Luận văn euphemism of death and sex in english and vietnamese poems from cultural perspective

Specifically, the study seeks to explore how death and sex euphemisms are used in poems and identify the similarities and differences in their use from a cultural perspective.. Table 4:

EUPUEMISM OF DEATH AND SEX LN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

POEMS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

{Uyén ngữ về cái chết và tình dục trong thơ tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt

nhìn từ góc độ văn hoá}

MINOR MASTER THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

HANOI] - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HAKOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LE THI THUY AN

EUPUEMISM OF DEATH AND SEX LN ENGLISH AND VLIETNAME:

POEMS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

{Uyén ngữ về cái chết và tình dục trong thơ tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt

nhìn từ góc độ văn hoá}

MINOR MASTER THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Dr Huynh Anh Tudn

HANOI - 2019

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP:

I, Le Thi Thuy An, horchy slate (hal, this minor thesis 1s Ihe resull of my own research and all the materials in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged I also state that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, beon submitted for any degree lo any other universities or

institutions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This r

earch has been accomplished with the support and ercouragement of many people Hence, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them

In the first place, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor,

Dr Huynh Anh Tudn, for his valuable assisanee and guidance throughout my research

Also, I am greatly indebted to all the professors and staff of the Faculty of Post

= Graduate Studies for their meartingful lessons and precious support thanks to which

1 was able to overcome obstacles during the time my research was carried out

Last but not least I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of motivation thal has helped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis.

ABSTRACT

Fuphemism is a Imguistie device lo express emotions, ideas and transmil attitudes in a more neutral way Besides, euphemism, as a universal phenomenon, is culturally specific This study aims at investigating the use of euphemisms of death and sex m English and Vietnamese poems Specifically, the study seeks to explore how death and sex euphemisms are used in poems and identify the similarities and differences in their use from a cultural perspective The research employed the

descriptive and contrastive method in analyzing the data and adopted a qualitative

approach ‘he data analysis demonstrates that both Linglish and Vietnamese euphemism is employed as face-keeping and taboo-avoiding function However, in

Fnglish death is more porovived as reel, peace, a sleep, w reunion or an end while

in Vietnamese, death is perceived as a heroic loss or a natural force, Sex in English

is often perceived as a war and function Whereas, in Vietnamese, sex is often comvuptualized as nature and companionship

Keywords: euphemism, dysphemism, poems, cultural perspective

ii

3.2 Research approach and method cccnnneieiseneeeooeu.22 3.3 The data 33 3.4 Data colleetion proccdure, ccăninenoesririreoriosoeo28 3.8 Data analysis procedure 23 3.6 Analytical framework 24

iv

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Table 4: Death euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 2

Table 5: Sex euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 42 Table 6: Fuphemisms of scx as a companionship 48

vi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationales

Luphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in all languages Eversince

thờ bogirnnng of the world, people have tried Lo make themselves understood and to understand others to communicate; they have used all forms of communication, and

in time words or written signs as well as spoken forms have become mare and more

specialived and complete

Words, along with human evolution and development, have been endowed with power, ideology and social change This is what has been called the social

construction of reality Therefore, words interpret the whole of our experience and

carry an entire upload of cultural and social-bound significance Iai-long (2008, p

55) went on to say that language and culture are inseparable from each other As an

inalienable part of language, cuphemism bears (he mark of culture He continues that it can be easily tracked in our conversation and they reflect different levels of

cullure and various pallerns of culture To some extent, euphemism is a mirror of culture,

It is in that sense that euphemism, a special kind of words, as a medium of communication, is chosen to investigale m the light of cullural perspective inn English and Vietnamese poems

In so far, we have discussed that language demonstrates culture and the use

of euphemism is different from culture to culture Therefore, cultural differences may lead to communication breakdown (Daim et al., 2012), and there exists a need

to study euphemism in cultural contrastive analysis of English and Viewamese poems

Vor years, study of euphemism in Linglish and Vietnamese poems has been neglected, meanwhile, euphemism is not only a social phenomenon, but also a lingual phenomenon (Pan, 2013, p 1) Studying English cuphonmsin in comparison

with Vietnamese one may bring to light the similarities and differences in the two languages and cultures, which seeks to help Ji‘L learners understand and have

better use of English This may also help EFT learners to have corifidence in eross-

cultural communication

What is more, in Vietnam, there has been a neglect of research into the polileness strategies in cross-cultural communication in English and Victuamesc

‘This present study seeks to propose some suggestions on using euphemism to

prevent communication breakdown As an English teacher, the author would love to

confibule lo the understanding of euphemism, thus promote suiooth

communication based on cultural contrastive analysis of linglish and Vietnamese

poems

Ta conclusion, the study atlempls (o investigate the cuphemistic [orms of

English and Vietnamese poems from a contrastive analytical perspective, from the

perspectives of various scholars working on euphemism and its elements and issues

1.2 The aim and objectives of the study

This study aims at investigating the use of euphemisms of death and sex in

Fnglish and Vietnamese poems Specifically, the study seeks to explore low death

and scx cuphemisms are used in the poems and identify the similaritics and

differences in their use from a cultural perspective

1.3 Research questions

This present study seeks to answer the following research questions (RQ):

1, How are euphemisms of death and sex used in English and Vietnamese

poems?

2 What are the similarities and differences in the use of euphemisms of

death and sex in English and Vietnamese poems from a cultural perspective?

1.4 The significance of the research

In so doing, this study contributes important insights into cross-cultural communication both in sociolinguistic and socio-cultural aspects of the use of euphemism This also hopes 10 enhance cross-cultural motivation inchiding

bo

politeness strategies, cultural values and conventional awareness and harmonious

communication

No rescarch is able (o represent precisely and acourately all the features of

the entire target population (Charles, 1998}, his research is no exception and it is limited to the analysis of euphemistic expressions on two topics: death and sex It is

because human interaction im any type of situation usually avoids anyllnng

unpleasant or embrassing Euphemism has, therefore, flourished across multiple themes and topics, which causes difficulties in choosing more topics for analysis in

the scope of a minor thesis

1.5, The research method

This study employs a qualitative approach, which involves collecting,

aualyzing and intorpreting qualilalive dala in a single study Tins employment is

adopted because qualitative data may provide a deep examination of a phenomenon

of interest and the results can be described in relationships among variables, meanwhile, cortraslive description of the dala is necded to give a clear picture of

the data in the results of the comparative analysis

The data are twenly poems from the two websites poels.org and thivien sel

with the following data collection criteria: (1) the article must have at least one case

of euphemism; (2) the articles belong to two topics, namely death and sex

1.6 The structure of the study

This present study begins with a brief introduction of euphemism and euphemism in relation of cultural perspective The research problems are justified to

set aims and objectives of the study The research gaps in the local context are

highlighted to explain the significance of the study A focus on the research questions is explained thoroughly in connection with the scope of the study to

narrow down the research problems and prove the feasibility of the study Last bun

not least, a list of guidelines for the method of the study is proposed to guide through the study

