A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Taboos in Cross—cultural Communication

LIU+Yang++ZHANG+Li-jie

1 Introduction

With more and more intercommunication today， English is regarded as the worlds most widely used language. Nowadays， many people can speak fluent English for daily communications， but the misunderstanding of some cultural taboos often leads to embarrassment. Therefore， people find that learning and mastering linguistic taboos of different cultures are the important method to break the bottleneck of communication. As a result， this paper contrastively analyzes the similarities and differences of Chinese and English taboos in cross-cultural communication， in order to stress the importance of？understanding and mastering taboos and have a smooth communication with others.

2 Literature Review

The taboo is a quite important factor that effects peoples daily communication. With the the study going further， more and more scholars have made plenty of researches on taboos， so that people can avoid embarrassment and communicate quite smoothly.

2.1 Overseas Researches of Taboos

In early time， taboo researches were relevant to anthropology， ethnography of communication， sociology and psychology. In 1890， Sir James G Frazer was an influential figure in this field， publishing a book The Golden Bough， which was a milestone in the research of taboo. Sigmund Freud in 1913 published his book Totem and Taboo， which provided the most ingenious explanation for the irrational nature of taboo. In 1967， Margaret Mead and Franz Baermann Steiner published Taboo， Truth and Religion. Whats more， this important work offered more perspectives for the study of taboos. Different books have different focuses， but these works can be very helpful for the later researchers of linguistic taboos. Until now， the linguistic taboo is also a significant part of language learning， so researchers will continue to do researches on this topic.

2.2 Domestic Researches of Taboos

China with a long written history and various language species has had records about taboos since Zhou Dynasty. Due to the strict hierarchy of the feudal society， each dynasty documented taboos in various aspects in daily life， some even came down the ages. Chen Yuan， a pioneer in this field， published a book named《史諱举例》， which was the first master of language taboo learning. In 1982， his another book Sociolinguistics was the earliest literature which provided a comparative analysis. With the development of reform and opening up， a increasing number of Chinese English learners are also highly concerned about linguistic taboos. Above all， some researchers have also made some achievements in the field.

3 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Taboos in Cross-cultural Communication

Nowadays， communication becomes more and more constant among people from different countries and races， who have encountered various obstacles during this process， a very important problem among which is the linguistic taboo. Therefore， this paper focuses on similarities and differences of English and Chinese taboos in a contrastive way from the aspects of addressing， inquiry and some sensitive issues， to ensure the communication to go on smoothly.

3.1 English and Chinese Taboos in Addressing

Addressing is the beginning for people to communicate with someone whom you know well or not. All ethnic groups have different taboos to address. Based on Chinese traditional cultures， people should decide how to address others according to age， status， close relationship and other factors when meeting. For example， as for senior people， they can usually be called “grandpa”， “grandma”， “uncle”， “aunt”， etc. instead of their names. As for the peers， people do not often directly call others whole names in interpersonal communication to show respect.

On the contrary， in western countries， there are not strictly boundaries between senior and young generations. In many formal occasions， regardless of men， women， children and the elder， they can call others names or nicknames directly. In western social situations， people meet someone for the first time and often call each other with Mr. Mrs. Miss. and so on. But as for Doctor， Professor， Nurse， Judge， Pastor， President and so on， people also call them with professional titles and their family names， or their titles alone.

3.2 English and Chinese Taboos in Inquiry

In China， topics between acquaintances or even those people meeting for the first time are quite casual， sometimes they can directly ask other s personal problems. But in western countries， these problems will let people extremely disgusted. Because they think peoples privacy cannot be inquired in daily communications. Besides， in the west， people should be polite to ask questions for the elder， bosses or strangers. On the contrary， it doesnt need to be so fastidious to inferior acquaintances or people with lower level questions， otherwise it will make people feel too hypocritical， which is very similar to the behavior of Chinese people.

