中英委婉语及其翻译方法

On Chinese and English Euphemisms and

Their T ranslation

I Introduction

The word “euphemism”originates from Greek, “eu ”serves as prefix, with the meaning of “good, sounding good”, while the root “pheme” means “saying; speech”. So the whole word suggests “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. According to Newman (1990.1), euphemism can be explained as “substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words”. For example, when talking about death, people would like to use “pass away, be no more; come to an end” rather than the blunt “death”. Based on this explanation, it will be not difficult for us to form the basic impression that euphemisms can avoid unpleasant word and create relatively positive atmosphere and glorifying sense.

However, the reasonable use of euphemism is not an easy job. One has to understand something before using it correctly. And the euphemism device is more a cultural and psychological reflection in language than a more language use .In cultural field, the religion factor, legend factor, literature factor, custom factor and historical stories can all affect the precise understanding and using of euphemisms.

Moreover, culture, as we all know, has its particular national features. That is to say, different countries have different culture tradition and heritage. And as language is the carrier of a nation’s culture, all the distinction in culture are reflected in the language level. As the use of it has to be performed under the cultural instruction and consideration.

At present, euphemism use, as one of the commonest phenomena in human language, has been deeply embedded in the language use. In the daily life and work, euphemism can lubricate and coordinate the interrelation among person to make the communication go on more smoothly. So it will not be exaggerated to emphasize euphemisms’importance. Instead, as the improvement of social civilization, more and more euphemisms use will be adopted in language production. What’s more, the chance of communication between Chinese and foreigners is more frequent, during this process, it is quite important to know about the respective communication habits and cultural tradition in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding in both sides. So the author

would like to say, it is of great value and practical instruction in cross-cultural communication to study this interesting language method-euphemism in terms of cultural intention between Chinese and English.

II The Same Cultural Psychology of Euphemism Use in Chinese and English Language

Although euphemism have an early origination, they hadn’t begun to appear in a wide range at a swift space until the modern times when the technology and productivity were improving constantly and the whole society and human kind were in a processing state. Just during this processing much taboo in social, psychological and language aspect has turned up constantly, which provided a good precondition for the booming of euphemism. Here, the article will further analyze the common cultural elements in the use of euphemisms in Chinese and English from three different angles.

2.1 Language T aboo

Either in highly civilized society or in the primitive tribes, there exist euphemisms. Either in widely used languages or in the languages of ethnic groups, there exist euphemisms. The earliest field of their uses is the addresses to the God or the ghost. Because at the early times, people’s knowledge about nature and science is lacking badly, then they had to own many mystic things to the influence of ghost or God. And they were so worshipping and horrified to this kind of super power that they began slowly to avoid mentioning then frankly and directly. Then taboo became the earliest euphemism.

For example, in English-speaking countries, they are so devoted to the God that they use many other names for Jehovah, such as the Almighty, the Supreme being, Holy one the Eternal, the Maker, the Savior and the lord of lords and so on. In Chinese there are also many euphemisms due to taboo. Take the expression of death for example, the Chinese euphemisms for it includes:离去，不在了，走了，仙逝，骑鹤，涅磐，去西天，蝉蜕，崩，弃世，不戮，and so on.

Of course there are many other fields where taboo is actively stimulating the use of various euphemisms. Generally speaking, both in Chinese and English, euphemisms in disease, sex, excretion, unemployment, poverty and old age are the most usual occasions to see them. Any language user should pay careful attention to the taboo culture, both home and abroad, either same or different or else, others may be badly offended while you still feel quite innocent. So it is better for language users to avoid