An Analysis of English Taboos from the Perspective of Sociolinguistics_英语论文

摘要

禁忌语Taboo是语言中不可分割的一部分,它与人类社会文明休戚相关。或许是由于禁忌语的敏感性，长期以来禁忌语在语言研究当中似乎并没有得到足够的重视。

早期学者主要从人类学，社会学和人种学的观点出发来对禁忌语进行研究。20世纪80年代以后，社会语言学开始作为一门独立的语言学学科发展起来，语言学家也开始把社会语言学的方法理论运用到禁忌语的研究当中，在相关领域已经成就斐然，但将语境理论运用于禁忌语的研究还比较少见，而结合社会语言学分析影响禁忌语的社会因素也仍然有不少学问有待探讨。虽然语境理论为语用学的内容，但是语用学里面的理论也可以为社会语言学的分析服务。目前许多专家学者都将语用学的理论运用于不同的研究领域，由此可见语用学的有关理论是普遍适用的。语言使用本身就是一种社会现象，所以语用学与社会语言学之间的关系更为广泛。因此，本论文在结合前人研究的基础上，从社会语言学的角度分析英语禁忌语，同时还结合了语用学里面的语境理论作为理论框架来分析英语禁忌语和社会文化因素的关系。

本文试图从社会语言学角度系统分析英语禁忌语。经调查可见，英语禁忌语与其国家文化和社会因素息息相关，对英语禁忌语的理解必须符合特定的语境。各国文化背景不同，错误理解或使用英语禁忌语都会造成不同程度的语用失误，有碍于不同文化之间的交流。我们现在处于全球化的时代，正确理解文化差异在国际交往中起着举足轻重的作用。英语是当今国际上的通用语言，了解英语禁忌语无疑是国际交流中不可或缺的环节。

关键词：英语禁忌语  社会语言学  语境

Abstract

Taboos are an integral part of language. They are not only a cultural phenomenon but a mirror of complex social factors. Linguistic taboos, however, have long gone unnoticed in the study of language, in part because of their sensitive overtones.

The early analyses of taboo were pertinent to anthropology, sociology and ethnology. In the 1980s, linguists began to make researches on taboos from the perspective of sociolinguistics. Although the linguistic studies on taboos have come a long way globally, systematic studies on English taboos combined with context theory are still sparse. The context theory is part of pragmatics. It is true that pragmatics and sociolinguistics are two different branches of linguistics, but some methods of pragmatics can be applied to sociolinguistics. As a matter of fact, the methods of pragmatics find extensive application in all current linguistic analyses. Besides, pragmatics concentrates on the use of language. As the use of language, in itself, represents a social phenomenon, pragmatics bears extensive relations with sociolinguistics. Therefore, this thesis, integrating with the previous researches, aims to analyze the English taboos by adopting the methods of sociolinguistics. Different from other current studies in this field, it will also draw on the context theory to elucidate the relationship between English taboos and socio-cultural factors.

It concludes that English taboos have a wide range of cultural and social factors as their sources, and the correct understanding of taboo words has to be put in certain contexts. The improper interpretation of taboos is an invitation to pragmatic failures at different levels, impinging on the interaction between different cultures. Amid burgeoning globalization, it is of paramount importance to understand cultural difference in its right perspective. Gaining an insight into English taboos, undoubtedly, figures prominently in international communication.

Key words: English taboos  sociolinguistics  context

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Research Background 1

1.2  The Significance and Objective of the Study 1

1.3  The Structure of the Study 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Introduction 4

2.2  An Overview of Taboos 4

2.2.1 The Sources of Taboos 5

2.2.2 The Main Features of Taboos 6

2.3  Previous Studies on Taboos 8

2.3.1 Previous Studies Abroad 8

2.3.2 Previous Studies at Home 9

2.4  Summary 11

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 13

3.1  An Introduction to the Context Theory 13

3.2  The Definition of Context 14

3.3  The Classification of Context 14

3.4  The Function of Context 15

3.5  The Purpose of Adopting the Context Theory 18

Chapter 4 A Sociolinguistics Approach to English Taboos 19

4.1  Introduction 19

4.2  An Analysis of English Taboos on the Basis of Cultural and Social Factors 19

4.2.1 English Taboos and Religion 19

4.2.2 English Taboos and Values 20

4.2.3 English Taboos and Traditional Moralities 22

4.2.4 English Taboos and Disease, Death and Physical Disability 23

4.3  English Taboos and Context 24

4.3.1 Participants 24

4.3.2 Setting 27

4.3.3 Instrumentalities 29

4.4  Summary 29

Chapter Five  Conclusion 31

Bibliography

Acknowledgement