Abstract: Language Taboo is a language phenomenon existing in the English and Chinese. Its production and application have a strong relationship with the background of the language itself and culture, and English and Chinese themselves are very different because of some reasons such as their cultures. However, since both of them have the language taboo, so what are the similarity and difference? And what are the reasonable elements which bring about that? Some related studies are mostly from the angle of semantics and sociolinguistics, and language taboo is a reflect of human’s psychology. It can’t be studied well without the explanation of cognitive psychology, so we want to use the points of cognitive linguistics to make the contrastive studies.

The whole paper is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter, we will introduce the definition of language taboo and the cognitive linguistics, and the condition of studies at home and abroad will be introduced in the second part. In the third chapter, we will analyze the theory of cognitive linguistics in language taboo, including “Categorization”, “Prototype”, and “Family Resemblance”. And in the fourth chapter we will discuss the similarities and differences in the two languages with the guide of cognitive linguistics and the internal related reasons. Some examples are taken and analysis is made in the paper to help us to learn more about the taboos of the two different languages. In the end, the final chapter concludes the thesis.

Through all the studies and analysis, we can know more about the taboo in English and Chinese from the view of cognitive linguistics, and that can help us to learn taboo in language more roundly and avoid using it correctly. What’s more, we also learn more about English and Chinese themselves.

[Key Words] Language taboo; Cognitive linguistics; Family Resemblance; Culture

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-5

2. Literature review-5

3. The theories of cognitive linguistics in language taboo-7

3.1 Categorization-8

3.2 Prototype-8

3.3 Family Resemblance-8

4. Their similarities and differences on cognition level-9

4.1 Similarities-9

4.1.1 Religion and customs-9

4.1.2 The common knowledge about some words that are not allowed in public-10

4.1.3 In order to be polite and elegant, people often avoid talking about some topics and talking of some vulgar and obscene words-11

4.2 Differences-12

4.2.1 The numbers-related taboo-13

4.2.2 The name-related taboo-13

4.2.3 The privacy and topics taboo-14

4.2.4 The animal-related taboo-15

①language and social culture background-15

②the way of thinking-17

③the degree of education and people’s relationship-17

5. Conclusion-17

Bibliography-18

Acknowledgements-18