中西禁忌文化

The Comparison of Taboos between Chinese and Western
Culture
In partial fulfillment of the requirement
For the B.A. degree
Binjiang College
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
December, 2014
Acknowledgements
Lasting nearly two months and finally I finish this thesis , in the process of writing the paper, I has encountered numerous of difficulties and obstacles, and I have spent in the classmates and the teacher's help. Especially strongly thanks to my thesis advisor,, she is the guidance and she help me a lot .she not minds taking the trouble to help me finish the paper. In addition, when I found information in the school library, the library teacher also gave me support and help in many ways. Here I want to say the most central thanks to my teachers! Thanks to this paper relates to the scholars. This paper cites research literature scholars, if there is no research scholars help and inspiration, I will be very difficult to finish this essay.
Thanks to my classmates and friends, when I write the paper, they give me a lot of help, providing enthusiastic help in writing and publishing process.
Due to my limited academic level, the writing of his papers will inevitably be inadequate, please the teacher and schoolmate criticize and correct!
Contents
1. Introduction (1)
2. Some fundamental knowledge about taboo (1)
3. The similarities and differences of English and Chinese taboos (2)
4. The taboo development (7)
5. Ways to avoid conflicts in intercultural communication (8)
6. Conclusion (10)
The Comparison of Taboos between Chinese and
Western Culture
Binjiang College
Nanjing University of information Science and Technology
Abstract:In Chinese and Western cultural communication activities, people can break through their respective culture bound to appreciate and recognized the characteristics of multiple and hidden in other cultures, it can be the key to make the communication become a harmonious and fruitful. Taboo is a kind of social cultural phenomenon in Western universal language, it is a special shape formed by the taboo, it is also a common phenomenon in Western society. Taboo is a product of science development, but also it is a kind of human self protection consciousness. However, due to the orientation of historical development, social system and value system in the west are different, the content and form of taboo language are different. In order to promote the communication of Chinese and Western culture, it is very important to understand the western countries taboo.
Key words: taboo; western; Chinese; communication
摘要：在中西文化交际活动中，人们能否冲破各自的文化束缚，去领略和认可其它文化中多重且隐蔽的特性，是交际能否变得和谐且有成效的关键所在。

禁忌是中西方普遍存在的一种社会文化现象，由禁忌所形成的语言特殊形态，也是中西方社会共有的现象。

禁忌语是科学不发达的产物，也是人类的一种自我保护意识。

但是，由于中西方的历史发展、社会制度和价值系统取向的不同，禁忌语言的内容和形式也有所不同。

为了促进中西方文化的交流，了解中西方各国的禁忌语也是非常重要的。

关键词：禁忌；西方；中国；交流
1. Introduction
Because of the sensitivity of its own, Language taboo has always been a linguistics area, the early studies of linguistic taboo exist in the anthropology, folklore and psychology. However, taboo, as a special language phenomenon, it widely exists in every culture; it is restricted by social culture. , there are significant differences under the taboo of different cultural background and different languages , if improper understanding about it, it can cause misunderstanding, conflicts and even more serious consequences, so that to result the interruption of communication, Therefore, in order to increase mutual understanding between different cultural background ,and let people avoid conflicts, it is very necessary to learn and understand linguistic taboos in English and Chinese This paper mainly describes the basic knowledge about the origin of taboo, the evolution of taboo in the west and Chinese, the similarities and differences between west and Chinese, finally it discusses some measures to reduce the intercultural communication conflict.
2. Some fundamental knowledge about taboo
2.1 Definition of taboo
In communication , for some reason, people can not say some words .they dare not or would not say, some of these expressions are considered dangerous, sacred, mysterious, some others are considered embarrassing, and considered intolerable to the ear, they are often restricted to the use of certain person or certain occasions, this phenomenon is called linguistic taboo .
2.2The origin of taboo in Chinese and Western culture
2.2.1The origin of taboo in western culture
Taboo is an integral part of language; it appears with the language production. "Taboo” is a word originally seen in Polynesi an Tonga, the original meaning of it is “sacred", containing "requires extreme attention to the meaning of things". In 1777, British navigator James Cook in the South Pacific expedition, sailed to the islands of Tonga, found that many of the local social amazing phenomenon about taboo. The phenomenon of Taboo includes two aspects: one is the respected deity that cannot use; the other is despised cheap goods which can not contact. The so-called language Tab (verbal taboo) also includes two aspects: namely, language worship and language disabled or substitute. When a behavior is belong to be in the banned list, it means that the behavior becomes correspondingly taboo words.
