Comparative Study of English and Chinese Taboos in

Comparative Study of English and Chinese

Taboos in Recent Times by Social Cultural

Factor

作者：徐宜华

来源：《校园英语·上旬》2014年第10期

【Abstract】A taboo is something you should avoid doing or saying because a society thinks it is

offensive， embarrassing or ent cultures do not all agree on what taboo is and what

should be tabooed in a given Chinese and English have taboos on such things as sex，death， religion， superstition and so forth， but they follow different cultural thesis

incorporates some anthropological and sociolinguistic ideas to analyze linguistic taboos in Chinese

and English.

【Key Words】linguistic taboos；differences；similarities；Chinese；English

uction

A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that

is sacred and forbidden based on moral judgment and sometimes even religious is an

integral part of language， it is appeared with the language’s refers that for some

reasons； we can’t， dare or would not to say in normal communication，especially in public places.（张慧，2007：05） Chinese and western cultures taboo the language of sex， death， religion，

superstition， but they follow different cultural e cultural tends to encourage use

taboo language negatively， while that in western prefers using it use of two taboo

languages originated in different religious ive behavior management， asking

questions， self reveals and vague is the effective strategy to realize the success of cross-cultural

communication.（刘娜娜， 2009：04）The origin of linguistic taboo is deeply rooted in the

primitive social and cultural background and its change is greatly influenced by the development of

human society in order to satisfy human beings’ needs for smooth exists in every

aspect of people’s life.

rities

The range of taboo in English and Chinese is similarities of English linguistic taboo

mainly embody in the following aspects：Religion is a fertile field of taboo example，

Christians are forbidden to “take the Lord’s name in vain”， and this prohibition had been extended to

the use of curse words such as “hell” or “damn”， which are considered to have magical

， “heck” and “darn” are often used in place of “hell” and “damn”.Similar examples can

be found in e use some complimentary address to refer to awesome gods such as “大