taboo………………..5
3.1.2The Illness and Death-related Taboo………………………………....6
3.1.3The Posture and Features-related Taboo…………………………..…7
3.1.4The Numbers-related Taboo…………………………………………7
3.2The Differences in Taboo between English and Chinese………….………..8
3.2.1The Names-related Taboo………………………………………...…8
3.2.2The Homophonic-related Taboo……………………………………..9
3.2.3The Taboo-related Topics…………………………………………. 9
3.2.4The Animals-related Taboo……………………………….………..10
3.2.5The Age, Salary, Marriage and Meals-related Taboo………………...10
Ⅳ.The Disadvantages and Development of Language Taboo……….....11
4.1The Disadvantages of Language Taboo…………………………….11
4.2The Development of Language Taboo………………………..…….12
Ⅴ.Conclusions………………………………………………………….12
References………………………………………………………………..13
摘　要：　　在英汉两种语言中，都存在着大量的语言禁忌现象。禁忌语的出现与社会习俗，宗教信仰，历史传统等密切关。为加深对中西文化与语言之间的认识，本文从文化角度对中西禁忌语的起源，范畴及异同作了初步的探讨与比较。
关键词：文化; 语言禁忌; 异同

Abstract: 　Language taboo is a common social-linguistic phenomenon, which exists in every nation. It is area which a certain religion or custom regards it as something forbidden, not to be touched, spoken of, etc. This paper in a comparative way studies the taboo phenomenon both in Chinese language and English language. Also this paper studies a kind of rhetoric device, which is used to avoid taboo.
Key words: culture; Language taboo; similarities and differences

Ⅰ Introduction

With the development of the economy and society, communication between countries is becoming more and more frequent. English, as a world language, plays a more and more important role in it. So we need to learn English well and study the culture behind it. For example, language taboo is a very kind of cultural phenomenon. It exists in every language. We can find it in English and Chinese. If we don’t know about it, we will not be popular with the foreigners and to a great degree, our communication effect will be affected. The taboo is changeable and related to the culture, so in different times and different culture, there exist different taboos. We Chinese also have our own language taboo. This thesis researches the origin of taboo, the similarities and differences of taboo between English and Chinese, and the reason for the existence of language taboo.

1.1 Literature Review
1.1.1 Two different meanings of the taboo
Sigmund Freud thinks, “Taboo has two different meanings. One meaning is sublime and sacred; the other meaning is mysterious, dangerous, banned, and unclean. （Freud 1986）His opinion has been already accepted by all the researchers, it is also the base of translation works on taboo. Maybe he divides taboo into tow parts: Something which religion or custom regards as forbidden, not to be touched, spoken of; general agreement not to discuss something, do something. We know that taboo exists in every period and everywhere, it is a complex phenomenon of people’s society and it also has a long history. Taboo exists in different periods, and people must obey it, once you offend it, the nature or people will punish you. No one can explain and demonstrate it. All people respect it and believe in it, they consider it as gods, so it is “sublime”, “sacred”. There are many kinds of taboos in the world, in different time, in different countries, in different areas, among different races have different taboo. It is impossible for people to know them clearly and totally, they just know the taboo in the certain time and in a certain area, if someone offended taboo; he would be punished and even be sentenced to death. If someone offended some taboo in a certain time and in a certain area, he will be looked down upon or be punished by people.
1.1.2 The danger of touching the taboo
Ernst Cassirer thinks,“The danger of changing something into taboo is a physical danger, no matter our action is intentional or not intentional, the effect is same and it is not related to people. Generally speaking, taboo means something cannot be touched, and cannot be touched hasty. But the purpose and the way you access it cannot be considered.” (Gan 1985) I don’t think no matter our action is intentional or not, the effect of taboo is the same and it is not related to people. In ancient time, the nature or their leaders might punish people who offended the taboo. In primitive time, our ancestors had low intelligence and knew little about the nature, they tried their best to adapt themselves to living environment. In my opinion, taboo at that time means people can’t touch something or eat something and anything else, or they will be injured, so we can say the taboo at that time is the experience which people summarized in a certain meaning. It helps them to improve their living ability, the taboo only affects their living condition, they obey it in order to lead a safe life, it is closed to people. In class society, the rulers decided what the taboo was. In Chinese history, different dynasties had different taboo, people had no right to decide what the taboo was, they just follow their ruler’s, the rulers made taboo in order to be good to themselves in superstition field, for example, they didn’t allow people to say or write their name and even the word has same pronunciation with a character in their names, who did it would be sentenced to death. In Qin Dynasty, many writers were sentenced to death because of using words which ruler banned, though we think it is ridiculous, it is a fact. But in some dynasties, rulers didn’t mind people saying or using their names, so people at that time can do it freely and safely. So the taboo is decided by the rulers, there is no regular taboo in class societies, so taboo’s effect is different, not the same, it is also related to people. In modern society, taboo is passed by our ancestors, because the world has varieties of human cultures, taboo is different, and the difference mainly reflected in language, if you visited a foreign country or a race, you must know what is not to be said, or you would not be popular with local people and even can’t stay there any more. Generally speaking, a person who offends taboo in modern society can’t be sentenced to death. Above all, we can see that taboo is related closely to people and its effect is changeable in different time and in different
Areas.　
1.1.3The positive sides and the negative sides of taboo
James George Frazer，in his famous master piece The Golden Bough， says: “If some certain actions’ results are unpleasant and dangerous to him, he will naturally be careful and don’t do things like that in order not to accept such results. In another word, he doesn’t do things that will bring them disasters according to their misunderstandings on the relationship between reason and result. In short, he makes himself obey the taboo, positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”, while negative witchcraft says”don’t do it, avoid to something happening”.(James 1987). His opinion both has advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, he points out that positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”. I agree with him, taboo is very mysterious to us, everyone wants to know if he offended taboo, what would be given, it is the curiosity effect, if the witchcraft tells us exactly and correctly, it is useful and valuable to us. His opinion both has advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, he points out that positive witchcraft says “what you do will bring to you what result”. I agree with him, taboo is very mysterious to us, everyone wants to know if he offended taboo, what would be given, it is the curiosity effect, if the witchcraft tells us exactly and correctly, it is useful and valuable to us. Then everyone can avoid disasters that brought from offending the taboo, but it is impossible to become true, witchcraft exists long time. In class society, the witchcraft has already come out, but still many people got disasters even lost their lives. I believe that the witchcraft tells people what you do will bring to you what result, why still many people be injured? I also believe that people must be in deeply belief on witchcraft. Then, what is the reason causes such result? Furthermore, he says that “while negative witchcraft says doesn’t do it, avoid to something happening”. I don’t think this sentence is negative. As we know, the world is changeable and complex, the world changes, the taboo changes. There are many different cultures in the world, so it surely has many different kinds of taboos, it impossible to know all of the taboo, we researchers can only know the especial examples, what about witchcraft in past period? I think scientific result is much more correct and exact than witchcraft’s.

