Introduction 1
1. Definition of Taboo 1
1.1 Definition of Taboo 1
1.2 Differences between Taboo and Euphemism 2
2. Similar taboos in English and Chinese 3
2.1 Religion and God 3
2.2 Sex 4
2.3 Secretions and Excretions 5
2.4 Disease and Death 6
2.5 Social Status 8
2.6 Privacy on Income and Weight 9
3. Different taboos in English and Chinese 10
3.1 Political Opinion 10
3.2 Privacy on Age and Marriage 11
3.3 Names 11
4. Conclusion 13
Bibliography 15
Introduction
Nowadays, taboo has become a commonly used word in anthropology and studies of religion and folk custom. Furthermore, it has been a fairly important field of these branches of learning. In every nation and culture there are phenomena of using taboo in daily life.
About the origin of Taboo, there are two viewpoints now. One viewpoint is that the term Taboo is originated from Polynesian (in south Pacific) Tonga language. In 1777, Captain James Cook arrived in south Pacific Polynesian Tonga. In Tonga, he found a strange behavior in their daily life. There were many things forbidden to do, many foods forbidden to eat, and some words not allowed to say. The local language of Tonga called this phenomenon Taboo or Tabu. Then Cook borrowed the word into English. The word in English refers to acts that are forbidden or to be avoided. When an act is taboo, reference to this act may also become taboo. That is, first you are forbidden to do something, and then you are forbidden to talk about it. The other viewpoint is that the term Taboo is originated from native language in the middle Pacific Islands. After referring to information of different sources, I find most scholars think the source of the word “Taboo” is Tongan word, which is introduced by Captain James Cook from Polynesia to Europe in 1777. And in book the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, when it defines “Taboo”, it points out clearly that Taboo has been borrowed from Tongan.
1. Definition of Taboo
1.1 Definition of Taboo
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalytic school, put forward interesting and detailed discussions on taboos in his classical work Totem and Taboo. He pointed out that taboos contained two opposite meanings: on one hand, it was lofty, sacred; on the other hand, it was mysterious, dangerous, prohibitive and unclean. On the basis of Freud’s views, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese dictionary defines the word “Taboo” as follows: “a) ban or prohibition on something that is regarded for religious or other reasons as not to be done, touched, used, spoken of etc. b) general agreement not to discuss or to do something.”(Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese dictionary, 2000 )We can also find the definition in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language: “Taboo has been borrowed from Tongan, where it means ‘holy’ or ‘untouchable’. Taboos exist in all known cultures, referring to certain acts, objects, or relationships which society wishes to avoid-and thus the language used to talk about them. Verbal taboos are generally related to sex, the supernatural, excretion, and death, but quite often they extend to other aspects of domestic and social life.”(David,1997) In short, from these definitions of taboo, we can know all the taboos are likely to be considered sacred, dangerous, inviolable or obscene by certain people. It is usually not spoken directly.
1.2 Differences between Taboo and Euphemism
Many people think that taboo is to a degree similar to euphemism. In our daily life, we often meet certain things we cannot say directly, so we use language which can help us avoid saying certain things as well as to express them. Certain things are not said, not because there’s no way to express them, but because people do not want to talk about those things; or if those things are to be talked about, they are talked about in very roundabout ways. In the first case we have instance of linguistic taboo; in the second case we have the employment of euphemism so as to avoid mentioning certain things directly.
Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame. Euphemism is more obvious than taboo words and expressions in our society. Euphemistic words and expressions allow us to talk about unpleasant things and “neutralize” the unpleasantness. They also allow us to give labels to unpleasant tasks and jobs in an attempt to make them sound almost attractive. These two linguistic are have some similar, however, each group is different from each other in how it constrains linguistic behavior in one way. Taboo is certain things that we cannot say, and euphemism is a linguistic we say certain things by better way, and then make people more comfortable.
Taboo and euphemism affect us in all aspects of life. When we speak, we must constantly make choices
of many different kinds: what we want to say, how we say it, and the specific sentence patterns, words and expressions that best unite the “what’s” with the “how’s”. We should know some words we never and hardly use when we are talking with others. If we use these words, it may cause some troubles in communication.
2. Similar taboos in English and Chinese
With the development of science and technology, the world becomes smaller and smaller; the increasing communication between different countries and nations make the mutual understanding more and more important. Thus, different social values and life customs blend as well as collide with one another. People in one culture may not use euphemism when referring to a social phenomenon while in another culture euphemism is the preferred way people address it. So the former may find a different equivalent in the latter’s language. For instance, English-speaking people usually substitute “underachieve” for “slow student” and nowadays Chinese people also tend to use the euphemistic phrase “后进生” instead of “差生”. In present society, taboo plays a considerably important part in the development of cross-cultural communication in English and Chinese.
