[Abstract] Language, as the carrier of culture, is created d(5)
2013-08-19 01:05
导读：Words denoting terrible disease are also sources of horror. In English, people dont like to talk about terrible disease or disease related to sexual organs directly. For instance, they use V.D instead
Words denoting terrible disease are also sources of horror. In English, people don’t like to talk about terrible disease or disease related to sexual organs directly. For instance, they use “V.D” instead of “veneral disease”; use “big C”, “long disease”, or ”terminal illness” to replace “cancer”. Abbreviations are often used to alleviate the shocking effect. For instance, SARS is used to substitute the terrible name “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes”.
In Chinese,
when we talk to a patient, we may say “你今天不舒服，别上班了”.Here, we use “不舒服” instead of “病”. As a soldier, we may say “挂彩了” instead of “伤”.
Mental illnesses are thought not to be mentioned directly. For example, when referring to a mental illness, we just say “a little eccentric” or “a little confused”.
Either in Chinese or Western, people have sympathy for one’s physical disability. If someone looks ugly, we will say she/he looks plain/ordinary and we won’t use the word “fat” to describe a man. We only use “heavily set” or “on the heavy side”. If a girl is thin, we won’t use skinny. We just say slender, and when we refer to a crippled, we will say, “physically handicapped”. In Chinese, if one is deaf, we will say “耳朵背”, “耳朵有点不好”, “说话得近点”. In English, it is called “hard of hearing”.
3.2.5 In terms concerning parts or excretion of the body
In both cultures, people think that certain parts of the body and the excretion of body cannot be mentioned in daily conversations. They are often considered taboos.
For example, in English, there are so many euphemisms for lavatory, such as “washroom”, “restroom”, “bathroom”, “comfort station”. If they want to go to lavatory, they will say: “go to the bathroom”, “do their business”, “answer nature’s call”. In Chinese, “厕所” is always avoided in public occasion, one may say :“去一号” or“去方便一下”.. （转载自中国科教评价网http://www.nseac.com）
3.2.6 In discrimination
“In recent years, there is a growing tendency to regard as taboo language that reflects a demeaning attitude towards certain social or ethnic groups. Racist language and sexist language, for example, are offensive to the social or ethnic groups discriminated against.” [13]
Discrimination against woman is a universal and unreasonable phenomenon in the society. And its reflection on language is sexist language. Both in English and Chinese, there are traces of sexist language. Unless one is careful enough with his/her speech, one may easily offend others unconsciously.
In China, under the control of strict hierarchy feudal society, the females were regarded inferior. They depend on male and were dominated by male. So the discrimination and prejudice against women is the long-term accumulation, which is inevitably reflected in Chinese. For example, the sayings “妇人之见”, “头发长见识短”, “男子汉不和妇人一般见识”, “长舌妇”, etc, reflect the pejorative attitude toward women. And there are also many derogatory titles for women, such as “贱人”, “泼妇”, “母老虎”, “母夜叉”, “娘儿们”，“悍妇”etc.
Since the Chinese women’s social statuses have increased, these sayings are used much less frequently. The using of the scornful and pejorative words for women in public often gets criticism and resentment.
In English, there are also many sexist expressions. For example, a person of unknown sex is referred as “he”, or ”him” rather than “she” or “her”. A person who presides a meeting is the “chairman”, even if she is a woman. There are many other examples about it. “cow” means “(a) woman who has many children”, “mutton” means “(a) dissolute woman”, “hen” means “(a) woman who likes gossip”, “cat” means “(a) malicious woman”, “crone” means “(an) ugly withered old woman” etc. （转载自http://zw.nseac.coM科教作文网）
“Nowadays, perhaps as a result of the Woman’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s and 70s in western countries, especially the U.S.A and socio-culture development, most native English speakers try to avoid sounding like a sexist.”[14] For example, they change the word “chairman” into “chairperson”, “gentleman” into “gentleperson”. When referring to human beings, people begin to use “humankind” or “ the human race” instead of “man” or “mankind”.
