Contents

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………..…………..…I

English Abstract……………………………………………………………….…… II

Chinese Abstract…………………………………………………………….……….III

Chapter1 Introduction………………………………………………….……..…… …1

1.1The definition of euphemism……………………………………….…… 1

1.2The features of euphemism……………………………………….………2

1.2.1National characteristic………………………………………………2

1.2.2Regional feature……………………………………………….……2

1.2.3Indirect and Implicit………………………………………………3 1.2.4Universality…………………………………………………………3 1.2.5Humor………………………………………………………….……3 1.2.6Vagueness…………………………………………………….……..4

Chapter 2 Euphemism, Language and Culture…………………………………..……5

2.1The definition of culture………………………………………..…………5

2.2Language and culture……………………………………………..………6

2.3Euphemism and culture……………………………………………..……6

Chapter 3 A Comparison About English and Chinese Euphemism…………..………8

3.1Euphemisms for death……………………………………………………8

3.2Euphemisms for old age…………………………………………….……9

3.3Euphemisms for poverty…………………………………………...……10

3.4Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy………………………………11

3.5Euphemisms for disease…………………………………………………12

Chapter4 Conclusion………………………………………………………………14

References……………………………………………………………………………15

Acknowledgements

This thesis is a result of contributions from many supporting individuals.

During the process of writing, I have received various kinds of help from many people. Because of their help, I have finished writing this thesis so smoothly. Here, I want to render my sincere thanks to all the teachers and classmates who have given me their help in the last four years. The help is not only one of the most important treasures deserving cherishing all my life, but also will be a perfect guide in my life in the future.

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor – Ms. Peng Qiying. In this short but sufficient period, she has given me many good suggestions for the materials and the ways of organizing ideas. Without her consistent instructions, this thesis would not have reached its present form.

My sincere thanks are also owed to all the teachers who have taught me during the four years of my university study. I also thank the library of Guizhou University and the library of our college for providing me with the facilities and sources that I needed for my research and writing.

I also acknowledge my sincere thanks to all my classmates and friends who have enriched my life with their generous help and precious friendship.

The finishing of my thesis is not an end but a new beginning. I believe that I can do better and better in my future life. Thank you again, my supervisor, my classmates and my teachers.

Abstract

One of the most important ways for our human beings to communicate with others is language. Language is an important means for people to maintain their social relationship. However, there are many things which are supposed to be unspeakable. Many words also make people embarrassed and unhappy. So, in order to avoid the offensiveness and misunderstandings, people usually use the indirect or pleasant expressions to replace with those unpleasant and rude words in communication. We call that euphemism. Euphemism plays an important role in people’s social communication and exists in almost every culture and society. In order to help the language learner to understand euphemism better, this thesis mainly explores the cultural differences between English and Chinese euphemisms. In chapter one, the author introduces the definition and features of euphemism. In chapter two, the author introduces the relationship between euphemism, language and culture. Chapter three is mainly a contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemism from these aspects: euphemisms of death, poverty, marriage, pregnancy and disease. Then the author brings to the conclusion that if the language learners want to learn a foreign language well, it is better that he has a good knowledge of its culture.

Key Words：euphemism, definition, feature, culture, difference

摘要

语言是人与人交流的最重要的方法，也是保持社会关系的重要方法。然而又很多东西是不能直接说的，有很多词语会让人尴尬和不愉快。因此，为了避免冒犯以及误会，人们在交流的时候通常用一些间接的以及令人愉快的表达来代替那些令人不高兴的粗鲁的词语。那些词语就叫做委婉语。委婉语在人们的日常交流中扮演着重要的角色。委婉语是为了避免禁忌语，且存在于各种文化和社会中。为了帮助语言学习者更好的了解和掌握委婉语，这篇论文主要讨论了英语委婉语和中国委婉语在文化上的不同。在第一章，作者介绍了委婉语的定义和特点。在第二章，作者介绍了委婉语，语言以及文化三者的关系。第三章主要是对比有关死亡，贫困，婚姻，怀孕和疾病方面的中英委婉语。由此得出结论，如果想要学好一门语言，就有必要了解这门语言的文化。

关键词：委婉语；定义；特点；文化；差别

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 The definition of Euphemism

Verbal communication is one of the most important methods people apply to maintain the social relationship. In order to avoid the offensiveness in communication, people usually use some polite or pleasant words to replace the rude or embarrassing ones. Therefore, euphemism emerges.

Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures, it takes an very important role in people’s daily communication. Euphemism is originated from the Greek. Its prefix “eu” means good, pleasant, and its root “pheme” means speech. Thus, euphemism literally means “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner” (Neaman and Silver, 1990:32). According to Allan and Burridge (1991:11), the definition of euphemism is: A euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or through going offense, that of the audience, or of some third party. Many people have defined euphemism. There are some definitions of euphemism below:

(1) mild or vague expression substituted for a harsher or more direct one. (Pocket Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1996)

(2) the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. (Webster’s Dictionary of American English, Random House, Inc.1997)

(3) (an example of) the use of a more pleasant, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant. (Longman English-Chinese Dictionary of Contempo- rary English, Longman Group UK Limited, 1988)

(4) A euphemism is a polite, pleasant, or neutral word or expression that is used to refer to something which people may find upsetting or embarrassing to talk about, for example, sex, the human body or death. (Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, SFLEP, 2000)

(5) Rhetorical trope: a pleasant replacement for an objectionable word that has pejorative connotations. (Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics, FLERP, 2000)

In China, Chen Wangdao (1997) defined euphemism as a figure of speech in which roundabout and implicit words and expressions are used to substitute direct expressions to hint the meaning. “Weiwan (委婉)” is a figure of speech in Chinese. It is also called “wanqu (婉曲)” or “wanzhuan(婉转)”. Another figure of speech in Chinese is called “bihui (避讳)” or “huishi (讳饰)”. The combination of the figure of speech “weiwan (委婉)” and the figure of speech “bihui (避讳)” in Chinese is equivalent to the figure of speech “euphemism” in English (Li Guonan, 2001:190).

1.2The features of Euphemism

1.2.1 National characteristic

Euphemism is a common language phenomenon in the world culture. However, different countries and different nations in different surroundings and social environment have different production and living manners, and their culture depositions are also different. So euphemism in different language has some differences either. The differences are the representation of the national characteristic. There is a typical example about the word “poor”, it described an young woman who lived with hard condition. The paragraph uses several euphemisms of poor:

“I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I was not poor, I was needy. Then they said it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, that I was culturally deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, that I was underprivileged. Then they told me that underprivileged was overused, that I was disadvantaged. I still do not have a dime but I have a great vocabulary!”

Needy (lack of commodity), culturally deprived(lose the opportunity of education), underprivileged (having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society), disadvantaged (humble). Those four words are the euphemisms for “poor” which the government used to cheat the public.

1.2.2 Regional feature

Different regions have different customs, so do the language. For instance, bread is a kind of daily food in British, and the phrase “take bread out of someone’s mouth” means to go off with someone’s job. And there is another example.

An Australian woman married to an American man. They spent their honeymoon in America. And one day, the couple intended to go to a party together. But the bridegroom could not find a suitable full dress. The bride took out a birthday suit that she gave him as a present a few days ago and said: “Why not wear your birthday suit?” However, the whole family were all astonished because in American English, “in one’s birthday suit” is the euphemistic expression of “naked”. So this embarrassing situation was resulted from the regional differences in euphemism.

1.2.3 Indirect and implicit

The most important feature of euphemism is indirect and implicit. The purpose of euphemism is to use some indirect expressions to avoid something that makes people unhappy. And this is the indirect character. Euphemism always gives people hints in a roundabout way. We can infer the deeper meaning and intention from the conversation.

For example:

--“Don’t you think my cooking is wonderful?” The girl asked.

--“Are you fishing for compliments.” Her boy friend responded.

In the conversation above, the boyfriend not only answered the girl implicitly, and did not embarrass his girlfriend. Similarly, when someone is ill, we always say he is under the weather. If someone is mad, we say he is soft in mind.

