1、 euphemisms of death, poverty, marriage, pregnancy and disease. Then the author brings to the conclusion that if the language learners want to learn a foreign language well, it is better that he has a good knowledge of its culture. Key Words：euphemism, definition, feature, culture, difference 摘要 语言是
2、人与人交流的最重要的方法，也是保持社会关系的重要方法。 然而又很多东西是不能直接说的，有很多词语会让人尴尬和不愉快。 因此，为了避免冒犯以及误会，人们在交流的时候通常用一些间接的以及令人愉快的表达来代替那些令人不高兴的粗鲁的词语。 那些词语就叫做委婉语。 委婉语在人们的日常交流中扮演着重要的角色。 委婉语是为了避免禁忌语，且存在于各种文化和社会中。 为了帮助语言学习者更好的了解和掌握委婉语，这篇论文主要讨论了英语委婉语和中国委婉语在文化上的不同。 在第一章，作者介绍了委婉语的定义和特点。 在第二章，作者介绍了委婉语，语言以及文化三者的关系。 第三章主要是对比有关死亡，贫困，婚姻，怀孕和疾病方面
3、的中英委婉语。 由此得出结论，如果想要学好一门语言，就有必要了解这门语言的文化。 关键词：委婉语；定义；特点；文化；差别 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The definition of Euphemism Verbal communication is one of the most important methods people apply to maintain the social relationship. In order to avoid the offensiveness in communication, people usually use som
4、e polite or pleasant words to replace the rude or embarrassing ones. Therefore, euphemism emerges. Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures, it takes an very important role in peoples daily communication. Euphemism is originated from the Greek. Its prefix “eu” means good, pleasant
5、, and its root “pheme” means speech. Thus, euphemism literally means “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner” （Neaman and Silver, 1990:32）. According to Allan and Burridge （1991:11）, the definition of euphemism is: A euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in orde
6、r to avoid possible loss of face: either ones own face or through going offense, that of the audience, or of some third party. Many people have defined euphemism. There are some definitions of euphemism below: （1）mild or vague expression substituted for a harsher or more direct one. （Pocket Oxford E
7、nglish-Chinese Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1996） （2）the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. （Websters Dictionary of American English, Random House, Inc.1997） （3）（an example of） the use of a more pleasant, less direct name fo
8、r something thought to be unpleasant. （Longman English-Chinese Dictionary of Contempo- rary English, Longman Group UK Limited, 1988） （4）A euphemism is a polite, pleasant, or neutral word or expression that is used to refer to something which people may find upsetting or embarrassing to talk about, f
9、or example, sex, the human body or death. （Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, SFLEP, 2000） （5）Rhetorical trope: a pleasant replacement for an objectionable word that has pejorative connotations. （Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics, FLERP, 2000） In China, Chen Wangdao （1997） defined eu
10、phemism as a figure of speech in which roundabout and implicit words and expressions are used to substitute direct expressions to hint the meaning. “Weiwan （委婉）” is a figure of speech in Chinese. It is also called “wanqu （婉曲）” or “wanzhuan（婉转）”. Another figure of speech in Chinese is called “bihui （
11、避讳）” or “huishi （讳饰）”. The combination of the figure of speech “weiwan （委婉）” and the figure of speech “bihui （避讳）” in Chinese is equivalent to the figure of speech “euphemism” in English （Li Guonan, 2001:190）. 1.2The features of Euphemism 1.2.1 National characteristic Euphemism is a common language
12、phenomenon in the world culture. However, different countries and different nations in different surroundings and social environment have different production and living manners, and their culture depositions are also different. So euphemism in different language has some differences either. The dif
13、ferences are the representation of the national characteristic. There is a typical example about the word “poor”, it described an young woman who lived with hard condition. The paragraph uses several euphemisms of poor: “I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I was not poor, I was needy. Then
14、 they said it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, that I was culturally deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, that I was underprivileged. Then they told me that underprivileged was overused, that I was disadvantaged. I still do not have a dime but I have a great vocabular
15、y!” Needy （lack of commodity）, culturally deprived（lose the opportunity of education）, underprivileged （having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society）, disadvantaged （humble）. Those four words are the euphemisms for “poor” which the government used to cheat the public. 1.2.2
16、Regional feature Different regions have different customs, so do the language. For instance, bread is a kind of daily food in British, and the phrase “take bread out of someones mouth” means to go off with someones job. And there is another example. An Australian woman married to an American man. Th
17、ey spent their honeymoon in America. And one day, the couple intended to go to a party together. But the bridegroom could not find a suitable full dress. The bride took out a birthday suit that she gave him as a present a few days ago and said: “Why not wear your birthday suit?” However, the whole f
18、amily were all astonished because in American English, “in ones birthday suit” is the euphemistic expression of “naked”. So this embarrassing situation was resulted from the regional differences in euphemism. 1.2.3 Indirect and implicit The most important feature of euphemism is indirect and implici
19、t. The purpose of euphemism is to use some indirect expressions to avoid something that makes people unhappy. And this is the indirect character. Euphemism always gives people hints in a roundabout way. We can infer the deeper meaning and intention from the conversation. For example: -“Dont you thin
20、k my cooking is wonderful?” The girl asked. -“Are you fishing for compliments.” Her boy friend responded. In the conversation above, the boyfriend not only answered the girl implicitly, and did not embarrass his girlfriend. Similarly, when someone is ill, we always say he is under the weather. If someone is mad, we say he is soft in mind. 1.2.4 Universality Universality is something that is well-known and accepted by all of the human beings. Euphemism almost exists in every language and culture. And each language has its own ta
