Uyển ngữ về cái chết và tình dục trong thơ ca tiếng anh và tiếng việt nhìn từ góc độ văn hóa

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ THUÝ AN EUPHEMISM OF DEATH AND SEX IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAME

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ THUÝ AN

EUPHEMISM OF DEATH AND SEX IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

POEMS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(Uyển 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, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ THUÝ AN

EUPHEMISM OF DEATH AND SEX IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

POEMS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(Uyển 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 Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

HANOI - 2019

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I, Le Thi Thuy An, hereby state that, this minor thesis is the result 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, been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been accomplished with the support and encouragement 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 Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, for his valuable assistance 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 meaningful lessons and precious support thanks to which

I 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 that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis

ABSTRACT

Euphemism is a linguistic device to express emotions, ideas and transmit 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 in 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 The data analysis demonstrates that both English and Vietnamese euphemism is employed as face-keeping and taboo-avoiding function However, in English death is more perceived as relief, peace, a sleep, a 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 conceptualized as nature and companionship

Keywords: euphemism, dysphemism, poems, cultural perspective

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationales 1

1.2 The aim and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 The significance of the research 2

1.5 The research method 3

1.6 The structure of the study 3

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Euphemism 5

2.2 Euphemism formation 6

2.3 Features of euphemism across cultures 9

2.4 Sex and death euphemisms in review 11

2.4.1 Death euphemisms in English and Vietnamese 11

2.4.2 Sex euphemisms in English and Vietnamese 15

2.4.3 Sex and death euphemisms from a cultural perspective 17

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Ressearch questions 22

3.2 Research approach and method 22

3.3 The data 23

3.4 Data collection procedure 23

3.5 Data analysis procedure 23

3.6 Analytical framework 24

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Findings 26

4.1.1 Death euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 26

4.1.2 Sex euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 33

4.2 Discussion 42

4.2.1 Death euphemisms used in Engish and Vietnamese poems 45

4.2.2 Sex euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 47

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 51

5.1 Summary 51

5.2 Implications 52

5.3 Limitations and further research 53

REFERENCES 54 APPENDICES I

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: How death and sex euphemisms are used in English and Vietnamese

poems 24

Table 2: Similarities in the use of death and sex euphemisms in English and Vietnamese poems 25

Table 3: Differences in the use of death and sex euphemisms in English and Vietnamese poems 25

Table 4: Death euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 32

Table 5: Sex euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems 42

Table 6: Euphemisms of sex as a companionship 48

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationales

Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in all languages Eversince the beginning of the world, people have tried to 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 more and more specialized 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 Hai-long (2008, p 55) went on to say that language and culture are inseparable from each other As an inalienable part of language, euphemism bears the mark of culture He continues that it can be easily tracked in our conversation and they reflect different levels of culture and various patterns 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 investigate in the light of cultural perspective in 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 Vietnamese poems

For years, study of euphemism in English 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 euphemism in comparison

with Vietnamese one may bring to light the similarities and differences in the two languages and cultures, which seeks to help EFL learners understand and have better use of English This may also help EFL learners to have confidence in cross-cultural communication

What is more, in Vietnam, there has been a neglect of research into the politeness strategies in cross-cultural communication in English and Vietnamese This present study seeks to propose some suggestions on using euphemism to prevent communication breakdown As an English teacher, the author would love to contribute to the understanding of euphemism, thus promote smooth communication based on cultural contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese poems

In conclusion, the study attempts to investigate the euphemistic forms 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 English and Vietnamese poems Specifically, the study seeks to explore how death and sex euphemisms are used in the poems and identify the similarities 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 to enhance cross-cultural motivation, including

politeness strategies, cultural values and conventional awareness and harmonious communication

No research is able to represent precisely and accurately all the features of the entire target population (Charles, 1998) This 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 in any type of situation usually avoids anything 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, analyzing and interpreting qualitative data in a single study This 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, contrastive description of the data is needed to give a clear picture of the data in the results of the comparative analysis

The data are twenty poems from the two websites poets.org and thivien.net 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 but 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 English 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

