摘 要

委婉语是一种普遍的语言现象，亦是一种文化现象。委婉语是用来避讳一些禁忌，尤其是死亡。日常生活中，为了避免不悦，常常需要使用死亡委婉语。隐喻是委婉语最重要、最常用的生成机制之一。本文将从概念隐喻视角分析中英死亡委婉语的异同，探讨隐喻在死亡委婉语中的应用。同时，本文将探讨产生差异的原因。

关键词：死亡委婉语；隐喻；文化

Contents

1. Introduction................................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration............................................................................................................2

2.1 A brief introduction of euphemism...........................................................................2

2.2 A brief introduction of conceptual metaphor............................................................4

2.2.1 Definition of conceptual metaphor........................................................................4

2.2.2 Working mechanism of metaphor..........................................................................4

2.3 Similarities and differences of death euphemism between Chinese and English....5

2.3.1 Religious belief.....................................................................................................5

2.3.2 Social status...........................................................................................................7

2.3.3 Age and character....... ..........................................................................................9

2.3.4 Others..................................................................................................................11

2.4 Reasons for the similarities and differences of death euphemisms both in English and Chinese..........................................................................................................11

2.4.1 Close ties between language and culture ............................................................11

2.4.2 Different traditions and values............................................................................12

3. Conclusion................................................................................................................13

Works Cited..................................................................................................................14

Bibliography.................................................................................................................16

The Comparative Study of Death Euphemism in English and Chinese from the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor

1. Introduction

In the early 1580s, George Blunt first used the word“euphemism”. Since then, euphemism has become a heated topic of linguistic study. Euphemism is a common language phenomenon which acts as a kind of lubricant in daily communication. When we express our sympathy to one’s death, we need to take care of others’ sadness and convey sympathy. At this time, we need death euphemisms. Death euphemism is a linguistic as well as a cultural phenomenon. There are quite a number of death euphemisms both in English and Chinese.

Euphemism has attracted many researchers' attention at home and abroad, and they have made a lot of achievements. They mainly studied it from the perspective of semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

According to semantics, "Euphemism is necessary in certain situation for it replaces a word or a phrase having offensive connotation with another expression, which makes no overt reference to the unpleasant misnomer”.(Leech 45) Chinese scholar Gu Tongqing studied the semantic processes and the internal mechanism which governs the use of euphemism. The pragmatic approach emphasizes the study of euphemism in actual use. In China, Shu Dingfang explored the fundamental principles which governs the building of new euphemisms and the basic characteristics of euphemistic expressions. From the sociolinguistic perspective, Mencken analyzed a great number of euphemisms and explores the reasons for the generation and popularity of hundreds of English euphemisms based on American society cultural background. Hudson emphasized that in order to show power-politeness,there are different "address" words, and the function of euphemisms is to protect other people from being offended.

Recently, plenty of scholars turn their eyes to the euphemisms of death including the death of religious people, death of loyal people, death of senior people as well as death of the common, etc. Wang Xingxing explored the similarities and differences of Chinese and English death euphemism and its functions from the perspective of blending theory. ShenHui explored the death euphemism from the cognitive perspective and focused on its significant role. Zeng Mengrui studied the death euphemism from the perspective of cultural connotation and mainly discussed language comparison through cross-cultural communication. Besides, Wang Dongmei explored the disease and disability euphemism by the conceptual metaphor approach.

According to CNKI, only a small number of works are related to euphemisms, not to mention the study of death euphemism from the perspective of conceptual metaphor. Nowadays,metaphor is generally regarded as a tool to express something indirectly. In this thesis, death euphemism will be studied with the aid of metaphor.

The appropriate use of death euphemism can express one’s sympathy or respect and promote exchanges in a friendly way. From the comparison and contrast between the use of English and Chinese death euphemisms, we can try our best to use the equivalent or similar expressions instead in order to achieve the same effect. With the rapid development of globalization in many fields nowadays, cross-cultural communications are becoming more and more common and necessary. Death euphemisms, together with other related linguistic devices, push forward the communications in a much more friendly way. A good understanding of death euphemism can help us to avoid the unpleasant terms and embarrassment to maintain a harmony atmosphere and even develop the human relationship, and make us understand and appreciate the cultures and the peoples who speak the different languages better. Therefore, in this thesis,death euphemism in Chinese and English will be explored from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.

1. Demonstration

2.1 A brief introduction to euphemism