Do you long to be immortal? Does the world have any elixir after all? There are considerable legends and myths, both in the West and the East, involve terms about immortality or elixir or something related, which has always been the yearning of mankind. In ancient China, since the first emperor of Qin has began to seek for immortal medicine, the emperors in the subsequent dynasties followed suit to seek for immortality through trying every means, but consequently ended in failure without exception. In the old testament, there are two miraculous trees in the garden of Eden - the tree of wisdom and the tree of life, it is said that one will never die if he eats the fruit of the tree of life. Likewise in Sumerian myth,Celtic myth, Norse mythology …show more content…
It has been extensively used in human beings’ communication. “Euphemism” derives from the Greek words “euphemos” and “pheme”, in which the former means “auspicious”or “sounding good”, and the latter refers to “speak”. On the whole, a euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. Ancestors in the ancient time show their fear and reverence towards natural power, which gives rise to euphemism. With the advance of society, On top of the influence of religion, other factors such as customs, hierarchy, cultures, courtesy and etc. have heavily shaped and filtered into the contents of euphemism. Now euphemism is not solely confined to traditional taboo areas, say, sex, reproduction, disease, death and the like. On the contrary, euphemism extends to various sensitive scopes in the modem world, for instance, race, gender, politics and War. Any words that are often used to hide unpleasant, offensive or disturbing ideas are called euphemism. Edward Sapir has ever said that something important must be hidden in the language and language cannot exist without culture. Euphemisms play a fairly vital role in language, so some important cultural information must be hidden in the euphemisms. This is also why the research on euphemism has attracted scholars at home and abroad.As a typical and common culture phenomenon in both Chinese and English communities, death euphemism, with its long-standing history, has been regarded as a crucial component of euphemism, which is both linguistic and cultural ubiquitous in human language and social life since there exists unpleasant or offensive words so that individuals would substitute relatively indirect terms to avoid cultural
The language has been used in writing before and many books use this type of language so they can build a connection to the real world. It is vital for teens especially in 8th grade and above to learn how important it is to stray away from these potentially hurtful words and how this type of language can set a certain tone to a
There are many reasons why people use euphemism as mentioned by William Lutz in “The world of Doublespeak” states that “euphemism is an inoffensive or positive word or phrase used to avoid the harsh, unpleasant, or distasteful reality” (390). However as mentioned by Lutz in “The world of doublespeak” when a euphemism is used to mislead or deceive, it becomes doublespeak” (391). For example instead of saying we killed three people they would use the phrase we exterminated three intruders to mislead and confuse people especially the uneducated. Also as stated by William Lutz in “The World of Doublespeak” indicates that “when you use a euphemism because of your sensitivity for someone’s feelings or for a recognized social or cultural taboo, it is not doublespeak” (390). For instance, imagine someone told you I heard your grandpa died that would sound harsh, but if someone said I heard your grandpa passed away that sounds more respectable which is not considered doublespeak. Lutz finds the People who are responsible for euphemism doublespeak tend to be people that try to cover up the unpleasant, which are mainly the government, armies and the news. Next as stated by Lutz “it is a language designed to alter our perception of reality”
According to Linda Seger all myths, in all cultures are much the same. In these myths it is just the time, place and setting that changes. This is why Hollywood is so successful at making good movies, because they base it off these myths. The most popular myth is that of the hero, because for most of us this is what we want to be. With this myth we can live that experience through these characters. In the creation of a hero there are ten stages, using the Matrix as an example we will look at these ten stages.
Robin Lakoff is a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of The Language War. She published an article in The New York Times on May 18, 2044 titled, “From Ancient Greece to Iraq, the Power of Words in Wartime.” Her purpose for writing the article was to give a snippet from her book, in which argues that the usage of nicknames makes it easier for someone to kill another human being because it makes them appear to be inferior. Lakoff uses example such as, “In World War I, the British gave the Germans the nickname “Jerries” (Lakoff 15). Therefore, it makes it easier for soldiers to kill their enemies.
The search for the "fountain of youth" or the "elixir of life" is something that we have read about in many myths and fiction stories throughout the year. They are also things real life explorers looked for dating back centuries, the most famous of which is Ponce de Leon whose search of this elusive fountain took him to Florida in the late 1400 's and early 1500 's. However, He was not the first looking for this fountain that is said to give you the power of endless youth, the desire to stay young is a desire that may date back to the beginning of mankind itself. Although, as civilization has advanced through the centuries most people have given up on magical fountain and elixirs that extends your life while making you young again, and turned to
Coincidentally, when thought about, all mythological stories seem to be written with the same communal ideas in mind. Back in ancient times, all of the authors were oblivious to the fact that they were all writing stories that were hypothetically the same. Authors nowadays are much more familiar with the theory of the Monomyth. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describes the theory that all archetypical heroes follow a single supernatural journey throughout their story. The Monomyth consists of three main stages: The Departure, Initiation, and the Return. Joseph Campbell theorized that all mythological stories follow this outline one way or another.
Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time. Works Cited Browning, W. R. F. Dictionary of the Bible.
Death frequently uses figurative language to intensify the most mundane or tragic situations. For example, Death describes the large pile of books deemed propaganda at the book
Since the beginning of recorded history, everlasting life has been pursued by old and young, rich and poor. One need only look to the Gilgamesh Epic, the oldest story in the world, to discover where these roots lay. Gilgemesh, the mighty king and warrior, fearing his own demise, seeks out Utnapishtim, a mortal made immortal by the gods, in the hopes that he'll reveal the secret of eternal life. The immortal tells the king of a flower, which when eaten, bestows eternal life. Note that the answer is tangible and real, something that can be seen and held. Not immortality for the soul, but for the body. In the end Gilgamesh fails at his quest, but he is all the wiser for his journeys. The Greeks, too, sought immortality, but it tended to be of a spiritual nature only, because generally the gods were the only ones considered to be true immortals.
, is a result of the way they think as well as an important influence on their thought” (Orwell 234). He discovered that there was a decline in the English language that was triggered by political causes that became reinforced (Orwell 244). In an effort to reverse the effects of the decline, he created guidelines on dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, and meaningless words, to prevent English language users from being incorrect and improper. His guideline on dying metaphors requires that we no longer use metaphors that do not give a vivid image to the receivers (Orwell 237). People have become lazy and unoriginal in coming up with new metaphors and use old metaphors instead of making their own.
...Giver” that hide their true meaning. Release distorts its true meaning of death. Assignment conceals its true implication of job and stirrings actually mean puberty. All three words in some way or another affect people’s behaviour and how they may view a situation. Even a world where precise language is viewed as very important, there still are words that are used to promote the ideals of the government and keep the truth from people. In a world where people are pressured into using precise language to prevent any misconceptions and misunderstandings, the government makes words that cloak the true definition so the public does not find out their true intentions, which is to control their behaviour. Language may be used as a tool to help communicate with others, but when used improperly, people will be deceived and ultimately be living a life of lies and illusion.
Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines. Our language reflects this battle mentality, we say that people "combat" illnesses, or (in contrast) "fall victim" to them after a "long struggle." Euphemistic language also gives us distance from our discomfort with death, (Grohol, 2013). People who die are "no longer with us", have "passed", gone "to meet their Maker", “bought the farm”, “kicked the bucket", and so on.
This animalistic and dehumanising language, emotionally charged with
Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen. Myth: its meaning and functions in ancient and other culture California; University of California Press. 1970