Ⅱ The origin of the taboo

Taboo is a cultural phenomenon, which exists in every country’s communication. Taboo plays a very important role in the world culture; it is also a complex phenomenon of folk culture and has long history. In the international academic circles, the term “taboo” (taboo or tabu) is used to refer to this common and complex phenomenon of world culture; it was the local dialect of Tango islanders of Polynesia in south Pacific. It means “sacred” and “untouched”. It was brought in English by English navigator named Coke in eighteenth century. Every culture contains taboo in the world, and the taboos’ change depends on the periods’ change. （Wan 2001）In crossing-culture communication, if we go against the language taboo, we will have bad result. In china, taboo also has a long history. In Shangzhou dynasty, taboo had already existed. In Qin Dynasty, taboo had further developed. In Tang dynasty, taboo had been very popular with people.
In primitive time, people will be afraid and evade, when they face something that are strong and ferocious in nature. (Li 1989) For example, when the primitive people were attacked by snake and tigers for several times, they would remember such animals, and formed a fearful concept through memory and impression for several times, so they would try their best to escape such animals in their daily lives. Primitive hunters felt nothing to do with the climate, when the climate isn’t good; they would stay at homes and protected themselves from danger. Taboo in this time is in the rudimentary stage, while the real danger of taboo is imaginable. We can see that taboo for primitive people is an effective way they struggle with the nature. So we can say once there existed people, there existed taboo.
Taboo’s existence is earlier than the ghosts and gods’. The early taboo is related to the nature and material life, not related to the ghosts and gods. But in the primitive time, in order to live, people should struggle with the nature; they would get some experience, which seems to be mysterious and horrible. The experience had mysterious and horrible strength that bound people’s behaviors. Primitive people considered the nature as a person who has feeling, emotion and so on, so the primitive ghosts and gods concept formed. The concept of ghosts and gods made the taboo much holy. So taboo’s consolidation and development are closed to the concept of ghosts and gods.

Ⅲ The similarities and differences in taboo between English and Chinese

With the development of the society we should communicate with each other in different countries, because the world is becoming smaller and smaller in the modern times. English is the world language, so we should use it to communicate with foreigners. If we go against language taboo, we won’t be popular with the local people or make them feel angry and even make some violent action happen. So it is necessary for us English learners to know the language taboo of English, we are Chinese, so it is also necessary for us to know the language taboo of Chinese. Taboo is closed to the culture, so different culture has different taboo, but there still have some differences and similarities of taboo between English and Chinese.

3.1 The similarities in taboo between English and Chinese
Though Chinese and English have different culture, they have something in the sense of taboo.
3.1.1 The religion, superstition and worship-related taboo
Most English believe in Christianity, so the name of Jehovah is language taboo. The English language researcher Leonard Bloomfield in his master piece language says, on general condition, people avoid using the religion words, for example, God Christ，Jesus，hell，devil and so on. So they use golly，gosh instead of God，using the deuce，the dickens or old Vick instead of the Devil.
Chinese adore more Gods, in primitive time, the worship of nature, the worship of Totem, the worship of ancestor, and later the worship of the religion. So the content and pattern of the taboo are complex and varied. In china, people who believe in Buddhism and Taoism avoid telling lies and wild talk. The Chinese affected deeply by the Confucius’ thoughts, the doctrine of Confucius and Mencius wore etiquette. It needs people to use proper language when they communicate with each other, not to tell lies and wild talk.
Moreover，people also believe in “door-god”, “god of wealth”, “kitchen god” and so on. During the festivals people who buy god of wealth avoid saying “buy”, he should say “please”；the sellers avoid saying “sell”，they should say “deliver”，or they will blaspheme the gods. For example, when we are on boat, we can’t say “turn over”, “sink”，or it will be unlucky. Some hunters of northern forests in China avoid saying “tiger”，they say “big insect” instead.
3.1.2The illness and death-related taboo
To be ill is an unlucky thing, it will bring misery and discomfort to people. Chinese and English avoid illness, the patients don’t want to mention it, and they also don’t want the other people to mention it. When people talk about illness, in order to avoid upsetting and comfort people, people created some implicit ways of saying it. For example, to be ill (be out of sorts), illness (disorder), apoplexy (accident), diarrhea (Mexican toothache).
In ancient China, people didn’t know the reason why people was ill, and affected by the Buddhism thoughts, once people are ill，t