A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Euphemism

Euphemism is a widespread linguistic phenomenon. So far most of its studies deal with individual language. There is a shortage of contrastive research between two languages. Therefore, this thesis tries to make a contrastive study of the English and Chinese euphemism to discover the similarities and differences between them.First the author introduces the origin and the definition of euphemism as well as the classification of euphemism. Then the author makes a contrastive study of the English and Chinese euphemisms in terms of formation devices and culture. Euphemism is a language phenomenon, so it can be analyzed from the phonetic, lexical, figurative and grammar aspects. Euphemism is also a culture phenomenon, so it can be analyzed from cultural aspects. The contrastive study is made in several main types of euphemisms -- the euphemism of old age, the euphemism of poverty, the euphemism of occupation, the euphemism of unemployment, the euphemism of sex, the euphemism of death, etc.Through the contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemism, we can learn the similarities and differences between the two languages and the two cultures, which are of considerable value and guidance to our foreign language learning and teaching, intercultural communication, translation, dictionary compilation and so on.