2.2.2The origin of taboo in Chinese culture
The understanding of taboo has experienced the development process. Initially,
people believed in ghosts, generating the divine taboo. With the continuous progress of the development of the times, science and society increasingly developed, people gradually come out from the ancient closed world, superstitious degree greatly weakened, no longer blindly believe the taboos of god. But because of the cultural background, political ideas, religious beliefs, values, cultural traditions and social customs influence, taboo phenomenon still exists, especially in Western countries. Only the knowledge era is different from the ancient society, taboo changed in content and form to some extent. In the development of human society, a variety of "taboo" was slowly formed. Some taboos are blind, negative, ignorant and unreasonable; some taboo is scientific, positive, rational, and full of wisdom.
2.3 The evolution of taboo
Taboo language embodies the ideology and culture of certain society system o. The west of middle Ages, there are so many religious prohibitions, feudal apologists will put even the neck, chin and forehead and other parts of the body as language area. In China, "taboo" is a word with a long history. Many taboos are the rulers to ethics form preserved, such as avoiding the country, avoiding saints taboo, avoiding home taboo etc.. In modern society, taboo has a broader concept. In vertical view, the relative reduction of religious superstition ingredients taboo in line with the trend of the times, the spiritual civilization ingredients is relatively increased; in transverse look, with the increasingly frequent exchanges between China and Western countries, taboo customs affect each other, which the similar ingredients are also on the rise. In the UK, "Nigger" is still widely used to refer to a man twentieth Century 60's. But now, in the normal social interactions, it has been taboo, because this call is contrary to close the country's human rights thought. Sexy is traditionally used to hue seduce or tease others. But now, it is accepted by people as body modifiers whether in the West or in Chinese. In addition, for example, it is not allowed in some public clamor, patient and physician farewell are avoided saying "goodbye". It can be said that modern language taboos have originally from an invisible law, become now has both intangible method. The effectiveness and tangible law is expressly specified in the act. Thus it can be said, in general communication and public places the words that cause the other party or public antipathy or unpleasant some words or expressions belong to taboo language category.
3. The similarities and differences of English and Chinese taboos
3.1 The similarities of English and Chinese taboos
Although there are a lot of differences between Chinese and Western culture, but
in English and Chinese, the language taboo also exist a lot of similarity.
3.1.1Taboos on sex and obscene words
In Chinese, the problem of sexy has always been the forbidden area, when had to talked about the sexual organs, they should use "the", "lower" and other words to replace; when it comes to sex, they use "service" "sex" "the same song to instead of. Although west is relatively open about sex problem, but it is also not easily openly talk about "sex" and "sexy". The usual Western "sex", "sleep together" (the same bed), "have relation" (relationship) instead of sex.
In the English and Chinese languages, there are traditionally taboo to directly mention some organs in the human body and sexual behavior. "Pregnant" is related to sexual behavior, so the "pregnant" expression way is very tactful n English and Chinese language. Son Tianding is a great thing to Chinese, so Chinese say someone is pregnant to that "she had", "she's in trouble", or "she was going to be a mother.” English has the following expression: "she is expecting", "she is well-along", "and she is in a delicate condition". In addition, the so-called "has four letters of the word" (four-let-er words) such as fuck, tit, etc., in most conversations, they are still considered to be inappropriate, especially in men and women in some occasions, it appears more impolite.
3.1.2 Taboos on certain body organs
Body language taboo is also called body posture language taboo. There are some insults gestures or attitude in each culture in the language (insulting gestures). These gestures and postures transfer strong, rude, rude information, they are disgusted, so in public they are taboo. In the western language ,there are very big difference of taboo, some body language is used routinely, safely in western culture, but in the Chinese culture it is seen as rude behavior which is taboo and vice versa. The differences between Chinese and western language have great relationships with their different cultural background and customs. When Americans call the others, they are often palms upward and the index finger wiggling back and forth, however this is to call animal in Chinese gesture, it is a kind of offensive action to the person. It is friendly in Chinese same-sex hand in hand, shoulder and shoulder, but in America, especially in some big city, which is regarded as an openly gay love action. Language taboo is mostly a habitual action, so it is more easily offended than verbal taboo.
