Abstract  With the rapid development of economic globalization, communicating with foreigners is very common in our modern society. As is well known, communication is essentially based on language, but in a given language some words have been endowed with magical power---offensive or embarrassing. These lexical items are termed taboos. In the West and East, taboo is a prevailing social and cultural phenomenon. In terms of taboo, there are some similarities and differences between English and Chinese. Making a comparative analysis of those taboos in both cultures can help people understand specific values and ethics in different cultures and enhance international contact and cultural exchange between different countries.53635

Keywords: taboos；cultural phenomenon; international communication

摘要随着经济全球化的快速发展，现代社会中人们与外国人的交流是极为普遍的。众所周知，交流主要凭借于语言，但在任何一门语言中，有些词却被赋予了魔力---触怒他人或让人尴尬。我们称这些词为禁忌语。在东西方，禁忌是一种普遍的社会现象和文化现象。就禁忌而言，英汉两种语言有其共性也有差异性。对两种文化中禁忌语的比较分析有助于人们了解不同文化中的独特价值观和伦理观，并促进不同国家之间的国际交往和文化交流。

毕业论文关键词：禁忌语；文化现象；国际交流

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Definition of taboos 2

2.2 Origin of taboos 3

2.3 Development of taboos 3

3. Taboos in English and Chinese 3

3.1 Similarities between English and Chinese taboos 4

3.2 Differences between English and Chinese taboos 6

4. Taboos in spoken language 7

4.1Taboos in spoken English 8

4.2 Taboos in spoken Chinese 8

5. Implications of this study 9

5.1 Implications for English learners 9

5.2 How to avoid using taboos in cross-cultural communication 9

6. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

With close contact between peoples in the world today, intercultural communication has become an important part in international business. Cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between peoples with different cultural backgrounds. That is, people from different countries communicate with each other for the successful cooperation in the area of politics or economy. There are lots of subtle issues which people need to notice in intercultural communication. In cross-cultural communication, taboo is one of the most important problems we have to pay attention to. For to some extent different cultures have their own taboo. Nowadays, people highlight the research on taboo just because the ignorance of this problem may bring about communication barriers in the process of cross-cultural communication. Because of the economic globalization, intercultural communication has become increasingly close to the life of people who need to contact foreigners. Provided these people have a good knowledge of different connotations of the taboos in a different culture, they can make successful communications with those living in a perse cultural environment. This article starts with discussing the origin and development of taboos, and then makes a contrastive analysis on taboos in both English and Chinese. Finally, the paper proposes some strategies about how to avoid misunderstanding in cross-culture communication. The paper aims to provide people with the chance to have a general knowledge of taboos in the West and East and help them achieve the goal of making effective communication with others from different countries. 从跨文化交际视角浅谈英汉禁忌语:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_57781.html