摘要

语言的出现，就证明人类走进了一种更高层次的文明。语言是一种人与人之间交流的工具，因此，语言和人类生活是息息相关的。随着社会文明的进步和语言的日趋完善，委婉语逐渐演变成一种非常普遍的言语和语言现象。英语中，众多委婉语的出现与宗教密切相关。很多非母语的学习者在初学语言时，并非结合宗教背景，常常在阅读英文书籍或者学习英语的过程中往往不能理解其中的一些隐晦语言的含义和用法，造成了对文学作品欣赏的障碍。因此，本论文正是结合《圣经》一书，研究委婉语在宗教中的体现。
本论文共包括三个主要部分。第一部分文献综述，介绍了委婉语的定义以及分类，并描述英语委婉语的发展历程。之后简要阐述了《圣经》的基本内容，以及在语言学方面的重要地位。对比分析国内外对于委婉语的研究现状。第二部分着重介绍了委婉语在宗教中的体现，以《圣经》为例，阐述了对上帝的称呼，死亡，性以及其他方面的委婉使用，分析并总结了其使用特点。第三部分总结概括前文中的分析。
通过以上研究及对具体的委婉语实例分析，本论文得出了以下结论：委婉语在宗教领域常常广为使用，并且日常生活中的很多委婉语多源自于宗教。因此为了更好理解外国文学作品中委婉语的使用，更应该从源头来理解，从宗教中认识委婉语的使用特点。

关键词：委婉语，宗教，《圣经》，死亡，性，使用特点。

ABSTRACT

The birth of language shows that human have reached a higher level of civilization. Language is a tool by which people communicate ideas with each other. Therefore, language is related to human life closely. With the development of civilization, euphemism gradually becomes a very popular form of language and linguistic phenomenon. In English, euphemism has a close relationship with religion. Many of non-natives do not combine religious background with English learning, so the subtle meaning of some literary works is all Greek to them. For the reason, this paper makes an attempt to study euphemism from the perspective of religion with the analysis on the basis of Holy Bible.
This paper contains three parts. The first part is literature review which introduces definition, classification and development of euphemism. Then it is a brief introduction to Holy Bible. The last part is the review of related researches in China and abroad. The second part mainly analyzes euphemism in religious context, and chooses examples from Holy Bible, such as euphemism for addressing God, death, sex and summarized the characteristics of these euphemisms. The last part is a conclusion, which will summarize the results achieved from the previous study.
Through the previous study and analysis of euphemistic examples, this paper comes to the following conclusion: euphemistic expressions, many of which derive from religion, are widely used in religious spheres of our daily life. Therefore, in order to better understand euphemisms in literary works, it is necessary to study the original euphemisms and their characteristics.

Key words: euphemism, religion, Holy Bible, death, sex, characteristics