研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

[动态语法]

In terms of usage?

Any corpus evidence for or against the proposition?

 

[xiaoz]

Pass is a keyword in the euphemism of death, both on its own and, more commonly, in pass away and pass on. The first is of considerable antiquity, dating back to the 14th century, the second apparently a comparative 19th-century newcomer, but both encapsulate perfectly the element of sentimental pretence that cannot even come straight out with "go", but has to use the softer, more gradual "pass".

Some questions for consideration:

1) Is this euphemism more common in speech or writing?
2) Is its distribution associated with sociolinguistic variables such as age, sex, social class, education, etc?
3) Are die and pass away really identical in their usage?

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

Interesting questions.

It seems that even grammatically they have different patterns,
i.e. they don't appear in identical syntactic environments all
the time.

 

[xiaoz]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

Exactly. That's what I mean by "usage".

以下是引用 动态语法 在 2005-8-3 0:11:47 的发言：
Interesting questions.

It seems that even grammatically they have different patterns,
i.e. they don't appear in identical syntactic environments all
the time.

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

As far back as in 1961, Augus McIntosh noted that

His enthusiasm died

is readily acceptable by English speakers, whereas

His enthusiasm passed away

is not good.

(McIntosh, Augus. 1961. Patterns and Ranges, Language 1961.3: 325-37.)

 

[xiaoz]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

I checked Brown/LOB/FLOB/Frown, but there are only a couple of "PASS away".

In the BNC there are 112 instances. But in addition to human beings, there are many items such as desires, rigor, which are similar to enthusiasm and were not considered acceptable in the early 1960s, as shown in the following screen dump.

Will the BNC provides more insights? Let's wait to see...

http://www.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2005080708541377.pdf

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

This does look like a promising topic in language development.

 

[majorlv511]

这个从直觉来说就是一般语和委婉语的区别哈
以前看得过一个数字,中文中用于表示"死"的说法有145个,因为数字大,所以还记得特别清楚
如果这样,是否还要列举其他的相应的说法啊?

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

以下是引用 majorlv511 在 2005-8-8 0:52:05 的发言：
这个从直觉来说就是一般语和委婉语的区别哈
以前看得过一个数字,中文中用于表示"死"的说法有145个,因为数字大,所以还记得特别清楚
如果这样,是否还要列举其他的相应的说法啊?

如果是一个详细的研究可能就需要吧？

 

[hancunxin]

回复：研究习作: Are "die" and "pass away" the same?

以下是引用 xiaoz 在 2005-8-2 20:58:12 的发言：
Pass is a keyword in the euphemism of death, both on its own and, more commonly, in pass away and pass on. The first is of considerable antiquity, dating back to the 14th century, the second apparently a comparative 19th-century newcomer, but both encapsulate perfectly the element of sentimental pretence that cannot even come straight out with "go", but has to use the softer, more gradual "pass".

Some questions for consideration:

1) Is this euphemism more common in speech or writing?
2) Is its distribution associated with sociolinguistic variables such as age, sex, social class, education, etc?
3) Are die and pass away really identical in their usage?

good ideas for study!