Chapter Ⅰ A General Study on English Euphemism
委婉语，一般的文化和共同的语言现象，在我们的日常生活中被广泛使用，许多学者分析它从许多不同的观点，如修辞，语义，语言，务实，等等。任何一种语言，这是一个不可缺少的一部分。人们总是用它来实现理想的沟通。与此同时，随着社会的发展，委婉抽象的越来越多的学者的利益。在本章中，委婉的定义和起源的介绍。然后委婉的应用英语教师话语的原因，它是用来将被讨论。Euphemism, a general cultural and common linguistic phenomenon, is widely usedin our daily life and numerous scholars have analyzed it from many different perspectives,such as rhetoric, semantics, linguistic, pragmatic and so on. It is an indispensable part ofany language. People always use it to achieve ideal communication. At the same time,with the development of society, euphemism has abstracted more and more scholars’interests. In this chapter, the definition and origins of euphemism are introduced. Thenthe application of euphemism in English teachers’ discourse and the reason why it is usedwill be discussed.
1.Definition and Origins of Euphemism
正如上面提到的，“委婉”这个词来源于希腊语“euphemismos”前缀“欧盟”，意思是“好”和后缀“-pheme”，意思是“说”。因此，“委婉”这个词的意思是“在一个适当的方式说话。”虽然最早使用委婉的说法是可信的宗教委婉的说法是，最开始的禁忌。在原始社会，人们坚信这个词的力量。他们拒绝使用某些词语，其延伸的意义，如死亡，疾病和一些超自然现象。因此，这些引申义的话成为禁忌，人们拒绝使用它们。例如，当人必须如此传递信息一个人的死亡给他的家人，在西部时，人们可能会用“通过”，或“去西部”，而不是死亡，与此同时，在中国，我们可能会说，“圆寂”而不是“死亡”，因此，它对于普通百姓，以取代直接和不当的话，间接的和适当的，在通信过程中更安全和适当的呃。虽然世界之窗发展迅速，有宗教和超自然的东西。我们都希望以不同的方式谈论他们。As is mentioned above, the word “euphemism” originated from the Greek language“euphemismos” with the prefix “eu-” meaning “good” and the suffix “-pheme” meaning“saying”. Therefore, the word “euphemism” means “speaking in a proper way”.Although the earliest use of euphemism was believably religious, the very beginning ofeuphemism was taboo. In primitive society, people were strongly convinced of the powerof the word. They refused to use certain words for their extension of meaning such asdeath, disease, and some supernatural phenomena. Therefore, words with these extendedmeanings became taboo and people refused to use them. For example, when people haveto pass the information of a person’s death to his family, in the west, people may use“pass away”, or “go to the west” instead of death, meanwhile in China, we may say “圆寂” rather than “死亡”.Therefore, it is much safer and properer for ordinary people to replace direct andimproper words with indirect and proper ones during communication. Although theworld has developed rapidly, there are still religious and supernatural things. We allwould like to talk about them in a different way.
In the primary study of euphemism, people use euphemism to avoid direct andunpleasant things. As is mentioned, euphemism is concerned with “expressions” and“ways”, which should not be restricted to lexical level. Theoretically, in order to achievesuccessful communication, people unconsciously use many linguistic means such asphonetic, grammatical, literal, semantic and pragmatic means and so on. Therefore, we should not have the opinion that euphemism is restricted to the lexical level. HughRawson wrote in his book A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk that therhetorical device of understatement is a kind of euphemistic expression. Euphemism canalso be sentences for understatements, for example,
As language phenomena, euphemism has drawn many scholars’ attention. Thewestern scholar George Blount gave the first definition of euphemism. “It is perhapssignificant that，by the early 1580s，the author George Blount used the term ‘euphemism’in English, defining it as ‘a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word’”(Bolinger,Dwight, 1981:4)．From then on, different versions of definitions of euphemism from differentperspectives have been given as follows: "Euphemizing is generally defined assubstituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, therebyveneering the truth by using kind words." (Neaman et al, 1983:1) EncyclopediaBritannica argues that euphemism is a figure of speech in which something of anunpleasant, distracting or indelicate nature is described in less offensive terms, and theConcise Oxford Dictionary describes it as “substitution of mild or vague or roundaboutexpression for harsh or blunt or direct one” (491). In Webster’s Word History,euphemism is taken as “substitution, restraint, softened expression, mock modesty,metaphorical speech, verbal extenuation word in verbal good taste，over delicacy ofspeech, affected refinement of language”(Mish, 1989: 283)．
Chapter Ⅱ Theoretical Foundations of Euphemisms Used inEnglish Teachers’ Discourse
Language is used for communication. To achieve intended communicative goal,people usually use euphemisms to speak in a roundabout way. Many scholars show theirinterest on euphemisms. And euphemism is originally included in the category ofsemantic change in semantics. However, with the rapid development of pragmatics, moreand more linguists think that euphemism should belong to the interpersonal rhetoriccategory in pragmatics. Moreover, Leech, a great English linguist, points out in his bookPrinciples of Pragmatics that “people can use some polite or harmless expressions tomask unpleasant or disgusting topics”(1983:51), which illustrates the pragmatic functionsof euphemistic phrases or expressions.
