words don’t present a complete list of taboo terms and the author has found other types of taboo words in other
References.
3.2.4 In terms concerning disease, death and physical disability
Either in English or in Chinese culture, disease, death, and physical disability may horrify people. So people don’t like to mention these directly in conversation. Therefore, they are considered taboos.
In both English and Chinese, death is viewed as “departing”. In English, we can find many euphemisms for death, such as “go”, “depart”, “depart from this world”, “go to a better world”, “go the ways of all flesh”, “pass away” etc. In Chinese, we also can find similar euphemisms: “去了”, “离开了我们”, “辞世”, “去见马克思了”, “归西”,“升天”, “上路”etc. In both English and Chinese, death is compared to “sleeping”, “sleep” in English correspond to “正寝”,“长眠”,or“永眠”in Chinese.
Words denoting terrible disease are also sources of horror. In English, people don’t like to talk about terrible disease or disease related to sexual organs directly. For instance, they use “V.D” instead of “veneral disease”; use “big C”, “long disease”, or ”terminal illness” to replace “cancer”. Abbreviations are often used to alleviate the shocking effect. For instance, SARS is used to substitute the terrible name “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes”.
In Chinese, when we talk to a patient, we may say “你今天不舒服,别上班了”.Here, we use “不舒服” instead of “病”. As a soldier, we may say “挂彩了” instead of “伤”.
Mental illnesses are thought not to be mentioned directly. For example, when referring to a mental illness, we just say “a little eccentric” or “a little confused”.
Either in Chinese or Western, people have sympathy for one’s physical disability. If someone looks ugly, we will say she/he looks plain/ordinary and we won’t use the word “fat” to describe a man. We only use “heavily set” or “on the heavy side”. If a girl is thin, we won’t use skinny. We just say slender, and when we refer to a crippled, we will say, “physically handicapped”. In Chinese, if one is deaf, we will say “耳朵背”, “耳朵有点不好”, “说话得近点”. In English, it is called “hard of hearing”.
3.2.5 In terms concerning parts or excretion of the body
In both cultures, people think that certain parts of the body and the excretion of body cannot be mentioned in daily conversations. They are often considered taboos.
For example, in English, there are so many euphemisms for lavatory, such as “washroom”, “restroom”, “bathroom”, “comfort station”. If they want to go to lavatory, they will say: “go to the bathroom”, “do their business”, “answer nature’s call”. In Chinese, “厕所” is always avoided in public occasion, one may say :“去一号” or“去方便一下”..
3.2.6 In discrimination
“In recent years, there is a growing tendency to regard as taboo language that reflects a demeaning attitude towards certain social or ethnic groups. Racist language and sexist language, for example, are offensive to the social or ethnic groups discriminated against.” [13]
Discrimination against woman is a universal and unreasonable phenomenon in the society. And its reflection on language is sexist language. Both in English and Chinese, there are traces of sexist language. Unless one is careful enough with his/her speech, one may easily offend others unconsciously.
In China, under the control of strict hierarchy feudal society, the females were regarded inferior. They depend on male and were dominated by male. So the discrimination and prejudice against women is the long-term accumulat
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