英语禁忌语及其语用功能

English Taboo Words and Its Pragmatic

Functions

Abstract:Different countries have different taboos. Furthermore, linguistic taboos change with the development of society. With the increasing importance of communication between English and Chinese, English taboo words usually become block for English learners.Therefore, learning English taboos and their pragmatic functions is quite essential. The paper firstly tries to make an analysis of what linguistic taboo is on the basis of some research study and its significance. Secondly, it introduces several important classifications of English taboo. The paper points out that different taboos have different pragmatic functions and the ways of avoiding taboo.

Key Words: English taboo words; evolution; pragmatic functions; forms

Ⅰ. Introduction

In language communication, for some reasons, certain words are avoided to be used by people. They consider them sacred, dangerous, unpleasant or offensive. These words are to be forbidden in many situations, particularly in modern civilization, but only allowed and used by certain people in some specific circumstances. This phenomenon is what we call linguistic taboo.

Taboo phenomenon has been widely found in all cultures in the word. When this phenomenon is extended to language, linguistic taboo comes into being. Language and culture are closely related, and the differences between cultures have a tremendous impact on the features of language. Therefore we can conclude there is vast difference in English and Chinese taboo.However, not everyone knows their specific difference which causes easily to make mistakes and embarrassment in cultural exchange. For example, in China, we usually ask people how old they are. On the contrary, in England, it is extremely not polite to ask their age, which is regarded as an exceedingly private question. What?s more, some words may lead to relevant psychological behavior of using those reverent or unpleasant words. These words perhaps result in uneasiness, dread or sadness, so people try to avoid using these displeased words directly. These annoying words gradually belong to linguistic taboo. Then euphemism which is thought to be less offensive or unpleasant than another

word and expresses these meanings naturally emerged. For instance, English people hardly use the word “die”, instead, they may use “pass away or go to heaven” to express the same meaning. This phenomenon actually exists widely in England, but few English learners know it and may ignore it. A lack of knowledge in this field or improper use of linguistic taboos may trigger misunderstandings, conflicts and other unknown serious consequences in the cross-cultural communications which is becoming increasingly frequent and wider now. Hence, it becomes a great of importance for us to know English taboo and its pragmatic functions. The correct way to avoid taboo is to know what English taboo words are, try to avoid them and use relevant euphemisms for the purpose of successful cultural exchange.

Recently, there have been some books and assays on research of English taboo which comes from a number of aspects. For example, in An Analysis of the Social Functions of Taboo Words(Cui Ai yong,2006:4), it focuses on the analysis of English linguistic taboo, its translation, its trend of development, its social functions or its usage in English movies. Other research is about the discussion of the differences and similarities of English and Chinese taboo or cultural connation of English taboo. According to these aspects, my essay mainly focuses on detailed introduction of English taboo, namely, its definition, resource, significance, classification and its pragmatic functions. In my opinion, knowing English taboo and how to use it in correct and suitable way is essential to us English learners for good cultural communication.

1.1The definition of English taboo

American linguistic Victoria Fromkin considers that taboo is actually the word which is forbiddened to be used or at least should not be used in this elegant society. In Oxford Advanced Learner?s English-Chinese Dictionary, taboo can be defined that it is this word likely to be considered offensive, shocking or indecent by certain people and to be thought not necessarily by everyone. On the basis of these definitions, my conclusion is that the taboo word is a type of language people in some situations, out of politeness or avoiding spurring strong dislike but could not or would

not literally use.

1.2The evolution of linguistic taboo

The word “taboo”was borrowed from Tonga, a Polynesian language, with the meaning of something forbidden or banned. Its first recorded use in English was by Captain James Cook (1729-1779), a British navigator .In the 18 century, he came to Tonga for adventure in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. He discovered many odd customs and taboo phenomena there. For example, some certain things could only be used by God, King or monks, the type of special people rather than ordinary people. Some names and words were absolutely forbiddened. People who went to taboo place or touch taboo object would suffer sever injury. Offenders must be punished by supernatural power. People on this island all called this phenomenon “tabu”.Then James Cook brought back the word “tabu” to Britain, which later became the English word “taboo”. So the word taboo originated from Polynesian word “tabu” or “tapu”, meaning holy, special or unclean.

