A Study of Chinese Linguistic Taboo

중국 금기어 소고

To avoid calamities, the Chinese use different euphemisms in various fields of occupation and region. There are a lot of linguistic taboos concerned with Xieyin that shows the special characteristic of chinese characters. If two characters are homophones and one of them is considered offensive or misfortune, the Chinese prefer to substitute another expression for them in the actual conversations. These substitutes are called euphemisms. As an combined expression of psychological insecurity and language, euphemisms were not only used in the past, but also now they are still in common use. Although some of the chinese euphemisms are not used anymore nowadays, some of them are still used. There are a large number of chinese euphemisms in common use, but some special ones are used in particular fields only. This article focused on the linguistic taboos in some special fields like different regions, occupations and some others related with calamities, and tried to make a distinction from other previous studies. Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture. The study of chinese linguistic taboos and euphemisms is expected to be some help to understand the chinese customs and linguistic features.