3.3 English and Chinese Taboos in Sensitive Issues

In cross-cultural communication， some sensitive topics also belong to taboos， containing birth， death， illness and old age. Having a strong desire for health and longevity， all people hope to stay away from disease and death， so they attempt to prevent from using direct words or expressions to describe these facts so that there are lots of taboos on birth， death， illness and old age in both Chinese and English.

Birth： Taboos on women s pregnancy and giving birth to a baby exist both in China and in the west. As we all know， pregnancy is a great event for the whole family. But in ancient China， the moralists thought that sex is a unchaste behavior， neither is pregnancy is. When someone is pregnant， people often use other periphrases. For instance， “她有喜了”， “双身”， “吃酸了”， “身怀六甲” instead of “怀孕”. The Western people happen to hold the same view. People usually choose the expressions such as “she is expecting”， “she is in a delicate condition”， “she is about to be in a family way”， “eating for two” to instead of “pregnant”.

Death： “Death” is a sensitive word for all people to avoid being mentioned both in China and the west. Therefore， it is not strange that people employ so many alternative words or expressions to replace when they just talk about it. On the one hand， various Chinese expressions are used to replace “death”， including “安息”， “仙逝”， “夭折”， “长眠”， “作古”， “永别”， “辞世”， “逝世”， “过世”， “走了”， “老了”， “不在了”， “出远门了”， “没了”， “驾崩”， “卒” and so on； On the other hand， there are also many euphemisms to instead of “death”， for instance， “pass away”，“fall asleep”，“pass out”，“close ones days”，“go west”，“pass over to the great beyond”，“breathe ones last”，“kick the bucket” and “be done for”， etc. （Fan Zhonghui， 2003： 156）. In a word， “death” is an avoidable topic for all human beings both at home and aboard， so people should pay much attention to this aspect in social communication.

Illness： Disease is tabooed in both English and Chinese， which may cause psychological burden， shame or embarrassment. For example， people usually use euphemisms， when mentioning diseases， such as calling cancer the big C， calling heart attack heart condition， calling deaf hard of hearing and so on. Besides， some abbreviations are adopted to substitute the names of diseases， for instance： AIDS （Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome）， DTs （delirium tremens）， V.D （Venereal disease）， B.O （body odor） （Rawson. H， 1981： 197 ）. As for Chinese people， they usually use “不舒服”，“不適”，“行动不便”，“身体有恙” to replace “disease” or “illness”.

Old Age： With the influence of different cultural backgrounds， different responses to the topic of old age come into being between English and Chinese. The word “old” is a symbol of titles， skills， and social reputations， so there are expressions like “老板”， ”老手”， “老乡” in China. However， in western countries， people are more accustomed to show their young side， which can be reflected at least in their language expressions. Therefore， people often use “seasoned man”， “elderly people”， “senior citizen”， “the mature” to describe a man in old age， in order to avoid embarrassing each other. It is not hard to see that the attitude to “old” in English and Chinese is quite different. In conclusion， it is necessary to memorize the differences between Chinese and English， so that embarrassing occasions will be avoided.

4 Conclusion

Linguistic taboo is a social and linguistic phenomenon existing in various languages and cultures. It attracts peoples much attention mainly because of its great importance in cross-cultural communication. Therefore， in daily life， Chinese English learners should master different language taboos among different languages and use euphemism properly. To sum up， it is inevitable to encounter taboos during the intercommunication in any culture and society， so people should decide to promote their awareness and knowledge of taboos， and improve their communicative capacity， so that they can communicate smoothly and fluently.

[Reference]

[1]Frazer， James George. The Goleden Bought-A Study in Magic and Religion[M]. New York： The Macmillam Press LTD，1925.

[2]Margaret Mead & Franz Baermann Steiner. Taboo， Truth and Religion[M]. Berghahn Books，1967.

[3]Sigmund， Freuud.The Origins of Religions：Totem and Taboo： Moses and Motheim and Other Works[M].London：Penguim Books.1985.

[4]陳原.语言和社会生活[M].北京：三联书店，1999.

[5]范中汇.世界各国文化概览[M].北京：文化艺术出版社，2003.

[责任编辑：朱丽娜]