As a matter of fact, taboo phenomena were not unique in Tonga. On the contrary, they have long existed in all cultures and languages throughout the world. Linguistic taboo or the fact of avoiding mentioning certain words and expressions in a language is a common practice in more than one society. In ancient undeveloped society, people believed some languages, tools or behaviors would bring misfortune or disaster. For the purpose of having a stable, happy life, people were or not aware of protecting the power of taboo and sustaining the implement of taboo. It merely originated from people owe to some magic power, and included accumulating experience of people?s long struggling with nature.

Ⅱ.The importance of English taboo

English taboo as a constituent part of language has an indispensable relation with social culure.In the ancient times, taboo was created to avoid disasters from supernatural power or dangerous things, so it is the limitation of certain people, articles and behaviors and the self-eradiation. Thus, we can find that English linguistic

taboos reflect people?s psychology for good will, for safety, for fortune and for pleasantness. For successful, decent conversions, some words cannot be spoken out in direct way publicly, because they may make people unpleasant, uneasy and even horribale.Therefore,taboo is created to avoid using these displeased words directly. In short, taboo can restrain people?s speech and help the speakers to overcome psychological obstacle when talking about some things to dilute or cancel various unpleasant imagination. In conclusion, the English people restrict their words and deeds through taboos, trying to keep a harmonious relationship between human and nature, or between people and society.

What?s more, taboo is helpful to adjust interpersonal friendship and coordinate relation between humanity and nature, as well as the link between people and society. Though some taboo is superstitious, negaltive, fatuous, it contains profound psychology, experience, wisdow and fun. In fact, taboo can reflect incisive affection of taboo users, so it is deserved to be deeply researched.

Ⅲ.The classification of English taboo

There are a vast number of categories in English taboo. Here, I am making a list of types of English taboo in ten aspects. In the beginning, it is taboo in greeting. In England, it is rude to ask their pravicy, including their income, age, wet, marriage, ect. Words about these parts belong to taboo. The best way of greeting is to talk about weather with them .Secondly, it is taboo about religion. People merely use God, Jesus, the Devil, and Holy in their daily life. In England, abusing the name of God gets no respect from others. As a result they try their efforts to avoid using them.Thirdly, it is the word of human bodies, which is thought obscene and easily arouses people?s imagination.Teat,its(乳头),leg(腿),buttocks,ass,arse(屁股,臀部)and vagina(阴道) all belong to taboo .The fourth type of taboo is about excretion and vomiting since these words include some uncivilized behaviors. Taboo about excretion is ,namely, to shit, to make waste(小便), to go to water closet, to urinate, to pass water, to go to latrine/privy/lavatory. The other taboo words are vomit, sick, bring up, throw up, disgorge, retch, gag, spew, puke, nauseate and so on.

The fifth kind of taboo is about sex. Though sexy liberation broke out in England in 1960s, people still take seriously in the topic of sex in public and use relevant euphemisms. Thus men usually use phrases like make love, make it, and sleep together instead of the word sex. Next; it is taboo about death and disease. In these issuses, people like using euphemisms to avoid these fearful problems and show their respect. Let me set the speech of Engles as an example, On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think, when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep, but forever. In this lecture, Engles use “ceased, gone to sleep” rather than”died”to express the meaning” death”. Taboos on disease are below, mad(发疯),AIDS(艾滋病),crippled(瘸子),venereal disease(性病),pimple(粉刺).The seventh kind of taboo is about evil and fault, such as, to tell a lie, to be sent to the prison, picker, stealer, light fingers, kleptomaniac, lifter, filcher, bag snatcher. The eighth category is the unacceptable, defensive word that makes people undelighted,like,bastard(私生子),bribe(贿赂),son of a bitch,slow(迟钝),skinny(皮包骨),ugly(丑八怪),in debts(负债).

Ninethly, words about color also belong to taboo as well as figures. In the view of English people, “thirteen” is an extremely horrible figure. Therefore they will avoid it in every effort. People have embodied color special meaning, positive and negative. The negative aspect accordingly belongs to taboo. For example, sending white flowers particularly white lily is taboo. The last type is about profession and social status. People occupied in service are no longer discriminated, so their profession is named in a more descent way. For instance, garbage collector(清除垃圾的工人) which easily make people arouse dirty, broken articles is replaced by sanitation engineer(卫生技师).What?s more, hair stylist(发型专家) takes the place of hairdresser, barber(理发员) and chef de cuisine(烹饪大师) is substituted for cook(厨子).In addition the word prison is replaced by big house, black hole, cross bar hotel, sheriff?s hotel.

