中西跨文化交際畢業(yè)論文

1、<p>　　題 目: The Comparison of Taboos between</p><p>　　Chinese and Western Culture</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　As is known to all, in the communication b

2、etween Chinese and the Western cultures, many people feel strongly the differences between the two cultures on many aspects, such as social life, politics, culture, religion, etc. Any ignorance of social customs and cult

3、ural values may not only cause communicative obstacles, but also likely bring about prejudice, offence, even hostility in cross-cultural communications. Thus, a successful cross-cultural communication requires us to brea

4、k through the cult</p><p>　　Key words: intercultural communication; culture; language; taboo</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　眾所周知，在中西跨文化交際時(shí)，很多人感受到兩種文化在社會(huì)生活、政治、文化和宗教等許多方面存在不

5、同。對(duì)文化習(xí)俗和價(jià)值的忽視不僅會(huì)造成交際障礙，使交際受阻，而且會(huì)引起一定的誤解、冒犯甚至敵意。在跨文化交際日益頻繁的今天，要成功實(shí)現(xiàn)跨文化交際，我們必須要突破文化和語(yǔ)言之間的障礙。語(yǔ)言和文化的關(guān)系異常緊密，語(yǔ)言是文化的組成部分也是文化的載體;語(yǔ)言的使用反映著文化的內(nèi)涵。禁忌語(yǔ)作為一種特殊的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象普遍存在于每一種文化之中。不同語(yǔ)言、不同文化背景下的禁忌語(yǔ)言存在著巨大差異。正是因?yàn)橛h禁忌語(yǔ)在一定程度上折射出中西方形態(tài)各異的社會(huì)文化背景，

6、反映出不同的社會(huì)心理狀態(tài)和語(yǔ)言文化內(nèi)涵，因此很有必要探討中英禁忌語(yǔ)在跨文化語(yǔ)境中的差異及應(yīng)用。本研究通過(guò)對(duì)中英禁忌語(yǔ)的比較和對(duì)照，分析了他們的異同并討論了如何在跨文化語(yǔ)境中避免不當(dāng)?shù)慕烧Z(yǔ)使用。 </p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：中西跨文化交際 ；語(yǔ)言；文化；禁忌語(yǔ)</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　Abst

7、ract………………………………………………………………………..1</p><p>　　摘要…………………………………………………………………………….2</p><p>　　Introduction……………………………………………………………………5</p><p>　　I. Literature review…………………………………………………….....

8、.......6</p><p>　　1.1 The origin of taboo ………………………………………………….....7</p><p>　　1.2 Definition of taboo………………..........................................................9</p><p>　　The ev

9、olution of taboo …………………………………………………...9</p><p>　　III. The similarities between Chinese and wetaboos ......................................12</p><p>　　3·1 Taboos on religion ……………..........

10、..................................................12</p><p>　　3·2 Taboos on human excretion parts …….................................................13 </p><p>　　3·3 Taboos on sex …………

11、……………………………………………...14</p><p>　　3·4 Taboos on diseases or death ………………………………………….15</p><p>　　3·5 Taboos on social positions ………………………………………........17</p><p>　　3·6 Tab

12、oos on age and weight …………………………………………….18</p><p>　　IV. The differences between Chinese and western taboos………………....19</p><p>　　4·1 Taboos on names and appellation …………………………………...19</p&

13、gt;<p>　　4·2 Taboos on privacy affairs ……………………………………………21</p><p>　　4·3 Taboos on numbers ……………………………………………...........23</p><p>　　4·4 Taboos on sending gifts ……………………………………

14、…………24</p><p>　　4.5 Taboos on Racial and sex discrimination………………………...........25</p><p>　　v. Ways to avoid conflicts in intercultural communication………………………..28</p><p>　　5.1 Being

15、open minded and appreciating differences……………………29</p><p>　　5.2 Euphemism and vagueness……………………………………………………………………….29</p><p>　　5.3 Avoidance and hiding truth …………………………………………..30</p><

