A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Taboos And Their Avoiding Strategies In Intercultural Communication

In all ages, taboos commonly exist in every culture and become an objectiverealization in the development of society. Language is a symbol of culture so thatpeople can conclude the cultural customs hiden behind the language of a nation. As animportant part of language, certainly, taboos reflect different cultural backgrounds,histories, customs as well as values in each nation. Since the Chinese and Englishcultural modes both have generality and individuality, accordingly, taboos whichreflect these cultural modes are also of differences and similarities. A betterunderstanding with the differences and similarities of English and Chinese taboos arenot only helpful to the mastery of English and Chinese culture for us but also anindispensable factor of making intercultural communication successful and effective.This thesis analyses taboos in both English and Chinese in a contrastive way andthe strategies to avoid them in intercultural communication. It consists of six parts inall: first of all, in the introduction, the author discusses the motivation of the study andthe structure of the thesis in order to let readers have a general view on the wholethesis. Next, in Chapter One, based on many previous studies on taboos both at homeand abroad, the author illustrates some theories of pragmatics such as cooperativeprinciple, politeness principle, face theory, as well as the definition and importance ofintercultural communication. In the end of Chapter One, the author discusses therelationship between western and oriental culture, language and taboo. So to speak,the content of Chapter One is a theoretical basis of the next analysis on the differencesand similarities of taboos. At the beginning of Chapter Two, the author shows ageneral survey of taboo which includes its definition, origin, features and functions.The last part of Chapter Two, the core of this thesis, analyses the differences andsimilarities of English and Chinese taboos in many aspects, for example: religion,superstition, privacy, sex, naming, addressing and so on as well as their culturalcauses. In Chapter Three, the author presents five common strategies to avoid taboosin intercultural communication respectively, that is use of euphemism, use of body language, telling white lies, asking questions and thinking globally and culturally.These strategies are useful for us to prevent some unnecessary misundersandings,conflicts or embarrassment in intercultural communication. In Chapter Four, theauthor concludes the implication of study on taboos in the aspects of interculturalcommunication and foreign language teaching and learning. In the last part of thisthesis, namely, the conclusion, the author mentions that taboos make an importantcontribution to enriching the forms of human verbal expressions, but people are tryingto avoid them in daily life by regarding them as "language junk". People’s reflectionon taboos and the aims of using taboos, to some degree, illustrate that language is notonly a communication medium but also a powerful tool for communication. Hence,taboos have great impact on the foreign language teaching and learning and theintercultural communication.In a word, taboo, as a special language phenomenon, is an important part ofculture. Based on the achievements made by other scholars, the thesis makes arelatively systematic explanation of Chinese and English taboos in a contrastive waywhich aims at on one hand helping people to communicate more efficiently andsuccessfully in intercultural communication and to avoid conflicts andmisunderstandings; on the other hand, bringing some suggestive advice forimproving the quality of foreign language teaching and learning.