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widely used item, especially when it concerns one?s own families and friends. It has a lot of expressions. For example, “if anything should happen to me” is equal to “when I die”, “die” also can be called “to pass away”, “to depart”, “to go to sleep”, “to be longer with us”, “to be interred”, etc. “Death” has some humorous expressions: “to pop off”, “to push up daisies”, “to cash in one?s chips”, “to kick the bucket”, etc. In Chinese, there are over one hundred euphemized ways of saying death. In ancient Chinese, we used “jiabeng(驾崩)” and “yanjia(晏驾)” to refer to the death of emperor and “hong (薨)” to refer to the death of feudal lords, “zu(卒)”to refer to the death of senior official and “bulu(不禄)” to refer to the death of junior officials. And we have “qushi(去世)”, “shishi(逝世)”, “guqu(故去)”, “yushichangci(与世长辞)”, “qujianmakesi(去见马克思)” and so on. Through the above examples, we can found that euphemisms about death in Chinese are more complicated than English.
3.2 Euphemisms for old age
The Chinese and English have different attitudes toward being old. In English, it is rude and offensive to call someone old. So, there are lots of euphemisms about old in English, they reflect the avoidance of mentioning the old in western society. This is somewhat due to its loose family structure. When the children grow up, they would be independent from their family, and live apart from their parents, the society do not provide sufficient support to the old people, so the old people have to live by themselves, feeling lonely and dull. Therefore, the old becomes a word that people avoid to talk about. They take it as something sensitive and negative and they are unwilling to face the reality of becoming old. Old age is seen as a stage of uselessness and powerlessness, which is very unpleasant and even a cruel fact to the old people. So they act young, and they want to be look and regarded young.
Neaman has humorously points out that “There is no one old in modern America. He is either seasoned or well-preserved”(1990:166). In fact, some euphemistic expressions take the place of old, such as “getting on (in years)”, “past one?s prime”, “feeling one?s age”, “second childhood”, “a distinguished gentleman”, “a grande dame”, “third age”, etc. The old people become “an elder statesman” or “old age
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pensioner” or even use initialing “OAP”. They are not “old” but “long-lived”. And, a home for old people is called euphemistically “a home for adults”, “a nursing home”, “a rest home” and so on.
The Chinese culture places a high value on oldness. The Chinese hold the view that to be old means be experienced, knowledgeable, mature and reliable, which is also reflected in Chinese idioms, such as “laodangyizhuang(老当益壮)”, “laochengchizhong(老成持重)”, “laochenglianda(老成练达)”, “laomashitu(老马识途)” and so on. The Chinese has a tradition of showing respect for elders. So we call old people “ninlao(您老)”, “laoxiansheng(老先生)”, etc. The character “lao(老)” (means old in English) is quite often used to indicate seniority and experience, so we call teachers “laoshi(老师)”, we call bosses “laoban(老板)” “laozong(老总)” and so on. According to the Chinese Euphemism Dictionary, there are just about twenty euphemisms for old age and most of them are in old Chinese and seldom used today, such as “bomu(薄暮)” which literally mean the early evening, “diaonian(凋年)” which literally means the withered life, “huahao(华皓)” which literally means white, “huashou(华首)” which literally means white hair, “qiufang(秋方)” and “suqiu(素秋)” which literally means the autumn (Zhang Gonggui,126-129).
3.3 Euphemisms for poverty
In western society, poverty is a horrible word. And it is a shame. On the contrary, wealthy means wisdom, power and social status. Though the society has been advocating equality and the civil right, the gap between the rich and the poor are still widening. John Ayto (1993:286) points out “The shame of poverty makes it a natural target for euphemism in English. Neither individuals nor nations like to admit that they haven?t enough money and cannot provide for themselves, and a range of alternative strategies has been evolved to avoid the dreaded word ?poor?.” It is abundant in English euphemisms for the word “poor”, such as “badly off”, “less well off”, “indigent”, “negative privileged” and “hard up for money”. The poor are called “have-nots” or “men of modest means”. These euphemisms are more pleasant to hear and easier for the poor to accept.
