euphemism(委婉语的类型-功能与解读)

1、Chapter 2: Pragmatic Functions of Euphemism A variety of euphemisms in all fields share universal functions in communication. Euphemism is a “lubricant” in interpersonal relations since euphemistic expressions can avoid being presumptuous in language communication and deliberately lessens the negati

2、ve or unpleasant connotations and reminds people of nicer images. When we have to touch upon some topics that are unpleasant, we tend to choose more euphemistic expressions to substitute those painful topics so as not to hurt the hearers feeling. Euphemism plays a very important role in communicatio

3、n. Generally speaking, euphemism serves four basic pragmatic functions: evasion function, indirectness function, politeness function and decoration function.2.1 Evasion Function Words are powerful and the reticence and fear that some tabooed terms arouse in people can be strong (Allan and Burridge 1

4、991).People are subjected to varieties of fear, such as disease, death, war, old age, poverty and any sort of disability; people also fear supernatural forces, that we suppose, may come from religion and superstition; people fear the negative sides of our lives as well. Pragmatically, the phenomenon

5、 of linguistic taboo has existed in almost all nations across the world. The tabooed things are believed to be dangerous to certain individuals, or to the society as a whole, or to be disgusted and unpleasant in that violating the taboo would automatically cause harm even death to the violator or hi

6、s/her fellows. The evasion function of euphemisms is to evade using taboos, enabling the speaker to talk about the tabooed things freely. For example, the word cancer has come to be equated with malignancy, corruption and death, so it is generally shunned. Instead, people prefer to use growths and t

7、umors since both can be benign whereas the view prevails that cancer can never be benign. In western societies, although sex education is very popular, this does not mean they can use all the words related to sex without choice. Except for some medical terms in a special situation, they may use euph

8、emistic words to talk about it. The evasion function of such euphemisms helps people to meet the needs of morality and facilitate communication. Another example, people have seldom mentioned the terms about the reproduction directly. There are many euphemisms for pregnancy such as in a family way, b

9、e expecting, be in a delicate/an interesting condition, in the(pudding)club, have a bun in the oven, be with child. The evasion function of these euphemisms can make people unembarrassed and pleasant.Body excretion evokes disgust or repugnance in sensory organs. The place for body elimination proces

10、s is equally surrounded with taboo. Hundreds of euphemistic expressions have been coined to evade mentioning its existence. Common terms are ladies and gents, womens and mens for segregated public loos, which have given rise to variations like boys and girls, guys and gals and in places like seafood

11、 restaurant buoy and gulls. In modern western society, Christianity has a deep influence on the American and British culture, which in turn, influences peoples linguistic behavior. People especially those who are well educated would not use any disrespectful language to offend God or the ghost Satan

12、 and make推荐精选 blasphemy. People use euphemisms like god of this world, His sable Majesty, and Old gentleman in black, Old Harry etc. in order to avoid mentioning name of ghost directly.People also fear to mention defeat in war or nature of invasion, thus evasion function also plays a vital role in e

13、uphemisms related. For army men, there is only going ahead, no withdrawal; only victory, no defeat so that be defeated is called as light and scattered action or incomplete success. In the Vietnam War, America called their air raid as logistical strikes or close air support. Killing of the common Vi

14、etnamese people is wasting the enemy, the obvious civilian casualties is collateral damage. During the Gulf War, air operation and round operation were used to substitute air raid and ground battle so that the cruelty of the war could be hidden literally. Invasion into other countries is beautified

15、to rescue mission. After the“9.11”attack, Anti-terrorism and pre-emptive strikes are widely used by the American Military. Pre-emptive strike impresses us that the best way to curb the enemys attack is to assault them first, therefore, it sounds ethically correct. Actually, terrorism has been mingle

16、d with ethnical liberation and the target of pre-emptive strikes has turned to clear up dissidents.2.2 Indirectness FunctionIndirectness is a universal phenomenon in all languages. For particular purposes, people do not always express their intentions explicitly in language. Therefore, indirectness

17、function of euphemism plays an important role in language use. The indirectness function is to employ euphemistic expressions to widen the distance between signs and their referents that can be brought about by creating new signs in place of the old ones. As we know, any linguistic sign is a two-fac

18、e carrier of sound and meaning. A particular sound stands for a particular meaning, which operates in an arbitrary manner. In communication, direct mention of the tabooed things is considered offensive, shocking unpleasant or impolite, so people are inclined to use indirect expression, which is one

19、of the biggest features of euphemisms. In fact, all means of euphemism formation agree with indirectness.In conversation, people used to make requests or give orders by means of imperative sentences and come to identify requests and orders with imperative sentences. For the sake of euphemizing, peop

