【正文】 淺析中英語言禁忌[Abstract] Language, as the carrier of culture, is created during the process of human beings’ productive labor and serves as the tool of munication to convey the message between people. However, it has been endowed with magic and power in particular language acts. As the old saying goes, troubles e out of the tongue. Superstitious people think that the language itself can bring about fortune or misfortune so that taboos to restrict the use of language are created. Anyone who violates them will get punishment, whereas those who faithfully obey the restrictions of language taboo will get protection. Furthermore, linguistic taboos change with the development of society .The paper firstly analyzes the evolution of linguistic taboo. Secondly, it is indicated in the paper that linguistic taboo exists in almost every aspect of people’s life and is a universal social phenomenon in China and Britain. Both Chinese and English cultures are in agreement about linguistic taboos such as pronunciation taboo, and vocabulary taboo. However, influenced by different cultural backgrounds, ideologies and the concepts of value, Chinese and English linguistic taboos also have differences, as is discussed in the paper from the aspects of taboo subjects, taboo numbers and names. At last, this paper puts forward two effective ways of avoiding taboo, that is, using euphemism and having a good knowledge of the taboo culture. And this discussion would help English learners improve their ability of crosscultural munication and achieve better municational effects.[Key Words] linguistic taboo。 evolution。 similarities。 differences 【摘 要】 語言是人們在活動過程中產(chǎn)生和發(fā)展起來的一種社交工具，其功能就是溝通信息，但在特定的語言行為中，卻被賦予了它自身所沒有的超人的感覺和超人的力量。社會成員竟認(rèn)為語言本身能給人類帶來某種吉祥或不幸，人為地設(shè)置了種種語言禁區(qū)。他們相信誰要是違背這些語言禁忌，誰就會受到應(yīng)有的懲罰。反之，誰要是忠實(shí)遵循了語言禁忌的約束，誰就會得到相應(yīng)的庇護(hù)和保佑。語言禁忌會隨著社會的發(fā)展而變化。本論文首先論述了語言禁忌的演變，接著提出語言禁忌存在于人們生活的各個方面，是一種普遍存在的社會現(xiàn)象。在漢英兩種語言中，有些忌諱是一致的。文中分析了中英語言禁忌在語音層面、詞匯方面的相似性。但是由于漢英民族文化背景、意識形態(tài)、價值觀念等的不同，中英語言禁忌的內(nèi)容和形式也有一些差異，因此本論文還探討了中英語言禁忌在私人話題、數(shù)字和命名稱謂方面的互異性。這些異同和發(fā)展演進(jìn)往往會給跨文化交際帶來一些障礙，為此，有效避免使用禁忌語的方法主要是使用委婉語代替禁忌詞，并充分了解異國的文化背景。希望本論文的研究能幫助英語學(xué)習(xí)者加深英漢兩種語言和文化的理解，提高跨文化交際能力，避免交際失敗，達(dá)到理想的交際效果?！娟P(guān)鍵詞】 語言禁忌。 演變。 相似點(diǎn)。 不同點(diǎn) 1. Introduction“It is manifested in language: persons, things and activities that are taboo should not be talked about or should be mentioned in a roundabout way in language. Words and expressions related to these social taboos are linguistic taboos. ”[1] The above definition shows that Linguistic taboo, as an integral part of language, is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a social phenomenon. Like other parts of language, the origin of linguistic taboo is deeply rooted in the primitive social and cultural background and its change is greatly influenced by the development of human society in order to satisfy human beings’ needs for smooth munications. With the advancement of science and technology, many puzzles about the universe are solved, and with the increase of material wealth, human demands for spiritual civilization are also being higher. Evidently, linguistic taboos are a reflection of these social development and the value concepts and beliefs of the culture in which they are born. It exists in every aspect of people’s life. There are some similarities in English and Chinese linguistic taboo, but different cultures may not all agree on what is or is not a taboo in a specific context. So the differences also exist between English and Chinese linguistic taboo. A Lack of knowledge in this field or improper use of linguistic taboos may lead to misunderstandings, conflicts and other unknown serious consequences in the cross –culture munications which is increasingly frequent and wider now. This paper intends to study the evolution of linguistic taboo, to analyze the similarities between Chinese and English linguistic taboo in pronunciation and vocabulary, and present the differences from the aspects of names, numbers as well as taboo subjects in both cultures. Last but not least, two effective ways are proposed to avoid linguistic taboos. 2. The evolution of linguistic tabooThe word taboo (also spelled as “tabu”, “tapu” and “kapu”) was borrowed from Tonga, an island group in Polynesia, and its first recorded use in English was by Captain James Cook (17291779), a British navigator. He came to the Archipelago of Tonga during his explorations in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. There he heard the word from the local people, which originally referred to persons, activities (including speech), or things under prohibition because they were considered, on the one hand, ”sacred” and “consecrated”, and on the other, “uncanny”, “dangerous” and “unclean”. He introduced it into English in his description of his third voyage around the world in taboo phenomena are not unique in Tonga. Instead, it has long existed in all cultures and language throughout the world. [2] As we have mentioned above, linguistic taboo is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a kind of social phenomenon. The development of society has influenced the development of linguistic taboo. So if we want to reveal the whole picture of linguistic taboo, we must have a review of the history of linguistic taboo. “The evolution of linguistic taboo has generally experienced three stages according to the history of human society: the primitive superstitions stage, the feudal patriarchal stage, and modern democratic stage. But there is no explicit demarcation line between three stages.”[3] The primitive superstitious stagesAs we all know, In the primitive society, people didn’t get to know well about nature, most natural phenomena such as lightning, thunder, storm, earthquake, were beyond the understanding of human beings. When these phenomena happened, they thought that certain supernatural creatures possessed great power. They thought