Abstract:Taboo is a commonly existing cultural and social phenomenon among all nations in the world, which regulates people’s language and social communication. The great difference between Chinese and western cultural directly results in the great difference between Chinese and western taboos. More and more scholars tend to pay more attention to study cultural comparisons between English and Chinese taboos, while studies on pragmatic comparisons on the topic are very few. Stereotype is one of the cognitive ways in cross-cultural communications, which is based on many exact observations and can reflect some authenticity to some degree, helping individuals to understand different mainstream cultures of various countries. 

Based on situational context and cultural stereotype, this paper studies the pragmatic comparisons of English and Chinese taboos and analyzes the similarities and differences of taboo topics in the pragmatic environment and international communication from two different cultural stereotypes. And the thesis is divided into four parts. First of all, chapter one is an introduction of the whole paper, then chapter two is a literature review. Chapter three is the main body of the thesis, which is the pragmatic comparison of taboos in English and Chinese. And chapter four is a conclusion of the whole paper.

Keywords:  taboo  situational context  cultural stereotype  pragmatic comparison

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background of the Research-1

1.2 Structure of the Thesis-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-2

2.1 Introduction of Taboo-2

2.2 Situational Context-3

2.3 Cultural Stereotype-3

2.4 Previous Studies-3

Chapter Three Pragmatic Comparison of Taboos Between Chinese and English-5

3.1 Similarities Between English and Chinese Taboos-5

3.1.1 Taboos About Religion and God-5

3.1.2 Taboos About Disease and Death-5

3.1.3 Taboos About Secretions and Excretions-6

3.1.4 Taboos About Sex-7

3.2 Differences Between English and Chinese Taboos-7

3.2.1 Taboos on Old Age-8

3.2.2 Taboos on Numbers-8

3.2.3 Taboos on Colors-9

3.2.4 Taboos on Animals-9

Chapter Four Conclusion-11

4.1 Summary of the Thesis-11

4.2 Further Study-12

References-13