【導(dǎo)讀】I. II. .III. 1. 1. 2. 2. 2. 3. 3. 3. ..4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 8. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 14. 15. thefuture.andmyteachers.ssocial

　　

【正文】 ear and easier for the poor to accept. 第 11 頁 In Chinese, euphemisms for poverty are paratively fewer. Such as “jieju(拮據(jù) )”, “shoutoujin (手頭緊 )”, “shoutoububian(手頭不便 )” and “nangzhongxiuse (囊中羞澀 )”. The word “ poor” is not so tabooed in traditional Chinese culture as in western culture. After the founding of the People?s Republic of China, the proletariat became the leader of the country. In a rather long period of time, people felt glorious because of being poor. In the past twenty years, China?s reform and openingup policy has made more and more people shake off poverty and set out on the road to prosperity. With the development of economy, the old philosophy that wealth means deficiency in soul, degeneration and corruption is outdated. Poor life is not what people expect. Accordingly, the word “poor” is euphemized as “youkunnan(有困難 )” in Chinese. The poor are called “dishouruzhe (低收入者 )” or “ruoshiqunti (弱勢(shì)群體 )”. Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy There is a great difference between the attitude of western and eastern culture toward marriage. Western culture cherishes individuality, especially personal freedom, while the Chinese people emphasize the ethics. Some young people in western society are afraid of losing freedom after marriage. They usually choose such expressions as “have gotten hitched” and “tie the knot” to refer to marriage. “Trial marriage” is used to refer to “cohabitation” in English. “Mistress” bees “unmarried wife” and “bastard” is called “l(fā)ove child”. Besides, the divorce rate in western countries has been increasingly rising. Some young people believe that divorce releases them from the marriage bond and family responsibility. So divorce is not much of a serious event, that?s why divorce is called “break up” and “split up”. Sometime they even make fun of divorce. They use expressions like “matchruptcy” and “go to Reno”. “Matchruptcy” is an imitation of the word “bankruptcy”. Reno is a city of western Nevada near the California border. It is a famous resort that was once noted primarily as a divorce center because of its easy and quick divorce procedures. Chinese culture, however, lays great emphasis on team. It stresses on the steadiness of group, family, society and nation. Therefore, marriage is called “zhongshendashi (終身大事 )”, 第 12 頁 which means “an important event in one?s life”. Marriage is a matter of joy, so marriage is called “xijieliangyuan (喜結(jié)良緣 )” and “xijielianli (喜結(jié)連理 )”. On the contrary, divorce is dishonorable. Hence, divorce is euphemized as “fenshoule (分手了 )”, “l(fā)ile(離了 )” and so on. There are a lot of euphemisms in English and Chinese, which are containing similar denotative meaning while distinct cultural connotation and allusion. Take the euphemisms for pregnancy as an example, a Japanese scholar lists some euphemistic expressions for “pregnancy” used in different historical periods, which serve as a vivid manifestation of the developing trend in the realm of euphemism: She has canceled all her social engagements. (1856) She is in an interesting condition. (1880) She is in a delicate condition. (1895) She is knitting little bootees. (1910) She is in a family way. (1920) She is expecting. (1935) She is pregnant. (1956) (Fan Jiacai, 1992:176) In ancient China, Chinese euphemize pregnant as “shenhuailiujia (身懷六甲 )”, because it was said that “l(fā)iujia(六甲 )”is the right moment when Heaven and Earth create things. In modern China, we say pregnancy as “tayoule (她有了 )”or she is going to be a mother(她快當(dāng)媽媽了 ). Euphemisms for disease It is unfortunate to have diseases, and it can be very impolite and rude to tale about diseases directly in front of some sick or disable people. Therefore, due to the sympathy for those sick or disable people, lots of euphemisms for illness in Chinese and English languages. As we all known, cancer is a name that the public do not want to mention. The currently modish euphemisms are “Big C”, “”, “incurable disease”, “l(fā)ong illness”, etc. In Chinese, the cancer is named “juezheng(絕癥 )”, “buzhizhizheng (不治之癥 )”, “wanzheng (頑癥 )”. Disability is a very hard and 第 13 頁 sensitive area in all cultures. In Chinese, expressions like “canjiren (殘疾人 )”, “l(fā)ongyaren (聾啞人 )”, “sangshi shili(喪失視力 )”, “zhili zhang?ai(智力障礙 )” are used instead of “canfei (殘廢 )”, “l(fā)ongzi (聾子 )”, “yaba (啞巴 )”, “xiazi(瞎子 )”, “ruozhi (弱智 )” and so on. In English, “the disabled”, “the handicapped”, “the inconvenienced”, “the invalid” and so on are used for “disabilities”, “auditory impaired”, “hard of hearing”, “imperfect hearing for deaf”, “sightdeprived”, “visuallyretarded” or “partially sighted for blind” and ., slow, special, unwise, etc. for dementia or imbecile. 第 14 頁 Chapter 4 Conclusion With the development of the society and economy, the world is getting smaller and we have much more opportunities to interact with people from different countries and cultures. As we mentioned above, euphemism is a linguist phenomenon in all cultures. And euphemism plays an important role in our daily munication. It is the use of a pleasant, polite and harmlesssounding term in place of those considered unpleasant, rude and offensive. It also can help people build a positive municative atmosphere to establish harmonious social relationships and achieve the munication goals at last. Furthermore, euphemism is a cultural phenomenon. Language is a integral part of culture, and euphemism as an important form of language, which is also influenced by culture and carries cultural information. Different cultures exist in different regions, due to their different beliefs, social values, customs, lifestyles and behaviors, there exis