当代英语委婉语的文化透析

On Contemporary English Euphemism

语言不仅帮助人类交流思想、沟通感情 ,还可以唤起各种想象。那些会引起人们心理不安、恐惧、悲伤或厌恶的词语常被委婉语所代替 ,意在帮助谈话者克服谈论某事物时的心理障碍 ,冲淡或排除各种不愉快的联想。英语中诸如死亡、人体及其功能、年龄、相貌、职业、贫穷、战争等委婉语充分体现了英美社会里人们的思想模式。

Language helps people not only communicate thoughts and feelings but can also arouse imaginations. Euphemisms are usually adopted to substitute for the notions or the things that will cause anxiety, fear and sorrow so as to overcome the speaker's psychological barriers, weaken or remove his unpleasant association. Such terms in English as death, body and its functions, age, occupations, poverty and wars reveal native English speakers' thoughts, value and morality.