Abstract

Language is an important part of culture. Euphemism is a universal linguistic phenomenon that exists in almost all times and countries. It reflects a nation’s history and custom from a unique perspective. Different societies, history and culture produce different euphemisms. With the increase interconnection of different nations, the international exchanges between different cultures are also increasingly frequent. Therefore, the understanding of euphemisms in different cultures becomes more important. With different classification standards, euphemisms can be divided into many different types. Political euphemism as one of the major categories is the focus of this study. In order to understand political euphemism more clearly, this paper attempts to take political euphemism used in Chinese and English newspapers for example to further explore the similarities and differences of the two. Besides, this thesis intends to make a Sino-English political euphemism comparative study mainly from the perspectives of formations of political euphemism. Through this comparative analysis, a better comprehension of the differences and similarities between western and eastern culture will be acquired, and meanwhile the commonalities and individualities of English and Chinese political euphemisms will be generally acknowledged. What’s more, a better understanding of the profound meaning of the political euphemism will be attained so as to promote cross-cultural communications.

Key words: political euphemism, cross-cultural communication, Chinese and English newspapers, comparative study
   

摘        要

语言是文化的重要组成部分，委婉语作为一种普遍的语言现象，广泛应用于各个时代和国家。它从独特的角度反映了一个民族的历史文化与风俗习惯。不同的社会背景，不同的历史文化会产生不同的委婉语。伴随着不同民族之间交往的不断加强，不同文化之间的国际交流也日益频繁，因此跨文化交流中委婉语的理解就更为重要。用不同的分类标准，委婉语可以分成很多不同的种类，政治委婉语作为其中一项重要的类别，是本文的研究重点。为了更加清晰的了解政治委婉语，本文尝试以中英报纸中使用的政治委婉语为例，主要以政治委婉语的构造手段为切入点来对中英政治委婉语进行对比研究，进一步探讨二者的异同。通过对中英政治委婉语的对比研究，人们可以更多地了解中西方文化的相似性与差异性，熟悉英汉两种政治委婉语在运用过程中的共性和个性，并且更好的理解政治委婉语的深层含义，从而促进跨文化交流。

关键词：政治委婉语，跨文化交流，中英报纸，对比研究