In Chapter 4, key findings and discussion are presented A detailed account 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 critical examination of the core features of euphemism and dysphemism and their cultural differences in English and Vietnamese

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is essential for any research due to the fact that its function is to explore the background knowledge from existing information in the field of the research question, to explore previous findings and to view the interpretation of the findings (Charles, 1998) To acquire an understanding of the general concept of euphemism, it is important to analyze the way people perceive euphemism in section 2.1 before considering how euphemism is psychologically created in section 2.2 Section 2.3 presents the features of euphemism of death and sex in English and Vietnamese 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

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 offensive or delicate in terms that make it sound more pleasant." Sanderson (1999, p 259) also 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 that euphemism is "the use of a supposedly less objectionable variant for a word with negative connotations."

Noticeably, there is another entity called dysphemism, the opposite term of euphemism, which may not often appear in our daily language use (Burridge, 2004) Dysphemism is an entity ―with connotations that are offensive either about 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 example, 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 not 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 It is in this sense we see that the origin of euphemism has its 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 to express what they want to say indirectly or to choose a roundabout way to avoid any embarrassment or harassment and so euphemism comes into being At this point, we can conclude that euphemism is a social product and it is worth comparing and contrasting among cultures

2.2 Euphemism formation

Euphemism 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 Dũng (1948) expressed the death in a euphemistic way:

―Anh bạn dãi dầu không bước nữa Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời‖

(leans on the rifle, forgets life)

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

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

The second 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, ―ĐM‖ for ―đ** m**‖ It can also be playing with abbreviations; for instance, ―sugar honey ice tea‖ for ―shit‖ or

―cờ mờ nờ rờ‖ (cmnr) for ―con mẹ nó rồi‖ in Vietnamese Baker (1981) calls this alphabeticisms and this part of euphemism can function in disguising unpleasant and embarrassing terms (Cottle, 1975) and Burridge (2004) states that due to semantic preciseness, abbreviation can function as fluent communication facilitators, yet also form a barrier between interlocutors This is also called omission Adams (1985) views omissions as part of euphemism from a unique perspective He 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 … tried to prettify or cosmeticize the effect You should call euphemism the deodorant of language; if so, a code of silent omissions would correspond …‖ (Adams, 1985, p 47)

Thirdly, people sometimes mispronounce words as a euphemistic strategy For example, ―shoot‖ instead of ―shit‖ or in Vietnamese, ―đù m*‖ in stead of ―đ** m*‖ And it is that ―mispronunciation supposedly soften the sounds of the bumps in the night‖ (Rawson, 1981, p 42)

Fourthly, euphemism can be disguised under the use of foreign or technical terms For example, ―đám hiếu‖ instead of ―đám 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 words 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, euphemism has a metaphoric formation This is the semantic feature of euphemism, which refers to an implied comparison between two things; for instance, ―melons‖ or ―bưởi‖ 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 directly Therefore, euphemism proves to be an interesting means of coping with such a reality as death, sex They provide a ―protective shield‖ against a feared, fearful and unpleasant fact Meanwhile, a metaphor is often a word, a phrase or a short sentence that is is employed to hint something so as to make it clearer, more picturesque In comparison to euphemism, which seeks to disguise or avoid its subject, metaphor attempts to strengthen or to make it more colorful There are two characteristic metaphors: dying metaphors and mixed metaphors Dying metaphors 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 metaphorical conceptual perspectives, there are three conventional heterogeneities which form metaphors: (1) structural metaphors are the ―cases where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another‖ (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 14), (2) oriental metaphors do not ―structure one concept in terms of another but instead 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, Swift (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 diffuse readers‖ imaginary worlds (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) Orwell (1970) states

that metaphors can make the meaning obscure to both addressor and addressee and that ―the sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image When these images clash … it can be taken as certain that the writer is not seeing 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 to heighten meanings … use them to blur meanings

2.3 Features of euphemism across cultures

Speaking of features of euphemism, Nilwati (2012) lists out three prominent linguistic phenomena as follows:

(1) Euphemism 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 that evidence indicates that euphemism is 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, it 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) Fershtman, Gneezy, and Hoffman (2011) confirm this that the use of euphemism is based on cultural values and beliefs

(3) Euphemism 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, McNeil, Lienhard, Lin, & Rapp, 2016)

Besides, euphemistic features can be looked into from different angles Euphemism usage can be different from genders For example, we may often hear

of young ladies refer to their monthly period as ―the old friend‖ or in Vietnamese

―đèn đỏ‖, such terms are more often used among women Furthermore, we may not

be polite 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

Euphemism differs among people of different social statuses The upper class may not consider much about using taboos in their daily life because of their power over that, but 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)

Euphemism 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, people pursue the language utilization to show that they are civilized and cultivated Spontaneously the use of euphemism is a 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

Euphemism from cultural perspective has been looked into by many scholars Fershtman et al (2011) concluded that what is tabooed in one society may not be the norm in another and euphemism is culture-based They also confirmed 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 Hindus, eating beef is a taboo Al-Shamali (1997) investigated the euphemized 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, Frajzyngier 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 variety of indirect means of reference

to Jesus and Mary, e.g.: Pan Jezus, Lord Jesus, Zbawiciel, Saviour, Najs wie tsza Maria Panna, The most Holy Virgin Mary, Niepokalana, Immaculate, Matka Boska God's Mother

When it is that euphemism is a linguistic and cultural mechanism by which ideas are shaped and reshaped to replace the unpleasant with the easy-to-listen to 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 talk exchanges do not 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 ―I call these categories Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner.‖

To look at Gricean maxims from the view of culture, now the question arises: What are the differences between cultures? Once again, euphemism is basically directed towards achieving acceptance, in that case, speakers have to 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) In other words, Brown

& Levinson (1987, p 313) take into account ―the relative wieghtings of three wants: (1) the want to communicate the content of the FTA, (2) the want to be efficient or urgent, and (3) the want to maintain H‘s (addressee‘s) face to any degree.‖ They go

on to discuss redressive action referring to the ―action that ―gives face‖ to the addressee, that is, that attempts to counteract the potential face damage of FTA.‖

2.4 Sex and death euphemisms in review

2.4.1 Death euphemisms in English and Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, the number of death euphemism accounts for about 280 (Hinh, 2004, p 55), in another work by Giang (1997, as cited in Trương, 2003, p 8), he lists more than 1000 death euphemisms In a general grasp, we see that Vietnamese death euphemisms fall into two groups: compound and phrase

Compound death euphemisms are mãn lộc (out of luck), ngạ tử (die of hunger), tịch diệt (loss of everything), vĩnh quyết (parting forever), băng hà (the king dies), biệt cõi trần (leave life), bỏ mình (lose one’s life), bỏ tuổi xanh (lose young life), qua đời (pass away) as in:

Của có không nào khác đám mây Người tan hiệp sao dường bọt nước Tịch cốc can bề ngạ từ

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

or

Nằm đây tưởng chuyện ngàn sau Lung linh nến cháy hai đầu áo quan Gió lìa cành lá không vang

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

or

Lưu Trọng Lư ơi! Biệt cõi trần Tiếng thu man mác nhạc trong ngần Nửa đêm sực tỉnh Đời pha mộng

Da diết lòng Anh một chữ Nhân! (Hữu, 1992)

or

Tám mươi ba tuổi Tết Tân Mùi

Vợ đã qua đời, mắt lại đui!