16、p>　　V. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………...31</p><p>　　Bibliography…………….………………………………………….33Acknowledgements.......................................................……………35</p><p>　　Introduct

17、ion</p><p>　　On social contacts, especially in the cross-cultural communications, you will often meet a sensitive issue which is taboo. Taboo restraints our language and behaviors as an invisible discipline,

18、 and makes us dare not to transgress the bounds in the forbidden ground. Taboo is almost everywhere, and linguistic taboo is an important part of the social taboos. In any kind of culture and any society, there are lingu

19、istic taboos, and in English and American society there is naturally no exception. In </p><p>　　I. Literature review</p><p>　　The importance of taboos has been noticed for a long time. Early re

20、searches had been done from many different perspectives. In 1967, Truth and Religion from the perspective of anthropology by Franz Baermann Steiner is one of the most important early researches on this topic. Steiner con

21、ducted a very comprehensive research on taboos to find the origin of the word "taboo" and its cognates. He clarifies the meaning of the taboo in Polynesia, its significance and functions in Polynesian religion

22、and</p><p>　　Since 1960s, the importance of linguistic taboo has been observed by many sociolinguists when exploring the relationship between language and society. Discussions on this topic can be found in a

23、 lot of influential works, such as R．A．Hudson’s Sociolinguistics. In Sociolinguistics, Hudson defined the social value of taboo words as a matter of convention and suggested that “the whole area of taboo and semi-taboo l

24、anguage merits serious research by sociolinguists, which should tell us a lot about la</p><p>　　Around 1970s, when the first journal in the field of taboos in intercultural communication, MALEDICTA (the Inte

25、rnational Journal of Verbal Aggression) emerged, the interest of taboo phenomenon began to grow. From then on, monographs frequently appeared on the subject of taboo phenomenon during the 1980s. For example, the book Wic

26、ked Words, which is a documented dictionary and history of wicked words. In 1 997, another reference book entitled Don't Do It: A Dictionary of the Forbidden by Philip T</p><p>　　From above mentioned, we

27、 can see the majority of previous studies on taboos are centered on language, society and taboos as well as the relationship between them. They have done plenty of ground work for further analysis. This paper will analyz

28、e the similarities and differences of Chinese and English taboos in the context of intercultural communication．</p><p>　　1.1 The origin of taboo </p><p>　　The English word “taboo” originated fro

29、m Tongan, a language used by the residents in the pacific Tongan Island. And originally, it meant ‘holy’ or ‘untouchable’. During the 18th century A.D., a famous English ocean explorer James Cook found, for the first tim

30、e, that the islanders kept an interesting habit that they called what could not be done or talked ‘taboo’. Afterwards, James Cook introduced this word into English and up date, its part of speech has converted from

31、adjective to noun or verb.</p><p>　　Taboo originated from man’s original confusion and misunderstanding of natural phenomenon and natural force. In primitive times, people felt puzzled about some natural phe

32、nomenon and laws of nature, including wind, rain, thunder, and lighting, volcano and earthquake, eclipse and the mystery of living, oldness, disease and death, which caused their horror. They understood and ima

33、gined this phenomenon by virtue of their own limited experience and subjective judgment, and consequently, they created</p><p>　　Taboo emerged along with the spiritual worship of language. In

34、ancient times, people failed to form an accurate understanding of the essence of language.  In their eyes, like the sounds of wind, rain and thunder, language possessed a preternatural power, which could not on

35、ly bring good fortunes and remove ill fortunes but could also arouse sufferings to people. In consequence, people equated what language represented and language itself, and they paid it safe to use those expres

36、sions related to </p><p>　　1.2 Definition of taboo </p><p>　　What is a taboo? In Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, the definition of taboo is a strong social or religious custo

37、m forbidding a particular act or word, or tech too holy or evil to be touched, named, or used (Wei Lingcha et al. 1791).So Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to its me

38、mbers in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame (Wardhaugh p239).</p><p>　　II. The evolution of taboo </p><p>　　As it is mentioned above, linguistic taboo is not only a lingui