1.2.4 Universality

Universality is something that is well-known and accepted by all of the human beings. Euphemism almost exists in every language and culture. And each language has its own taboos, such as taboos connected with sex, death, or body functions. Hence, those taboos are replaced by euphemisms. While we say someone is dead in English, we always do not use the word “die”. We prefer to use “pass away” or “kick the bucket”.

1.2.5 Humor

Using euphemisms makes the language more interesting and humorous. It helps the public face something cruel and the unpleasant reality freely and happily. For instance, “push up daisies” replaces “be buried”, “hare-brained” refers to “mad”. “bay window” is a substitution for “belly”, “weekend worries” for “prostitutes”, “to lose one’s lunch” for “to vomit”. Nowadays, in some families, husband is afraid of his wife, and this kind of husband is called “hen-pecked husband”.

1.2.6 Vagueness

The formation of many euphemisms are made use of the vagueness of language, it makes the meaning broader. The vagueness of euphemisms can conceal the cruel. Just like the conversation below:

Devizes: Is the pain worse?

Surtees: It is no great pain, sir. I have been to one specialist, sir? Yesterday，it is ?

Devizes: He couldn’t be sure. An operation?

Surtees: Too late, he said, for that. If I had been operated on long ago, there might have been a chance.

After reading the conversation above, we may not understand what they discuss about, what do the “it” and “that” indicate. It is difficult to understand the conversation correctly. Actually, Devizes and Surtees are talking about the cancer. Since cancer makes people unhappy, they use “it” and “that” to replace it tactfully.

Chapter 2 Language, Euphemism and Culture

2.1 The definition of culture

Culture is a large, wide and vague conception. It is really hard to explain the word “culture” clearly. As the world and society are developing, the definition of “culture” is also changing. According to Goodenough (1957:167), culture is “whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members”. Culture, “Being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage”, must consist of “the end product of learning: knowledge”. Samovar and Porter (2000:36), in their book Communication Between Cultures, defined culture as “the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving”. Linell Davis (2001:246) explained “what is culture” in simple words and with vivid metaphor in her Doing Culture: Cross-Cultural Communication. She points out that culture is like an iceberg. Only some of culture is visible. Most of culture is below the surface of our awareness.

Spencer-Oatey entented the conception of culture and introduced a number of additional factors apart from values and resultant behaviors or artifacts, including a description of the functions of culture: “Culture is a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms, and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group people, and that influence each member’s behavior and his or her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior”(2000:4). Culture changes with changing circumstances. Culture is the grammar of our behavior. Culture includes those rules that a public need to know in order to behave appropriately in the society. Just an we learn the grammar of our native language, we learn our native culture grammar unconsciously and apply its rules automatically (Linell Davis, 2001:18-20).

Different scholars defined the culture differently for different purposes. In total, all the points perform that culture is all pervasive, including customs and habits, ideas and beliefs, the artifacts made by human beings. Simply to say, culture reflects the whole life of the society.

2.2 Language and culture

Language is arbitrary. Language is vocal. Language is a symbolic system of human communications. Language is an important part of culture and it is the keystone of culture. Language is also the primary tool of culture to transmit its values, beliefs and norms. When people communicating with others, they can diffuse their own culture to each other, then, get knowledge of another culture from each other. Culture provides people means of thinking, ways of living, and the attitude towards life, either. Many social scientists insist that without language, culture would impossible.

On the other side, language refers to the culture. Language is influenced and shaped by culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural background as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking (Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing, 1989:3). According to Kramsch (2000:3), when language is used in communication, “it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways”.

Language and culture are closely related. Human society could not be existed without a means of symbolic communication. Language gives people the access of what was thought and experienced in the past, as well as a way of passing new information on to the next generations. When the language link is broken, the culture is lost to us forever.

2.3 Euphemism and Culture

As we mentioned above, language and culture are closely related, so do euphemisms. Under the guidance of certain culture, people will consciously select euphemism to represent the “unpleasant words”. Patrick Hartwell (cited in Shao Zhihong, 1997:305) points out that euphemisms are “a natural part of the social world of words” and they tell us “a good deal about the values of a culture”. Hence, cultural values influence the expressions of politeness, euphemistic way of speaking and ways of avoiding offensiveness. On the other hand, euphemisms are changing along with the development of the society. And the use of euphemisms vary base on the variations of contexts. Therefore, even if people who come from the same country, same place, they may use euphemisms differently according to different social contexts.

