論死亡委婉語及其社會功能

英語論文編號:YY621  論文字數:8742.頁數:26

Contents

1．Introduction 1
2. Theoretical Background of Euphemism 2
 2.1 Language and Culture 2
 2.2 Language and Society 3
3. Brief Introduction of Euphemism 5
 3.1 Definition, Origin and Classification of Euphemism 5
 3.2 An Overview of Study of Euphemisms at Home and Abroad 6
4. Origin of Death Euphemism 8
 4.1 Psychological Factor 8
 4.2 Social Convention 9
 4.3 Religion 9
 4.4 Taboo 10
5. Classification and Cultural Meanings of Death Euphemism 11
 5.1 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Religious Belief 11
 5.2 Death Euphemisms Related to Occupation 12
 5.3 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Age 13
 5.4 Death Euphemisms Related to Sporting and gambling 13
 5.5 Other Classifications 14
6. Social Functions of Death Euphemism 16
 6.1 Evasiveness 16
 6.2 Politeness 16
 6.3 Covering 17
 6.4 Humor and Satire 18
7．Conclusion 19
Acknowledgements 20
References 21

摘    要
 對所有人來說，死亡是最可怕的事，它代表了生命的結束。因此，在任何文化中，死亡都是人們所避諱的，因為這可能引起人們不愉快的情緒或恐懼心理，為了避免直接講到“死”，就出現了很多代替這個詞的委婉語。本論文共分五個部分，第一部分闡述了委婉語的定義、分類以及起源，并介紹了委婉語的國內外研究現狀。第二部分從禁忌語、心理因素、社會習俗等方面出發分析了死亡委婉語產生的原因。第三部分根據死亡委婉語的不同表達對其分類，并論述它們的文化內涵。第四部分探討死亡委婉語的社會功能，例如掩飾、幽默、避諱等。第五部分對本論文進行總結。通過對死亡委婉語分類和社會功能的分析，得出死亡委婉語既是語言現象的一部分，更是社會文化現象的一部分。它的形成和發展與社會和文化息息相關。
 關鍵詞：死亡委婉語；起源；分類；文化內涵；社會功能

ABSTRACT
 Death is the most terrible thing to most human beings, which means the end of existence. As a consequence，it is a forbidden area in almost every culture. To avoid mentioning directly the word “death”, which probably will arouse unhappy feeling and frighten people，lots of euphemisms are created to substitute for it. This thesis falls into five chapters to analyze the death euphemism. Chapter one states the definition and the classification as well as the origin of euphemisms, then reviews the previous studies of euphemisms at home and abroad. Chapter two illustrates the reasons of the emergence of death euphemism from the following aspects: taboo, psychology, social convention, religion and so on. Chapter three classifies the different expressions of death into different groups according to the aspects of social status, religious belief, age, career, etc and introduces their cultural meanings. Chapter four probes the social functions of death euphemism, like function for cover, function for humor, function for evasiveness and so forth. Chapter five is the conclusion of all the findings and discoveries made in this thesis. Through analyzing the detailed categories and the functions of death euphemism, we can see that death euphemism is a part of a linguistic and particularly, a social cultural phenomenon. Its generation and development are closely connected with social and cultural factors.

Keywords：death euphemism; origin; classification; cultural meaning; social function