摘 要
对所有人来说，死亡是最可怕的事，它代表了生命的结束。因此，在任何文化中，死亡都是人们所避讳的，因为这可能引起人们不愉快的情绪或恐惧心理，为了避免直接讲到“死”，就出现了很多代替这个词的委婉语。本论文共分五个部分，第一部分阐述了委婉语的定义、分类以及起源，并介绍了委婉语的国内外研究现状。第二部分从禁忌语、心理因素、社会习俗等方面出发分析了死亡委婉语产生的原因。第三部分根据死亡委婉语的不同表达对其分类，并论述它们的文化内涵。第四部分探讨死亡委婉语的社会功能，例如掩饰、幽默、避讳等。第五部分对本论文进行总结。通过对死亡委婉语分类和社会功能的分析，得出死亡委婉语既是语言现象的一部分，更是社会文化现象的一部分。它的形成和发展与社会和文化息息相关。
关键词：死亡委婉语；起源；分类；文化内涵；社会功能
ABSTRACT
Death is the most terrible thing to most human beings, which means the end of existence. As a consequence，it is a forbidden area in almost every culture. To avoid mentioning directly the word “death”, which probably will arouse unhappy feeling and frighten people，lots of euphemisms are created to substitute for it. This thesis falls into five chapters to analyze the death euphemism. Chapter one states the definition and the classification as well as the origin of euphemisms, then reviews the previous studies of euphemisms at home and abroad. Chapter two illustrates the reasons of the emergence of death euphemism from the following aspects: taboo, psychology, social convention, religion and so on. Chapter three classifies the different expressions of death into different groups according to the aspects of social status, religious belief, age, career, etc and introduces their cultural meanings. Chapter four probes the social functions of death euphemism, like function for cover, function for humor, function for evasiveness and so forth. Chapter five is the conclusion of all the findings and discoveries made in this thesis. Through analyzing the detailed categories and the functions of death euphemism, we can see that death euphemism is a part of a linguistic and particularly, a social cultural phenomenon. Its generation and development are closely connected with social and cultural factors.
Keywords：death euphemism; origin; classification; cultural meaning; social function
Contents
1．Introduction 1
2. Theoretical Background of Euphemism 2
2.1 Language and Culture 2
2.2 Language and Society 3
3. Brief Introduction of Euphemism 5
3.1 Definition, Origin and Classification of Euphemism 5
3.2 An Overview of Study of Euphemisms at Home and Abroad 6
4. Origin of Death Euphemism 8
4.1 Psychological Factor 8
4.2 Social Convention 9
4.3 Religion 9
4.4 Taboo 10
5. Classification and Cultural Meanings of Death Euphemism 11
5.1 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Religious Belief 11
5.2 Death Euphemisms Related to Occupation 12
5.3 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Age 13
5.4 Death Euphemisms Related to Sporting and gambling 13
5.5 Other Classifications 14
6. Social Functions of Death Euphemism 16
6.1 Evasiveness 16
6.2 Politeness 16
6.3 Covering 17
6.4 Humor and Satire 18
7．Conclusion 19
Acknowledgements 20
References 21
