1 - A brief overview of Contrastive Analysis
A systematic comparative study analyzing component wise the differences and similarities among languages was clearly recognized toward the end of
19 th century and the beginning of 20 th century. The term ‘Contrastive linguistics’ was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “ a sub discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them ”, (Fisiak, 1981:1). Contrastive
Analysis is the method of analysing the structure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential aspects of their systems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development. Contrastive analysis of two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the sound structure and grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements, giving due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems.
Contrastive analysis (CA) is the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities. From 1940s to 1960s before the Second Language Acquisition
(SLA) field as we know it was established, Charles Fries (1945:9) wrote: “
The most efficient materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner”. Robert Lado, in 1957 wrote: “Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture- both productively and when attempting to speak
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the language and to act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives.”
(1957, in Gass and Spelunker 1983, p.1). In the 1960s and early 1970s,
Contrastive Analysis was used extensively in the field of Second Language
Acquisition. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) – this extension of the notion of CA attributed the ability to predict errors to a CA of two languages, a predictability that practitioners associated with the degree of similarity between the two systems. Robert Lado wrote: “….. those elements that are similar to this native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult.”.
The Contrastive Analysis emphasizes on the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Contrastive Analysis is not merely relevant for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine translating and linguistics typology. It is relevant to the designing of teaching materials for use in all age groups. Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contrastive study: (1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and completely.(2) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their structure. (3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features b/ partially similar features c/ dissimilar features – for the target language. (4) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching in general.
2Some notes on euphemisms .
It is clear that language can be considered as an invaluable treasure that tell very much about the world of which human beings are real masters. Indeed, it is man that has played the key role in creating and developing such languages.
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Through decades, people have ceaselessly enriched and diversified linguistics with many new concepts. Among them, the concept of using euphemisms becomes more and more common in present day language. In all societies and in certain circumstances, we can see that people may sometimes use some words but not others which are considered as taboos. The word ‘taboo’ here was borrowed from Tongan, a Polynesian language, and in the society, it refers to the acts which are to be avoided. When an act is taboo, reference to this act may also become taboo. That is, first one is forbidden from doing something; then one is forbidden talking about it. Taboos are valuable as an index of the comfort or importance of a topic to a person or a culture. In other words, taboos are the ones that are not be used, or at least, not to be used in the ‘polite society’ because of being considered rude, vulgar, or in some cases too direct or indecent. So how can it be dealt with the issue of not using the words in the taboo list? It is the existence of taboo words and/or taboo ideas that stimulates the creation of euphemisms. The word ‘euphemism’ originally comes from Greek, with the prefix ‘eu’ meaning ‘good’ and the root
‘ phemism
’ meaning ‘speech’
. Therefore the notion of euphemism refers to the
‘substitution of a mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or blunt or direct one’. As a part of the English language, euphemisms have been used widely and there seems to be a tendency for its popularity. In other words, ‘a euphemism is a word or phrase which replaces a taboo word, or which is used in the attempt to avoid either fearful or unpleasant topic’ (Victoria Fromkin et al- An Introduction to Language, 2 nd ed.) or ‘ a word or expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive or objectionable than what it replaces’
(Steward L. Tubbs & Sylvia Moss – Human Communication, 7 th ed.
McGraw-Hill.). For example, when someone has passed away , the grief therapist receives the client and prepares that loved one , makes arrangements, and soon the dearly departed is interred. All this might sound a little circumspect or evasive, when it is really meant that when someone has died;
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the funeral director receives the corpse and sees to it that the dead body is soon buried. Euphemisms are not always used to deny death or to avoid talking about it. Instead at times, euphemistic terms are used to reveal a more subtle or deeper religious or cultural meaning when describing death or dying, such as ‘ an everlasting sleep’, ‘passed’ or ‘called home’ ……..
Probably in many societies, death is something feared or that is closely related to the aspect of religion. However, there are different religions in the world, such as: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism,…….. Hence, there are a great number of euphemisms which have been created to deal with the subject fro different religious points of view.
3Euphemisms for DEATH in English .
In English, death has become a four-letter obscene word; one that is not to be used when talking to people in normal daily polite conversations. In an attempt to find more socially acceptable terms and also to keep death at arm’s length by masking its reality, people may use various euphemisms – mild, indirect or vague terms. The practice of using such words for death is likely to have originated with the magical belief that to speak the word death was to invite Death; where to ‘ draw Death’s attention’ is the ultimate bad fortune. It may be said that one is not dying but fading quickly because the end is near.