In chapter 1, the author reviews the extant literature and research that motivates, generates and locates the research gaps, and furthermore, sets up the background for the entire study

Chapter 2 depicts the social background of Vietnamese and Hnglish cultures

on euphemistic expressions and methodological approaches adopted in this study It also reviews the previous studies

Chapter 3 presents the research questions, the data and the research method employed The analytical framework is also discussed

Tn Chapter 4, key findings and discussion are presented A detailed accourit

and interpretation of the findings is presented in reference to research questions and

in relation to previous relevant research findings, which makes the findings of this

study reliable and valid

At the end of this present study, conclusion should summarize the study

findings, focus on theoretical and practical implications as well as the limitations of

the study This thesis presents a cnitical cxamimation of the core features of

euphemism and dysphemism and their cultural differences in Lneglish and

Vietnamese.

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is essential for any research due to the fact that its fimetion is lo explore the background knowledge from existing information in the

field of the research question, to explore previous findings and lo view the

interpretation of the findings (Charles, 1998) ‘'o acquire an understanding of the general concept of euphemism, it is important to analyze the way people perceive euphemism in scetien 2.1 before considering how cuphertism is psychologically

created im secon 2.2 Section 2.3 presents the fealures of euphemism of death and

sex in English and Vietamese poems in details and analyzes the relationships between euphemism and culture Section 2.4 reviews previous findings on the topics of euphemisms of death and sex

3.1 Euphemism

Virst and foremost, euphemism, judging by its etymology, dates back from the 1650s, from Greek “euphemismos”, which refers to the “use of a favorable word

in place of an inauspicious one”: from its prefix eu-, which means “good, well” and

the affix -pheme means “speak” There was a time in Greece when folks tried to avoid the usage of ill-omen (bad words) or names of Gods im public ceremomes (Etymonlinc, 2018) For example, the Athenians called the prison “the chamber”,

and Ihe exeeulioner “he public mar”,

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines euphemism in this way: "the

substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant, also: the expression so substituted." Leech (1981, p 45) defines euphemism as “the practice of referring to something ollensive or

delicate in terms that make it sound more pleasant." Sanderson (1999 p 259) alsa

states that euphemism "can be used as a way of being vague and unclear, or to cover

up the truth or reality of a situation.” At the same time, Johnstone (2018, p 59) phrases {hal cuphemisma is "Uhe use of a supposedly less chjeotonable variant for a

word with negative connotations.”

Noticeably, there is another entity called dysphomism, the opposite term of euphemism, which may not often appear in our daily language use (Burridge, 2004) Dysphe

ism is an enlily “with cormolaHons Thai are o(Tensive either aboul

the denotatum or to the audience, or both, and it is substituted for a neutral or

euphemistic expression for just that reason” (Allan & Burridge, 1991, p 26) A

dysphemism is generally used to offend someone deliberately For oxample, the

sentence “My boss is something else” may not carry a swear or an offensive idea but it is something of negativity

There are words and topics which are nol usually supposed to be spoken of

directly in different cultures It is here to say then euphemism is employed to encompass the sensitive subjects such as religion, politics, sex, death, human body

and diseases TL is in ihis senso we see thal the ongin of cuphemism has tls own

social foundation, When communicating with each other, people not only have to

think of where they are, what to talk about, but also how to express their ideas It is

when they may need lo express whal (hey want Lo say indireetly or lo choose a

roundabout way to avoid any embarrassment or harassment and so euphemism

comes into being Al this point, we ean conclude that euphemism is a social product and it is worth comparing and contrasting ameng cultures

2.2 Euphemism formation

Fuphemism may take different forms The most common formation of

euphemism is abstraction Speakers may avoid using unpleasant or embarrassing truth by using a form of abstraction such as “go to the West’ instead of ‘die’ or

Diing (1948) expressed the death in a euphemistic way:

“Anh bạn đãi đầu khỏng bước nữa

Gục lên súng mũ bẻ quên đời”

deans on the rifle, forgets BÍ)

(Dũng, 1948) Rawson (1981, p 9) states that the strength of particular taboos may be dissipated by casting ideas in the tosh gencral possible terms, also, abstractions,

being quite opaque to the unmformed cye (and meaningless to the untrained ear) make ideal cover-up words

The

ond formation is abbreviations Users of language sometimes tend to use the initials of words to refer to an offensive reference or taboo For example,

they say “SOB” for “son of a bitch” or in Vietnamese, “DM” for “d** m**” It can

also be playing with abbreviations, for instance, “sugar honey ice tea” for “shit” or

“eg mé ng ro” (cmnr) for “con me no réi” in Vietnamese Baker (1981) calls this alphabeticisms and this part of euphemism can fimetion in disguising unpleasant

and embarrassing lerms (Colle, 1975) and Burridge (2004) stales that due Lo

semantic preciseness, abbreviation can function as fluent communication

facilitators, yet also form a barrier between interlocutars This is also called omission Adams (1985) views omissions as part of eupharmsnr from a unique

perspective Ile argues that fictional omissions can be seen frequently, and that it is

the fact that omissions are related intimately to euphemism He says “ only if

language Iried to prettily or cosmelicive the effeel You should call euphemism

the deodorant of language, if so, a code of silent omissions would correspond .”

(Adams, 1985, p 47)

Thirdly, people sometunes mispronounce words as a cuphemistic strategy

Vor example, “shoot” instead of “shit” or in Vietnamese, “dil m*” in stead of “d** m*” And il is thal “muspronuncialion supposedly soften the sounds of the bumps in the night” (Rawson, 1981, p 42)

Tourthly, euphemism can be disguised under the use of foreign or technical

terms For example, “dam hiéu” instead of “dam tang” Present day languages are

the the results of long-term association with and effects of other languages Foreign words and phrases are often observed in many languages to replace wards more

pleasantly than the original's native’s language words (Cooper, 1993) The use of

foreign words has a close link to culture as Orwell (1970, p 160) states that foreign words “ are used to give an air of culture and elegance.”

