Jurnal Bahasa dan Budaya China

Euphemism is a language phenomenon that people often encounter in communication. It is a more polite way of saying, and it is used to replace words that ordinary people dare not say directly. This article mainly studies the euphemisms about "death" in Chinese and Indonesian, the euphemisms about "sexual behavior", the euphemisms about "pregnancy", the euphemisms about men and women, the euphemisms about "excretion", the euphemisms about women periods, euphemisms for the body, euphemisms for "sickness" or physical disabilities, euphemisms for occupation, euphemisms for being fired or not working. Through the analysis, we know that in terms of the functions of euphemisms, the euphemisms in Chinese and Indonesian basically have the same functional characteristics, and most of them are euphemisms with elegant function. The most types of euphemisms in Chinese and Indonesian are euphemisms about "death", euphemisms about occupations and euphemisms about "sickness" or physical disabilities. The meanings represented by euphemisms about "death" in Chinese are relatively rich and specific, while some euphemisms in Indonesian are influenced by religious beliefs. There are more euphemisms for occupations in Chinese than similar euphemisms in Indonesian, and the coverage is wider. Chinese and Indonesian have basically the same euphemisms for "sickness" or physical disabilities. Most of the euphemisms about "sickness" or physical disabilities in Chinese are expressed with "loss, impediment", while in Indonesian, the prefix "tuna" is often used.