ABSTRACT
Death is the most terrible thing to most human beings, which means the end of existence. As a consequence，it is a forbidden area in almost every culture. To avoid mentioning directly the word “death”, which probably will arouse unhappy feeling and frighten people，lots of euphemisms are created to substitute for it. This thesis falls into five chapters to analyze the death euphemism. Chapter one states the definition and the classification as well as the origin of euphemisms, then reviews the previous studies of euphemisms at home and abroad. Chapter two illustrates the reasons of the emergence of death euphemism from the following aspects: taboo, psychology, social convention, religion and so on. Chapter three classifies the different expressions of death into different groups according to the aspects of social status, religious belief, age, career, etc and introduces their cultural meanings. Chapter four probes the social functions of death euphemism, like function for cover, function for humor, function for evasiveness and so forth. Chapter five is the conclusion of all the findings and discoveries made in this thesis. Through analyzing the detailed categories and the functions of death euphemism, we can see that death euphemism is a part of a linguistic and particularly, a social cultural phenomenon. Its generation and development are closely connected with social and cultural factors.
Keywords：death euphemism; origin; classification; cultural meaning; social function
Contents
1．Introduction 1
2. Theoretical Background of Euphemism 2
2.1 Language and Culture 2
2.2 Language and Society 3
3. Brief Introduction of Euphemism 5
3.1 Definition, Origin and Classification of Euphemism 5
3.2 An Overview of Study of Euphemisms at Home and Abroad 6
4. Origin of Death Euphemism 8
4.1 Psychological Factor 8
4.2 Social Convention 9
4.3 Religion 9
4.4 Taboo 10
5. Classification and Cultural Meanings of Death Euphemism 11
5.1 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Religious Belief 11
5.2 Death Euphemisms Related to Occupation 12
5.3 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Age 13
5.4 Death Euphemisms Related to Sporting and gambling 13
5.5 Other Classifications 14
6. Social Functions of Death Euphemism 16
6.1 Evasiveness 16
6.2 Politeness 16
6.3 Covering 17
6.4 Humor and Satire 18
7．Conclusion 19
Acknowledgements 20
References 21
