本論文研究動物固定語式裡的禁忌語和其委婉語。首先藉由「中產階級禮貌標準」(Middle Class Politeness Criterion, Allan & Burridge, 2006)篩選出動物禁忌語，接著將禁忌話題進行分類和分析語料。再者，以「個人和他人」(the Self and the Other, Coviello & Borgerson, 1999; Borgerson, 2001)，「物種關係鏈隱喻」(the Great Chain of Being, Lakoff & Turner, 1989),「語意轉變」(semantic change, Campbell, 2004)為理論架構分析動物禁忌語。之後，李克特五階量表問卷分發給七十五位受試者(平均年齡20.86歲)，標記動物禁忌詞語的嚴重程度，而且他們必須寫下各個動物禁忌詞語的委婉語。最後，筆者將分析委婉語形成時所利用的語言機制。
研究結果顯示(1)動物禁忌語可以分為與人的外表、身形、職業、能力、家庭背景、個性、行為、與性相關的詞語、發語詞(expletive)和與死亡相關的詞語。(2)二分法的概念，即把萬物分成人和非人，對動物禁忌的產生影響很大。(3)在物種關係鏈隱喻之下，雙向的映照(mapping)也促使動物禁忌詞語的產生。(4)在動物禁忌話題的嚴重程度裡，與性相關的動物禁忌語是最令人不舒服的，接著是對職業、外表、能力、性格和飲食習慣的貶低。(5)動物禁忌語所用到的語意轉變策略，可以描繪成上位詞和附屬詞的關係，前者包含語意擴張(widening)和語意縮小(narrowing)，而後者包含譬喻(metaphor)、轉喻(metonymy)、提喻(synecdoche)、語意惡化(degeneration)。(6)青年人的委婉語呈現創新的語言策略，例如: 故意迴避負面的評價而用不相關的詞語稱讚、採用名人的名字代替稱謂、新詞(neologism)、借詞(borrowing)、辭彙重疊(morphological reduplication)、俚語(slang)、或指示詞(deixis)。(7)在支配動物詞語的語意中，群眾的信念和文化產生的影響力勝於動物的物理特性。
動物禁忌語的分析和人們對於此類詞語的感知，可以視為對華語的語言規範。委婉語的分析，可以了解語言策略對委婉語形成的影響，而且它使得不適當的動物禁忌語得以合宜地表達。這些都使得語言溝通更加適當而且和諧。

The study aims to investigate taboos in animal-fixed expressions (AFEs) and their euphemisms. The study first collects AFEs, which are then filtered by Middle Class Politeness Criterion (Allan & Burridge, 2006) to derive AFE taboos, and then classifies them in terms of taboo topics. Then, AFE taboos are analyzed by means of the following approaches: the Self and the Other (Coviello & Borgerson, 1999; Borgerson, 2001), the Great Chain of Being (Lakoff & Turner, 1989), and semantic change (Campbell, 2004). After that, a self-administered questionnaire with a Likert-type five-point scale is conducted for seventy-five informants to rate the degree of offensiveness of AFE taboos. The informants, at the average age of 20.86, are asked to give euphemisms that replace taboos. Finally, linguistic strategies underlying euphemisms are analyzed.
The results of the study includes: (1) AFE taboos in Mandarin Chinese is classified as follows: appearance, figure, occupation, ability, family background, characteristic, behavior, sex related expressions, expletives, and death. (2) It is the dichotomous thinking about humans and nonhumans that plays a crucial role in generating AFE taboos. (3) The bidirectional mappings of the Great Chain of Being lead to the generation of AFE taboos. (4) The perception of the most offensive AFE is sex-related expressions, followed by expressions about occupation, appearance, ability, expletives, characteristic, and eating habits. (5) The linguistic mechanisms for semantic change in AFE taboos are depicted as hypernymy composed of widening and narrowing, and the hyponymy made up of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and degeneration. (6) The youth’s innovative strategies for creating euphemisms are found, such as eschewing negative comments but stating unrelated compliments, resorting to celebrities’ names to replace undesirable addressing expressions, neologism, loanwords, morphological reduplication, slangs and deixis. (7) Folk beliefs dominate the physical features when generating taboos or euphemisms.
The knowledge of the usage and the perception of AFE taboos can be regarded as a prescriptive censorship of Mandarin Chinese. With the realization of euphemisms, it makes strategies underlying euphemisms understood and makes undesirable AFE expressions addressed more properly. All of them make the communication in Mandarin Chinese more appropriate and harmonious.

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