3.1.3 Taboos on sickness and death
Sickness is a misfortune and suffering. People hope to be healthy, they taboo ill, and they also taboo to talk about disease. This is a common psychological with people
throughout the world regardless of race, so all kinds of diseases, especially those inconvenience directly talking about, they often cause psychological burden of disease, ill and that are not uttered venereal belonging to taboo. Like many contemporary reproductive system disease which is caused by feculent sexual behavior, it is often due to violation of the traditional social ethics and they have an ashamed to open, so they adorn that. In western countries, people tend to push this disgraceful disease to other countries, and the name of the disease is said abroad, such as the British called the "Spanish" pox "in France, Yabolite disease called" Eastern Europe "the French disease" etc... Disease taboos are more than the west in Chinese. Early Chinese, because the people is unknown etiology, and religious factors, once people get sick, they think that it is in breach of the gods, even the name of disease is also very taboo!.
"Dead" means it is farewell to life, but also it makes the family suffer great sorrow, so in English and Chinese are taboo to say the 'death ". Lu Xun "argument" wrote that one said directly that the children will die and there was a good hit things, it is a good example. So in China, when they say "dead”, they must use euphemism. Such as: died, sacrificing, depart from the world for ever, etc... In English, it is also commonly used“has, gone, depart, pass away, depart from the world, go to Heaven, he with God" to mean "death euphemism". "Death" is one of the most important areas of language taboo, because "death " is a kind of irresistible physiological phenomenon and social phenomenon, therefore, people will feel a kind of inexplicable superhuman strength in death . In Chinese, the emperor's death called "unreservedly" the identity of the people called "death". There are also many general euphemisms, such as: died of illness, EOL, sacrifice, and so on. English is in vice versa, Westerners will not directly say "He died", and use the following statement to instead: pass away, depart from the world forever, expire, go Heaven to be with God, go sleep forever, close one 's eyes “ct…..
3.2 The differences of English and Chinese taboos
The differences of taboo between British and China are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
3.2.1 Taboos on numbers
In China, numbers 4 and 7 have almost the same sound, so people do not want to use these two figures in general, because it is reminiscent of the "dead", all numbers including the phone number, license plate number, number, as long as there is a "4”, there will be very few people interested, people especially avoid the 14, because it is pronounced like "die",. "5" is a taboo in the month of May figures, it is considered
"evil" in May 5th as "evil days" especially unlucky. "9" in the age of digital is taboo, the ancients have a saying: "Ming nine, black nine, not death disease." The so-called "Nine" refers to the band 9 numbers, for example: 19, 29; "dark 9', refers to a multiple of 9, such as: 18, 27,36 etc.. There are 73 and 84, the Chinese people think that this is a sad life level, the legend is that because Kong Zi died at the age of 73, Meng Zi died at the age of 84, while the 6,8 is considered to be the "Shun", "hair" figure to be valued, "long" is the 9 harmonics, so self occupied since the upper rulers want Cathay CAS Jiangshan stable, Jigzhi people, so that security, so the Forbidden City has nine front door nail, as the so-called jiujiuguiyi statement.
In western countries, the most influential number taboo is the 13, because "the Bible" contains thirteenth Jews to sell the story of Jesus, the British and Americans are widespread disgust "13" the number, so 13 times, digital number is considered unlucky, door number is not 13, and in other high-level apartment hotel ,it is difficult to find a thirteenth layer buildings, they don't allow 13 people for dinner, in western countries, another taboo figure is Friday, it has been considered an unlucky day, people may because they believe that Jesus Christ was crucified on Friday , But also because of the years that Friday is the executed hole of criminals, it is commonly known as "the executioner of the day", another sharp contrast is that Chinese love even, for example, they say "good things come in pairs", "in pairs", Chinese especially like the number "6" and "8", as the saying goes "six Dashun" to prove this point, but in western countries, 666 is a terrible barbarous number, it is the devil's code, they like the odd, they think "God loved the singular", 1,3,5 is God's number, 7 is representatives of the lucky numbers.
