Taboos at the Dinner Table

Huang Jiani

Abstract：Taboo is a commonly existing phenomenon among nations，which regulates peoples verbal behavior and social communication.Different countries adapt the taboo means to maintain their social orders and guide everyones behaviors in the cultural and social circumstance.The widespread existence of taboos is a common phenomenon in Chinese and western society，so it is significant to study the taboo for linguistic and culturological purpose.The great difference between Chinese and western cultures has led to the disagreement between Chinese and western taboos，so there must be great cultural differences in the exchanges between people from different cultural backgrounds，and it is pretty ubiquitous for them to experience the embarrassments which are caused by the exchanges under the great differences of culture.With the development and propulsion of the world integration，cross-cultural exchange has become a significant part of modern communication.It is helpful to understand the cultural connotation of language，avoid communication errors and make the cross-cultural exchanges more effective by comparing the study and analysis between Chinese and western taboos.This paper aims to analyze the similarities and differences between Chinese and western taboos and then understand the differences between Chinese and western cultures，thereby help people perform better in the cross-cultural exchanges.Based on the brief sketch of taboos scope，we intend to explore its enlightenment to foreign language teaching and cross-cultural communication.

Key words：taboos；cross-cultural communication；foreign language teaching

1 Introduction

With the globalization and Chinas wider opening to the outside world，an increasing proportion of Chinese people are learning English for better communication.The overwhelming majority of it got standard pronunciation，correct grammars and enough ample vocabulary.Nevertheless，its still difficult for them to communicate smoothly and effectively with foreigners.In fact，learning a language is inseparable from knowing about its culture.Learning a culture means that we should make it clear what things we may do and which words we can say or not under the specific circumstance.As for those，we must not do or say definitely，we call them taboos a self-restriction on our behaviors，a phenomenon which occurs in almost all cultures.

2 Taboos at the Dinner table

Chinese people prefer to be active at the dinner table，but western people love to be quiet，these two conditions show us different figures.The Chinese people treat the delicacies at the dinner table as the pleasure of life，so this action leads the busy and large scene to be enjoyed much by the Chinese.Chinese usually match seven main courses with rice to eat at the dinner table.Chinese people do not insert the chopsticks into rice vertically.For the drinks，Chinese people prefer to swig as expressions of good capacity for liquor and happiness.

However，westerners expression at the dinner table is completely different from Chinese.They are very quiet to concentrate on the meals.In western dinner table，the best way for us is to be quiet and polite.For the drinks，westerners prefer to sip as expression as good upbringing and gentility.

3 Definition of Taboo

Taboos are ancient peoples superstitions.Chinese ancient taboo belongs to the category of taboo.Chinese taboo means taboos on using personal names of emperors and the person referred to elders or monarch.The first emperor of the Ming dynasty，Zhu Yuanzhang，he used to be a monk and a beggar because of his humble and poor family background.After he became the emperor，he was always afraid that others would mention his past experiences，and this made him have abnormal psychology.Whenever someone mentioned the two words，even if it is only little related or just homophones，he would think others were making fun of him and he will kill them.Eventually，this made the famous literary inquisition in China history.

The word taboo is collectively referred to as tabu in international academia，originated from native Polynesian islands in the Pacific，its meanings are sacred and untouchable.The word in English transliteration is a TABOO or TABU； it later entered the anthropology，ethnology and sociology field，as a kind of special terms used widely.（Chan etal，2014）

4 Similarities Between Chinese and Western Taboos

4.1 Illness

In English countries，people usually have some taboos about illness.Westerners prefer to use some substitute words when they have to face this topic.In English，in order to avoid the word cancer，people often use the expression the big C or the expression long illness to replace it.In western literary works，taboos of illness also exist.For example，westerners hardly use like pregnancy such direct word，but they may use these substitute expressions more commonly，such as awkward，eating for two and have one on the way.In Chinese culture，we also have some taboos of this topic.In ancient times，our ancestors thought pregnancy was a happy event.So，they used an expression which translated into Chinese form was youxile（to be pregnant） to instead it.In Chinese ancient times，there was a thought which was famous in all ancient Chinese mind.In Chinese form is buxiaoyousan，wuhouweida（There are three forms of unfilial conduct，of which the worst is to have no descendants.）.So they thought the infertility was a terrible thing and they often used an expression，which translated in Chinese was wuhou（childless） to replace this taboo.

4.2 Death

No matter in western countries or Chinese，people are always have taboos in death.We will hear these words in Chinese： is your father longevity？ Is your mother still alive？（張雪婷，2016）The other sides also use such words to answer： he was dead.In the spoken language commonly used in no or die and go to the west，to the western Elysian Fields to replace the death of saying，and dead and sacrifice and death and heroic and died，these words are more used in written language.In Chinese saying，die，this word is insulting，abusive swearing and in daily life we can not hear such words.Using these words is treated as no quality，poor quality performance.

5 Methods to Avoid the Taboos

Using Euphemism.From the above discussion，we know that in daily life should not directly express those harsh，outspoken，unpleasant，offensive words，taboo things and behavior，so it is very important to avoid using these taboos.The most effective way is to use euphemism.Because euphemism refers to pleasant，indirect words or phrases which can replace more precise，direct and taboo words or phrases .The word euphemism is from Greek language.The first part eu- means good and the stem phemism means speech.In many ways euphemism shows its advantages.Like we usually use go away to replace death.In daily life，we often use euphemism through some rhetorical devices like metaphor，metonymy and pun.Because euphemism accords with the Politeness Principle from Leech（1983：80），it expresses indirect and tactful and sounds more comfortable and acceptable by people.

6 Conclusion

Western language and culture cause the differences between the Chinese and English taboos，and learning more about the differences between English and Chinese language is the requirement in intercultural communication.A universal key to turn into intercultural communication must be the growth of a person with breadth of vision and knowledge.The most effective way is to cross domain communication directly into the two languages atmosphere.Effective communication of students and business people and immigrants will make the problem be improved.For most Chinese，reading western literature and appreciating English movies are good methods.Because it can let the feel of Western civilization imperceptibly and understand western culture，history，customs habits，language skills.And the taboos and euphemisms will have a more in-depth understanding and then，they will be used freely so that we can chat to westerners in an appropriate and polite way.

Bibliography

[1]Michelle Chan，Christopher R Madan，Anthony Singhal.The effects of taboo-related distraction on driving performance[J].Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting，2014，（10）：1366-1370.

[2]Singh A，Trevick S.The Epidemiology of Global Epilepsy [J].Neurologic Clinics，2016，（4）：837-847.

[3]澹臺林琳.中西方禁忌語差異研究[J].海外英語，2016，（12）：1-2.

[4]問鈴.漢英動物禁忌語對比研究[BA].黃石：湖北師范大學，2015.

[5]楊天昊.由禁忌語探索中西文化異同[J].戲劇之家，2016，（2）：1-2.

作者簡介

黃嘉旎（1995—），女，在讀研究生，廣西師范大學，學科教學（英語）。