委婉语社会语言学研究
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摘要
委婉语,是语言使用中协调人际关系的一种重要手段,被称为“润滑剂”。委婉语是一种语言学现象,也是一种普遍的社会现象。Euphemism 一词源自希腊语,意思是“好听的话”,现代英语词典把它解释为“用温和,含糊和迂回的说法来替代粗俗,生硬和直率的说法”。由于委婉语是在一定的言语集团内,受制于特定社会文化;因此,作为社会文化因素和社会心理因素以及人际关系因素综合作用的产物,它从诞生的第一天起就带有鲜明的社会文化标记,表现出强大的交际功能,并“折射出社会发展的一般性和特殊性,价值观,道德观以及文化的民族性和共同性。委婉语的使用也反映出语域,语体差异等言语交际规律”(孔庆成)。委婉语是社会文化域的语言映射,社会文化特征在委婉语中可得到清晰的映现。
委婉语作为一种社会语言现象早就引起研究者的重视。在中国,委婉语源远流长,可追溯到遥远的古代,是一种普遍的社会现象。西方学者也很早就对委婉语现象进行了研究。早在16世纪80年代,英国作家George Blout首次引用了euphemism一词,并定义为a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word。近年来,不少中外语言学家都从词汇,修辞,民俗,社会,心理等不同角度对委婉语词语及其形成,替代和发展作过分析和研究,但这些研究并不能合理阐述其产生的根源,动因及其发展,忽略了委婉语理论与实践现实之间的张力现象以及委婉语对语言和交际的作用和影响。
委婉语首先体现为一种言语现象,词和句子本身并不是委婉语,只是在语言运用中才使他们成为委婉语,因而委婉语不仅指委婉词语,更是积极运用语言进行表达的一种交际方式。他随言语团体成员特征的变化如职业,阶层,年龄,性别等,形成与之相符的言语使用环境,涵盖政治,经济,宗教,文化,道德观念,价值观念等多方面的内容。大量研究表明,语言和语言使用深深植根于社会文化之中,离开了言语产生的社会文化和交际语境,就不可能对语言现象作出全面,深刻的解释。Dell Hyme(1964:215)提出“不管采用什么样的视角,所有的语言
The word "euphemism" is derived from the Greek "eu" (good) and "pheme" (saying), and means literally "to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner" (Neaman et al, 1983:1). Though the recorded use of euphemism is verifiably found no later than the 11th century B.C., the term "euphemism" was first proposed by George Blunt in the early 1580s to refer to "a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word" (ibid.)In the past, the study of euphemism has been mainly confined within three areas: rhetoric, semantics and dictionary compiling. The rhetorical view treats euphemism as a figure of speech, closely related to taboos while mentioning social influence only in passing. The semantic analysis regards euphemizing as an "associative engineering", that is, replacing a word which has offensive connotations with another expression, which makes no overt reference to the unpleasant side of the subject (Leech, 1985:45). This approach explores the origin and formation of euphemism in terms of their semantic features. The lexicographical approach, widely adopted by scholars, mainly deals with the meaning, etymology of each euphemism and its relation to other terms, while offering no further information about euphemism. Anyway, all these analysis are specific and clear-cut as to what euphemisms are and how they are formed and classified but they all neglect the important fact that "All study of language and speech as part of social life is basically one, rooted in the interdependence with social life itself (Dell Hyme, 1964:215). Therefore, this paper makes an appeal to the researchers in our own day for their attention to the tension between its present reality of popular use and its overlooked theoretic study, and focuses on the three motivations: socio-cultural motivation, communicative motivation and psychological motivation; and the three essential functional fields of euphemism: interpersonal rhetoric, social accommodation and the human tendency of the how versus what; then encourages further research on its socialization process. This dissertation consists of six chapters.
Chapter one is an introduction, which gives a general account of definitions of euphemism and briefly puts forward the argument of this dissertation: sociolinguistic study of euphemism.Chapter two presents the linguistic characteristics of euphemism by analyzing its classifications and formations.Chapter three offers the theoretic foundations of language, culture and euphemism.Chapter four serves as the further analysis based on the theoretic foundation in the previous chapter, which deals with the three motivations: socio-cultural motivation, communicative motivation, and psychological motivation; and the three essential functional fields of euphemism: interpersonal rhetoric, social accommodation and the human tendency of the how versus what.Chapter five points out the tension between its present reality of popular use and its overlooked theoretic study after giving a generalization of its historic development and present situation; then naturally encourages further research on its socialization process.Chapter six concludes the whole dissertation and discusses the significance of the findings and results of this study in the application of foreign language teaching (FLT) and learning and cross-cultural communication.