3.2.2 Taboos on names and appellations
Appellation refers to the name of people in society due to the interpersonal relationship of relatives or specific identity, occupation and so on. In the West because of its geographical location, cultural background and the different ways of thinking, but also there is a huge difference in the use of appellation. For example, in China, people has always been the custom of ancestor worship due to historical and cultural influence,. To show respect, the younger generation should not address him by the elders or directly file an ancestral name. they can be clearly embodied in the Han nationality, Oroqen, Buyi, Tibetan and other ethnic minorities ancestor worship custom. Not only the younger generation has been taboo to call eldership first names, even between the same age and same seniority in the family, there are also many taboo. In interpersonal communication, it is a very important problem that how to call
each other. Out of respect, they often do not address him by name, in the mouth in daily life of people generally to Mr., miss, teacher, teacher to call others to show courtesy and respect. For example: teacher, Miss Li, master zhang. Miss in today's society because of fear of misunderstanding that caused a lack of respect, with the number of times is relatively small; it is replaced by the "beauty" and "handsome" mode of address. For the elderly, they can be called the grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, uncle, aunt, brother, sister etc.. For example, Zhang Grandpa, Uncle Li or omit name.
And the West does not have so many taboos like Chinese in the title means , in western, they use the appellation language relatively freedom, the boundaries are not very clear, both sides of communication can not divide the age to directly call each other names or nicknames. In the often live and work, in the west , in order to show the equality of status and the intimacy to a certain extent, most people can not consider the factors of grade, age, seniority, position, status and other aspects, first name. For example, in the communication and exchanges with western, people will hear no matter how big the age gap, they will directly call each other names. We can often hear the children call a man Jim, Marry, or Hellen. Even children in a family also can call him by his first name to its parents; this point is quite different with China habits. In their view, calling him by his first name is a manifestation of equality and friendly, rather than calling Chinese culture in its name not politely even disrespectfully. In western society, the communication between people on the appellation taboo is relatively less, but there are exceptions. For example, high in Western Royal or status of the clergy, there are some relatively strict rules. Of course, in most cases they use Mr. or MrS., Ms, Miss plus last name. However, if it is doctor, Professor, judge, governors: they have to use the title plus last name or a single with the title as a sign of respect.
3.2.3 Taboos on individual privacy
First of all, Chinese and Westerners' attitude towards the problem of age is different. To most Americans and Britons, asking a stranger or not familiar with the person's age is impolite. In addition, marital status, religious belief, political tendency, income, unless the other says that they don’t mind, otherwise it should not interven e. Therefore, in the foreigner with English speaking conversation, the following questions should be avoided, although to Chinese it is not wrong: How old are you`? What's your income? How much of your income? How much did you pay for that car? Are you married or not? Are you a Republican or Democrat, What’s your religion? If
you must know this kind of situation, for example, when in the hospital or a hotel or fill in a form, you can explain the reason before ask.
However, to Chinese, age, income, marriage statuses are not language area, they can be opened, you can ask. Of course, sometimes, to the young woman's age and marital status, young men should avoid, and not rashly ask; otherwise you will be regarded as a courtship suspicion. Casual conversation between strangers are likely to involve the problem of age, marital status, the elders to the younger generation inquiry that is expressed a concern. Cultural differences that make a lot of misunderstanding occur in cross culture communication, sometimes Chinese benevolent concern will be misunderstood by Westerners as snoop on privacy and infringement.
3.2.4 Taboos on sending gifts
In addition to send gifts, gift type color has certain stress, it is no less in most western countries , it mainly has following several aspects of the taboo:
1. Westerners send a gift is to send singular, and exquisitely packaging, it is thought that the snail and the horseshoe is a mascot.
2. Westerners send human gift, it also cannot send wine, sculpture and woman's picture, because they thought that the liquor is the root of all evil.
3. Westerners usually send the gift that the price is not expensive but a commemorative gift, remember not to send the lily, because it means death, the man received a gift and should open the gift in public...