According to International English Usage, there are mainly six taboo aspects as follows, religion and god, sex, secretions and excretions, disease and death, society, and privacy regarding age, weight, income etc. I have read some book about Chinese culture. Then, I compare English taboos with Chinese taboos. Chinese taboos are similar to English taboos. Chinese taboos also contain mainly six aspects.
2.1 Religion and God
In English-speaking countries, most people believe Christianity, they have a strong sense of religion, and people are strictly prohibited from mentioning God’s name. In the third commandment of Ten Commandments, it says,” Thou shalt not speak my name in vain”. Once you break the rule, you will be criticized or even be alienated by other members. Jesus Christ was a Jew who lived in Palestine 2000 years ago and is accepted by Christians as the Son of God. So in these countries, the religious terms like God, devil, Christ, damn, Jesus Christ etc, are only allowed to be mentioned in serious talk. If someone mentions Jesus Christ in casual talk or in a joke, he will be considered impolite. However, when English people scold someone, they will use these words: “For Christ's sake!” , “God damned!”, “Hell!”, “ Oh, damn it!”
In Chinese, it is similar for people to avoid calling God’s name. Most Chinese people believe Buddhism, they also do not mention God’s name. They often call God such as “玉皇大帝”， “大圣”，“佛主” etc. when they swears, they will use sky, such as “上苍作证”, “对天发誓”，“上天为证”。Sometimes they use爷， like“老天爷”, “阎王爷”, “土地爷”and so on.
Swearwords are taboo as well. This is generally true of both English and Chinese, although swearwords are no longer so offensive as before. Some of the swearwords mentioned above are now frequently heard in young people’s conversation. But for non-native speakers, it is better to be cautious in using profanity.
Comparing English taboos with Chinese ones, we can find that though these two countries have different religion, they have some similar taboo in religion.
2.2 Sex
Though modern people are more and more open than before in sex, when mentioning sexual things, people still feel embarrassed. Generally speaking, western people are open in sexual things, for sex education has a long history in the west. However, they are also cautious when talking about it in public, especially in mixed groups with women and men. Words about sex are not allowed to talk freely. When talking about it, people prefer to use other words to replace it. Most people feel embarrassed to say such words e.g. “ piss”, “fuck”, “ tits”, “cock” etc. Commonly, these words are called four-letter word. Some words are originally not taboo words, but they lost their frequency of being used, because they have sometime to do with sex or sex organs in the process of lexical evolution. These words like “gay”, “cock”, “ass”, “rooster”. In daily life, if you want to say sexual thing, you cannot use “copulate”, and “sexual intercourse” does not appear in conversation either.
Nowadays, woman pregnant is not mentioned directly. People use euphemism to mention it. They will use--she is “expecting”; she is “in a delicate condition”; she is “well-along”; she is about to have a “blessed event”; or she is about to be “in a family wa
y”. Besides, if a woman pregnant unmarried, people will say she is “in trouble”.
In Chinese culture, people pay more attention to sex and sex organs. In most times, people do not mention sex words. If it must be mentioned, people will use other words. They tend to use “下面”，“那里”，“阴部”etc. Chinese people never say sexual things directly any time any place. These things are considered embarrassing; it is not allowed to say them in public. When mentioning it, they tend to use phrases like “男女关系”, “洞房”, “房事”, “过夫妻生活”etc.
Similarly, Chinese people do not say pregnancy directly like English people. Chinese people call it “有了”，“有喜了”，“有孩子了”，“肚子大了”，“身子笨了”，“身子不方便了” etc.
In short, we can draw the conclusion that Chinese and English have many similar taboos on sex. So we should not speak of it at random, instead we should use it seriously. Otherwise, it will cause some embarrassments.
2.3 Secretions and Excretions
Secretions and excretions are substances of taboos. Perhaps this is because it is an ineluctable sign of our nature. No wonder that if someone mentions these words or phrases in public, it may cause considerable embarrassment, even misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication. People do not like to mention secretions and excretions because they think they are dirty. No matter in ancient or modern time, people hate dirt and emphasize personal cleanliness. Waste disposal is extremely primitive. So people have to use another way to dress these words and phrase up to make them sound better.
