Euphemism is a typical and common cultural phenomenon in both Chinese and English communities, which has a long standing history. Death euphemism, which plays a vital role in linguistics, is an important component of euphemism. The thesis tends to make a contrastive analysis of death euphemism between Chinese and English under the two absolutely different culture characteristics and to explore the deep culture connotations under this language phenomenon.
This thesis is composed of five parts:
Part one, the introduction, presents a brief view of euphemism and death euphemism. Many previous researches of euphemism are stated and provide the definition of euphemism.
Part two, three and four are the main bodies of the whole thesis: Part two provides the theoretical backgrounds and bases of death euphemism, mainly about “the theory of the context of culture” and American anthropologist Florence Kluckhohn’s “Five Orientation”. Part three classifies Chinese death euphemism and English death euphemism respectively. Part four makes a contrastive analysis of death euphemism in Chinese and English, mainly from three aspects, namely, religions, social customs and cultural patterns.
The last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis which aims at improving our understanding of other cultures as well as our own cultures, especially death cultures.
Key Words
Death; euphemism; culture; difference
Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………I
Key Words……………………………………………………………………………I
摘 要…………………………………………………………………………………II
关键词…………………………………………………………………………………II
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1
Ⅰ. Euphemism and Death Euphemism………………………………………………2
A. Previous Studies of Euphemism………………………………………………2
B. Definition of Euphemism………………………………………………………2
Ⅱ. Theoretical Backgrounds and Bases……………………………………………3
A. Context of Culture ……………………………………………………………3
B. Florence Kluckhohn’s Five Orientations………………………………………4
Ⅲ. Classification of Death Euphemism in Chinese and English……………………5
A. Death Euphemism in Chinese…………………………………………………5
1. Death of Religious People……………………………………………………5
2. Death of Monarch and Common …………………………………………6
3. Death of Others………………………………………………………………6
B. Death Euphemism in English…………………………………………………7
1. Death of Religious People……………………………………………………7
2. Death of Hospital and Maritime……………………………………………8
3. Death of Others………………………………………………………………9
Ⅳ. Contrastive Analysis of Death Euphemism in Chinese and English……………10
A. Differences of religion………………………………………………………10
B. Differences of Social Custom…………………………………………………11
C. Differences of Cultural Pattern………………………………………………13
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………15
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………16
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………17