Last but not least, cuphemism has a metaphoric formation, This is the semantic feature of euphemism, which refers to an implied comparison between two

things, for mstance, “melons” or “budi” in Vietnamese as euphemism of women’s

breasts Euphemism and metaphor are both figures of speech A euphemism is a word or phrase that is used for replacing something people do not wish to refer to

direclly Therefore, cuphertism proves to be an inleresimg means of coping with

such a reality as death, sex [hey provide a “protective shield” against a feared, fearful and unpleasant fact Meanwhile, a metaphor is often a word, a phrase or a

shorl sentence thal is is employed Lo bint something so as 1o make il clearer, more

picturesque In comparison to euphemism, which seeks to disguise or avoid its subject, metaphor attempts ta strengthen or to make it more colorful There are two

characteristic melaphors: dying metaphors and wrixed melaphors Dymg melaphors

implicate clichés (Baker, 1981), which are regarded when “ they become so much

a part of our regular language that we cease thinking of them as metaphors at all”

(Hayakawa & Hayakawa, 1990, p 80) and mixed metaphors are rich of affective

elements such as allusion, irony, pathos, humor, lies and so forth, From

melaphoneal conceptual perspectives, there are three conventional heterogeneities: which form metaphors: (1) stuctural metaphors are the “cases where one concept 13

metaphorically structured in terms of another” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 14), (2)

oriental metaphors do not “structure one concept in terms of another bul insicad

organize a whole system of concepts with respect to one another since most of them have to do with spatial orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-

shallow, central-peripheral” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 14), and (3) ontological metaphors involve a“ way of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as

entities and substances” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 25)

To show the links between poetry and metaphors, Swifl (as cited in Kehl,

1975, p 136) states “a poem should do: develop, use up, the metaphor,” metaphor serves as a significant mechanism in poetry and remains an integral instrument to

dilTuse readers” imaginary worlds (LakolT & Jobson, 1980) Orwell (1970) states

that metaphors can make the meaning cbscure to both addresser and addressee and

that “the sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image When these images

clash il can be laken as certai thal the wriler is nol sceing a mental image of the

objects he is naming: in other words he is not really thinking” (Orwell, 1970, p

164), In the same line, Gambino (1973, p 16) points out poets use metaphors and

similes lo heighlen meanings use them to blur meanings

2.3 Features of euphemism across culdures

Speaking of features of euphemism, Nilwati (2012) lists out three prominent

linguistic phenomena as follows:

(1) upbemism as a universal phenomenon All languages and cultures have certain euphemistic expressions that are unfavored to be spoken of directly Brown

and Levinson (1987) report thal evidence indicates thal cuphernism 1s a universal

feature of language usage

(2) Euphemism as a culturally specific phenomenon It is in this sense,

euphemism bounds strongly to cultures For example, il is common to speak of age

in Chinese, but that is not that popular in English language, although, they may be really “old” (Qi, 2010) Fershiman, Gneery, and Hoffinan (2011) confirm this that

the use of cuphemism is based on cultural values and beliefs

(3) Liuphemism as a dependent phenomenon ‘The use of euphemism may be good or bad depending on how it is used The first case, good, is when the user wants to maintain their face or politeness and a social harmonious conversation

which is the most common The second case, bad, is when the user uses euphemism

as a mechanism to lessen or deceive reality For example, the French called their

war in Vietnam “civilization Francais” (Mintz, MeNeil, Lievhard, Lin, & Rapp,

2016)

Besides, cuphetmistic features can be looked into from different angles

Liuphemism usage can be different from genders, lor example, we may often hear

of young ladies refer to their monthly period as “the old friend” or in Vietnamese

“đèn dé”, such terms are more offen used among women Furthermore, we may nol.

be politc enough to speak of women as “fat” or comment on their physical appearance Lakoff (2004) made an attempt to explore why women seem generally more polite than men

Kuphemism differs among people of different social statuses ‘Lhe upper class may not consider much about using taboos in their daily life because of their power over thal, bul those who belong to lower class are more cautious of the language they use in daily conversations for fear of offending, the powerful people (Pan, 2013)

Fuphemism is commonly used in many aspects of daily and social cultural life as physiological phenomena, as a communicative means (Pan, 2013), Along with the development of society, peaple pursue the language utilization to show that they are civilized aud cultivated Spontaneously the nse of cupherisin isa politeness communicative device It is here that politeness function is to show respect to others and run a harmonious social relationship and obtain the communicative goals

Kuphemism from cultural perspective has been looked into by many scholars, Fershtman ct al (2011) concluded that what is tabooed in one socicty may nol be the norm in another and cuphomism is culture-based They also confined that “taboos change over time, some become stronger while others disappear” (p 152) and some taboos which are related to food, like kosher food, may be restricted

in Jewish society, or for Llindus, eating beef is a taboo Al-Shamali (1997) investigated the cuphemized expressions used in the Jordan Valley dialect and found out that the traditional social variables had an impact on the choice of a certain euphemistic expressions

Also in terms of religious euphemism in cultures, 'rajzyngier and Jirsa (2006, p 531) concluded that in English the terms Lord and Virgin are used for Jesus and Mary Similarly, in Polish there is a variely of indircel means of reference

to Jesus and Mary, e.g Pan Iezus, Lord Jesus, Zbawiciel, Saviour, Najs wigtsza Maria Panna, The most Holy Virgin Mary, Nicpokalana, Inunaculate, Malka Boska God's Mother

Whon it is that cuphomism is a linguistic and cultural mechanism by which ideas are shaped and reshaped to replace the unpleasant with the casy-lo-lisien Lo

ones or to be polite, to keep face and to avoid communication breakdown It is in

this sense that Grice (2013) proposed four maxims, which is also known as Gricean maxims, and it is sometimes referred to as Cooperative Principle (CP) and he stated

“Our lalk exchanges do nol normally consist of a succession of disconnected

remarks and would not be rational if they did They are characteristically, to some

degree at least, cooperative efforts; and each participant recognize in them, to some extent, a common purpose or set of purposes, or at least a mutually accepted

direction.” (Grice, 2013, p 49) Talking about his four maxims, Grice (2013, p 50) stated “T call these catcgories Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner.”

