European Proceedings of Educational Sciences, Apr 10, 2023
This article tackles the topic of taboo, highlights some of the most recurrent types of taboos in... more This article tackles the topic of taboo, highlights some of the most recurrent types of taboos in language and literature and sheds light on the mechanism which enabled people to create euphemistic expressions to diminish the rigidity of tabooistic words. Derived from the Polynesian term taboo (ta designates the sacred and bu functions as a superlative degree), the term taboo refers to a set of absolute prohibitions that aim to prevent the negative effects of a magical contagion. Taboo appeared in language and literature and throughout time there have been many attempts to relate linguistic taboos to culture, especially during the 1960's. Defined within the framework of cultural imprinting, the taboo appears as a reflex to reject pagan, forbidden, repressed things, which work both in the language of everyday life and in literature. People have created euphemistic terms or expressions in order to soften the rigidity of taboo words. Euphemistic words and expressions offer the possibility to refer to unpleasant things in circumstances when we cannot avoid them in communication and therefore to soften the disagreeable meanings of taboo words. When we express thoughts, opinions or ideas, we can avoid saying certain things by using deliberate circumlocution. Linguistic taboos circumscribe various topics ranging from death or illness to religion or the metaphysical. In literature, taboo covers topics such as alienation, racism, depression, drugs and prostitution. The article concludes that our way of interpreting taboos is in reality subordinated to the condition of finiteness and historicity, explained in terms of philosophy, psychoanalysis and linguistics.
Professional Communication and Translation Studies, Mar 28, 2023
In the postmodern world, the transition from the unconditional trust in human reason and power to... more In the postmodern world, the transition from the unconditional trust in human reason and power to the hope in moral responsibility is justified by the criteria that have been more and more insistently formulated over the past two decades. Rationality, underlying the understanding of the phenomenological world, can be seen as an expression of the will of power, with an emphasis on its instrumental and technical side. According to this approach, reason is a threat to mankind, its aggressive function being felt not only by the instruments of technique, by machines, but by the fact that technique separates the being from its essence. Algorithmic rationality is radicalized in a powerful irrational sense, being represented as the most stubborn opponent of thought. Reasoning, like science, is based on concepts.
The European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-No... more This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
European Proceedings of Educational Sciences, Apr 10, 2023
This article tackles the topic of taboo, highlights some of the most recurrent types of taboos in... more This article tackles the topic of taboo, highlights some of the most recurrent types of taboos in language and literature and sheds light on the mechanism which enabled people to create euphemistic expressions to diminish the rigidity of tabooistic words. Derived from the Polynesian term taboo (ta designates the sacred and bu functions as a superlative degree), the term taboo refers to a set of absolute prohibitions that aim to prevent the negative effects of a magical contagion. Taboo appeared in language and literature and throughout time there have been many attempts to relate linguistic taboos to culture, especially during the 1960's. Defined within the framework of cultural imprinting, the taboo appears as a reflex to reject pagan, forbidden, repressed things, which work both in the language of everyday life and in literature. People have created euphemistic terms or expressions in order to soften the rigidity of taboo words. Euphemistic words and expressions offer the possibility to refer to unpleasant things in circumstances when we cannot avoid them in communication and therefore to soften the disagreeable meanings of taboo words. When we express thoughts, opinions or ideas, we can avoid saying certain things by using deliberate circumlocution. Linguistic taboos circumscribe various topics ranging from death or illness to religion or the metaphysical. In literature, taboo covers topics such as alienation, racism, depression, drugs and prostitution. The article concludes that our way of interpreting taboos is in reality subordinated to the condition of finiteness and historicity, explained in terms of philosophy, psychoanalysis and linguistics.
Professional Communication and Translation Studies, Mar 28, 2023
In the postmodern world, the transition from the unconditional trust in human reason and power to... more In the postmodern world, the transition from the unconditional trust in human reason and power to the hope in moral responsibility is justified by the criteria that have been more and more insistently formulated over the past two decades. Rationality, underlying the understanding of the phenomenological world, can be seen as an expression of the will of power, with an emphasis on its instrumental and technical side. According to this approach, reason is a threat to mankind, its aggressive function being felt not only by the instruments of technique, by machines, but by the fact that technique separates the being from its essence. Algorithmic rationality is radicalized in a powerful irrational sense, being represented as the most stubborn opponent of thought. Reasoning, like science, is based on concepts.
The European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-No... more This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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