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In Chinese, euphemisms for poverty are comparatively fewer. Such as “jieju(拮据)”, “shoutoujin (手头紧)”, “shoutoububian(手头不便)” and “nangzhongxiuse (囊中羞涩)”. The word “poor” is not so tabooed in traditional Chinese culture as in western culture. After the founding of the People?s Republic of China, the proletariat became the leader of the country. In a rather long period of time, people felt glorious because of being poor. In the past twenty years, China?s reform and opening-up policy has made more and more people shake off poverty and set out on the road to prosperity. With the development of economy, the old philosophy that wealth means deficiency in soul, degeneration and corruption is outdated. Poor life is not what people expect. Accordingly, the word “poor” is euphemized as “youkunnan(有困难)” in Chinese. The poor are called “dishouruzhe (低收入者)” or “ruoshiqunti (弱势群体)”.
3.4 Euphemisms for marriage and pregnancy
There is a great difference between the attitude of western and eastern culture toward marriage. Western culture cherishes individuality, especially personal freedom, while the Chinese people emphasize the ethics. Some young people in western society are afraid of losing freedom after marriage. They usually choose such expressions as “have gotten hitched” and “tie the knot” to refer to marriage. “Trial marriage” is used to refer to “cohabitation” in English. “Mistress” becomes “unmarried wife” and “bastard” is called “love child”. Besides, the divorce rate in western countries has been increasingly rising. Some young people believe that divorce releases them from the marriage bond and family responsibility. So divorce is not much of a serious event, that?s why divorce is called “break up” and “split up”. Sometime they even make fun of divorce. They use expressions like “matchruptcy” and “go to Reno”. “Matchruptcy” is an imitation of the word “bankruptcy”. Reno is a city of western Nevada near the California border. It is a famous resort that was once noted primarily as a divorce center because of its easy and quick divorce procedures. Chinese culture, however, lays great emphasis on team. It stresses on the steadiness of group, family, society and nation. Therefore, marriage is called “zhongshendashi (终身大事)”,
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which means “an important event in one?s life”. Marriage is a matter of joy, so marriage is called “xijieliangyuan (喜结良缘)” and “xijielianli (喜结连理)”. On the contrary, divorce is dishonorable. Hence, divorce is euphemized as “fenshoule (分手了)”, “lile(离了)” and so on.
There are a lot of euphemisms in English and Chinese, which are containing similar denotative meaning while distinct cultural connotation and allusion. Take the euphemisms for pregnancy as an example, a Japanese scholar lists some euphemistic expressions for “pregnancy” used in different historical periods, which serve as a vivid manifestation of the developing trend in the realm of euphemism: She has canceled all her social engagements. (1856) She is in an interesting condition. (1880) She is in a delicate condition. (1895) She is knitting little bootees. (1910) She is in a family way. (1920) She is expecting. (1935) She is pregnant. (1956)
(Fan Jiacai, 1992:176)
In ancient China, Chinese euphemize pregnant as “shenhuailiujia (身怀六甲)”, because it was said that “liujia(六甲)”is the right moment when Heaven and Earth create things. In modern China, we say pregnancy as “tayoule (她有了)”or she is going to be a mother(她快当妈妈了).
3.5 Euphemisms for disease
It is unfortunate to have diseases, and it can be very impolite and rude to tale about diseases directly in front of some sick or disable people. Therefore, due to the sympathy for those sick or disable people, lots of euphemisms for illness in Chinese and English languages. As we all known, cancer is a name that the public do not want to mention. The currently modish euphemisms are “Big C”, “C.A”, “incurable disease”, “long illness”, etc. In Chinese, the cancer is named “juezheng(绝症)”, “buzhizhizheng (不治之症)”, “wanzheng (顽症)”. Disability is a very hard and
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