39、stic phenomenon, but also a kind of social phenomenon. It is influenced by the development of society.</p><p>　　As we all know, in the primitive society, people didn’t get to know about nature. They were con

40、fused about the natural phenomenon, such as lightning, thunder, storm, earthquakes, etc. So they believed in the natural powers and became superstitious. They thought only in this way could they survive the hard environm

41、ents, therefore, they must respect nature and mighty god when they use language. Here is an example: from the seventh commandment of the Ten Commandment in Bible ‘You should not make wr</p><p>　　In the Medie

42、val period, many countries were divided into many groups of different social status according to innumerable religious rules. People couldn’t do and get they want to. It is the darken age, people in that time should show

43、 respect to the decadent rules and religions. So there are many taboos during the period. For instance, the religion listed the buttock, jaw, and forehead as the linguistic taboos. In China, during the feudal period, it

44、is the feudal code of ethics that dominate the c</p><p>　　Taboos have turned into pure commandment without a shade of superstition. In modern society, with the rapid development of science and technology, th

45、e scope of the concept of taboo has been widened. Most people are becoming more and more rational, and they never believe in or rely on the superstitions. Therefore the superstitious elements in linguistic taboos decreas

46、e and those reflecting spiritual civilization increase. With the frequent interaction between China and the western countries, the </p><p>　　For example, the term ‘Nigger’ was used in the 1960s, which was wi

47、dely used to call the blacks. But now, it is considered as a taboo word in the usual social interactions. For such form of addressing is against the American Human Rights. What’s more, because of the Women Liberation, ma

48、ny women step into all walks of life to work with men. The traditional ideas restrict their activities and spirits during the feudal time. However, everything has changed, we can not ignore the forces of women, and</p

49、><p>　　As is mentioned above, in modern society, people are becoming more and more conscious of other people’s feelings. So they create many taboo words to avoid hurting others. Most of the words can also be ca

50、lled euphemisms. In a word, those words which can make people unpleasant in the interactions and public places are taboos.</p><p>　　III. The similarities between Chinese and Western taboos </p><p&

51、gt;　　3·1 Taboos on religion </p><p>　　Religious taboos are observed most stringent in people’s lives. Various countries have the different religious belief, the Western people mainly believe in Christia

52、nity, it including Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. In China, people mainly believe in Buddhism, Islamism and Taoism.</p><p>　　Western Christian cannot worship the idol, and cannot misuse the name of God,

53、India′s Christians envy with holding wedding ceremony in the evening, Tonga's Christian envy with leaving home to work on Sunday. Catholic teachers are not allowed to marry. Nasilafu Catholic envying with hold weddin

54、g ceremony on Tuesday or Sunday. Within the two or three weeks after the funeral, the family of the deceased envying with interviewing guests, and cannot hold party within this year. Protestants can not wor</p>&l

55、t;p>　　Chinese Buddhist envying with drinking, killing, and eating meat. They can’t marry and accept any property. Taoism priest's taboo is similar with Buddhism. Islam envy with eating pork and animals blood, they

56、 are not allow to drink, Sending gift envy with the gift with animal logo, they envy with putting on shoes to enter the mosque, in addition, they envy with use left hand to touch food.</p><p>　　3·2 Tabo

57、os on human excretion parts </p><p>　　In both English and Chinese, words related to behavior of excretions seem to be unpleasant or embarrassing, thus, people tend to use so-called elegant words to substitu

58、te them. In English, numerous euphemisms are used to substitute excretions, such as ‘do their business’,‘to go to somewhere’,‘wash one’s hand’, ‘to answer nature’ s call’, ‘to pay a call’, ‘to relieve nature’, ‘to move t

59、he bowels’, ‘to have a BM (bowel movement)’,‘go to tap a kidney’. Females often say ‘powder her nose’or ‘freshen</p><p>　　3·3 Taboos on sex </p><p>　　Human being has concepts of honor and d

60、isgrace and sense of shame, which also rank as one of key factors to distinguish our human being from animals. Due to our morals and honor, we will revile those who have done something filthy or nasty. And based on human