In conclusion, euphemisms, language and culture, these three matters that are related to each other. Euphemism is a form of language, language is an integral part of culture, and culture is transmitted by language. The coinage and application of euphemisms reflect people’s attitude, facts, beliefs, ideas, values and knowledge in communication. Culture gets through the task of daily life as well as language. People come to use their language to reflect what they value and belief. They view their language as a symbol of their social identity and culture.

Chapter 3 Comparison About English and Chinese Euphemisms

Euphemism is a common phenomenon in both English and Chinese cultures. Chinese and English are language systems that exist individually, so there are more differences than similarities between the both because of the different nature and social environments, life and living style, customs, beliefs, values of the nations. And all the differences could be seen in the uses and the expressions of euphemisms.

3.1 Euphemisms for death

Christian is the main religion in England so many English euphemisms on death originated from The Bible or Christian legends and allusion and some of them manifest the philosophy of Christianity and its religious interpretation of death. For instance, just because God created people by clay and people are created equal, “to die” is called “to return to dust / earth”. Besides, “to go to heaven”, “to be called to God”, “to be promoted to glory”, “to lie in the Abraham’s bosom”, “to launch into eternity”, “to cancel one’s account” are all used to refer to “death”.

The Chinese do not have a common and unified religion. We can find followers of Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, etc. As a result, many Chinese euphemisms reveals the influence of such religions. For example, Taoists expect to gain longevity or even immortality through ascetic practices, such as meditation and self-cultivation. The typical fairy tale “The eight immortals crossing the sea” has its origin in Taoism. The influence of Taoism on Chinese language can be seen in such euphemisms for death as “xianshi (仙逝)”, “dengx(登仙)”, “huahe (化鹤)”, “jiahexiyou(驾鹤西游)”, etc. Taoists think after death they become immortals and ride away on the crane to Elysium. Buddhism originated from India. After it was transmitted to China in Tang Dynasty, it became the most popular and influential religion in China. The euphemism for death originating from Buddhism include “yuanji (圆寂)”, “zuohua (坐化)”, “wuhua(物化)”, “yuhua (羽化)”, “tuihua(蜕化)”, “guixi(归西)”, etc.

Death has always been what people fear throughout the history in all nations. As time changes, the euphemism for death is developed. The euphemisms for death are a widely used item, especially when it concerns one’s own families and friends. It has a lot of expressions. For example, “if anything should happen to me” is equal to “when I die”, “die” also can be called “to pass away”, “to depart”, “to go to sleep”, “to be longer with us”, “to be interred”, etc. “Death” has some humorous expressions: “to pop off”, “to push up daisies”, “to cash in one’s chips”, “to kick the bucket”, etc. In Chinese, there are over one hundred euphemized ways of saying death. In ancient Chinese, we used “jiabeng(驾崩)” and “yanjia(晏驾)” to refer to the death of emperor and “hong (薨)” to refer to the death of feudal lords, “zu(卒)”to refer to the death of senior official and “bulu(不禄)” to refer to the death of junior officials. And we have “qushi(去世)”, “shishi(逝世)”, “guqu(故去)”, “yushichangci(与世长辞)”, “qujianmakesi(去见马克思)” and so on. Through the above examples, we can found that euphemisms about death in Chinese are more complicated than English.

3.2 Euphemisms for old age

The Chinese and English have different attitudes toward being old. In English, it is rude and offensive to call someone old. So, there are lots of euphemisms about old in English, they reflect the avoidance of mentioning the old in western society. This is somewhat due to its loose family structure. When the children grow up, they would be independent from their family, and live apart from their parents, the society do not provide sufficient support to the old people, so the old people have to live by themselves, feeling lonely and dull. Therefore, the old becomes a word that people avoid to talk about. They take it as something sensitive and negative and they are unwilling to face the reality of becoming old. Old age is seen as a stage of uselessness and powerlessness, which is very unpleasant and even a cruel fact to the old people. So they act young, and they want to be look and regarded young.