To look at Gricean maxims from the view of culture, now the question

anses: Whal are Ihe differences between cultures? Once again, cuphermism is

basically directed towards achevimg acceptance, im thal casc, speakers have Lo move people by what is said to how is said, and it is time when speakers must complete these tasks by words ‘then come politeness and the notion of face keeping (Brown & Levinson, 1987) It is because euphemism is also used to “avoid face- threatening acts” (FTA) (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p 91) Tn other words, Brown

& T.evinson (1987, p 313) take inte account “the relative wieghlings of three wanls: (1) the want to communicate the content of the PTA, (2) the want to be efficient or urgent, and (3) the want to maintain LI’s (addressee’s) face to any degree.” ‘They go

on to discuss redressive action referring to the “action that “gives face” to the

addressee, thal is, thal allermpls Lo counteract the potential face damage of FTA.”

2.4 Sex and death euphemisms in review

241, Death euphemisms in English and Viemamese

Tn Vietnamese, (he number of death cuphernsm accounts for about 280 (Hinh, 2004, p $3), in another work by Giang (1997, as cited im Truong, 2003, p 8), he lists more than 1000 death cuphcmisms In a general grasp, we sco that

Vietnamese death euphemisms fall into two groups: compound and phrase.

Compound death cuphemisms are mdin Ide (out of hick), nga tit (die of hunger), tich

điệt (loss of everything), vinh quyét (parting forever), bang ha (the king dies), biệt

cối trân (leave life), bd minh (lose one’s life), bỏ tui xanh (lose young life), qua đời

(pass away) as in:

or

or

or

Cũa có không nào khác đám mây

Người tan hiệp sao dường bọt nước Tịch cốc can bê nga từ

Tai con Cô Trúc đã về đâu? (Thanh, 1968)

Nằm đây tưởng chuyên ngắn sau Lung link nén chay hai dầu áo quan

Gió la cảnh lá không vang

Tin ta vĩnh quyết trân gian hững hờ (Dzênh, 1943)

Luu Trong Lu oi! Liét edi tran

'Tiếng tu man mac nhac trong ngén

Nita đêm sực tĩnh Đời pha mông,

Da điết lòng Anh ruột chữ Nhân! (Hữu, 1992),

‘Tam mười ba tuổi Tết Tân Mùi

Vợ đã qua dời, mắt lại dui!

Số vậy, thân đảnh cam chịu vậy Tgười vui, mình cũng gượng làm vui

Lu tram di vang nang niu nhim Bếp lửa ưu tư lặng lẽ vùi

Ngôi tựa bình mai nghe pháo nỗ

Nửa xuân gan gii nửa xa xôi (Tân, 2007)

Many more death euphemisms are found in the combination of two verbs such as: bd di (leave), ra di (leave), tit thé (stop breathing), in the combination of

twa nouns such as: trim tdi (100 years old) a3 im “con bd me (i di dua dam ma người ta, lúc nào ¿răm đuổi người ta sẽ tới khóc chia buồn nên gợi là khéc đổi” (my

parents go to a funeral, when they are 100 years old, people will come and ery for them and it is called ‘exchanging funoral cry’)

In another poem “Kinh viếng 10 cé gai Nga ba Bang Léc’ by Hao (2016),

he wrote:

Ngã ba Đẳng Lộc anh hing Mười cô yên nghỉ bóng lỏng hương hoa Non séng đất nước quê nhà

Tiếng chuồng vang vọng ngần nga dắt trời Xuân hương sắc tuổi đôi mươi

Mười có yên ruhì giữa đôi có xanlL Rừng thông bát ngắt reo quanh

Vọng lời tổ quốc hát thành bải ca (Tảo, 2016)

He describes the death as “vên nghi” (rest in peace ), in so doing, he

promotes the patriotic spirit of the ten heromes in Dong oc Battle

Tn English ilerature, the use of death euphemisms has been att oldest way of

saymg whal nol to say and the wumber of death euphemism m English is numerous,

(Emighi, 2004) Tí is here thal we can name some big dictionaries of euphemism in

English such as Bloombury Dictionary of Euphemism (Ayto, 2000), Oxford

Dictionary of Euphemisms (Iolder, 2008), Slang and Luphemism Dictionary

(Spears, 1981) and Death Euphemism (Ahmed, 2011)

Noticably, [older (2008) sets examples of many euphemistic expressions of death used in today’s English such as: pass away, pass on the other side, pass over, pass into the next world, leave the land of the living, go to heaven, g0 to our rest, go

to a better place, go to our long home, go west, go under, sleep away, return to ashes, put a person to sleep, put to the sword, self seliverance, have gone, farewell part of Being Jewish, gave up the ghost, kicked ihe bucket, slipped away, elernal sleep, demise, departed, breathed her last, met his maker and so on as in:

Going to heaven!

I don’t know

when-or

or

or

Pray do not ask me how!

Indeed I’m too astonished

To think of answering you!

Going to heaven! (Exily Dickinson, 2007)

Part of being Jewish is a Choice Part of being Jewish is a Choice

‘As one becomes an act of preservation

Seders start the stream of admonition, Stories meant to bind one to the past (Emily Dickinson, 1989)or Don't ery for me

Pm not gone

My soul is at rest,

my heart lives on, (Christy Ann Martine, 2004)

‘Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell when [ embark, (Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1990)

The only way lo gel ahead

Is exploit the weak and to bum your dead Tust look to history

Sociely im moral decay

Here tomorow

Or gone today

Oh yeah We'll retum to ashes one day (Jamie Christopherson, 2000)

24.2 Sex euphemisms in English and Vietnamese

Sex and sexual body parts have become a religion in Vietnam for a long time and they also perfom as a mysterious or magical function to mention them and who those mention the topic is regarded as low status in the society The analysis of

Hinh (2004) shows that there are about [ifly-five sex cuphernisms im Vielnarnese

For example:

Dương khi lửa tắt cơm xôi

Lon kéu, con khée, chéng doi tòm tem (Ngọc, 1997)

Other cases originate from daily life such a3 ngtl, di lai, chung dung, an di, tinh giao, or may muce as in:

May mua danh dỗ đá vắng Quá chiều nên dã chân chường yến anh

ảo người phượng chạ loan chung Tảo người tiếc lụe than hồng là ai? (Du, 1814 (18144-1820)) Phan Huyền Thu talked of sexual aronsal as:

Cũng sương triển dê đôi bờ

Ốm ở nước lũ (Thư, 2000)

In Inglish, IIolder (2008) claims that it is hard to mention a body part without referring to sex in one way or the other and the more common way is

cuphemistic substitutions used in reference to a sexual partner such as mate,

boy/girlfriend, miss, good friend or in rclerting lo sexual acls: get busy with, get

in bed with, yet your share, get your green, get laid, hooking up, screwing, riding

it, bump and grind, scoring, nailing someone, roll in the hay, and other such

terms as contact with, to make happy, to mate, conquer a bed as in:

Tonch yoursell for me Thon I'll ride you like a horse Tmake you happy

or

Touch me all over Then plunge it deep inside me Like thal! Yes! Yes! Yes!