委婉语作为一种社会语言现象早就引起研究者的重视。在中国,委婉语源远流长,可追溯到遥远的古代,是一种普遍的社会现象。西方学者也很早就对委婉语现象进行了研究。早在16世纪80年代,英国作家George Blout首次引用了euphemism一词,并定义为a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word。近年来,不少中外语言学家都从词汇,修辞,民俗,社会,心理等不同角度对委婉语词语及其形成,替代和发展作过分析和研究,但这些研究并不能合理阐述其产生的根源,动因及其发展,忽略了委婉语理论与实践现实之间的张力现象以及委婉语对语言和交际的作用和影响。
委婉语首先体现为一种言语现象,词和句子本身并不是委婉语,只是在语言运用中才使他们成为委婉语,因而委婉语不仅指委婉词语,更是积极运用语言进行表达的一种交际方式。他随言语团体成员特征的变化如职业,阶层,年龄,性别等,形成与之相符的言语使用环境,涵盖政治,经济,宗教,文化,道德观念,价值观念等多方面的内容。大量研究表明,语言和语言使用深深植根于社会文化之中,离开了言语产生的社会文化和交际语境,就不可能对语言现象作出全面,深刻的解释。Dell Hyme(1964:215)提出“不管采用什么样的视角,所有的语言
The word "euphemism" is derived from the Greek "eu" (good) and "pheme" (saying), and means literally "to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner" (Neaman et al, 1983:1). Though the recorded use of euphemism is verifiably found no later than the 11th century B.C., the term "euphemism" was first proposed by George Blunt in the early 1580s to refer to "a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word" (ibid.)In the past, the study of euphemism has been mainly confined within three areas: rhetoric, semantics and dictionary compiling. The rhetorical view treats euphemism as a figure of speech, closely related to taboos while mentioning social influence only in passing. The semantic analysis regards euphemizing as an "associative engineering", that is, replacing a word which has offensive connotations with another expression, which makes no overt reference to the unpleasant side of the subject (Leech, 1985:45). This approach explores the origin and formation of euphemism in terms of their semantic features. The lexicographical approach, widely adopted by scholars, mainly deals with the meaning, etymology of each euphemism and its relation to other terms, while offering no further information about euphemism. Anyway, all these analysis are specific and clear-cut as to what euphemisms are and how they are formed and classified but they all neglect the important fact that "All study of language and speech as part of social life is basically one, rooted in the interdependence with social life itself (Dell Hyme, 1964:215). Therefore, this paper makes an appeal to the researchers in our own day for their attention to the tension between its present reality of popular use and its overlooked theoretic study, and focuses on the three motivations: socio-cultural motivation, communicative motivation and psychological motivation; and the three essential functional fields of euphemism: interpersonal rhetoric, social accommodation and the human tendency of the how versus what; then encourages further research on its socialization process. This dissertation consists of six chapters.
Chapter one is an introduction, which gives a general account of definitions of euphemism and briefly puts forward the argument of this dissertation: sociolinguistic study of euphemism.Chapter two presents the linguistic characteristics of euphemism by analyzing its classifications and formations.Chapter three offers the theoretic foundations of language, culture and euphemism.Chapter four serves as the further analysis based on the theoretic foundation in the previous chapter, which deals with the three motivations: socio-cultural motivation, communicative motivation, and psychological motivation; and the three essential functional fields of euphemism: interpersonal rhetoric, social accommodation and the human tendency of the how versus what.Chapter five points out the tension between its present reality of popular use and its overlooked theoretic study after giving a generalization of its historic development and present situation; then naturally encourages further research on its socialization process.Chapter six concludes the whole dissertation and discusses the significance of the findings and results of this study in the application of foreign language teaching (FLT) and learning and cross-cultural communication.
引文
1.Allan, Keith & Kate Burridge.1991.Euphemism & Dysphemism: Language Used as Shield and Weapon [M]. Oxford University Press. Oxford. New York.