Neaman has humorously points out that “There is no one old in modern America. He is either seasoned or well-preserved”(1990:166). In fact, some euphemistic expressions take the place of old, such as “getting on (in years)”, “past one’s prime”, “feeling one’s age”, “second childhood”, “a distinguished gentleman”, “a grande dame”, “third age”, etc. The old people become “an elder statesman” or “old age pensioner” or even use initialing “OAP”. They are not “old” but “long-lived”. And, a home for old people is called euphemistically “a home for adults”, “a nursing home”, “a rest home” and so on.

The Chinese culture places a high value on oldness. The Chinese hold the view that to be old means be experienced, knowledgeable, mature and reliable, which is also reflected in Chinese idioms, such as “laodangyizhuang(老当益壮)”, “laochengchizhong(老成持重)”, “laochenglianda(老成练达)”, “laomashitu(老马识途)” and so on. The Chinese has a tradition of showing respect for elders. So we call old people “ninlao(您老)”, “laoxiansheng(老先生)”, etc. The character “lao(老)” (means old in English) is quite often used to indicate seniority and experience, so we call teachers “laoshi(老师)”, we call bosses “laoban(老板)” “laozong(老总)” and so on. According to the Chinese Euphemism Dictionary, there are just about twenty euphemisms for old age and most of them are in old Chinese and seldom used today, such as “bomu(薄暮)” which literally mean the early evening, “diaonian(凋年)” which literally means the withered life, “huahao(华皓)” which literally means white, “huashou(华首)” which literally means white hair, “qiufang(秋方)” and “suqiu(素秋)” which literally means the autumn (Zhang Gonggui,126-129).

3.3 Euphemisms for poverty

In western society, poverty is a horrible word. And it is a shame. On the contrary, wealthy means wisdom, power and social status. Though the society has been advocating equality and the civil right, the gap between the rich and the poor are still widening. John Ayto (1993:286) points out “The shame of poverty makes it a natural target for euphemism in English. Neither individuals nor nations like to admit that they haven’t enough money and cannot provide for themselves, and a range of alternative strategies has been evolved to avoid the dreaded word ‘poor’.” It is abundant in English euphemisms for the word “poor”, such as “badly off”, “less well off”, “indigent”, “negative privileged” and “hard up for money”. The poor are called “have-nots” or “men of modest means”. These euphemisms are more pleasant to hear and easier for the poor to accept.

In Chinese, euphemisms for poverty are comparatively fewer. Such as “jieju(拮据)”, “shoutoujin (手头紧)”, “shoutoububian(手头不便)” and “nangzhongxiuse (囊中羞涩)”. The word “poor” is not so tabooed in traditional Chinese culture as in western culture. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the proletariat became the leader of the country. In a rather long period of time, people felt glorious because of being poor. In the past twenty years, China’s reform and opening-up policy has made more and more people shake off poverty and set out on the road to prosperity. With the development of economy, the old philosophy that wealth means deficiency in soul, degeneration and corruption is outdated. Poor life is not what people expect. Accordingly, the word “poor” is euphemized as “youkunnan(有困难)” in Chinese. The poor are called “dishouruzhe (低收入者)” or “ruoshiqunti (弱势群体)”.

3.4 Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy

There is a great difference between the attitude of western and eastern culture toward marriage. Western culture cherishes individuality, especially personal freedom, while the Chinese people emphasize the ethics. Some young people in western society are afraid of losing freedom after marriage. They usually choose such expressions as “have gotten hitched” and “tie the knot” to refer to marriage. “Trial marriage” is used to refer to “cohabitation” in English. “Mistress” becomes “unmarried wife” and “bastard” is called “love child”. Besides, the divorce rate in western countries has been increasingly rising. Some young people believe that divorce releases them from the marriage bond and family responsibility. So divorce is not much of a serious event, that’s why divorce is called “break up” and “split up”. Sometime they even make fun of divorce. They use expressions like “matchruptcy” and “go to Reno”. “Matchruptcy” is an imitation of the word “bankruptcy”. Reno is a city of western Nevada near the California border. It is a famous resort that was once noted primarily as a divorce center because of its easy and quick divorce procedures. Chinese culture, however, lays great emphasis on team. It stresses on the steadiness of group, family, society and nation. Therefore, marriage is called “zhongshendashi (终身大事)”, which means “an important event in one’s life”. Marriage is a matter of joy, so marriage is called “xijieliangyuan (喜结良缘)” and “xijielianli (喜结连理)”. On the contrary, divorce is dishonorable. Hence, divorce is euphemized as “fenshoule (分手了)”, “lile(离了)” and so on.

