A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Taboos from the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics

By Wang Chengyuan

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

May, 2017

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to express my thanks to those who helped me during the writing of this thesis. I must thank my supervisor, Dr. Zhang Houzhen, without his support and advice, this thesis can not be accomplished. He gave me inspiring advice and has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis and helped me conquer all the difficulties in the process of writing it. I also must thank my former English teachers, Mrs. Yang Lincong and Dr. Zhang Houzhen for their care and support with my English study. They are very professional and very kind, like friends to our class. Last but not the least, I’d like to express my gratitude to my classmates and my friends, for they helped and supported me without a word of complaint.

Contents

Abstract:. 1

1. Introduction 2

1.1 Research Background 2

1.2 The Significance of the Research 3

1.3 Thesis Organization 3

2 Cause, Classification and Feature of Taboo 4

2.1 Cause of Taboo 4

2.1.1 Language Worship 4

2.1.2 Psychological Association 4

2.1.3 Religious Belief 5

2.1.4 Feudal and Superstition 5

2.1.5 Polite Factor 5

2.2 Classification of Taboo 6

2.2.1 Religious Taboo 6

2.2.2 Death Taboo 6

2.2.3 Illness Taboo 6

2.2.4 Number Taboo 7

2.2.5 Appellation Taboo 7

2.2.6 Topic Taboo 7

2.2.7 Sexual Taboo 8

2.2.8 Excretory Taboo 8

2.2.9 Animal Taboo 8

2.2.10 Colorific Taboo 9

2.2.11 Racial Taboo 9

2.3 Features of Taboo 9

2.3.1 Universality 9

2.3.2 Nationality 9

2.3.3 Time 10

3. Metaphor 10

3.1. The Development of Metaphor 10

3.2. Conceptual Metaphor 11

3.3 The Relationship between Metaphor and Linguistic Taboo 12

4. The Difference and Similarity of Chinese and English Taboo 13

4.1 The Difference of Chinese and English Taboo 13

5. Conclusion 14

References 14

A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Taboos

from the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor

in Cognitive Linguistics

Wang Chengyuan

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: Taboo is a common phenomenon in our daily life, every nation has their taboos. For some reason, we try to avoid certain words or language expressions. These words and expressions are studied in this paper. Former literatures mainly focus on cultural comparative study or translation, few scholars study taboos from the perspective of metaphor in cognitive linguistics. In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is a figurative speech, a conceptual metaphor. Its function is to highlight certain aspect of a concept and hide other aspects of a concept. This paper analyzes the Chinses and English taboos from the metaphor of cognitive linguistics and try to compare their differences and similarities. This paper is of certain significance both theoretically and practically.

Key words: Chinese and English taboos; cognitive linguistics; metaphor; similarities and differences

摘要：禁忌语是日常生活中常见的语用现象，每个民族都有属于自己的禁忌语。出于某些因素的考虑，我们会尽力避免使用某些单词或言语表达。这些单词或表达就是本文研究的对象。在之前的文献研究大都集中于禁忌语文化对比研究或禁忌语的翻译，很少有人从认知语言学隐喻的角度分析禁忌语。在认知语言学中，隐喻不仅是一种修辞手法还是一种概念隐喻。他的主要功能就是突出概念的某一方面隐藏概念的其他方面。本文基于认知语言学隐喻的角度分析英汉中的禁忌语，并对比分析他们的异同点。本研究在理论和实践上都有一定的价值。

关键词：英汉禁忌语；认知语言学；隐喻；异同点

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The term “taboo” comes from Tongan tapu. Its English use dates back to 1777, a British explorer James Cook visited Tonga, and noticed that Tongans use this term for “anything is forbidden to be eaten, or made use of” (Cook amp; King, 1821：462). The original meaning of this term is “consecrated, inviolable”. And now, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the definition of taboo is “the prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred and consecrated or too dangerous and accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake”. The original taboo comes from the confusion and misunderstanding of natural phenomenon and natural power which has deep relationship with religion belief. In the modern society, this term has more concept.

Taboo as a culture phenomenon has become a hot topic in recent years. Many scholars have great point to this topic. Scholar Zhang Airong (2011:67) based on the prototype theory analyzed the difference between Chinese and English taboos. Prototype theory think that certain features of a category have equal status, and thus, examples that represent all or most of those features become the prototype for that category. According to that theory, taboo is a member of the prototype category and is also a complete structure of the semantic category. In the process of human cognition, people are easily to equate the image of things with its nature of the category, which means people will equate taboo things with taboo words. To avoid offending others, people will try to not mention taboo things. Scholar Fu Jie （2008:90）analyzed and classified three ways to avoid language taboos. They are rhetorical, grammatical and pragmatical. He points out the rhetorical is the most common way to avoid language taboos, the grammatical can use negative sentence, subjunctive mood and question to avoid language taboos, and the pragmatical include topic and association. In 1980, Lakoff amp; Johnson first proposed the conceptual metaphor theory in their book Metaphor We Live By which is the revolution of the metaphorical study. This article is based on former scholars’ findings and conceptual metaphor theory.

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