20、le use interrogative sentences to create a distance. And the hearer reads out the speakers real intention according to the context. In English, the past tense can be used to euphemize things because people tend to associate the present tense with present things or ideas. If some one wants to make a

21、request, he does not say I want to,I wonder,Can you?,but says I wanted,I wondered,Could you?This example covers our typology of grammatical euphemism.Generally speaking, we usually meet some sensitive unpleasant topics without real taboo counterparts, such as death, disease, age, private things, phy

22、sical defect, poverty, social status, occupation, theft, murder, drug-taking etc. If we talk about thing directly we may hurt or offend others; meanwhile, we will lose our own face and be considered impolite to others. At this moment, euphemisms can help us with its indirectness function. Euphemisms

23、 are preferred to soften the shock of reality.推荐精选 For example, the phrase life insurance is actually insurance for when you are dead. People use deaths antonym life to cast a veil over the reality death with so that the phrase is more acceptable. In all cultures, the topic about ones appearance is

24、very sensitive, people use euphemisms such as plain, ordinary, or not particularly good-looking etc. usually avoid using the terms ugly or awful directly in order not to hurt others feeling.In fact, the indirectness function of euphemism is a universal function of euphemism which can be found in man

25、y topics such as disease, disability and all kinds of unpleasant things and phenomena. In this way, people can create pleasant and harmonious atmosphere and avoid offense and distress. 2.3 Politeness FunctionLanguage and society are inter-related, each imposing its constrains on one another. Social

26、norms and conventions have played a significant role in the way we use language. Politeness, as one of the essential norms, is a universal phenomenon because politeness is usually regarded as manifestation of human civilization, and it is one of the most effective strategies modulating interpersonal

27、 relationship in human communication. Euphemism always gives people hints in a roundabout way. Euphemism can not only make the speakers feel relaxed when talking of the things which he/she may feel too shy to mention, or of the things which may probably make him/her feel disgraced if spoken out dire

28、ctly, or of the things that tend to place both the speaker and the listener in a state of embarrassment; but also, euphemism can protect the listeners self-esteem, sometimes vanity from being hurt. Hence, people often choose obscure and indirect euphemism to show their politeness and sympathy.For ex

29、ample, when someone is ill, we always say he is under the weather. If someone is mad, we say he is soft in mind. In Chinese, we seldom say she is not good looking. We are inclined to she is homely or she has a wonderful personality. From this example, when we come across a rather ugly girl, we will

30、not directly utter ugly but plain girl instead, or emphasizing her personality instead of commenting on her appearance directly thus bringing self-confidence to the girl consequently promoting human relations.In order not to mention the vulgar topics such as the topic concerning sex, pregnancy has a

31、 direct association with sex so that a pregnant woman is euphemized to a lady in waiting, have ones watermelon on the vine, or an expectant mother, a lady in an interesting condition ect. Not only in daily life but also in military field, euphemism is employed to express specific meaning indirectly.

32、 Be defeated is called as light and scattered action or incomplete success. In the Vietnam War, America called their air raid as logistical strikes or close air support; the obvious civilian casualty is collateral damage.As everyone is in pursuit of being slender, plump, stout, heavyset and king-siz

33、ed are used to substitute fat. Examples also emerge in sentences:(42)She has filled out a lot since I last saw her. (Liu Chunbao 2001)(43)She is full bodied woman who shows every one of her 33 years. As time goes on, people change their aesthetic judgment towards beauty and slimness is推荐精选 dominant.

34、 So it is impolite and hurtful to describe a person, especially a female as fat. Then euphemism for fat has sprung like mushrooms. In the former example, fill out indirectly means get fat and full bodied is a good name for fat. We also have other euphemistic expressions for this taboo such as king-s

35、ized, role-poly, well-fed well-round, thick-set, etc. These euphemistic expressions are helpful for maintaining peoples face and dignity and make social communication easier and smoother.Likewise, old people is expressed indirectly as senior citizen or the longer-lived.In educational field, teachers

36、 not only need to reflect the actual situation of the students, but also need to take their psychological health and to what degree they can tolerate into account. So their utterances to students also are indirect. For instance, a bit slow for ones age replaces obtuse; needing to develop quieter hab

37、its of communication substitutes noisy; having difficulty in distinguishing between imaginary and factual information takes over lying; needing helping in learning to adhere to rules and standards of fair play avoids uttering cheating.In language communication, speakers tend to hunt some roundabouts

38、 to replace the direct expressions for polite intentions such as request, order, suggestion, advice and inquiry and so forth. Some examples are given as follows:(44)Would you please close the window?(Close the window.)(45)I wonder if you could stop talking in the library.(Stop talking in the library

