A Cross-cultural Study On The Translation Of Death Euphemism In A Dream Of Red Mansions

Language is the carrier of culture. As a common language phenomenon, euphemism often contains much information, such as national history, religion, and moral principles etc.. The present thesis is an attempt to apply Florence Kluchhohn's Five Value Orientations to the analysis of the differences of cultural patterns between China and America. The thesis further probes the cultural differences reflected by death euphemism and the different ways of expression between the two languages by a general study of the Chinese and English death euphemism and a specific study of the death euphemism in A Dream of Red Mansions, so that it helps people understand each other better in intercultural communications.The paper consists of seven chapters.Chapter One gives a brief introduction of euphemism, death euphemismChapter Two is about the previous studies on euphemism and death euphemism.Chapter Three mainly expound on Florence Kluchhohn's Five Orientations which are needed for the analysis of death euphemism.Chapter Four, Five and Six are the main bodies of this thesis.Chapter Four makes a contrastive analysis of death euphemism from two aspects: cultural patterns and religions. Chapter five gives a general study of both English and Chinese death euphemism in the perspective of Florence Kluchhohn's Five Value Orientations. Chapter Six further demonstrates the cultural differences between the two languages by a specific study of thirty examples of death euphemism in A Dream of Red Mansions.Chapter Seven is the conclusion of the thesis.