People who have died referred to as having passed away, deceased or departed. Moreover, euphemisms are also used to show the commemoration and respect to the death and sympathy for his/her relatives and friends.
Therefore, when dealing with topics related to death or dying, people go to great lengths to avoid using the words die, dying, death, dead.
However, in
English speaking countries, Christianity is the most popular religion. It is believed that when Jesus died on the cross he was giving up his life for other people’s sins and demonstrating the love of God. When Jesus rose again he
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proved that it was possible to overcome death and live with God for all eternity. Christians were free from the burden of original sins if they followed
Jesus’ teachings and examples and believed in him as the Son of God.
Therefore, for them, death is regarded as being reunited with the Father God or simply going home. For them to die means: Asleep with Jesus/ Christ; fall asleep in the arms of Jesus; gone to his heavenly Father; in the arms of
Father; come to Jesus; departed to God; met his/her Maker; go home; called home; answer the last call; go to one’s last home ;………….
After death, the soul of a dead man will, in some shape or form, goes to the land of death, which is sometimes considered a happy place, but sometimes a place of sadness. Often, the land of death seems to be a continuation of this current life but in another type of existence. Thus, people are less apt to die and more apt to pass on or pass away or depart this life. It could be Heaven, a wonderful garden of paradise where he/she will live for ever with God and Jesus. Or it could be Hell which is believed to be a real place where people suffer eternal torment and punishment for his/her deeds on earth. In short, the good will goes to Heaven and the wicked one goes to Hell. Both Heaven and Hell are everlasting. Therefore, Christians say, ’ someone has gone to an everlasting or eternal place’ , they mean, ’ someone died’ . However, people always wish that the soul of the dead, not regarding what he/she has done on earth will be allowed to go to Heaven (the Kingdom of God). There are such euphemisms:
Gone to Heaven; join the angels; pass over Jordan; climb the Golden Stair; cross the Great Divide; kneel at the Big gate; knock on Heaven’s door; cross on the Stygian; singing with angels; left this world; gone to a better world; pass over to other side;……….
Some people also refer to the departed as a sleeping person who is enjoying a very long sleep by using such euphemisms as: Fall asleep with Jesus; a full/big sleep; close one’s day; gone to one’s rest; laid to rest; be at rest;……… People in English-speaking countries also have non-religious euphemisms to deal with the subject of death, such as: No
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longer with us; be no more; cease to breathe; cease to live; close one’s eyes; left us; lost; breathe one’s last;…….
4 - Euphemisms for death in Vietnamese .
In the Vietnamese language, there is also a long list of euphemisms for death or dying, which are in common with the one in the English language. The aim of those words is to lessen the pain and sorrow of the deceased’s family, relatives and friends and to shoe sympathy for them. Therefore, in daily life conversation, Vietnamese people are likely to use such words as: Ra ®i; mÊts; tõ trÇn; khuÊt nói; t¹ thÕ; qua ®êi; kh«ng cßn n÷a; ngõng thë, t¾t thë; nh¾m m¾t; an nghØ, yªn nghØ, rêi bá chóng ta; kh«ng cßn ë bªn chóng ta n÷a, trót h¬i thë cuèi cïng;……………..
Vietnamese also use euphemistic expressions which have equivalences in the English language. However, such words are often among Vietnamese Christians: VÒ víi Chóa; ®i gÆp c¸c thiªn thÇn; ngñ trong vßng tay cña Chóa; lªn thiªn ®µng; gÆp §Êng s¸ng t¹o; sang thÕ giíi bªn kia; rêi bá thÕ giíi nµy;……….
Nevertheless, language is the symbol of culture, while culture is the track of language (Xing Fuyi, 1990).
The culture of a nation can be reflected in its language. And religion is not out of the case. In Vietnam, the national religion is Buddhism, which also has great influence on its population as well as on its language. There are view points on death for Buddhists. Experiencing the death of a loved one, or witnessing the death of others, can be one of the most profound events in one’s life. Because death is usually unexpected, it often leaves family members and friends with unfinished business with the deceased. Since filial responsibilities are weighed heavily in the Vietnamese culture, and proper death rituals according to one’s abilities are important, death rituals give the
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bereaved a final chance to make it right by the deceased and thus provide a sense of continuity as well as final closure. Buddha says life is suffering, caused by desires. To end the suffering, one must end desires. From a greater perspective, death causes pain because of one’s desires for life. People fear death because they hold onto life. Here, the folly of attachment is brought into the sharpest relief, because one know the body is sure to die as it was born.