Số vậy, thân đành cam chịu vậy Người vui, mình cũng gượng làm vui

Lư trầm dĩ vãng nâng niu nhúm Bếp lửa ưu tư lặng lẽ vùi

Ngồi tựa bình mai nghe pháo nổ Nửa xuân gần gũi nửa xa xôi (Tấn, 2007)

Many more death euphemisms are found in the combination of two verbs

such as: bỏ đi (leave), ra đi (leave), tắt thở (stop breathing), in the combination of two nouns such as: trăm tuổi (100 years old) as in ―còn bố mẹ tôi đi đưa đám ma người ta, lúc nào trăm tuổi người ta sẽ tới khóc chia buồn nên gọi là khóc đổi‖ (my

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

In another poem ‗Kính viếng 10 cô gái Ngã ba Đồng Lộc‘ by Hảo (2016) ,

he wrote:

Ngã ba Đồng Lộc anh hùng

Mười cô yên nghỉ bóng lồng hương hoa

Non sông đất nước quê nhà

Tiếng chuông vang vọng ngân nga đất trời

Xuân hương sắc tuổi đôi mươi

Mười cô yên nghỉ giữa đồi cỏ xanh

Rừng thông bát ngát reo quanh

Vọng lời tổ quốc hát thành bài ca (Hảo, 2016)

He describes the death as ―yên nghỉ‖ (rest in peace ), in so doing, he promotes the patriotic spirit of the ten heroines in Dong Loc Battle

In English literature, the use of death euphemisms has been an oldest way of saying what not to say and the number of death euphemism in English is numerous (Enright, 2004) It is here that we can name some big dictionaries of euphemism in English such as Bloombury Dictionary of Euphemism (Ayto, 2000), Oxford Dictionary of Euphemisms (Holder, 2008), Slang and Euphemism Dictionary (Spears, 1981) and Death Euphemism (Ahmed, 2011)

Noticably, Holder (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, go 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 the bucket, slipped away, eternal sleep, demise, departed, breathed her last, met his maker and so on as in:

Going to heaven!

I don‘t know when-

Pray do not ask me how!

Indeed I‘m too astonished

To think of answering you!

Going to heaven! (Emily Dickinson, 2007)

or

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 cry for me

I‘m not gone

The only way to get ahead

Is exploit the weak and to burn your dead Just look to history

Society in moral decay Here tomorrow

Or gone today

Oh yeah We‘ll return to ashes one day (Jamie Christopherson, 2000)

2.4.2 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 fifty-five sex euphemisms in Vietnamese For example:

Đương khi lửa tắt cơm xôi Lợn kêu, con khóc, chồng đòi tòm tem (Ngọc, 1997)

Other cases originate from daily life such as ngủ, đi lại, chung đụng, ân ái, tính giao, or mây mưa as in:

Mây mưa đánh đổ đá vàng

Quá chiều nên đã chán chường yến anh

Nào người phượng chạ loan chung

Nào người tiếc lục than hồng là ai? (Du, 1814 (1814-1820?))

Phan Huyền Thư talked of sexual arousal as:

Cùng sương triền đê đôi bờ

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:

Touch yourself for me Then I‘ll ride you like a horse

I make you happy

or

Touch me all over Then plunge it deep inside me Like that! 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 movement to diffuse these uses is becoming widespread in present society At 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 euphemism as a blend of Miss and Mrs to hide woman marital status and it is 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, bouncy-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 English, people may say ―make love‖ instead of ―have sexual intercourse with‖ For example, Bertie Higgins in his poem ―Casablanca‖ said:

Popcorn and coke beneath the stars

Became champagne and caviar

Making love on a long hot summer‘s night (Higgins, 1994)

2.4.3 Sex and death euphemisms from a cultural perspective

There is a number of scholars and researchers investigating death and sex euphemisms between English and their native languages (Frajzyngier & 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 connects 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 not come back He wrote:

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

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

so many things I wanted to tell you when you returned 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 effective 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 in different social contexts

Euphemism in death and sex attracted the attention of some other researchers (Al-Shamali, 1997; Elyyan, 1994; Greene, 2001; Makin, 2003) In which, Elyyan (1994) investigated the frequency of euphemism 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 euphemism and taboo terms on sex and death in Russian and English Greene (2001) concluded males and females were likely to use taboo terms in informal rather than formal register On the contrary, Makin (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 that ―because of different cultures, the origins of euphemism in Chinese and English are different.‖ Since English-speaking countries are mostly Christian, English euphemism relating to religious taboos outnumbered those in Chinese Meanwhile, the Chinese 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‖ (Hai-Long, 2008, p 56)