2.Bolinger,D. 1996. Aspects of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
3.Bussmann,H. 2000. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Routledge Press.
4.Carroll,D.W. 2000. Psychology of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
5.Chambers,J.K. 1995. Sociolinguistic Theory [M]. Blackwell, Oxford Press.
6.Enright, D.J. 1985. Fair of Speech - The Use of Euphemism [M]. Oxford University Press. Oxford. New York.
7.Fasold,R- 2000. The Sociolinguistics of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Blackwell Publisher Ltd.
8.Geoffrey,N.L. Michael,H.S. 1981. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
9.Hadson,R.A. 1996. Sociolinguistics [M]. Cambridge University Press.
10.Halliday,M.A.K. 2000. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Edward Arnold Publisher Ltd.
11.Theodores,R. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Cambridge University Press.
12.Kramsch,C. 2000. Language and Culture [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
13.Lawrence, Jerency. 1973. Unmentionables and Other Euphemisms [M]. Gentry book. London.
14.May, Derwent. 1985. Euphemism and the Media [M].
15. Mckay, L. S. Hornberger, H. N. 2001. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
16. Milroy, J. 1992. Linguistic Variation and Change [M]. Blackwell, Oxford Press.
17. Myers, C. 1993. Social Motivations for Code-switching [M]. Oxford University Press.
18. Rawson, Hugh. 1981. A Dictionary of Euphemisms and other Doubletalk [M]. Grown Publishers. New York.
19. Spears, Richard A. 1981. Slang and Euphemism [M]. Jonathan David. NY.
20. Spolsky, B. 1998. Sociolinguistics [M]. Oxford University Press.
21. Verschueren, J. 2000. Understanding Pragmatics[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and esearch Press. Edward Arnold Publisher Ltd.
22. Wardhaugh, R. 2000. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Blackwell Publisher Ltd.
23. Thomas Jenny. 1983. Cross-cultural Failure [M]. Applied Linguistics. 2: 91-111
24. Wu, Yan. 1996. The effect of English Euphemism on Social Communication []Journal of Jiangxi Educational Institute. 5: 69-72.
25. Zdenek, Salzmann. 1998. Language in Social Context [M]. Language, Culture and Society. An introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Westview Press.
26. 邓炎昌.刘润清.1989.Language and Culture[C]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
27. 程工.1999.《语言共性论》[M].外研社.
28. 陈望道.2001.《修辞学发凡》[M]世纪出版集团 上海教育出版社.
29. 奋庸.1989.《百科掌故词典》[M]甘肃少年儿童出版社.
30. 官进胜 1998 委婉语和禁忌语的多种社会含义 [M] 北京图书馆
31. 贺阿莉 2002 委婉语的社会语言学研究 []北京图书馆
32. 何善芬.2002.《英汉语言对比研究》[M].外研社.
33. 洪成玉.2002.《谦词敬词婉词词典》[M] 商务印书馆.
34. 胡文仲.毕继万.1999.《跨文化非语言交际》[M].外研社
35. 胡壮麟.1988.《语言学教程》[M].北京大学出版社
36. 李桂山.1997.委婉语散论[J]《外语教学与研究》 No.4.1997.
37. 李国南.1999.《英汉修辞格对比研究》[M]福建人民出版社.
38. 林承璋.1997. An Introduction to English Lexicology[M].Wuhan University Press.
39. 刘纯豹.1993.《英语委婉语词典》[M]江苏教育出版社 南京.
40. 鲁金华.1998.《孔孟人生格言集粹》[M]武汉工业大学出版社.
41. 秦秀白.1988.《英语通论》[M].华中师范大学出版社.
42. 吴礼权1997委婉语修辞研究[M]北京图书馆
43. 吴松初.1996.中西人际修辞基本准则异同观[J] 《广东民族学院学报》No.21,1996.
44. 吴松初.1996.中英当代流行委婉语的文化比较[J] 《现代外语》No.3,1996:59-61.
45. 许烈炯.1997.语言理论与语言事实[J] 《现代外语》No.3,1997:26-32.
46. 杨承虎.2001.英语委婉语来源、表达与作用分析 [J] 《新世纪新思考新探索》
47. 张维友.1997.A Course Jn English Lexicology[C]. CCNU Press.
48. 朱华.2003 委婉语的关联理论研究 [M]北京图书馆
2.Bolinger,D. 1996. Aspects of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
3.Bussmann,H. 2000. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Routledge Press.
