ABSTRACT:Nowadays, the communication between Chinese and English people has become increasingly frequent. It is extremely important for us to know what is preferred and what is forbidden in cross-cultural communication. Taboo is a common linguistic phenomenon in both Chinese and English. In fact, scholars not only in China but foreign counties have conducted comparatively complete studies on taboos in their own languages.
Internationally, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalytic school, put forward interesting and detailed discussions on taboos in his classical work Totem and Taboo published in 1913. It was the first book that took “taboo” as the research subject. He pointed out clearly that taboo involved two opposite meanings: on one hand, it was lofty and sacred; on the other hand, it was mysterious, dangerous, prohibitive and unclean. (Sigmund Freud, 1913, 112)
The domestic representative on taboos is Language and Culture co-compiled by Professor Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing. They mentioned some dissimilarities between Chinese and English taboos from several aspects, for example, racism, sex and privacy. Although both are classical researches on taboos, they’re not comprehensive for contemporary usage since language changes so fast in modern times.
This thesis introduces the source and definition of taboo and especially elaborates on the similarities and differences of taboos between English and Chinese with its focus on different cultural backgrounds. The main purpose of this thesis is to help people have a better understanding of taboo, develop a clear awareness of avoiding taboo words in communication, and further enhance cross-cultural communicative competence.
Key words: taboo; similarity; difference
摘要:当今，中国和英语国家人们之间的互相交流越来越频繁，这就使得了解交际中讲什么话是首选，什么话是禁忌变得非常重要。禁忌语是中英文中一个很普遍的语言现象。事实上，对各自国家禁忌语的研究，国内外都早已形成较为完整的体系。
国外最具代表性的是心理分析流派的创始人——弗洛伊德。作为第一本将禁忌作为研究对象的书籍，在1913年出版的经典著作《图腾与禁忌》中，弗洛伊德详细地介绍了禁忌语,并指出禁忌语包含两个对立的方面：一类禁忌语讲述的是高尚的、神圣的事物，而另一类则描述神秘危险以及不纯洁的事物。
而国内，邓炎昌和刘润清合著的《语言与文化》则最具代表性。该书从种族、性及隐私等方面，讲述中英禁忌语的差别。尽管以上两书皆是关于禁忌语的经典，而在语言迅速变化的当代，未变显得有些不合时宜。
本文将介绍禁忌语的起源和定义，比较汉英禁忌语的不同点和相同点。重点描述在不同的文化背景和生活环境下，汉英的语言禁忌。其主要目的是让人们对禁忌语有更好的认识，并在交流中能建立更高的警觉性避免使用禁忌语，从而提高跨文化交际能力。
关键词：禁忌语；相似处；不同处