There are a lot of euphemisms in English and Chinese, which are containing similar denotative meaning while distinct cultural connotation and allusion. Take the euphemisms for pregnancy as an example, a Japanese scholar lists some euphemistic expressions for “pregnancy” used in different historical periods, which serve as a vivid manifestation of the developing trend in the realm of euphemism:

She has canceled all her social engagements. (1856)

She is in an interesting condition. (1880)

She is in a delicate condition. (1895)

She is knitting little bootees. (1910)

She is in a family way. (1920)

She is expecting. (1935)

She is pregnant. (1956)

(Fan Jiacai, 1992:176)

In ancient China, Chinese euphemize pregnant as “shenhuailiujia (身怀六甲)”, because it was said that “liujia(六甲)”is the right moment when Heaven and Earth create things. In modern China, we say pregnancy as “tayoule (她有了)”or she is going to be a mother(她快当妈妈了).

3.5 Euphemisms for disease

It is unfortunate to have diseases, and it can be very impolite and rude to tale about diseases directly in front of some sick or disable people. Therefore, due to the sympathy for those sick or disable people, lots of euphemisms for illness in Chinese and English languages. As we all known, cancer is a name that the public do not want to mention. The currently modish euphemisms are “Big C”, “C.A”, “incurable disease”, “long illness”, etc. In Chinese, the cancer is named “juezheng(绝症)”, “buzhizhizheng (不治之症)”, “wanzheng (顽症)”. Disability is a very hard and sensitive area in all cultures. In Chinese, expressions like “canjiren (残疾人)”, “longyaren (聋哑人)”, “sangshi shili(丧失视力)”, “zhili zhang’ai(智力障碍)” are used instead of “canfei (残废)”, “longzi (聋子)”, “yaba (哑巴)”, “xiazi(瞎子)”, “ruozhi (弱智)” and so on. In English, “the disabled”, “the handicapped”, “the inconvenienced”, “the invalid” and so on are used for “disabilities”, “auditory impaired”, “hard of hearing”, “imperfect hearing for deaf”, “sight-deprived”, “visually-retarded” or “partially sighted for blind” and M.D., slow, special, unwise, etc. for dementia or imbecile.

Chapter 4 Conclusion

With the development of the society and economy, the world is getting smaller and we have much more opportunities to interact with people from different countries and cultures. As we mentioned above, euphemism is a linguist phenomenon in all cultures. And euphemism plays an important role in our daily communication. It is the use of a pleasant, polite and harmless-sounding term in place of those considered unpleasant, rude and offensive. It also can help people build a positive communicative atmosphere to establish harmonious social relationships and achieve the communication goals at last.

Furthermore, euphemism is a cultural phenomenon. Language is a integral part of culture, and euphemism as an important form of language, which is also influenced by culture and carries cultural information. Different cultures exist in different regions, due to their different beliefs, social values, customs, life-styles and behaviors, there exist differences between English and Chinese euphemisms, even the same topic have different means of realization. Therefore, to make a contrastive study of two language is as well as to make a contrastive study of the two cultures. The understanding of euphemism requires the understanding of the culture.

Through analysis of euphemism with culture factors, we know that euphemism is an independent part of culture and it reflects culture. Besides, the differences in social values between western culture and eastern culture are also reflects in their different euphemisms. In a word, only if we understand the features of euphemism and are aware of the differences between different cultures and confirm the context of the communication, can we use euphemisms effectively in intercultural communication. Nowadays, China and English-speaking countries have more contacts with each other than ever before. The importance of knowing the cultures of different countries in order to have better understanding and communication has been stressed again and again in intercultural communication field. A better interpreting of euphemism is surely part of this work.

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英语专业毕业论文 - 浅谈英汉委婉语的文化差异