However, in Chinese, in the gift of choice, when choose the white color, although it has the meaning of innocence, but Chinese is taboo, because in Chinese, white is often sad color and poor color; similarly, black is considered inauspicious, disaster of color, the color of bereavement; red, it is a symbol of happy, peaceful, festive, was widely loved. In addition, in China, they often pay attention to the elderly that can not be sent to the "clock", because "sending a clock" that is "down"; to a couple or lovers, they can’t send "pear", because "pear" and "from" is homonym.
4. The taboo development
With the progress of the times and the development of the society, the Western taboos are in development.
4.1 The decreased taboo
In modern society, people are increasingly seeking harmony between human and common development, and they are more and more pursuit of equality and freedom, therefore, now a lot of discriminatory questions taboos gradually disappear
or instead of other words, such as "nigger" is now seldom used, in addition, with the development of society, people's overall quality has improved, more and more people choose to learn western language, understand the language and customs of western countries, which makes people pay more attention to understand the language of each country taboo, it is also in the exchange and communication to avoid using taboo, so, with the international trend of cultural fusion, taboo words misuse gradually reduced, which increases the communication of Chinese and Western culture, make the western culture gradually convergence.
4.2 New taboo
However, with the raise of human society development and the progress of science and technology, people's material life level is gradually improve and enhance the "poor", "disease" and "old" and other words are gradually taboo. When meet these words, people usually choose the tactful. As in the eyes of Westerners, "old" is a terrible word, old people don't like to be said to "old people", because they will be "old" and "useless" "lonely" "sad" and other means to equate, so often with "senior (older capital, deep, high status") to replace. At the same time, the nature and the social parties and cognitive level of people is also rising, so people pay more and more attention in the communication between people and people who live in harmony and common development, so the former discriminatory words becomes the new taboo.
4.3The changed taboo
In modern society, with the improvement of people's cultural quality and frequent international exchanges and cooperation, people will pay more attention to the appropriateness of speech in the process of exchange and communication; they would violate each other's taboo, so the understanding of taboos is particularly important. In the process of social development, there are some ingrained taboos that cannot be changed because it printed in people heart, but there are also some changed taboos, some of the taboos in Chinese, people don't care about each other about their age, height and other privacy, but in modern society, more and more people began to mind each other about their age, especially women, they mind this way of communication more. In the west, because of the more open mind , some ancient taboos has undergone some slight changes with the development of the times , but the source in the history of the ingrained taboos still exists.
5. Ways to avoid conflicts in intercultural communication
With the development of international globalization, exchanges and cooperation
of all countries are increasingly frequent, so to understand each country's language taboos, avoiding unnecessary conflict is so important, in cross-cultural communication among them; there are several ways to avoid conflict in cross cultural communication:
5.1Being open-minded and appreciating differences
Britain and China, because of differences in historical development and cultural origin, there are also many different culture and values. The UK is a tradition of slave society, feudal dynasty capitalist era, developing countries, and Chinese is a history of several thousand years of feudal agricultural country. Therefore, , some performance of the two countries taboo is the same, but for different reasons. In addition, the general facts of this taboo language show that: human has more good aesthetic nature, aside from time, geographical and cultural limitations, this common goal is fit. Although by different cultural bases, social value driving different taboo culture, but the essence of language taboo more and more people avoid embarrassing indecent words and phenomenon, they are tend to be more good things and values, so in the future in cross-cultural communication, we must learn to appreciate the language differences between countries, with a kind of open-minded attitude towards Chinese and western language gap.
5.2 Euphemism and vagueness
Under the impetus of economic globalization, it is increasingly frequent between different ethnic groups in all regions of the world communication, different cultural background, ideology and life habit of constantly collision, but also constantly fusion. This makes the various nationalities in different regions of the world's taboo towards unification trend on the whole, the convergence of a party to people distinguish between different cultures in common, but also the other part reflects different cultural mutual influence, mutual infiltration and blend. Eastern and western language and culture caused the similarities and differences between English and Chinese taboos, to know more about the differences between Chinese and English language in cross-cultural communication, it is a universal key. If we really want to become a person with breadth of vision of cross-cultural communication, we must be in growth. The most effective method is to cross regional communication and integration of two kinds of language atmosphere, the effective dissemination of students and business people and immigrants will make this problem improved. But for most Chinese people, reading of Western literature and appreciation of original English movies is a good method, it can let them feel the Western civilization unknowingly and。