Abstract: Taboos, as a common language phenomenon, exist widely in all societies and cultures. Birth, senility, illness and death are four important phases in a person’s life. Owing to their specialties, sometimes people are reluctant to talk of them directly. Therefore, taboos on birth, senility, illness and death are abundant in every language, so are in Chinese and English. Language is the carrier of culture. The differences on Chinese and British culture, lead to the differences on taboos. Based on the previous study, this paper intends to analyze a large number of taboo examples on birth, senility, illness and death in China and English, try to explore summarize the similarities and differences of Chinese and British culture and provide some strategies to avoid taboos so as to promote cross-cultural communication.

Key words: taboos; birth, senility, illness and death; similarities and differences; cross-cultural communication

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction.1

2. Literature Review of Taboo 2

2.1 An Overview of Taboo

2.2 Context Theory

3. Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death in English and Chinese3

 3.1 Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death in English

 3.2 Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death in Chinese

  3.3 Different Culture of Chinese and English Reflected by Taboo

4. A Contrastive Analysis of Chinese and English Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death in English from the Context Theory.8

  4.1 Similarities of Chinese and English Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death 

4.2 Differences of Chinese and English Taboos on Birth, Senility, Illness and Death

5. Strategies of Avoiding Taboos10

  5.1 Using Euphemisms

  5.2 Learning More Taboo Culture

6. Conclusion.11

Bibliography.12

Acknowledgements13