Euphemistic expressions and words are formed according to different social,psychological as well as pragmatic factors and are applied in communication on accountof different communicative situations to convey implied meanings of the speaker. Fromthis point of view, euphemistic expressions can also be called a kind of communicationdevice by applying language actively to achieve communicative goals. Therefore, itbecomes more and more important to make full use of euphemistic expressions and getbetter understanding of them in conversation. This thesis will analyze euphemism appliedin English teachers’ discourse from the perspective of pragmatic principles: CooperativePrinciple, Politeness Principle and the Face Theory.
Chapter Ⅱ Theoretical Foundations of Euphemisms Used..........27-39
1. Cooperative Principle.........27-30
2. Politeness Principle......... 30-35
3. The Face Theory .........35-39
Chapter Ⅲ The Pragmatic Features and Functions.........39-72
1. The Pragmatic Features of Euphemism .........39-44
2. Pragmatic Functions of Euphemisms Used......... 44-72
Conclusion
Euphemism, as a variant of languages, is our ourward and visible signs of ourinward fears, conflicts, anxieties as well as shames. By analyzing it, it is possible for usto know what has happened in the development of our language, our minds and ourculture.Based on the previous study achievements, the writer has analyzed the euphemismsin English teachers’ discourse from the perspective of pragmatics. At the beginning ofthis thesis, the auther gives us a general study on euphemisms which consists of thedefinition and classification of euphemism from the linguistic point of view.Euphemisms are words or sentences expressed in an indirect, mild or vague way whichare used to replace those ones with disagreeable or unpleasant meaning. Euphemisms canbe classified into different types from different angles. Moreover, they are able to be usedby lexical, grammatical as well as rhetorical devices. Euphemisms are frequently used inEnglish teachers’ discourse. And euphemisms used in this field are analyzed from theperspective which has been mentioned above. Many teachers’ words or sentences havebeen chosen and analyzed in detail. According to the case study, we can easily find thateuphemisms used in English teachers’ discourse is to help teachers to set up a pleasanteducation atmosphere and achieve successful communication with students and theirparents.
And then this thesis makes a research on the theoretical foundations of euphemismsused in English teachers’ discourse which show us that the Cooperative Principle,Politeness Principle and the Face Theory are the three pragmatic principles which guidethe use of euphemisms. Euphemisms violate the four maxims of CP for different reasonssuch as to show politeness, to save others’ face or disguise, while observing all maximsof PP and the Face Theory. It can also be found that sometimes certain euphemisticexpressions violate two maxims of CP at the same time.Finally this thesis pointed out that the main pragmatic features of euphemisms areindirectness and vagueness. This thesis analyzes euphemisms used in a specific field –English teachers’ discourse, as a result, they have their own features and and functions.And a conclusion is drawn that euphemisms are applied to help teachers to achieve effective communication, to show politeness as well as to save others’ face.In short, euphemisms in teachers’ discourse are inpisible phenomenon in theschool life. Not only in education, but also in school life, teachers should consider thestudents’ self – esteem, try their best to be polite as well as not hurt the students’ faces.Therefore, the application of euphemistic expressions in teachers’ discourse play asignificant role both in education and school life.
This thesis mainly talks about euphemisms used in teachers’ discourse from theperspective of pragmatics. And it still has some limitations as follows:
(1) The present research is only a purely qualitative study which gives us theanalysis of application of euphemistic expressions in English teachers’ discourse fromthe perspective of pragmatics. It can be easily found that the types of application ofeuphemisms chosen are not quite enough to cover all kinds of euphemisms.
(2) Few materials on this research have been found. And the examples quoted inthis thesis are still small in number. A further analysis should be made in the future.
(3) Moreover, many problems concerning the use of English euphemisms have notbeen answered. Hence, this thesis is just my own analysis on that specific topic. Furtherworthier researches on euphemisms in teachers’ discourse as well as their application incommunication in a great depth are expected.
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