“copulation”, and around 2000 terms for “whore” And as Giddens (1991) says that

it seems sex has become a great domain in the realm of euphemism and it subsequently creates more and more new words

There is a wide range of expression purveying sexual connotations, and a movernent to difluse those uses is becoming widespread in present society AL a mere start, the use of Ms is the result of a long-term fight for woman rights, as Lakoff (2004) states that there are several plausible reasons why the title Ms is commonly used However, the foremost reason can be explained in the use of

cuphemisi as a blend of Miss and Mrs Lo hide woman marital stalus and i 1s to

harmonize the communication event

In an online database Goad (2014) lists 400 euphemisms for sexual intercourse Some examples of which are belly-bumping, boning, boom-boom, houncy-bouncy, cave-diving and so on Epstein says that in the beginning was the word There followed, at an undetermined but one assumes decent interval, private,

harsh and dirty words Invention here being the mother of necessity, the need for

euphemism arose Nowhere could this need have been greater, or more evident, than in the realm of sex (Epstein, 1985, p 56) Sexual euphemism: people usually find it hard or embarrassing to talk about topics concerning sex or part of the body Instead of that, they resort to expressions which denote the topics For example, in Linglish, people may say “male love” instead of “have sexual intercourse with”, or example, Bertie Higgins in his poem “Casablanca” said:

Popcơm and coke beneath the stars

Became champagne and caviar Making love ona long hot summer’s night, (Lliggins, 1994)

243 Sex and death euphemisms from a cultural perspective

There is a number of scholars and researchers investigating death and sex euphemisms between Linglish and their native languages (I'rajzyngier & Jirsa, 2006;

Gathigia, Ndung’u, & Njoroge, 2015; Glass, 1975; Greene, 2001; Hai-Long, 2008;

Pan, 2013; Qi, 2010; Rice, 2016) They all prove that euphemism comegts closely with culture For example, in referring to the death, Glass (1975) describes the death

as “return” in a famous poem “When You Didn't” to describe the harshness of Vietnam War when his friend did net come back He wrote:

There were plenty of things you did te put up with me,

to kesp me happy, to love me, and there are

so many things I wanted to tell you when you retumed from

Vietnam

But you didn't (Glass, 1975)

People may use a beautiful euphemistic expression as “the big divide” to

mean “divorce” (Rice, 2016) This is an elTective device which helps users of language avoiding sensitive topics In a cross-cultural study, Greene (2001)

examined the differences in the use of euphemism of death by speakers of Russian

and English and found out that tabooed terms were avoided such as death and sex

When studying the principle of indirect means in language use and language structure, Frajzyngier and Jirsa (2006, p 531) added that death euphemism varies in cultures, For example, in Kwa languages of Ghana, instead of saying “the chief has died”, they say “the chief went to the sea”, or ‘the chief went to the village.”

Meanwhile, in English, expressions such as “he is not with us,” or “he passed

away” can be heard im dilTerert social contexts

Luphemism in death and sex attracted the attention of some other researchers (Al-Shamali, 1997, Flyyan, 1994, Greene, 2001, Makin, 2003) In which, Elyyan

(1994) investigated the frequency of cuphemism used in death and sickness He

found out that the direct taboos were likely to be avoided Greene (2001) focused on

the differences in the use of cuphemism and taboo tenms on sex and death in Russian and Unglish Greene (2001) concluded males and females were likely to

use taboo tems in informal rather than formal register On ihe contrary, Makm

(2003) studied euphemism in conversations and found out that utterances produced

by female speakers were judged to be more polite

Hai-Long (2008 p 85) claimed thal “because of different cullures, the

origins of euphemism in Chinese and English are different.” Since Huglish-speaking countries are mostly Christian, English euphemism relating to religious taboos

oulnumbered those in Chmese Meanwhile, the Chimese emphasize on social status

distinction, which has had huge impact of Chinese euphemism They also proved that there are differences in the use of aging euphemism: they concluded “Due to

social and cultural differences, the forms of euphemism vary Understanding

euphemism is conductive to intercultural communication” (IIai-Long, 2008, p 56)

Qi (2010) conducted ancther contrastive study of English and Chinese

euphemism He claimed thal cuphemism is a linguistic and particular cultural

phenomenon and that euphemism co-exists and co-develops with social and cultural

development He concluded if it is impotite and offensive to say ‘old man’ in

English but it means “wise man” or “senior citizen” in Chinese (p 139), Moreover,

he showed that there is a difference in the use of death euphemism in Chinese and Rnglish because in China, cuphermsm for death of the ruling class is nol sitwilar to

that of the common people He took an example as death of the emperor is taken the collapse of a big mountain while death of the common people is just plainly put as

“death”

in Vietnamese literature, euphemism has been a focal interest to scholars for

a long time from different perspectives From linguistic and stylistic perspectives,

euphemisms are studied in “Tir ving Uiéng Vial” (Vietnamese Vocabulary) (Gidp, 1998), “Phong cach hoc ting Vigt” (Vietnamese Stylistics) (Lac, 1999)

Enphemism study in Vietnam has been investigated by some scholars from

cultural perspective (Nguyén, 2005; Tremg, 2003) Truong (2003) investigated

cuphemism in English and Vietnamese and he concluded that cultural and secial

values have a huge impact on the use of euphemism

Neuyén (2008) studied cuphemism in English and Vietnamese from cultoral

perspective Firstly, she reviewed words and phrases, and defined the term culture and contrastive analysis; she went on to describe politeness and euphemism