Death is all around. People will die. Understood this way, the only sensible course of action seems to be to seek that state where death cannot follow:
Nirvana, the state of being awake. To Buddhism, however, death is not the end of life, it is merely the end of the body one inhabit in this life, but the spirit will still remain and seek out through the need a attachment, to a new body and a new life. Hence, the goal is to obtain release, to achieve Nirvana.
Thus, Vietnamese people often use such euphemistic expressions: Kh«ng cßn c¶m thÊy ®au ®ín n÷a; hÕt ®au ®ín; tho¸t khái bÓ khæ; ®­îc gi¶i tho¸t; rêi bá thÕ giíi nµy; ch×m vµo giÊc ngñ dµi; giÊc ngµn thu; vÒ n¬i chÝn suèi; xuèng suèi vµng; vÒ n¬i cùc l¹c, ®i T©y ph­¬ng; vÒ víi
PhËt ; …………… People may have heard of the story of a woman who came to
Buddha in great anguish, carrying her dead child pleading him to bring the child back to life. Buddha said: Bring me a mustard seed from any household where no one had ever died and I will fulfill your wish. The woman’s attempt to search for such seed was in vain, she could not find any and suddenly she realized the universality of death. Realizing that death is inevitable for a person who is caught up in worldly pleasures and attitudes, Buddha resolved to renounce the world and devoted himself to finding a solution to this most basic of existential dilemmas. Buddhism asserts that all beings live beyond the various fluctuations of this life. Death is merely a passage to rebirth in another realm such as the human world, a pure land or the flowering of the ultimate nature of the mind. Beside, Vietnamese people also have the custom
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of worshipping one’s ancestors who have still live in another world.
Therefore, death only means: VÒ víi tæ tiªn; vÒ víi «ng bµ; th¨m c¸c cô;……… .
In Vietnamese, there are some other different euphemisms for death and dying, used in different context. For examples, the
King’s death, Vietnamese say: B¨ng hµ …..
A Buddhist follower’s death, they say: Viªn tÞch; thu thÇn nhËp tÞch;vÒ víi §øc
PhËt; vÒ câi NiÕt bµn; lªn ®µi sen ;…………..
In the past, the word ‘ KhuÊt nói ’ was often used. It may refer to the image of the sun setting in the west, behind the mountain. For sone tribes, ‘ Go West’ means died because in their view point, west is something bad, unhappy.
5- Conclusion
Nowadays, people live in a culture in which ‘Dead’ is a four-letter word.
Because four-letter words have a reputation for being obscene, death is obscene to modern sensibilities; that is, to those in modern death-denying cultures who rarely have firsthand experience with the dying and the death.
Modernity has afforded people the abilities to hide the dying process from public view. Therefore, there are great number of terms as euphemisms in every aspect of daily life that have derived. People have to know of that and carefully apply them in everyday language use so as to make them more and more effective in communication.
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1Bloomfield, Leonard. 1993. Language. NewYork. Holt-Rinehart &
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2Cao Xu©n H¹o. 2001. TiÕng ViÖt: Mét sè vÊn ®Ò vÒ Ng÷ ¢m-Ng÷ Ph¸p vµ Ng÷ NghÜa. Nhµ XuÊt b¶n
Gi¸o dôc. §µ N½ng.
3Fisiak, J. et al. 1984. Contrastive Linguistics and The Language
Teachers. Pergamon Press. Oxford.
4Graham Thurgood. 1990. Contrastive Analysis- An Overview.
California State University Press.
5James C Livingstone. 1996. Anatomy of the Sacred – An Introduction to religion. 3 rd ed. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
6James C. 1980. Contrastive Analysis. Longman Group ltd.
7Lado Robert. 1957. Linguistics Across Cultures. University of
Michgan Press. Ann Arbor.
8Lewis M. Holfe & Mark R. Woodward. 1984. Religion of the World.
7 th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
9NguyÔn V¨n Tu. 1975. Tõ vµ Vèn tõ TiÕng ViÖt
Hiªn ®¹i. Nhµ XuÊt b¶n Gi¸o dôc, Hµ Néi.
10 Nickel,G. 1971. Paper in Contrastive Linguistics. Cambridge. CUP.
11 Victoria Fromkin et al. 1986. An Introduction to Language.
Australian. Holt-Rinehart & Winston.
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