Ⅳ. Important classification of English taboo

As a matter of fact, there are a majority of types of English taboo as I listed above. Nevertheless, here I want to focus on analyze on several essential kinds of taboo. These taboo words accruing more frequently take a significant role in Cultural exchange. I will make a detailed expression of these taboo words and how to use there correctly. In short, we can find that English linguistic taboos reflect people?s psychology for good will, for safety, for fortune and for pleasure. The English people restrict their words and deeds through taboos, trying to keep a harmonious relationship between human and nature, or between people and society. Although the traditional linguistic taboos contain superstitions, ignorance and negative elements, the new taboos on racism bear positive features. They are a reflection of people?s pursuit of freedom and equality.

4.1Taboo Dealing With Sex

Sex is a complicated and tabooed subject in nearly all societies. Expressions concerning sex, sex organs, sexual acts form an important part of taboo words in both English and Chinese. “These words are often socially considered as obscenities or vulgarities and are only acceptably in intimate relationships or in medical context.”(Kristeva, 1989) Only several decades ago, some of these words could not even be printed or broadcast, and they are still comparatively unusual in polite or formal speech nowadays.However, in the west, the sexual revolution took place in the 1960s and had a gigantic impact on this tabooed situation in some way. The tendency is towards a freer, more open attitude in the English-speaking countries. Whereas, many people still prefer to employ some “dressed up ”terms such as “make it”, “do it”, “make love”, “sleep together”, “go to bed”, “art of pleasure”, “have relations”etc to describe the sexual acts.However,those “four letter words ”,such as fuck,tits,cock,hell,damn,shit,in English language are considered improper in most situations. Some serious writers always try to avoid words concerning sex in their works, replacing vocabulary of this type with euphemisms. The following passage well illustrates the point:

“Denies, I do love you. I?ve never felt like this. Don?t tremble so. You?re not

frightened, are you? Denies, tell me how many girls have you had?”

“How many girls have you made love to, been to bed with?”

“None”.

In English, some expressions are avoided simply because they bear the sexual connotations. For example, the word “gay”, which originally used as a synonym for “pleased”,”joyous”, has become the property of word “gay”, which has preempted all other meanings, thus people come to avoid using this word to mean “happy”. According to thi s, “a gay arty” is not a phrase used to describe a lively gathering any more but has the specific meaning of a social occasion for homosexuals. In a word, English people are not wiling to use the word “h omosexual”straight-forward, and replace it with “gay”,”queer”,”fairy”,”queen”.

Generally speaking, the motive for such avoidance of expressions in this category is mainly due to the demand of decency, elegance and the attempt to avoid the violation of morality.

There are some words with different meaning. However, this kind of meaning is taboo, which is often ignored by Chinese learners. If you don?t know them, you are likely to make a mistake. Every one knows the word “cock”(公鸡).However, in slang, it is translated men?s genital. For instance, if you want say “他有两只鸡” in English, make sure not to say “He has two cocks”. This must lead to misunderstandings and embarrassment. The word “rooster” is a better choice. If you want to say “我是鸡年生的”,just say “I was born in the year of rooster”.

Look at this example. In an English corner, a crowd of students were talking with a new coming foreign teacher, he said, “Linda. I?ve been reading a novel called Godfather. Some of the sentences really confuse me. One of them is …son of a bitchi?.what does that mean?” When hearing this, she suddenly felt embarrassed and stopped smiling. And she answered,”Sir, this is kind of taboo. We usually should try to avoid it in public.”En effect,” son of bitch” is taboo in English.

Another phenomenon needs noting here is that many of such words, which are usually regarded as obscenities and vulgarities in common sense, are often used in swearing or curses in colloquial speech to express strong emotions such as

hatred,anger,annoyance,surprise,insult,envy or contempt. Examples of such use are provided as follow (Swan, 1995:550)

Bugger! There?s Mrs.Smith.I thought she was on holiday.