In English, “problem days”, “bad time”, “red light”, “holy week” etc. are just a few words of typical examples. In Chinese, there are also many expressions, such as “例假”，“好朋友”， “大姨妈”，“不方便”。
Another important aspect of secretions and excretions is the definition of toilet. In modern times, there are many beautified names of toilet, such as “washroom”, “the John”, “powder room”, “public comfort station”, ‘rest room” etc. However, people still do not like to say these words and phrases even when they are uttered in euphemism. They would like to say “spend a penny”, which means that it is charged to go to the toilet. “To shake hands with an old friend” implies that one has to do things that are frequently done. There are other similar expressions as well, like “answer the call of nature”, or “to have a BM (bowel movement)”. What is more interesting is that in different situations it will have different expressions. In climbing, a woman wants to go toilet, she may say “I must go and pick flowers.” In a party, people will say “May I wash my hands?” or more interesting, that is saying, “I must see a man about a dog.”, because “doghouse” means “toilet”. In Chinese, people usually call toilet“茅厕”，“厕所”， “卫生间” or “洗手间”。These expressions are similar to those in English.
From the examples on secretions and excretions both in Chinese and English, we can know in Chinese and English have similar taboo phenomena in secretions and excretions. Secretions and excretions are a necessary part of human physical function. We should deal with them in right attitude and in right way.
2.4 Disease and Death
Disease and death, and all that related to it are steeped in taboos. It is known to all, health is very important in our life. People are afraid of facing disease and death. So in conversations, people are not allowed to say sickness directly. Instead they prefer using other words. Therefore, we often hear people say, “I am not feeling well.” And for physical disabilities, people use “special boy” or “special girl” instead. If someone is blind, you can never call him or her “blind people” for that is a tabooed verbal utterance. Similar situation can be seen in Chinese. Chinese people are also afraid of talking about disease too. When a person is sick, he would like to say “我身体有点不舒服。” or “我最近感觉不是很好。” When talking about disabled people, like crippled people, they will say his leg is inconvenient. When talking about a blind person, they will say, “his eyes have some problems”, or “his vision is not good”.
It may be logical to attribute taboos concerning the dead to a natural human aversion to the processes of bodily decay, the odor of putrefying flesh and the fear of disease. No wonder death is the taboo topic in any time and in any place. Throughout the history, death is
considered serious topic. For any person, death is a sad thing; usually people are unwilling to face it. When someone dies, for the word ‘death’ is taboo, people never say she or he has died. They would like to say, “He has passed away.” or “He is gone.”; “ He went to his rewards.”; “ He fell asleep.” or “ He breathed his last.” If this man is a solider, people would not say, “He is killed.” For ‘kill’ is a taboo. Instead, they say, “He fell in battle.” If someone is drowned, they would like to say, “The sailor was lost at set.” In Chinese there are more one hundred expressions about death. In these expressions there are some rules, especially in ancient time. People cannot use these words at random. When the emperor dies, people say “驾崩”; when the officials die, people say“薨”; if it refers to the death of a respectable person, we may say “仙逝”; a person dies in campaigns, we call it “牺牲”。And other expressions of death are not strictly used, such as “走了”, “去了”, “去世”, “辞世” “安息”, “断气”, “长眠”, “离开” etc. Nowadays, some new expressions are used by Chinese people, like “挂了”, “去见马克思了” “归西了”。
Different countries have different cultures. In Chinese culture there are more expressions about death than those in English. And it has more rules than English. The hierarchy is so strict in ancient china that the choice of this kind of vocabulary is made strictly too. Different social class, age, cause of death and religious faith may cause different versions of death in china.
Firstly, according to a person’s social status, there are some expressions. When the emperor dies, people say “驾崩”; when the Zhuhou (dukes under an emperor) die, people say“薨”; when the Dafu (a senior official in feudal China) dies, people say “卒”; when the Shi (a social stratum in feudal China, between senior officials and the common people) dies, people say “不禄”; when the Civilians die, people say “死”. Secondly, according to person’s age, there are many expressions about death. When a person dies younger than twenty years old, people say “殇”. What is more, there are some rules about “殇”. When a person dies between eight to eleven, people say “下殇”; when a person dies between twelve to fifteen people say “中殇”; when a person dies between sixteen to nineteen, people say “上殇”. (But if this person has been betrothed, people do not say “殇”.) In addition, if it refers to the death of a baby or a child, people say “夭折”. Of course, when it comes to an older people’s death, Chinese people have another expression. When an older people dies, people “寿终”; or say it more respectably “寿终正寝”. If this died person is a woman, people say “寿终内寝”. So in later times, “正寝” becomes a new expression of death. Thirdly, according to the different reasons of death, Chinese people also have different expressions. A person who contribute his life to career, people say “殉职”; a person dies in battlefield, people say “阵亡”(nowadays, we say “牺牲”); a person does not die in his hometown, people say “客死”; a person dies by accident, people say “凶死”. Lastly, according to person’s religion, it has different expressions. A monk dies, people say “圆寂” or “坐化”; a lama dies, people say “涅槃”; a Taoist priest dies, people say “羽化”or “登仙”; the Christians die, people say “归主”; the Muslims in Hui Minority Group (a minority group in China ) die, people say “无常”.