61、 being’s common characteristics, both Chinese and English taboo some expressions implying blasphemy, which often involve some parts of body, sexual behavior and filthy things.</p><p>　　In western countries,

62、sex education is not new of course, and many radios and talk shows often invite some experts to host their programs and answer the questions raised by people. Especially in America, sexual liberation has swept since the

63、1960s, and now Americans adopt a more and more casual and frank attitude towards this topic. Although people in western countries are more open-minded than people in China, they still seldom talk about it directly. They

64、try to belie or replace it by other sp</p><p>　　3·4 Taboos on death and diseases</p><p>　　In the mind of most people, health is the most important part of happiness. Therefore, death is a p

65、ermanent taboo topic in people’s life. No matter whom you are or how much money you have, death is irresistible. People regard it as the worst thing in life. Thus, it is not strange that so many euphemisms of death exist

66、 both in English and Chinese. </p><p>　　In English, there are many phases to substitute the word ‘death’, for example, ‘go away’, ‘depart from this world’, ‘go to the better world’, ‘go to sleep’, ‘go to th

67、e ways of all fresh’, ‘pass away’, ‘cease to think’, ‘cross the river styx’, ‘ pay peter a visit’, ‘to be with god’, ‘to be called home’,‘to be taken to paradise’, ‘to launch into eternity’, etc.</p><p>　　A

68、good example is the speech delivered by Engels in front of Marx’s grave stone: on the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcel

69、y two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep-but forever. The gap that has been left by the departure of his mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. </p><

70、;p>　　In Chinese, there are also similar roundabouts. For instance, ‘走了’means ‘go away’ , ‘去見(jiàn)馬克思了’ means ‘go to Marx’, ‘安息了’means ‘rest in peace’ ,‘長(zhǎng)眠了’means ‘sleep the long/ eternal’,‘上西天了’ means ‘go west’, ‘去見(jiàn)老祖宗了’me

71、ans ‘go to one’ home’, ‘作古了’ means ‘be gather to one’ father’, ‘瞑目了’ means ‘to join the immortals’, ‘安睡了’means ‘ go to sleep’, ‘辭世了’ means ‘go to the better world’.</p><p>　　Another avoided topic in English

72、and Chinese is about disease. In English, people use big C, or terminal illness in place of cancer. Abbreviations are commonly used to allocate the serious illness, such as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), Big

73、 C (cancer), DT’S (Delirium Tremens), VD (Venereal Disease), etc. If one has mental illness, people often say he / she is not all there or she / he is a little confused. When go to see doctor, the English often say ‘I’m

74、sorry to bother you, doctor</p><p>　　All in all, taboos about death and disease exist in every culture, although people have different values, customs and backgrounds.</p><p>　　3·5 Taboos o

75、n social positions </p><p>　　In old western cultures, social status can be divided by the way his/her choice of vulgarities or euphemisms. In 11 century, Norman conquered England and bought civilization and

76、 the language of French that were considered noble. When people talk of meat on their tables they use French words; when people speak of animals from which the meat comes people use Angle-Saxon words. It is a pig in its

77、sty; it is pock (pork) on the table. They are cattle in the fields, but we sit down to beef. Chickens b</p><p>　　In ancient China, some decided lines can easily illustrate the social status. For example, the

78、 word “wife” has different calling toward different social classes. ‘天子之妻’ called ‘后’, ‘諸侯妻’ called ‘夫人’,‘大夫之妻’called ‘孺人’, ‘士之妻’called ‘?huà)D人’, ‘平民百姓’called ‘妻’,‘帝王之死’called ‘崩’, ‘大夫之死’ called ‘卒’, ‘士之死’called ‘不祿’, ‘庶人之死’

79、 called ‘死’. Taboos in that period were put into effect by the rulers to maintain their social status and control the society. </p><p>　　3·6 Taboos on age and weight</p><p>　　When you meet

80、a young lady on the street, you should not ask such questions as ‘How old are you?’ ‘What about your salary?’, for it is very crude to greet others. Therefore, words like ‘old’ ‘childish’, ‘fat’, ‘skinny’, etc. They have