Qi (2010) conducted another contrastive study of English and Chinese euphemism He claimed that euphemism 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 impolite 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 English because in China, euphemism for death of the ruling class is not similar 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 ―Từ vựng tiếng Việt‖ (Vietnamese Vocabulary) (Giáp, 1998), ―Phong cách học tiếng Việt‖ (Vietnamese Stylistics) (Lạc, 1999)

Euphemism study in Vietnam has been investigated by some scholars from cultural perspective (Nguyễn, 2005; Trương, 2003) Trương (2003) investigated

euphemism in English and Vietnamese and he concluded that cultural and social values have a huge impact on the use of euphemism

Nguyễn (2005) studied euphemism in English and Vietnamese from cultural 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 learners 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 social characteristics‖ (p 37)

Both English and Vietnamese 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 religious 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 differently because they have a strong belief that life is bestowed god Human beings have to suffer from the process of evil, degeneration or atonement Only after they atone for their sins could they be saved, go to the heaven and unite with the majority and stay with god, otherwise they will go to the devil forever The fact

is explained why euphemisms of death in English are often used as ―go to heaven‖,

―part of being Jewish‖, ―gave up the ghost‖, ect

In terms of differences, in Vietnamese culture, religion dictates some of rituals in the dying process Older Vietnamese 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: ―về với ông bà‖ (be with father), ―về với tổ tiên‖ (be with ancestors) The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country with a unique form of socialism which came into 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 về đất‖ (come back

to the land), ―giờ nằm sâu trong đất‖ (rest in the land), ―anh về đất‖ (becomes

astray), ―tai dưới đất‖ (a part of the body in the land), ―đất nâu lạnh lắm‖ (the brown cold land) The word ―đất‖ (land) is repeated in Vietnamese poems because there is

an initial 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 Vietnamese 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, one poet used some colorful words such as ―triền đê‖ (a river dam‖, ―đôi bờ‖ (two banks of a river), ―nước lũ‖ (like flood) Food is also heavily connected with sexual activity Words like ―crisp, sticky, spicy‖ are used to describe food as well as women in erotic fantasies Many dishes are identified with female organs or figures as ―the white rice flour cake‖ is the image of a virgin This type of language helps people to speak about sexual matters without using the terms that would embarrass them

In 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 greeting, love, friendship, passion or romance Mouth-to-mouth kissing is very common in English culture Therefore, kiss is on display everywhere The English can make out intimately, even on a first date

According to the data from two surveys done by Durex (Wellbeing Survey from 2007-2008 and Face of Global Sex 2012), East 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 women from Western regions, respondents living in East Asia

countries were more sexually conservative, more male-orientated and less sexually active.‖

The range of beliefs on sex topic tends to differ drastically from location to 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 sexuality Throughtout different cultures and societies, sexual activity is either promoted or it is also suppressed, but the global trend seems to be tilting towards more open societies that are accepting of sexual activity

In my research, twenty poems in English and Vietnamese will be analyzed to 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 research approach and method, data, data collection procedure, data analysis procedure and data analytical framework

3.1 Ressearch questions

With a view to make a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese euphemisms in poetry, this present research project seeks to answer the following questions:

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?

The first question is to investigate sex and death euphemisms in poems in English and Vietnamese linguistically The second question is to identify the similarities and differences in the use of euphemisms of sex and death in English and Vietnamese poems from a cultural perspective

3.2 Research approach and method

This research employed the descriptive and contrastive method in analyzing the data and adopted a qualitative approach Data qualitative approach (Creswell, 2013) offers the opportunities to gain 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 and Vietnamese poems from a cultural perspective Contrastive analysis is a method to distinguish between what are needed and not needed to learn 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 differences in languages, conforming to the belief in language universals

3.3 The data

In order to achieve the aim of the present study, ten prominent poems in English 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 euphemistic expressions to analyze, compare and contrast The lexical items gathered were based on two domains sex and death, all of which have been 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 English speaker, where the use of euphemism and dysphemism is common

