On The Mapping Of Gender In Euphemisms Used By Chinese And American College Students

Euphemism is not only a linguistic concept, but also a social cultural one. Used in a certain speaking community and influenced by specific culture and social values, euphemism is distinctly culture-specific and communicative, branded with social morality, social values, and ethnic characteristics. Furthermore, euphemism appears as a gender variation of language for gender is directly related to language, which has been long found out by quite a number of anthropologists, historians and linguists in that men and women strikingly differ from each other in language use, especially in wording and speech style. It is a pity, however, little has been done in investigating the influence and embodiment of gender in use of euphemisms with empirical analysis approach.On the basis of the present research achievements on euphemism, including its classification, formation, social origin, etc., this thesis focuses on the analysis of the differences in use of euphemisms by college students in China and America with empirical approach in combination of sociolinguistic theories such as Face Theory, Politeness Principle, Co-Operation Principle and such anthropological theories as"two cultures"model, linguistic-relativity hypothesis and ethnography of speaking. With reference to classification in Chinese and English euphemism dictionaries and the facts obtained in the pretest, six topics, sensitive and tabooed, are selected for the investigation in form of questionnaire, which was conducted by 104 college students in two Chinese and American universities with approximately equal proportion between numbers of female and male. The data thus collected are analyzed through soft wares SPSS and EXCEL before differences in use of euphemisms are deducted by four groups that are Chinese female and male college students, American female and male college students, Chinese and American female college students and Chinese and American male college students.It is shown from the results that the social factor gender does play a role in the use of euphemisms by Chinese and American college students. To speak specifically, concerning gender variation of language, female college students generally speak more euphemistically both in China and America; while in the aspect of ethnographic characteristic of language, Chinese college students are more euphemistic in speaking than their American counterparts. And all subjects both in China and America pay more attention to their euphemistic degree when speaking in formal situations, to a superior and to an elder interactant. These differences attributes on the one hand to the fact of male dominance in language, that a society penetrated with the overwhelming conception of male dominance is mirrored in language with the directness, less use of euphemism, more coarse even tabooed words characteristic of male language and with the politeness, circumbendibus, and more use of euphemisms typical of female language. Female and male begin from childhood throughout schooling to acquire such linguistic skills. On the other hand, the differences result from the different cultures and social norms in linguistic behaviors in America and China. While Chinese culture sets great store by empathy with others, using language to reinforce emotional ties that bind all together to forge social harmony, especially for women, restrainedness and implicitness are highly prized linguistic features; in American culture, equality and freedom are highly valued, where a competent American, either male or female, has been inculcated as one speaking frankly and assertively with no circumbendibus and hesitation. As to the implication of the results in this...