跨文化交际背景下的中英文禁忌语对比研究 英语专业毕业论文(2)

2024年3月15日发(作者：李丽莉)

跨文化交际背景下的中英文禁忌语对比研究

【关键词】比较；英国禁忌语；中国禁忌语；跨文化交际

I. Introduction

In China, “入境而问禁；入国而问俗；入门而问讳” 1 have been a norm of behavior for

thousands of years．Similarly, in west，“when in Rome，do as the Romans do．”is also

the norm of western．For the purpo of successful intercultural communication, both

east and west people all emphasize on the studying the knowledge of taboos. And

linguistic taboo exists universally in almost all of the languages and cultures．The

violation of linguistic taboo is regarded impolite and offensive，but people from

different cultures do not all agree on what are linguistic taboos and what should be

tabooed．Even taboo in the same thing may have different implications，since people

from different cultures have established different social customs and cultural

orientations．In intercultural communication，they may interpret each other’s speech

and behavior in accordance with their own beliefs and values and adopt different

politeness strategies to achieve their goals．

At the same time，with the development of transportation, information technology and

the globalization of economy, communication between people from different cultures

are increasingly frequent and extensive．In this process，people are increasingly

conscious of the existence of cultural diversity, and they gradually notice that

differences produce great barriers to social or intercultural communication.

Human tolerance and desire for communication do help to reduce the differences and

enhance mutual understanding but there are still some aspects such as some taboos that

are beyond people’s acceptability becau of its nsitiveness，

misunderstanding ,unhappiness，conflict or even disastrous conquences may occur due

to the violation of certain taboos．Considering what have been mentioned above, when

intercultural communication occurs more frequently and more extensively, a systematic

study of linguistic taboos in intercultural communication becomes an

imperative．Mastering taboos knowledge in Chine and English helps to cultivate

intercultural competence．It is particular conducive to the management of interpersonal

and intercultural conflicts，and enables people to produce harmonious relationships．As

James Thurber has said in The East and The West, “Precision of communication is

important, more than ever, in an era of hair-trigger balances when a fal or

misunderstood word may create as much a disaster as a sudden thoughtless act．”2

II. Literature Review

A. The Definitions and Features of Taboo

Oxford English Dictionary defines taboo as：words likely to be considered offensive,

shocking or indecent by certain people(though not necessarily by everyone)．In Chine

taboo is regarded as the indelicate or dirty word．Taboo is explained by the Modern

Chine Dictionary as the prohibited words or actions. According to modern linguists

Robinett，taboo is a principle or criterion erected by society, which can prevent people

from bad action．As Wardhaugh states：“taboo is one way in which a society express

its disapproval of certain kinds of behavior believed to be harmful to its members，either

for supernatural reasons or becau such behavior is held to violate a moral code”.

Generally speaking, taboo has about it a n of something unapproachable，and it is

principally expresd in prohibitions and restrictions．

Linguistic taboo，as a common social cultural phenomenon in both east and west, exists

objectively．It has three features as below．

1. Temporality

With the development of the society, some linguistic taboos changed and some

disappeared or lost their original meaning．In the Qing dynasty the poet Xu Jun(徐

骏)was killed becau his poem had“Qing清”in his poem“清风不识字，何事乱翻

书”．But he wouldn’t be killed in other dynasties．The poem“清明时节雨纷纷”is widely

loved before Qing dynasty．In English, the word“women” was once a taboo in Victorian

Age，It meant mistress and adultery wife．But now, it lost its original meaning and

became a common word．

2. Ethnocentricity

Every ethnic group has its own cultural pattern．Linguistic taboo，as an ethnic

phenomenon, is influenced by the economy, social structure and belief of the whole

group．Take age as an example．Chine people don’t care about old age．Sometimes,

we especially call someone “Zhang Lao张老”, “Wang Lao王老”，for respect．But this

is totally unacceptable in English-speaking countries．In their opinion, “old老”means

uless，and people will feel offended if they are described to be old．So women keep

their age cret in the English-speaking countries and ldom talk about age．

3. Context-reliability

The usage of taboos is limited by the social conditions and the psychological

factors．The context confines the usage of the taboos．In formal situations like social

gatherings and banquets，people will pay more attention to taboos，which can be ud in

private situations．A lot of Chine taboos are confined by the special contexts .For

example, “帆(Fan, has the same pronunciation with overturn) ”. In English, “nigger”is a

discriminative word．The African-American can u it and it will not cau rious

conquences．But if other ethnic groups u it, rious conflicts will be caud．

B. The Definition and Features of Intercultural Communication

According to Asante，in its most general n, intercultural communication occurs

when a member of one culture produces a message for consumption by a member of

another culture．More precily, intercultural communication is a communication

between people who cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to

alter the communication event. 3

Frequently the term intercultural communication is ud when referring to

communication between people of different cultural backgrounds．For instance, if one

talks with his or her American teacher, intercultural communication takes place．If he or

she interacts with a Japane student, there is intercultural communication．It includes

international communication, interracial communication, inter-ethnic communication,

inter-regional communication and so on.