A Comparative Study Of Chinese Euphemism And English Euphemism And Its Translation

Euphemism is a common linguistic and cultural phenomenon existing in human society. Humanbeings in communication share one psychological tendency, that is, to avoid using the vulgar, unpleasant ordisagreeable words. For this reason, some good or nice-sounding words have to be used to substitute forthose words. That is how euphemism came from. Euphemism plays such an important role in adjusting theinterpersonal relationships and improving the communicative effect that one can not get through a daywithout using them. Actually so many scholars at home or abroad devoted themselves to the study ofeuphemism from different perspectives that the study has achieved wealthy results. This thesis is intendedto present a comparative study of Chinese and English euphemisms and its translation.Language is not only a carrier of information, but also a mirror of culture and society. As anindispensable part of language, euphemism is also deeply rooted in culture and displays the multiplemapping relations with culture. Based on the sociolinguistic theory of relationship between culture andlanguage, this thesis with the contrastive analysis and a combination of theory and examples, attempts tocontrast Chinese and English euphemisms from three aspects: origin, formation and cultural connotationsand discusses what translation theories can be applied to guide the translation of euphemism. Through thecomparison, we can find both differences and similarities exist between them, which are determined by thelinguistic features of the two languages and the two nations’ religious beliefs, customs, value orientationsand so on.Finally the conclusion part points out that the comparative study of Chinese and English euphemismsand its translation will hold great significance for gaining deeper insight into the cultural differencesbetween China and English-speaking countries and improving the cross-cultural communication abilitieswhich also will shed light on foreign language teaching. Language is dynamic and colorful, not expectingeuphemism which is an indispensable part of language. Therefore, more in-depth researches are needed toenrich and perfect the study of euphemism.