Where the fucks are car keys?

Oh, fuck! I?ve lost the address!

He?s a real prick!

You bastard!

4.2 Taboo Referring to bodily Excretions

Words referring to bodily excretions and defection with the exception of tears and perhaps sweat can all have taboo associations. Excreta and acts of human excretion are to be avoided in polite conversation in English and Chinese cultures. Words such as piss/shit(小便),fart,arse,arsehole,menstruation(月经)etc.are usually considered as dirty or unpleasant and often substituted with some polite or neutralized words and expressions with similar meanings. English has a large variety of euphemisms in this category.

People may use “stomach awar eness”, “lose a meal”, instead of “vomit” directly to express “恶心”.People might use “go to restroom”, “use the bathroom”, “do one?s needs”, “do one?s business”, “wash one?s hands”, “see a man about a horse”, “answer the nature?s call”, “relieve oneself”etc.to refer to the fact of using the lavatory or toilet, a “dirty” place which is ungraceful to mention in polite speech. Women prefer to use such euphemisms as “fix one?s face”, “fresh up” and“powder one?s nose/face”. Therefore, it is impolite to say “shit”,”make waste”, “to urinate” straightforward. In some social activities, people can use “Will you excuse me for a few minutes?” For example, in Edward Alcee?s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, a guest has said that she would like to powder her nose. George responds with:

“Martha, won?t you show her where we keep the euphemism? (Mc Arthur(ed), 1992:387)

There is also a range of urinary taboo because these words give people a sense of shame. Let me set an example of menstruation(月经). In English, to menstruate can

be euphemistically expressed as: I am having my friend with me; I am having my period, in her period, in the flowers, in problem days, in blue days. Also it is not right to say someone is pregnant(怀孕) direct, but employ certain euphemisms, such as she is “to be in the family way”, she is “to be expecting”, she is “to be an expectant mother”, she is “to be a mother-to-be”, she is “heir-conditioned”, she is “lade-in-waiting”.

2.3Taboo Relating to Disease and Death

The fear of death carried over human spirit originating from the beginning of human existence. It is quite understandable to notice the fear of the words having to do with death in the view of the widespread confusion of symbols with things symbolize. No one is immortal, but the fact of death may certainly lead to great suffering and sorrow to one?s family members and friends. Death becomes something so frightening that people are even afraid of talking about it or unwilling to mention it. For whatever reason, death is considered as a strong taboo in almost all languages, as is apparently manifested from the great number of substitutes used to avoid the word “die” or死in both English and in Chinese.

In English, there are recorded nearly 400 kinds of words expressing death. I am here listing some corresponding euphemisms, namely, be gone, depart, depart from life, pay one?s debt to nature, breathe one?s last, leave the land of the living, go/depart hence, go out, depart from the world forever, go to a better world, be with God, troubles be over now, go the way of all flesh, join the majority, quite the world, close one?s eyes, join one?s ancestors, lay down one?s life, rest in peace, go to heaven, go west, see Marx,etc.

This is particularly true in literary works that euphemisms are frequently used. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain, a sentence described the death of Jimmy Hodges:

It seemed to him that life was but a trouble, at best, and he more than half envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately released.

Here, Mark Twain used the word “released”to express death and convey that

Jimmy Hodges had finally gotten rid of the earthly vale. In English, one can say “When I go to see Confucius one day, I will not regret what I have done.”“To see Confucius” means to die.

In the meantime, the subject of “disease” may horrify people, so people do not like to mention these directly in conversations. Therefore, we can find a large number of euphemisms referring to diseases. “Big C”, “long disease” and“terminally ill”takes the place of the word “cancer(癌症)”, incurable disease. Syphilis(梅毒) is underplayed “social disease”, “blood disease”. In order to convey that she has mental disease, people are more likely to say she is not all there, she is a little eccentric or she is a little confused. Abbreviations are often used to alleviate the shocking effect. For instance, SARS is used to substitute the terrible name “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes”.

People tend to have sympathy for physical disability. If someone looks ugly, we will say she looks plain/ordinary. We won?t use the word “fat” to describe a man. We only use “heavily set”. If a girl is thin, we won?t use “skinny” but “slender”, and when we refer to a crippled, we will employ “physically handicapped”. If someone is old, we had better not call him/her Old Smith or Old Brown, which makes them unjoyful.The better way is to say “He is a seasoned man, a well-preserved man, an elder statesman, or he is advanced in age or in golden years”.