81、 become the taboo words.</p><p>　　In terms of ‘a(chǎn)ge’ and ‘a(chǎn)ppearance’, people in modern society are very sensitive to these words. So it is seldom to speak of ‘old’ and ‘fat’ to describe a person on a formal

82、occasion.</p><p>　　Both in English and Chinese, the vulgar words are usually rude and offensive and bring about unpleasant, anger or conflicts. Swear words in English are often called four letter words, beca

83、use most of them are short and many are made up of four letters. Such as: ‘piss, shit, crap, fuck’. ‘These so called four-letter words are considered vulgar’. </p><p>　　Swear words formed by employing some o

84、f the animals’ names are vulgar too. They are very improper expressions in most conversations, such as: ‘bitch’ ‘cow’ ‘swine’ ‘pig’, etc. Generally speaking, even in daily communications, these vulgar words are considere

85、d taboo words. In Chinese, there are also many similar words, such as ‘son of a bitch,’ ‘little bastard’, etc. These words are used to insult others. People always try to avoid using them in a normal and polite communica

86、tion.</p><p>　　In conclusion, the taboos in English and China have some similar tendency, which is not only demonstrates the fact that human culture, but also reflect different cultures can influence and pen

87、etrate each other.</p><p>　　IV. The differences between Chinese and western taboos</p><p>　　4·1 Taboos on names and appellation </p><p>　　There are taboos on names both in Engl

88、ish and Chinese but in different ways. In English speaking counties, people consider that all man are equal, no matter who you are or how high the social role you play. People think it is important what impressions they

89、give to the other persons. They hope they can contact with others in unconstraint, so when they communicate with others, they don’t like being complimented and obey others. People don’t like being called Mr., Ms, or Miss

90、. They think this appe</p><p>　　In ancient China, people can’ t speak out the emperor’ s name, so they use other words to replace it, like ‘人風(fēng)’ in place of ‘民風(fēng)’, because in Tang Dynasty, the character ‘民’ wa

91、s in the name of ‘李世民’. In Jin Dynasty, ‘王昭君’(Wang Zhaojun), one of the four famous beautiful women in old China, was named ‘明妃’ (Mingfei) or ‘明君’ (Mingjun), so as not to have the same name with the emperor ‘司馬昭’ (Sima Z

92、hao). Nowadays, taboos on the emperor’s names are disappearing; however, taboos on senior generation’s na</p><p>　　4·2 Taboos on privacy affairs and topics </p><p>　　There are large differe

93、nces of English and Chinese in this aspect. In daily interactions, some in English as a taboo subject in Chinese is not that closely guarded secret. For example：When an Englishwoman shows you her skirt that just bought,

94、you may say that: ‘What a nice skirt!’， but never ask ：‘How much did you pay for it?’ Because who want to know about other people's private property is also considered impolite.</p><p>　　Westerner pays g

95、reat attention to personal privacy, ‘A man’s home is his castle.’ In the west, a man praising the female’s face, figure, dress, etc, is quite common. But in the Chinese traditional culture, it can be forbidden. If you us

96、e ‘you are a very sexy woman’ to praise the Chinese girl, you will not be accepted and will make you look too light, even think you are bullying. While in western countries, this does nothing inappropriate. The British a

97、nd American people’s ‘privacy’ includes the </p><p>　　(1). The British and American people do not like being questioned about his age, especially women, while the Chinese people do not care. Parting from the

98、 unmarried young girl, for the elders, it won’t be objectionable as long as to start the question with “l(fā)ongevity”. And even some people flaunt his seniority. （Lin. 1996, p121-124）</p><p>　　(2). The British

99、and American people, especially women, don't like people ask their marital status, so the usage of ‘Ms.’ is quite popular. Chinese people often ask others marry or not, if one is unmarried, there is kind-hearted one

100、who is interested in matchmaking. If you really want to know about the British and American people’s marriage, you can adopt the method of ‘testing the waters’, like asking ‘Is your family with you here in china?’ ‘Do yo