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There are four features about language taboos. The first is universality, for the range of taboos are so wide that exist in the national culture, language, religion and other fields of life, from food and clothing , to social, political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other activities. The second is nationality that also be referred to as the particularity. Language is the symbol of culture, culture is the language of pipe track. In the process of the development of a nation’s culture, its national culture characteristics affect the nation from generation to generation, which determine the inheritance of the language taboos, so the third feature is inheritance. In cross-cultural communication, taboos have a very significant feature that is the implication, which shows certain things or phenomena that are not directly judged in accordance with the concepts of the essence, and the use of alternative, the abstract and vague concepts or the metaphor amelioration of tactics, or contrary to the objective object concept or judgment, so that both sides can use more indirect ways to talk about unmentionable things, and that feature is shared by taboo language and euphemism.
This paper will analyze the similarities and differences between the Chinese and English taboos from the aspects of blasphemy (亵渎神明）, physiology, death, disease, poverty and profession, religious faith and political tendency, privacy, the name taboo and the old for the sake of making people understand China-UK taboos in actual communication in terms of the differences and similarities, and assisting people in keeping away from these taboos by the ways of the use of euphemism, mastering the various countries of the different cultural characteristics of knowledge and the question-asking strategy to help people avoid these taboos scientifically.
II. Similarities Between China and UK Taboos
2.1 Taboos on Blasphemy
Western people believe in Christianity and deem it inviolable. Therefore, the words about it are a taboo subject which is merely referred in serious occasions. When it comes to God, human often replace it with plenty of expressions, such as “Gosh”, “Golly”, “Goodman”, “His Sable”, “Majesty”, “Old Gentleman”, “Old Harry” and so on. “The Deuce”, “The Dickens” and “Old Nick” are substitutes for Devil. In the long historical development in China, people lived with agriculture, so they had no choice but to fight with natural disasters. Because the technology was not developed, people were so fragile to confront with natural disasters that had a sense of awe and admiration for nature. Totem worship is an important manifestation of primitive religion and is the special origin of the taboo language. And totem is a collative name and a symbol of ancestor, which has a huge influence on the development of human’s language, including the emergence of totem taboo language, and tiger is one of them (Sigmund Freud 65). Because of the fierce tiger, Chinese people often regard the tigers as god, and there is an old saying in China that people turn pale at the mention of a tiger. In the area of Changbai mountain, human think the tiger is sacred, since ancient times, there is the custom of “The temple tiger is God. (祠虎以为神) ”. When people buy statues, they will attract god of wealth to their home religiously, and the sellers describe it as sending the god of wealth. Hence, due to people’s respect to the gods, some religious beliefs are integrated into people’s daily life both in Chinese and in western culture, averting the use of blasphemous words has become the consensus of eastern and western people.
2.2 Taboos on Physiology
Both Chinese and western people think that things about physiology are vulgar, embarrassing and dirty, so they always consciously avoid these words in the daily communication with other words to replace them. In Britain, if you want to go to the toilet, you can say “to pee, to make pee-pee, to a wee, to wee-wee, to go to school, to see stars, to get some fresh air, see one’s aunt, wash one’s hands, make some water and so on.” Using the words of “washroom, bathroom” to represent for “toilet”. And in China the taboo language is also very rich. In ancient times, people called “go to the toilet” as “go to the lavatory (如厕) ”, “change clothes (更衣) ”, “small (小遗) ”. In modern times, people often use “the lavatory (去方便一下) ”, “nature (解手) ”, “number one (大号) ” to replace it. It is also a taboo about pregnancy in English and Chinese languages. In China, the expressions of “You xi le. (有喜了。) ”, “You le. (有了。) ”, “Shenhuailiujia. (身怀751甲) ” (Yang 13), “She is becoming a mother. (她快要当妈妈了。) ”all stand for “She is pregnant”. English has similar expressions about it, for example, “She has canceled all her social engagements.”, “She is in an interesting condition.”, “She is about to have a blessed event.”, “She is knitting little bootees.”, “She is excepting.”, “She is in a particular condition.” and “She is in a family way.” Thus, it can be seen that the expressions of pregnant for eastern and western people are difficult, but with the change of thinking mode, the expressions are more and more short, and the meaning is more and more directly. What’s more, the expression of about menstruation is also a taboo in Chinese and English nations. English people describe it as “I’m unwell.”, “I go and see one’s aunt.”, “I have a blue day.”, “I’m in a flowers.”, “I’m in a period.”, “I’m a woman for a week.”, “I’m having a friend with me.” and “A wet week” .While in modern Chinese, there are other ideas, such as “period (例假) ”, “unlucky (倒霉了) ”, “body uncomfortable (身体不舒服) ”, “have something (来事儿) ”, “Da yi ma (大姨妈) ”, “My old friend is coming. (老朋友来了。) ” (M. G. Liu 76). So, Chinese and western people are all following the principle of avoiding vulgar and pursuing elegant to express the physiological aspects with euphemism.