2.5 Social Status
As to social conventions, we’d better first take a look at the well-known English class system. This is an embarrassing subject for English people, and the one they tend to be ashamed of, though during the present century class-consciousness has been declining. But it still exists. Broadly speaking, it means there are two classes, the “middle class”, and the “working class”. We shall ignore for a moment the old “upper class”, including the hereditary aristocracy, since it is extremely small in numbers: but some of its members have the right to sit in the House of Lords, and some newspapers take a surprising interest in their private life. The middle class consists chiefly of well-to-do businessmen and professional people of all kinds. The working class consists chiefly of manual and unskilled workers. From the classes mentioned above, we can kno
w in England people are serious with their status. So it would make one unpleasant to ask his or her status. These questions may be considered taboo. Therefore, a well-bred person does not talk about these topics in daily life. In Chinese culture, status is also a sensitive topic. Although Chinese do not have classes after liberation, in China well-educated people often have respectable and decent jobs. They have better lives. On the contrary, uneducated people are usually poor. They have no good jobs and they are often farmers, or manual workers in factories etc. Their income is little and mean. So in Chinese there is a word “民工” which indicates lower social status and poor income. From the above we can know that status in Chinese is a taboo topic too. Because one’s social status is often associated with his incomes and education. Generally speaking, the poor have low incomes, they can not live well. On the contrary, the rich have high incomes, and they live a life of luxury. Education impacts one’s career. If one is well educated, he often has a respectable job, like lawyer, doctor, engineer etc. Those people who are not educated, they may not have good jobs. The poor do not want others to know they have no money. Similarly, those people who do not have good jobs also do not want others to know about it. The main reason for these phenomena is these people are afraid that others may consider them lazy or incompetent. Actually they fear others look down upon them.
Therefore it is impolite to ask people’s statuses both in Chinese and English. With the development of society, it’s expected that everyone can neglect other’s social status, and meets each other politely.
2.6 Privacy on Income and Weight
It is known to all, English people are “reserved”. A reserved person refers to one who does not talk very much to others. It is difficult to get to know them. As the saying goes, “A man’s home is his castle”, the western people place a high value on privacy. It is not appropriate for us to ask questions about personal information like salary, weight, or questions on personal activities. Even the family members do not know the exact account of each other, so they dislike answering these questions. This phenomenon doesn’t show the bad relationships between them but just reflects one concept that each member of one family keeps certain independence and freedom. Therefore these topics are also considered taboos in conversation. Some of these questions listed below are taboos which are not allowed to say:
“How much do you earn?”
“You make a lot of money, don’t you?”
“How much did that pair of shoes cost you?”
“How much do you weigh?”
It is advisable that we should not talk about such things, when conversing with English-speaking people unless they indicate clearly that they do not mind or they talk about them first themselves. In Chinese, people are unwilling to talk about their incomes and weight. It is not wise to ask Chinese people how much he or she earns every month. Chinese are implicit. They do not like to talk about their salary in public. If you ask them these questions, they would think you are offensive. In modern society people all over the world view being slender as beauty. So it is impolite to ask people’s weight. Moreover, these questions should be especially avoided in the presence of a woman. Generally speaking, women usually pay more attention to these things.
Having compared Chinese with English version on privacy, we can get the conclusion that western people place a high value on privacy while Chinese people pay attention to some private things. We should know the different culture between them. Only by this way can we communicate well with people from different countries.
3. Different taboos in English and Chinese
3.1 Political Opinion
From the comparison of English and Chinese taboos, we find there are much similarity in these two languages.
In conversation, English people do not like to talk about their political opinion in public. Questions like “Are you a republic or Democrat?” “Why did you vote for …?” “What is your opinion of politics?” are not allowed. But it is common in Chinese. Usually, you can hear people asked, “Are you members?” Chinese people would answer you “yes” or “no”. Generally speaking, whether one is a member of a party or not is associated with one’s behavior. In China this question is very common. Chinese people don’t consider it very offensive.
