Euphemism doc

Euphemism
Euphemism

Overview
Overview
I.Definition of Euphemism
II. Kinds of Euphemism
III.Some Notes in
Translating
English Euphemism
into Vietnamese

I . Deffinition of Euphemism
I . Deffinition of Euphemism
•
When Ancient Greeks offered sacrifies to god, they
used to say good speech, as a result, the English
word : euphemism” originally came from Greek, with
the prefix “ eu” which means “ good” and the root “
phemism” means “speech” , so the literal meaning
is “ words of good omen” or “good speech”
•
Euphemism is a substitution for an expression
that may offend or suggest something
unpleasant to the receiver, using instead an
agreeable or less offensive expression, or to
make it less troublesome for the speaker

•
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one
considered offensively explicit .
•
A euphemism is a word or phrase used to mask
a rude or offensive concept. These figures of
speech provide a technique to avoid taboos by
being polite.

=>> Euphemism is the way of using words to not
hurt other people

II . Kinds of Euphemism
II . Kinds of Euphemism
Euphemism is devided into 2 kinds
1. Traditional Euphemism: this kind of euphemism
related to taboo, such as illness, dead, sex and other
expression which are rule, hash,
Examples:
•
To refer to death
- pass away: "Her uncle passed away last year”
-fight a long battle with: "He fought a long battle with
cancer."
* Humorous expressions to refer to death
- meet your maker: "He's gone to meet his maker."

•
To refer to the bathroom

- restroom: "Can I use the restroom?"
-Humorous expressions to refer to the bathroom
-the bog: "He's in the bog.”
-the smallest room of the house: "I'd like to pay a visit
to the smallest room of the house."
-powder my nose: "Where can I powder my nose?"
see a man about a dog: "He's gone to see a man about
a dog."

2 . Stylistic Euphemism: it is kind of
language to show the speaker’s praise or
compliment

III .
III .
Some notes on translating
Some notes on translating
Euphemism into Vietnamese
Euphemism into Vietnamese
1. Culture Feature
Because of cultural
differences,when
translating
euphemism
into Vietnamese
we have
to consider carefully

•
English culture and Vietnamese cultrure are diferent .so Euphemism

is also different when people use them in their daily lives
2. Context
•
We also have to take a look on context, indifferent time and
contexts we should have diferrent ways to translat one word
3.Examples
•
Due to the diversity of euphemism in daily life, Our
group mainly focus on traslating some euphemism
relate to “ death” and we will make it clear.when we
translate the words which express the “death” from
English into Viet namese, we have to choose word
carefully , it depends on context and cultural features

Euphemisms in English and Vietnamese with DEATH as
examples
•
Death is not expected in our minds. Obviously, the loss
of one person causes sorrow, despair to the others.

•
Some euphemism relates to death are affected by
religion. England is Christianity, as a result, these people
also use words associated with God, Jesus Christ while
they are talking about “death”. They strongly believe in
the strength of God, the power to be reborn after death,
as what Jesus does during Easter Season.
Consequently, if someone died, they would say that this
one is asleep with Jesus, or fall asleep in the arms of
Jesus, gone to his heavenly Father, comes to Jesus,

departed to God or going hom In England deaht
euphemism

With such belief, there is no wonder when Western people always pray
for their beloved to come to Heaven, to reach the land of joy and
happiness, therefore there are such euphemisms: Gone to
Heaven; join the angels; pass over Jordan; climb the Golden
Stair; cross the Great Divide; kneel at the Big gate; knock on
Heaven’s door; cross on the Stygian; singing with angels; left
this world; gone to a better world; pass over to other side
•
When Vietnamese talk abouth death , Vietnamese
people also avoid talking about “death” directly. It is
because we are affected by the Chinese culture, in
which “death” is viewed as a bad sign. That is the reason
why we usually use other words to replace “chết”. In
daily communication,

•
we can say that they usaully say as : ra đi, mất, từ
trần , tạ thế, qua đời, không còn nữa, ngừng thở, tắt thở,
yên nghỉ, trút hơi thở cuối cùng …qua bên kia thế giới, ra
đi, không còn trên đời nữa, về với ông bà, yên giấc ngàn
thu,về nơi yên nghỉ cuối cùng, về cõi vĩnh hằng, .
Vietnam culture influenced by Buddhism .Once again,
because we are strongly influenced by the Chinese
culture, many phrases expressing death also come from
a part of language called Han-Viet, such as lâm chung,
mãn phần, tạ thế, thọ chung, xuống cửu tuyền/ suối
vàng, khuất núi

•
I have never been able to sleep peacefully
since my uncle passed away.
=>>Kể từ khi bác tôi qua đời, tôi không thể
ngủ yên giấc được.
•
This sentence depends on the context
because we can see the relation of the
speaker and person who died. They are
relative.

•
The monk has passed away(1)
=>> Nhà sư đã biên tịch rồi
•
The King passed away(2) , then his first son
succeeded the throne.
=>>> Nhà Vua băng hà , sau đó thái tử đã kế vị
ngai vàng
In this contexts,we chould choose suitable words
for death. (1) relates to the Monk so pass away
is translated as biên tịch. In the second example
pass away (2) is translated as băng hà because
it relates to the King – the royal in the past

•
In Short ,we have to pay attention to
culture and context when we translate
euphemism in English

intoVietnamese.some words such as : kick
the bucket – means died and wecan’t
translate by keeping theirs literal meaning.
Some euphemism is fixed so we have to
study by heart .

Thanks for your listening!
Thanks for your listening!