2.4 Taboo Relating to Religion

In modern English society, Christinarity has a deep effect in western countries, not to mention in England. Because of it, many taboo words come from it, so people avoid this kind of taboo in every effort. In 1873, England proposed a bill “The Law on Blasphemy”for the purpose of banning people to use blasphemy against God and Jesus. In addition, in 1930, shows in Hollywood emerged similar clauses. That is profane God and religion or speak out gross languages in public is prohibited.

Even though some people don?t hold the faith of God, they are not willing and deliberate to use some words unrespectful to God, let alone defend God. Therefore, most words referring to jinni and God all belong to taboo.Chiristian hardly bear

people deliberately speaking out God?s name. For example, saying God?s name “Jehovah” is the most serious taboo word. As a result, various words about God like God, devil, heaven, hell, Christ, Jesus, damn, can merely be used in extraordinarily strict occasion. In daily life, people try to avoid using these words, so it occurs to the emergence of relative euphemisms. For instance, golly and gosh replace God, and Old Nick, His Sable Majesty, the cadence and the dickens substitute the devil.

For Christ?s sake! God damned! Hell! Oh, damn it. These sentences have more serious meaning than those we Chinese say “你这个畜生” .Since they all defend God and may cause sever consequences.Therefore, to convey the same meaning, we are able to say “for goodness sake”, “for crying out loud”. An example can prove this：“How would our Lord have been if Peter had rescued him in the Garden?”(Ernest Hemingway,” A Farewell to Arms”?)From this sentence, we can see “our Lord” refers to “Jesus Christ”.

The number “thirteen” is also taboo, because in Bible, it is recorded that Jesus was betrayed by Jewish on the 13th.Due to their respect to Jesus and faith in Christianity, in England people are fearful of the number, regarding it as an unlucky number so they will try their effort to avoid this number. For example, in a tall building, you hardly find the 13th floor. In the hotle, there is no room in number 13.People avoid inviting 13 people. Even on the 13th, people are afraid to go out and fraught with horror, so important holidays are not held that day.

Furthermore, Friday is also considered a black day due to the story “The Last Supper” in Bible. The number “666” is also an unlucky figure. In Bible, it is even a horrible number, a core name of monster.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

Languages and cultures rely on each other and influence each other. Languages are formed and developed under certain cultural background. So linguistic taboo is a kind of social phenomenon. Its existence and development are restricted and influenced by specific cultural background. University of linguistic taboo exists in almost every language and culture, and its range is wide. Different nations have many

different taboos and euphemisms.

The world increasingly becomes an earth village, and under this tendency, it has become a demanding to understand some customs of other countries and nations. In varied cross-culture communication and exchange, it is extremely important to understand the taboo and their euphemisms of a language. It is an effective way to reduce culture shock and have a better communication by using euphemism. If one wants to avoid violating taboos, he or she should have a good knowledge of what is or is not a taboo in this culture. For example, English people always connect the “old” with “uselessness”and”death”.Therefore,when contacting with English people, the saying of “somebody is old” should be avoided in order not to arouse unpleasantness.

A smooth cross-cultural communication greatly benefits from the good command of a foreign language?s cultural background knowledge. It is hard to imagine a person who has a poor knowledge of English taboo culture can intercommunicate with the English people smoothly and without offending them.

Awareness of linguistic taboo helps people improve their communicative competence and reduce miscommunications and conflicts in cross-cultural communications.Therefore, it becomes essential for English learners to know English taboo for the purpose of successful cross-cultural exchange.

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英语禁忌语及其语用功能

摘要：不同的国家有着不同的禁忌语。同时语言禁忌随着社会的发展而变化着。由于中西方文化交流的日趋重要，英语禁忌语也成为英语学习者的阻碍。所以学习英语禁忌语和它的实用功能是非常重要的。本人根据调查研修引出禁忌语的定义及其重要性，然后是禁忌语的主要表现形式。此论文指出不同的禁忌语有不同的语用功能，以及避免禁忌语的方法。

关键词：英语禁忌语，发展，实用功能，形式