The data collection criteria were as follows: (1) the poem must have at least one euphemistic item on the researched domains; (2) all the Vietnamese poems were gathered from the website www.thivien.net, which is thematized in the researched domain and contains a big corpus of Vietnamese poems (51.460 poems); (3) English poems are gathered from the three websites https://www.familyfriendpoems.com, https://poets.org and https://www.poetsfoundation.com; (4) all the poems must be recognized by authors and published in official publishing

3.4 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was carried out as follows:

1 went to thivien.net, poet.org, familyfriendpoems.com and poetsfoundation.com and searched for two selected themes: 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 data from the websites, the researcher deleted the unnecessary information such as the poem descriptions or the poem albums information and saved the screened data to the appendixes

3.5 Data analysis procedure

Data analysis concerning the use of a rhetorical device in a literary text offers four processes: categorizing, synthesizing, searching for patterns and interpreting the collected data (Glesne & Peshkin, 1991) The first process of data

analysis involves the cyclical categorizing ―The procedure involves creating 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 consolidating meaning, it is again to group, regroup and relink the findings with the theory In the third process, as Bernard (2011) states that analysis

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

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

Specifically, the data were categozied into two selected groups: death and sex 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, ect Last but not least, a detailed discussion of the key findings was presented with close references to cultural perspective

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 making and understanding The tables below guide the analysis of data by identifying key analytical outputs and products at each step of analysis This framework also guides the structure of the final discussion in answering the two research questions Euphemisms in the poems are choosen basing on the euphemism formation All euphemistic expressions are realized in single words and phrases

Table 1: How death and sex euphemisms are used in English and Vietnamese

poems

When I visit the grave

where you lie in eternal

đêm câm dằng dặc sleep reality

The arrows of delight shot

through my body

Sex is perceived as a war to avoid taboo

Chuyện đời hành lạc từ

kim cổ

Sex is perceived as nature to avoid taboo

Table 2: Similarities in the use of death and sex euphemisms in English and

Áo bào thay chiếu, anh về đất (coming back to the land)

Your strong tongue and slender fingers reaching where I had been waiting for you in my rose-wet cave

Cỏ bồng thi mùa non, dần vào, bờ nõn (young glass leaves, young lips)

Sex is perceived as romance

Table 3 : Differences in the use of death and sex euphemisms in English and

The arrows of delight shot through my body

Nằm nghiêng cùng sương triền đê đôi bờ ỡm ờ nước

lũ (a river dam, two banks

of a river, like flood)

Perception

Death is perceived as joyful life

Death is perceived as a heroic loss

Sex is perceived as a war Sex is perceived as nature

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

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

Section 4.1 represents and explains the findings of English and Vietnamese euphemisms of death and sex 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 English and Vietnamese euphemism towards death; section 4.2.2 presents a close look at sex euphemism in English and Vietnamese poems

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Death euphemisms used in English and Vietnamese poems

In the poem ―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 on to say ―my father has not risen‖ (Legaspi, 2018)

Three days into his wake my father has not risen

(Legaspi, 2018)

The death was thought of as a sleep; quiet moments with black color surrounding the father When the author spoke of the death as a law of nature, 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

to another country

to die (Legaspi, 2018) When referring back to the father, the death was once again thought of as a sleep, a ―safe approach‖ and like being drunk (Legaspi, 2018)

In the poem ―Leaving‖, Coke (1958) talked of his father who died at 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 know how to do anything but survive and she wrote ―All of this, What I am, doesn‘t know how to die‖ (Coke, 1958) Then the father said he wanted a blanket designed by Dustin, and thought of the death as ―to leave this beauty, life‖ (Coke, 1958)

ninety-Damnit, I hate to leave this beauty, life

(Coke, 1958)

It was a blanket to wrap himself in for his final rest and when the blanket came, the author described the death as ―his breath slowed, eased, then quit.‖ This is

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

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

That was it

(Coke, 1958) Also describing the death, Stotler (2012) wrote about his sister who was his best friend and he owed a lot of love, she died and he cried 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 where you lie in eternal peace,