4.Carroll,D.W. 2000. Psychology of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
5.Chambers,J.K. 1995. Sociolinguistic Theory [M]. Blackwell, Oxford Press.
6.Enright, D.J. 1985. Fair of Speech - The Use of Euphemism [M]. Oxford University Press. Oxford. New York.
7.Fasold,R- 2000. The Sociolinguistics of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Blackwell Publisher Ltd.
8.Geoffrey,N.L. Michael,H.S. 1981. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
9.Hadson,R.A. 1996. Sociolinguistics [M]. Cambridge University Press.
10.Halliday,M.A.K. 2000. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Edward Arnold Publisher Ltd.
11.Theodores,R. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Cambridge University Press.
12.Kramsch,C. 2000. Language and Culture [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
13.Lawrence, Jerency. 1973. Unmentionables and Other Euphemisms [M]. Gentry book. London.
14.May, Derwent. 1985. Euphemism and the Media [M].
15. Mckay, L. S. Hornberger, H. N. 2001. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
16. Milroy, J. 1992. Linguistic Variation and Change [M]. Blackwell, Oxford Press.
17. Myers, C. 1993. Social Motivations for Code-switching [M]. Oxford University Press.
18. Rawson, Hugh. 1981. A Dictionary of Euphemisms and other Doubletalk [M]. Grown Publishers. New York.
19. Spears, Richard A. 1981. Slang and Euphemism [M]. Jonathan David. NY.
20. Spolsky, B. 1998. Sociolinguistics [M]. Oxford University Press.
21. Verschueren, J. 2000. Understanding Pragmatics[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and esearch Press. Edward Arnold Publisher Ltd.
22. Wardhaugh, R. 2000. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Blackwell Publisher Ltd.
23. Thomas Jenny. 1983. Cross-cultural Failure [M]. Applied Linguistics. 2: 91-111
24. Wu, Yan. 1996. The effect of English Euphemism on Social Communication []Journal of Jiangxi Educational Institute. 5: 69-72.
25. Zdenek, Salzmann. 1998. Language in Social Context [M]. Language, Culture and Society. An introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Westview Press.
26. 邓炎昌.刘润清.1989.Language and Culture[C]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
27. 程工.1999.《语言共性论》[M].外研社.
28. 陈望道.2001.《修辞学发凡》[M]世纪出版集团 上海教育出版社.
29. 奋庸.1989.《百科掌故词典》[M]甘肃少年儿童出版社.
30. 官进胜 1998 委婉语和禁忌语的多种社会含义 [M] 北京图书馆
31. 贺阿莉 2002 委婉语的社会语言学研究 []北京图书馆
32. 何善芬.2002.《英汉语言对比研究》[M].外研社.
33. 洪成玉.2002.《谦词敬词婉词词典》[M] 商务印书馆.
34. 胡文仲.毕继万.1999.《跨文化非语言交际》[M].外研社
35. 胡壮麟.1988.《语言学教程》[M].北京大学出版社
36. 李桂山.1997.委婉语散论[J]《外语教学与研究》 No.4.1997.
37. 李国南.1999.《英汉修辞格对比研究》[M]福建人民出版社.
38. 林承璋.1997. An Introduction to English Lexicology[M].Wuhan University Press.
39. 刘纯豹.1993.《英语委婉语词典》[M]江苏教育出版社 南京.
40. 鲁金华.1998.《孔孟人生格言集粹》[M]武汉工业大学出版社.
41. 秦秀白.1988.《英语通论》[M].华中师范大学出版社.
42. 吴礼权1997委婉语修辞研究[M]北京图书馆
43. 吴松初.1996.中西人际修辞基本准则异同观[J] 《广东民族学院学报》No.21,1996.
44. 吴松初.1996.中英当代流行委婉语的文化比较[J] 《现代外语》No.3,1996:59-61.
45. 许烈炯.1997.语言理论与语言事实[J] 《现代外语》No.3,1997:26-32.
46. 杨承虎.2001.英语委婉语来源、表达与作用分析 [J] 《新世纪新思考新探索》
47. 张维友.1997.A Course Jn English Lexicology[C]. CCNU Press.
48. 朱华.2003 委婉语的关联理论研究 [M]北京图书馆
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