英语中的禁忌语与委婉语

The Differences and Relation between Taboos and Euphemisms

语言是社会发展的产物,也是社会生活的反映。社会的发展会促使语言的变化。现实生活中人们出于这样那样的原因对某些事物和行为有所忌讳积久成禁忌,它们在语言中的表现形式便是禁忌语。而禁忌语的存在又促使委婉语的大量产生。这说明两者有一定的联系。但两者属于不同的语言现象,因此又有区别。

Language is not only the product of social development, but also is the refection of social life. Social development would result in the change of language. In daily life people avoid certain words for some things or behaviors and they become a kind of taboos as time goes on. They reflect in language as taboos. The existence of taboos promote the appearance of euphemisms, which shows there exists a certain relation between the two. But the two belong to different language phenomena and there exist some differences between the two. This paper attempts to demonstrate from the two aspects, hoping the readers can have a general understanding of the relation and differences between the two.