Secondly, she collected data from leamers of English and some foreigners She

concluded that cultural background may affect the use of euphemism and that

“euphemism is greatly affected by the economical situation and seeial

characteristics” (p 37)

Both Lnglish and Viemamese languages have a number of euphemistic expressions to substitute expressions of death The concepts of death in both the two

cultures are profoundly influenced by their respective rehgious belief Qi (2010)

stated that Christianity is what English people believe in, whose religious belief can

be illustrated as “in God we trust” In the eyes of the English, death means dillerently becansc they have a strong bolic!’ thal Hile is bestowed god Human

beings have to suffer from the process of evil, degeneration or atonement, Only

aller they alone for their sins could they be saved, go to the heaven and unils wilh the majority and stay with god, otherwise they will go to the devil forever The fact

is explained why euphemisms of death in Linglish are often used as “go to heaven”,

“part of being Jewish”, “gave up Ihe ghost”, ect

In terms of differences, in Vietnamese culture, religion dictates some of rituals in the dying process, Older Viewamese people may prefer to be at home at the end of life with family members around them, Therefore, euphemisms of death

in Vietnamese are often seen as phrases: “vé vii Sng ba” (be with father), “vé vai td tién” (he with ancestors), The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country with a unique form of socialism which came inlo existence under influence of the specific historical context of Vietnam, In this way, euphemisms for death of the heroic soliders are different from that of the normal people, e.g.: “anh vé dat” (come back

to the lạnd), “giờ nằm sâu trong dat” (rest in the land), “anh vé dat” (becomes

astray), “tai dudi dat” (a part of the body in the land), “dat nau lanh lm” (the brown cold land) The word “đất” (land) is repeated in Vietnamese poems because there is

an itotial belief that the land is the most peaceful place where we will be protected for the rest of the life ‘The traditional belief in agriculture is added to the reason why the euphemism “land” is often used in place of “death” in Vietnamese poems The agricultural activities are highly dependent on the land so the “Mother land” is always worshipped as the final resting place

According to the Encyclopedia of Sexuality, “the Viemamese prefer a flowery, euphemistic vocabulary when they speak about sexuality” For example a man having sexual desires, might say “I’m going to buy a tree” ‘To describe the desire of a woman, ane poet used some colorfiil words such as “trién dé” (a river

dam”, “d6i bo” (Lwo banks of a river), “nước lũ” (Hke Mood) Food is also heavily

connected with sexual activity, Words like “erisp, sticky, spicy” are used to

describe food as well as women in erotic fantasies Many dishes are identified with

fomale organs or figures as “the whnte rice Nour cake” is the image ol a virgin This type of language helps people to speak about sexual matters without using the terms

that would erbarrass Lhem

Tn English culture, kissing on the mouth is one of the most basic sources of

sexual arousal Kissing is described as contact created by the mouth, which can be a sign of greeling love, [riendship, passion or romance Mouth-to-moulh kissing is very common in English culture Therefore, kiss is on display everywhere Lhe English can make out intimately, even ona first date

According to the data from two surveys done by Durex (Wellbeing Survey

from 2007-2008 and Face of Global Sex 2012), Hast Asia religious traditions or

cultural norms promote sexual conservatism One study by a group of researchers

found very high levels of reported “embarrassment” about discussing sexual

pratices in public ‘These results, according to the researchers is that “in comparison with men and wamen from Western regions, respondents living in Bast Asia

countries were more sexually conservative, more malo-orientated and less sexually active.”

The range of belicls on sex topic tends to differ drastically from localon Lo

location but respecting a culture’s belief is critical Cultures are heavily influenced

by religion Often, religion is restrictive but some religions actually promote open sexualily Throughtout different cullures and soviclies, sexual aclivily is cither promoted or it is also suppressed, but the global trend seems to be tilting towards more open societies that are accepting of sexual activity

Tn my research, iwerly poems in English and Vielnamese will be analyzed Lo

investigate death and sex euphemisms linguistically and identify the similarities and

differences in the use of euphemisms in poems from a cultural perspective

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research questions, the rescarch approach and

method, data, data collection procedure, dala analysis procedure and dala analytical framework

3.1 Ressearch questions

With a view to make a contrastive analysis of Lnglish and Vietnamese

euphemisms in poetry, this present research projecl seeks Lo answer the following

questions

1 How are cupheml ms of death and sex used in English and Vichramesc

poems?

2 What are the similarities and differences in the use of euphemisms of

death and sex in English and Viebwmese poems from a cullural perspective?

The first question is to mvestigale sex and death euphemisms ith poems im

Fnglish and Vietnamese linguistically The scoond question is to identify the similarities and differences in the use of euphemisms of sex and death in Linglish and Vietnamese poems from a cultural perspective

3.2 Research approach and method

This research employed the descriplive and contrastive mellioxd in analyang

the dala and adopted a qualitative approach Data qualitative approach (Creswell, 2013) offers the opportunities to gaia insights into the data during the analysis process Descriptive and contrastive methods (Given, 2008) were to utilize in this

study to gain in-depth data analysis and to compare and contrast the use of

euphemisms of death and sex in English aud Vietsamese poems from a cultural

perspective Contraslive analysis is a method to distinguish between what are needed and not needed to leam by the target language learner by evaluating languages In addition, contrastive analysis is a technique to identify whether two

languages have something in common, which assess both similarities and

Is differencs

m languages, conforming to the belief in language univers

rey i)

3.3 The data

In order to achieve the aim of the present study, ten prominent poems in Tnglish and ten in Vietnamese were collected for analysis The publishing years of the poems are not taken into consideration These poems are chosen as they have enough cuphemistic expressions to analyze, compare and contrast The lexival ilems gathered were based on two domains sox and death, all of which have beon discussed in the previous chapters in this thesis,

The two domains were identified frequently in the literature, as well as in the researcher’s background knowledge as both a Vietnamese and Iinglish speaker, where the use of cupherism and dysphemismn is commen

The data collection criteria were as follows: (1) he poem imust have al least

were gathered from the website www

researched domain and contains a big carpus of Vietnamese poems (51.460 poems), (3) Fnghsh poems ae gathered = from the dưcc - websiles

hflps/Awww, [amilyriendpoerns.porn, hUlps.//posis.er and

https://www.poetstoundation.com: (4) all the pooms must be recognized by authors and published in official publishing

3.4 Data collection procedure

The dala collection procedure was varried oul as [ollows:

1 went to thivien.ncl, postorg, familyfriendpocms.com and poetsfoundation.com and scarched [or lwo selected theres: sex and death

2 identified the poems containing euphemisms of sex and death

In so doing, the data were collected by means of manual search For the

process of the raw dala from the websiles, the researcher deleted the urmecessary

analysis involves the cyclical categorizing “The procedure involves croatme potential categories by crossing one dimension or typology with another, and then working back and forth between the data and one’s logic constructions, filling in the resulting matrix (Patton, 1987, p 155) In the second process, as Dey (1999) puts it

as imputing and consolidaling meaning, il is again Lo group, regroup and relink the findings with the theory In the third process, as Bornard (2011) states that analysis

is the search for parterns in data and for ideas that help explain why those partems are there in the first place (p 338) In the last process Saldatia (2015) says that one

of the most critical outcomes of qualitative data analysis is to interpret how the individual components of the sludy weave Logether (p 45)

Specifically, the data wore caleguzied into two selected groups: death and sox in the first place, Secondly, the findings were synthesized into table Thirdly, the findings were put into specific patterns in terms of two topics, such as death as a sleep, death as a journey or sex as companionship, sex as a war, sex as romance, eel Teast bul nol Teast, # detailed discussion of the key findings was presented with close relerences lo culiural perspeclive

3.6 Analytical framework

In order to conduct a good analysis and go through all the steps in the analysis, the present study employed analytical frameworks as models to guide and facilitate sense moking and understanding, The tibles below guide the analysis of data by identifying key analytical outputs and produvts al each step of arvilysis This (ramowork also guides the structure of Gwe final discussion in answering the two rescarch questions uphemisms in the poems are choosen basing on the euphemism formation All euphemistic expressions are realized in single words and phrases,

Table 1: Ilow death and sex enphemisms are used in English and Vietnamese

poems

When T visil the grave Death is perceived as toaveid the unpleasant

peace

Nhung mat ding trong | Deathisporceivedasa to avoid the unpleasant

Until I journey to that

peaceful shore and see

you again

Ao bao thay chiều, anh vẻ

dat (coming back to the

land)

Your strong tongue and

slender fingers reaching where I had been waiting

for you in my rose-wet

vao, ba nén (young glass leaves, young lips)

doi, (leans on the rifle and

stogie, forgets life)

The arrows of delight shot through my body Nam nghiêng cùng sương

triển đề đôi bờ ỡm ở nước

la (a river dam, two banks

25

of a river, like flood)

Death is perceived as Death is perceived as a

Sex is perceived as awar, Sex is perceived as nature

Chapter 4

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

‘This present study is built on English and Vietnamese poems In this chapter, the findmgs are analyzed accordingly to answer two research questions te reveal the linguistic exprossions denoting cupberisms in Fnglish and Vietnamese pooms and the frequency of euphemism in the data and to compare and contrast these findings from a cultural perspective

Section 4.1 represents and oxplains the findings of English and Vietnamese euphemisms of death and scx so as to answer the First research question Section

4.2 provides with a detailed discussion of the key findings, with close reference to

cultural perspective and in order to answer the second research questions The results are also discussed in comparison to previous findings Section 4.2.1

discusses the features of Eriglish and Vietnamese cuphemism Lowards death; section

4.2.2 presents a close look at sex euphemism in English and Vietnamese poems

4.L Findings

41.1 Deuth enphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems

In the poom “Kissing my Father” (Legaspi, 2018), the author might have

thought of death as something peaceful but also mournful (See appendix 1) He

described his father’s death as “three days into his wake” (Legaspi, 2018) and then

he went onto say “my father has not risen” (Legaspi, 2018)

Thrce days into his wake my father has not risen

(Legaspi, 2018)

The death was thought of as a sleep, quict moments with black color

surrounding the father When the author spoke of the deal as a law of mature, of the

immigrants come to the country, live and die, he spoke of the death directly:

The church is forested

with immigrants, spent after their long journey

lo anather country

to die (Legaspi, 2018)

When referring back to the father, the death was once again thought of as a sleep, a ‘safe approach” aud like being drunk (Legaspi, 2018),

Tn the poem “Teaving”, Coke (1958) talked of his father who died at ninely-

four and suffered from a lot of strokes as well as hardships in life (See appendix 1) Through which, the author realized that he did not kuow how to do anything but

survive and she wrote “All of this, What I am, doesn’t know how to die” (Coke,

1958), ‘hen the father said he wanted a blanket designed by Dustin, and thought of

the death as “lo leave this beauty, life” (Coke, 1958)

Dammit, I hate to leave this beauty, life

(Coke, 1958)

Tt was a blanket to wrap himself im for his Sisal rest and when the blarket came, the author described the death as “his breath slowed, eased, then quit.” This is

a beautiful poem, descrihing the death euphemistically and slowly (Coke, 1958)

On the fourth, came the Pendleton, delivered right on time His breath slowed, eased, then quil

That was it

(Coke, 1958) Also describing the death, Slotler (2012) wrote about his sisier who was his

best friend and he owed a lot of love, she died and he oried every day the year afterwards (Appendix 1) In the remembrance of his sister, the author used three

euphemisms and one dysphemism In which the death is thought of as peace: “you

lie in eternal peace” (Stotler, 2012)

When I visit the grave whee you lic int elernal peace,

J kmow that death and heaven brought you release:

| try to envision your joy on that shore across the sea,

And, until I join you, that'll have to be enough for me

Until journey to that peaceful shore and see you again

(Stoller, 2012)

And twice he thought of the death just to meet his sister, he wrote: “until I

join you” and “until | journey to that peaceful shore and see you again.” At one

time, the death was thought of as a law of nature when he said “T know that

death and heaven brought you release”, and that is the case of a dysphemism

(Stotler, 2012)

In the forth poem (See Appendix 1), Dickinson (1886) wrote about death as a

cheer, cuteness as it might be how nice life will be for everyone left when the

author dies and il ends im an cclusive exclamation mark Dickiisen (1886) seems to

divide the poem into two parts, the first half addresses the nature of life and death,

which is very peaceful, and the second half is the human aspect Beginning with a

dysphemism “die” and then she uses morn, moon, the birds and bees, and daisies as

a sign of peaceful and natural aspect of the death, which we see two other cases of

beautiful euphemism, of “die” as “depart” and “die” as “we wilh daisies lie”

If I should die,

And you should live,

And time should gurgle on,

And mom should beam,

Andnoon should burn,

As it has usual done, 1f birds should build as early,

And bees as bustling go,

One might depart at option From enterprise below!

