A Contrastive Study Of English,Chinese And Japanese Euphemism From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration

Euphemisms as a kind a linguistic phenomenon has integrated in people's life and for native speakers,it is a natural action to use euphemisms in communication,and they will not concern the origin and composition of this language phenomenon.However,for foreign language learners,having no ideas for the origin and composition of euphemisms means cannot use the proper euphemisms and this brings barrier to language learning and intercultural communication.Many scholars home and abroad have studied euphemisms from various aspects,such as rhetoric,semantics,pragmatics,sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.The previous researches have laid a good foundation to the further study of euphemisms,and developed the linguistics theory.This thesis attempts to find out the cognitive similarities and differences in the composition and usage of euphemisms and their influence factors in English,Chinese and Japanese from the perspective of vital relations and basic integration networks in Conceptual Integration Theory.Conceptual Integration Theory is an important theory in cognitive linguistics,and makes a potent explanation to the cognitive process of language,so this theory provides support to the cognitive formation mechanism of euphemisms.The essence of conceptual integration is the relation integration,by the reason that the connectivity between input spaces is based on vital relations and vital relations between input spaces form the conceptual integration networks.The theory includes four basic conceptual integration networks: simplex network,mirror network,single-scope network and double-scope network.Domestic scholars have used Conceptual Integration Theory to explain the mechanism of euphemisms,but researches mainly abide in one or two languages and do not give a distinct explanation to vital relations between input spaces.This study based on the quantitative collection of English,Chinese and Japanese euphemisms in three classifications,namely,altruism euphemisms,encompassing euphemisms and egoism euphemisms,which are selected from four dictionaries and three books and correlative news reports.This thesis uses the investigation method,literature study method and qualitative analytical method to make induction and deduction to the cognitive process of euphemisms in three languages to investigate four questions:(1)what are the similarities and differences of the vital relations and conceptual integration process of altruism euphemisms in the three languages?(2)What are the similarities and differences of the vital relations and conceptual integration process of encompassing euphemisms in the three languages?(3)What are the similarities and differences of the vital relations and conceptual integration process of egoism euphemisms in discourse?(4)What are the potential reasons for the similarities and differences?Based on the contrastive analysis of above issues,the author draws the conclusion that firstly,the cognitive formation mechanism of euphemisms is based on the vital relations of input spaces.The vital relations of input spaces connect euphemistic objects to social cultural background knowledge,then form different conceptual integration networks and generate euphemisms and the using context.Thus,in different social cultural background different euphemisms are created to stand for the same thing.Secondly,the author finds that the integration processes of Chinese euphemisms are the most complicated and the corresponding elements in input spaces are more complicated than English and Japanese euphemisms,while compared with Japanese euphemisms,the formation mechanism of English euphemisms is more complex than Japanese.Thirdly,the integration processes of euphemisms in three languages reflect that euphemisms in English and Japanese reflect more emphasis on word-formation and grammar,while Chinese euphemisms pay more attention to the history cultural background.Therefore,for English and Japanese learners,learning word-formation and grammar is more favorable,while for Chinese learners,Chinese historical and cultural learning is essential.Chapter one mainly introduces this research background of thesis,research significance and structure,etc.Chapter two presents the researches on euphemisms home and abroad.Chapter three is the theory foundation,the Conceptual Integration Theory are introduced in detail.Chapter four is the main analysis of the thesis and chapter five is the conclusion.