3.2 Privacy on Age and Marriage
In the previous part, I have talked some taboos about private things in both Chinese and English. Although these two countries have some similar taboos, they also have different kinds of taboos. In English, you cannot ask any questions about private ma
tters including incomes, age, marriage, weight, etc. If you ask an Englishman “Where are you going?” or “Have you eaten?”, he might think you are very rude. The English men think that is a private matter, “Where I am going, whether I have eaten”—things like these are their own business. You should never ask a woman her age and personal questions, or remark, such as “Why do not you get married?” “How old are you?” or “I should think you would want to have some children.” Some of these are permissible in China, but they are subjects to be avoided in English. For instance, an English teacher said she was asked more than one hundred times about her age in China one year. She felt very unpleasant. English people hope others can recognize their own rights and they also respect others’ rights.
According to Chinese culture, Chinese do not mind too much when other people ask them about age, family background and marriage. When other people ask Chinese these questions, Chinese people will be glad to answer him or her. Moreover, they think you are welcome because you concern about their personal lives and they like to make friends with you. Chinese people think these things can be talked open. Asking you these questions means that they care about you. So in daily conversation you can hear these private topics everywhere and every time. It is common in Chinese.
3.3 Names
In addition to the taboos of people’s political opinions and privacy, name is an important element of taboo. In appellation, English people are different from Chinese people. English people are much random than Chinese people. Chinese people are very strict about appellation. Many words are taboos and people cannot use them freely. English people can use any name if he/she likes (except god’s name). English people can have the same name with their mother, father, grandfather, grandmother and so on. What’s more, English people can have the same name with queen or king. In English, it does not matter, and it is very common for many English people to name their children as they like. But naming in Chinese is more serious and people cannot use them at random. There are many taboos in it.
An attempt to classify name taboos has been made by George B. Foucart. He divides the prohibition on names into five categories: a) taboos on mentioning the personal name of an individual, sometimes even by the person himself; b) prohibitions on pronouncing the names of gods, genii, spirits and animistic powers; c) the same taboos applied to those secret names conferred at initiations and consecrations upon those chose to act as intermediaries between the human and spirit words; d) taboos on naming the dead and; e) the naming of certain animals, plants and topological features.(Lynn, 2000)
In ancient China, Chinese people regarded the names of their emperors and elders as taboos. It was forbidden to write the name of an emperor when quoting anything old or composing anything new. To avoid such problems, later emperors were given names with characters invented for them -- characters that were utterly useless for any other purpose. To illustrate the principles involved here, let us take a look at the case of the man who founded the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). As an individual, he was a man of the Zhu family named Yuanzhang, so according to the usual manner he would be called Zhu Yuanzhang. However, once he ascended the throne, his personal name became taboo; thenceforth, he would be referred to by his dynastic name or Miaohao (temple name) Great Ancestor of the Ming, or Ming Taizu. According to the conventions of English usage, we would refer to him as Emperor Taizu. Another example, people in Tang Dynasty substituted “代”for “世”, “人” for “民” in order to avoid the given name of tang Taizong “李世民”。 Besides, people should avoid the older people’s name in family. Foe example, if one’s father’s name called “淮”, his name must avoid this word.
Since a Chinese character has different elements, or morphemes, and most Chinese names mean something. There are some ways to avoid taboo words for ordinary people. For instance, a person can not use any word or morpheme of a taboo word as his/her name; he is inclined to replace the taboo word with its synonyms or Para synonyms; or use homophones or words with similar pronunciation as substitutes of the taboo word; or even change the pronunciation of the taboo word when using it; or use characters in similar shapes; add components to the taboo character to create a new one and so on.
In short, Chinese people are serious with their names. The taboo on naming is a topic with a long history. We should take care of this taboo when we name children.
4. Conclusion
Many experts have confirmed that if one wants to learn a language well, he or s
he must understand its culture. When we learn a foreign language, we should not only get knowledge of the language itself but also pay considerable attention to the culture embodied in the language. As an important part of culture, taboos or taboo words in a language need to be deeply probed into. Taboo exists in every nation and it is a common but diversified social phenomenon. It makes it possible for people to understand and communicate well by learning and respecting customs of other countries. Thus, learning the differences between Chinese and English taboos will help us better understand people of other cultures and express ourselves more properly in English learning and social intercourse.
All the above is the information about Taboo and a brief introduction of differences between Chinese and English taboos. We can draw the conclusion that taboo is an important part in language. And different countries have different culture and different taboo as well. In our daily life, when we communicate with others, we should avoid taboo words to communicate more effectively.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have helped me during the writing of this thesis. Firstly, I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Ms. Deng Yunsheng. During these several months, Ms Deng helped me prepare for this thesis. She taught me how to write thesis, and when I made some mistakes in thesis, she often helped me correct it in time. She was never too busy to be a guide.
Secondly, I’d like to thank my roommates and all friends who gave me their help and shared their experience with me.
Last, I want to thank my family for always supporting me and giving me a comfortable learning atmosphere.
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