I know that death and heaven brought you release;

I 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 I journey to that peaceful shore and see you again

(Stotler, 2012) And twice he thought of the death just to meet his sister, he wrote: ―until I join you‖ and ―until I 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 ―I 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 it ends in an eclusive exclamation mark Dickinson (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 with daisies lie‖:

If I should die, And you should live, And time should gurgle on, And morn should beam, And noon should burn,

As it has usual done;

If 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)

In the second half of the poem, Dickinson (1886) described the death as the

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

That commerce will continue, And trades as briskly fly

It makes 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 experience and the death in this poem is no more than a ―part‖

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

for all the moments spent with you before you had to part

(Blackstone, 2009)

In Vietnamese poems on death, the first poem ―Tây Tiến‖ (See appendix 1), Dũng (1948) talked about the ―death‖ in a beautiful euphemistic expression: ―Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời!‖ (leans on the rifle, forgets life) (Dũng, 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 về đất‖ (becomes astray) There are no cases of dysphemism in this Vietnamese counterpart (Dũng, 1948)

Anh bạn dãi dầu không bước nữa Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời!

(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, Bốn (2012) talked about death as not coming back (anh không

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 described as a coming back to the land and resting there (giờ nằm trong đất) (Bốn, 2012)

Giờ nằm trong đất sâu (rest in the land) Anh chẳng còn được biết

Tiếc mình không đi hết Những vui buồn trong em

Tai dưới đất để nghe chừng tiếng sóng (a part of the body was in the land)

(Cận, 1940) The death in Cận‘s poem might be interpretted as a sleep – a closure of eyes (mắt đóng) (Cận, 1940) and as the break-up of his body (tay nhậy đã chia lìa) (Cận, 1940)

Nhưng mắt đóng trong đêm câm dằng dặc, (a closure of eyes) Còn biết gì trời đất ở bên kia;

Bướm bay chi! tay nhậy đã chia lìa; (the break-up of the body) Tình gọi đó, nhưng lòng thôi bắt mộng

(Cận, 1940)

On the 24th of July, 1968, at Dong Loc Y-Junction, Can Loc, 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 poem on the 25th of July as a call to the lost second sergeant Cuc as in

the name of the poem says ―Cúc ơi‖ The poet resorted to use two euphemisms in this poem to talk about the death of Cuc as ―không về tập hợp‖ (not come to attendance) and ―đất nâu lạnh lắm‖ (the brown cold land) to metaphorize that she died and lied in the land

Cúc ơi em ở đâu không về tập hợp? (not come to attendance) Chín bạn đã quây quần đủ hết

… Cúc ơi! em ở đâu?

Đất nâu lạnh lắm (the brown cold land)

(Thanh, 1968)

In the poem ―Tưởng chuyện ngàn sau‖ by Dzếnh (1943), we found one case

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

―nằm đây‖ (lie here) and the author as a dead person started to talk about his thoughts, which focuses on far future events when the candles are burning brightly

on the coffin That is the time when ―gió lìa cành lá‖ (wind leaves the leaves) as a death euphemism of ―die‖ and ―vĩnh quyết‖ (farewell to people) (Phê, 2018, p 1417) as a euphemism of ―die‖:

Nằm đây, tưởng chuyện ngàn sau, (lie here) Lung linh nến cháy hai đầu áo quan

Gió lìa cành lá không vang, (wind leaves the leaves) Tin ta vĩnh quyết trần gian hững hờ! (farewell to people)

(Dzếnh, 1943)

In the third column, the death was described as ―Nghìn thu xa vắng‖ (parting forever) (See Appendix 1) and later in the fifth column, he wrote ―Ta nằm trong ván‖ (lie in the coffin) and later in the column he talked of the anger to ―leave this world‖ as ―xa đời‖:

Ta nằm trong ván trông ra, (lie in the coffin) Tủi thân vì thấy người hoa vẫn cười!

Ta toan giận dỗi xa đời, (leave this world) Chợt 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 ―Chết‖ (Cận, 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

Kissing My

lie in eternal peace Abstraction