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expression people would utter directly the unpleasant or rude things but to express them in
indirect ways.
Euphemisms in Hong Lou Meng are mainly adopted to avoid using taboos, which can be
classified into two types: one is to avoid ominous words, and the other is to avoid words
related to sex and excretion. With its unique cultural background, the translation of
euphemisms appears to be difficult for translators.
本 科 毕 业 论 文 第 2 页 共 17 页
1.2 Research Design
This paper will investigate different translations of euphemisms by Yang Xianyi, Gladys
Yang (The Yangs), and David Hawkes, John Minford. The author will focus on the
euphemism translation of death, disease, and sex, and compare the two versions mentioned
above. As there are too many euphemisms adopted in Hong Lou Meng, this paper only
focuses on the typical ones. The purpose is to explore the following three points: (1) The
differences between the translations of Chinese euphemisms by two different translators. (2)
The comparison between the translations of the same or similar Chinese euphemisms in
different contexts by the same translator. (3) The influence of cultural background on the
translation of Chinese euphemisms.
The body of this paper includes five sections. The first part will review the previous study
on euphemisms and the translations in Hong Lou Meng; The second will introduce Susan
Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory; The third one focuses on the comparison between
the above-mentioned two versions from the aspects of three types of euphemisms (death,
disease, and sex); The fourth part will analyze the two versions from the perspective of
Cultural Translation Theory, and the final section is the conclusion.
2 Literature Review
Large amounts of researches have been done on euphemisms and the translations because
of their prominence in language. Many great works came into being during the study of
euphemisms, which lay a solid foundation for further research. Euphemism is both a
language phenomenon and a cultural phenomenon, in which values, beliefs, global views,
social ground, and custom, etc. are deeply rooted.
Mencken, an American linguist, fully discussed the reason why euphemisms had been born
and become popular in 1936 in his book The American Language. Based on American
history and social background, Mencken’s book exerts a great influence on euphemism
study. In 1985, Enright D.J. published The Uses of Euphemism, a collection of essays on
euphemism study, in which he discussed different euphemistic uses in the social field.
Compared with western countries, Chinese scholars’ studies on euphemism seem rare,
although euphemism has been used in China for quite a long time. Some typical Chinese
scholars are Wang Liting(王立廷), Zhang Gonggui(张拱贵), Zhang Peiji(张培基),etc. In
2002, in her essay The Strategy of Analyzing Euphemisms in Cross-Cultural
Communication(《跨文化交际中的委婉语解读策略》), Xu Lina discussed how a
euphemism is motivated and how to interpret it in pragmatic terms. Each meaning and
language formation is constrained by culture. Although there are similar euphemisms in
cross-cultural communication, such as sleep(长眠), pass away(逝世)，go west(上西天),
more are marked with their own language and cultural characteristics. Translating the
Chinese euphemisms into English word by word is the barrier for communication.
On the other hand, as one of the masterpieces in world literature, Hong Lou Meng applied