‘Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand

When we with daisies lie (Dickinson, 1886)

Tn the second half of the poem, Dickinson (1886) desenbed the death as the

“parting” and it is as natural as life goes on as the commerce and trade continues ta prosper and we see how calming and comforting the death is in her wording:

That commerce will ventinue, And trades as briskly fly

Itmakes the parting tranquil

And keeps the soul serene,

That gentlemen so sprightly Conduct the pleasing, scene!

(Dickinson, 1886)

In the fifth data (See Appendix 1), Blackstone (2009) wrote this poem so that she could try and lift her spirits when she miss her beloved and the death was described

as an awful expericnce and the death in Gus poom 1s no more Gran a “part”,

I'm building my own little library, embedded in ty heart,

for all thc moments spent with you before you had to pert

(Blackstone, 2009)

In Vietnamese poems on death, the first poem “Tay Tién” (See appendix 1), Ding (1948) talked about the “death” in a beautifil euphemistic expression: “Gue

lên sứng mũ bỏ quên đời!” (lens øn the rie, forgets life) (Ding, 1948), it is the

soldier who forgets life in a heroic way and the death is so soft and patriotic In the same voice, “anh vé dat” (becomes astray) There are no cases of dysphemism in this Vietnamese counterpart (Diing 1948)

Anh bạn đãi đầu không bước nữa

Guc lên sứng mũ bỏ quên đài!

(leans on the rifle, forgets life)

Chiều chiều oai linh thác gầm thét

Đêm đêm Mường Hịch cọp trêu người

(Dũng, 1948)

In this poem, Bén (2012) talked about death as not coming back (anh khéng

về nữa đâu) - the death was thought of as a readiness and as something of the

author’s own will (See appendix 1) The death was deseribed as a coming back to the land and resting there (giờ nằm trong đất) (Bốn, 2012)

Giờ nằm trong đốt sâu (rest in the land) Anh chẳng còn dược biết

Tide mình không đi hết Những vui buỗn trong em

‘body was in the land (tai dui dat) (Can, 1940)

Tại đưới dất dễ nghe chứng Hếng song

(a part of the body was in the land)

(Cân, 1940)

The death in Can’s poem might be interpreted as a slecp — ä closUIc 0Ÿ cycš

(mat dong) (Can, 1940) and as the break-up of his body (tay nhậy đã chia lia) (Cận,

1940)

Nhưng mắt dòng trong dém cam ding dae, (a closure of eyes) Còn biết gì trời đất ở bên kia,

Budm bay chi! tay nbay da chia lia; (the break-up of the body)

‘Tinh goi dé, nhung, long théi bat méng

(Cận, 1940)

On the 24 of July, 1968, al Dong Toc Y-Junction, Can Toc, Ha Tinh, ten

woman volunteers lied down in a bombardment of the US air forces, in which one body was not found in two days, which inspired the author Thanh (1968) to compose the poom on the 25" of Tuly as a call to (he Tosl seond sergeanl, Cuc as im

the name of the poom says “Cie oi”, The poct resorted to use two cuphemisms in this poem to talk about the death of Cuc as “không về tập hợp” (not come to altendanee) and “dal nau lạnh Tam” (the brown cold land) to metaphorize that, she died and lied in the land

Tiểu đội đã xếp một hàng ngang Cúc ơi ern ở đâu khéng vé tap hop? (nol come to allendance) Chín bạn đã quây quân đủ hết

Cúc ơi! em ở đâu?

‘Dat nau lanh lim (the brown cold land)

(Thanh, 1968)

Tn the poem “Tudng cluyén ngan sau” by Dyénh (1943), we Cound one case

of death dysphemism and six cases of death euphemisms The poem begins with

“nim day” (lie here) and the author as a dead person started to talk about his thoughis, which focuses on far future evertis when the candles arc buming brightly

on the coffin hat is the time when “gio lia canh 14” (wind leaves the leaves) as a death euphemism of “die” and “vinh quyết” (farewell lo people) (Phê, 2018, p 1417) as a euphemism of “dic”:

ẩm đây, tưởng chuyện ngàn sau, (lie here) Tung Tinh nén chay hai dau áo quan

Gio lia canh la khéng vang, (wind leaves the leaves) Tin ta vĩnh quyết trần gian hing hd! (farewell to people)

(Dzénh, 1943)

In the third column, the death was described as “Nghin thu xa ving” (parting forever) (See Appendix 1) and later in the fifth column, he wrote “Ta nim trong, van” (lie in the coffin) and later in the columm he talked of the anger to “leave this world” as “xa doi”:

Ta nằm trong van tréng ra, (lie in the coffin)

Téa thin vi thay nguời hoa vẫn cười!

Ta toan gin déi xa doi, (leave this world)

Chot hay: khăn liệm quanh người vẫn thơm

All in all, the table below (Table 1) lists the types of euphemism found in six

poems analyzed In English, there are more death dysphemism than in Vietnamese

with one case in the title of the poem “Chet” (Can, 1940) The six authors used

abstraction as to form euphemsism in order to avoid unpleasant reality There are no

cases of using abbreviations, or foreign terms to form death euphemisms It is written data so we may not access the form of mispronunciation of euphemism

Turning to the strategy utilized to form euphemistic expressions, all the poets

resorted to using metaphor as a frequent device to express death euphemism, All

these metaphors are mixed and rich of affective elements and they build up visual

images of death when the mental images of the acts or objects are not naming

(Orwell, 1970),

Overal, all six poets employed euphemism to avoid obscurity of expressions

(Grice, 2013), It is because they may want to avoid mentioning taboo expressions which threaten the face We also found that in all three English poems, there are

cases in which the authors resorted to “try to make your contribution one that is

true” (Grice, 2013) and “do not say what you believe to be false” when they

obviously used dysphemism to talk about death From the table below, we can see

that all the euphemisms were formed in abstraction to express ideas indirectly

Table 4: Death euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems

in his sleep Abstraction

leave this beauty, life Abstraction

L eaving di ie Hi is breath SAU đi lowed, sỉ Ñtkhsedem §

eased, then quit

Seasons of Tie in eternal peace Abstraction

death

32