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Through the study of linguistic taboos in English and Chinese, the thesis aims at leading readers to a deeper understanding of the common practice of each of them and then to analyze the similarities between Chinese and English linguistic taboos in religion, birth , death ,discrimination and excretion as well as present the differences from the aspects of names, numbers, colors , privacy and age in both cultures respectively. After that, effective suggestions with cultural perspective in dealing with the common problems in intercultural communication are put forward to avoid linguistic taboos. Last but not least, the closing part includes the conclusion as well as the limitations of this paper.
2. Literature Review
Early contributions to taboo research were associated with anthropology, sociology, ethnography of communication and psychology. Among the most important researches on the topic were Totem and Taboo(1913) by Sigmund Freud ,Taboo, Truth and Religion (1967)by Franz Baermann Steiner and The Golden Bough(1980) by James George Frazer and the key points of the three books are different, but all of them pay special attention to linguistic taboos. The book Totem and Taboo(1913) can be the representative of this field, the author provides the most ingenious explanation for the apparently irrational nature of taboo，postulating that they are generated by emotional ambivalence and in effect represent forbidden actions for which exists a strong unconscious tendency. The book Taboo, Truth and Religion(1967) makes an intensive study of the origin of the word taboo, its cognates meanings ,significance, functions and its relationship to anthropological and psychological theories．
With the development of sociolinguistics, the importance of linguistic taboos has been observed by many American sociolinguists when exploring the relationship between language and society and a number of researches into linguistic taboo in varying degrees have been conducted．The most influential works are Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (1983)and An Introduction to Sociolinguistics(1986) in which linguistic taboo is often discussed in the context of euphemism, society and culture. The book Sociolinguistics (1983)provides detailed description about the definition, meanings and functions of linguistic taboos.
In China, this topic is barely touched due to the deep influence of feudalist ideology．Studies in this area may be later and fewer than those in the West．Chen Yuan's Sociolinguistics(1982), pioneering monograph in our country, is the earliest literature that provides a comprehensive analysis of linguistic taboo；Chen Jianmin's New Explorations on Language(1986)from the perspective of the relationship between language and society；Qu Yanbin's Chinese Folk Linguistics(1992)dedicates several pages to the discussion of taboos from the point of view of folklore.
The previous studies on taboos are concerned about language，society and euphemism or the relationship between language，culture and society．Plenty of work have pointed out the relationship between language and culture，however，few of them systematically interpret how cultural orientation affects linguistic taboo in intercultural communication．This thesis will analyze the similarities and differences of taboo in Chinese and English in the context of intercultural communication．
3. The Similarities between Chinese and English Taboos
Chinese and English people have differences in many dimensions，and the fundamental one is the difference in cultural values．The most essential and striking factor that produces taboo is undoubtedly cultural tradition. The taboos in English and Chinese have similar tendency, which not only demonstrates the fact that human culture, but also reflects that different cultures can affect and penetrate each other.
3.1 Taboos on Religion and God
The taboos in Chinese and English have some similarities just as human beings have a lot in common. Chinese and English have many taboos on the names of gods, somewhat influenced by religion. The Chinese imagine that there are two kinds of gods in Chinese culture：the good gods who will help the believers and they fear that if they call gods’ names，the gods will be offended and they may encounter misfortunes; the other , the wicked ghosts ,if they call the ghosts，they may come really at night．As a result, there are a lot of taboos on the names of the gods and ghosts．In feudal China, the idea is prevalent, which is a system of regulations for ancient Chinese to discipline their behaviors. Most Chinese people believe Buddhism, they do not mention the names of gods directly. They often call God such as “玉皇大帝”.When they swear, they will use sky, such as“苍天在上”.However, people who believe in Buddhism do not fear the ghost because they think that they are more powerful than ghosts.