Comparative Study On Chinese And English Euphemistic Construction

This is a study on the construction of English and Chinese euphemisms. The existing researches on euphemism mainly focus on the similarities between Chinese and English constructive methods and devices, talking little about the differences between them. The comparative approach adopted in the research provides a clear view on both the common euphemistic devices in English and Chinese (they are: widening, synonym, metaphor, understatement, periphrasis, metonymy, ellipsis, negation, etc.) as well as the different euphemistic devices of each language (English: phonetic distortion, rhyming slang, using the names of other nations, blending, tense-changing; Chinese: assonance, tone-changing, employing the structure of the Chinese characters, antonyms). The common and different constructing methods and devices are shown by comparing and contrasting all kinds of examples of euphemisms quoted from dictionaries and monologues of euphemisms. Under the common ways of thinking and the same constructing principle, the two languages create a lot of similar euphemisms showing the closeness of euphemistic construction. Both Chinese and English languages create euphemisms under the constructing principles of Distance, Relevance and Pleasantness, under which Chinese language and English language have generated large quantities of similar euphemisms. Meanwhile, as a complementary study, cultural differences between English and Chinese and its impact on euphemism construction were studied to analyze the reason of different euphemistic constructions in each language. The analysis was taken in the form of a contrastive analysis in Phonetic, Lexical and Grammatical categories respectively. The study enhances our awareness of the linguistic features as well as the cultural features of the construction of English euphemisms and Chinese euphemisms. This thesis adds to the few comparative studies on English and Chinese euphemism construction and provides some suggestions for foreign language instruction and for the enhancement of the awareness of cross-cultural communication in foreign language learners.