39、.)(46)Youd better put on your coat.(Put on your coat.)(47)After careful consideration we have regretfully concluded that your manuscript falls outside the scope of our current publishing program.(We dont want to publish your lousy manuscript.)(48)Well have to let you go. (Youve been fired.) (Allan&a

40、mp;Burridge 1991) In the language use, all euphemisms are indirect expressions to avoid offence and embarrassment and to achieve politeness. As this thesis is limited in length, examples are named just a few.2.4 Decoration FunctionDecoration function refers to using good words to decorate things whi

41、ch are not beautiful in reality. People often utilize euphemisms for the purpose of decorating those terms with ugly connotations and unpleasant implications. Quite a few linguists have linked euphemism with the notion of decoration in their lexicon. Valentine (1998)describes euphemism as a kind of

42、“linguistic coating” to wrap up those troublesome subjects. In addition, euphemisms created through fuzzy words can be called decorative words. Such euphemisms are often used by government and military to disguise the reality. It is the case that an innocent term is substituted for a wicked one, ord

43、inary nonpolitical euphemism is often merely humorous. For example, qingjiegong(dustman)is beautified as huanwei gongchengshi(sanitary engineer).Some more examples have been given in 1.4.1.推荐精选Language is a victim of war. War is a rearrange of language as well as of cities and bodies. That rearrange

44、 is a euphemism. Such cosmetic euphemisms can easily be found in the recent war of America and Iraq. The American government tries to create a linguistic bath spa, where evil is dispelled by a dip in the waters of euphemisms. On the one hand, in the war of sandstorm, the poor bloody infantry need un

45、mistakable orders to direct them precisely on to their correct targets; on the other hand, governments need euphemism and sinew-stiffening spin to persuade their people to put up with the waste of war. The first shot of this war was fired at a target of opportunity, believed by CIA to be present Sad

46、dam Hussein and his sons in a bunker. This new jargon stands on old euphemism on its head, meaning a target of the Iraqi lead-ship or Decapitate the regime. The phrases new meaning is directly to target a tantalizing opportunity that has arisen unexpectedly.Politics is a fertile area for the growth

47、of euphemisms of which is cosmetic in expression but deceptive in nature. In this sense, euphemism caters for the psychological characteristics of cheating or outwitting. In order to cover the reality, many politicians in the history used a lot of euphemism. At the beginning of this century, because

48、 of the tense relation between labor and capital, striking became the most serious social problem. In order to disguise the reality of contradiction, the press called it industrial relation instead. So, the labor dispute became industrial dispute. The use of such a political euphemism helps governme

49、nt decorate the actual and prevents people from taking any anti-government action. However, overuse of euphemism of this kind is going against the code of ethics which people can accept, and is incompatible with the peoples value outlook.In this chapter, we demonstrate four pragmatic functions of eu

50、phemisms. In communication, people can choose and use them according to different contexts. Only in proper context can euphemisms function properly. Furthermore, since there are great cultural differences, in communication, how to use and interpret euphemism effectively to achieve successful communi

51、cation is very important. Grammatical EuphemismAs Bollinger(1981)pointed out, “euphemism is not restricted to the lexicon, there are grammatical ways of toning something down without actually changing the content of the message”(ibid:148).Grammatical means embodies on syntactic method. Adopting this

52、 method, euphemistic devices can be divided into negation, tense and subjunctive mood.1.3.1 NegationNegation involved here is sentence pattern of negation. It is also a familiar way to build up euphemism. In English, there are two kinds of negation, transferred negation and negative questions. Trans

53、ferred negation is a grammatical phenomenon in which the negative word“not” is transferred from its semantic place to another place(the predicate of the main clause).The concept of it was firstly proposed by R.Quirk,G.Leech and J.Svarivik(1985)in their common book called A Grammar of Contemporary En

54、glish according to the data collected by them, people tend to use transferred negation and seldom use logical non-transferred negation in everyday life because using direct words or changing positive form into negative form sometimes can relax the tone of speaking in conversations and form推荐精选 euphe

55、mism. Transferred negation can form euphemism. Two examples are given as follows: (10)I dont think (that) John can manage the work.(11)I think that John can not manage the work.Sentence (11) means that it is a fact that John cannot manage the work, I think so. This sentence expresses a stronger nega

56、tive force and a little arbitrary tone. In comparison, the sentence (10) is more euphemistic. Its not easy for a listener to accept the type sentence (11) because in sentence(11),John definitely will interpret it as he has no ability to finish the work, or he is not capable of doing this work; even

57、worse, he may comprehend it as he himself has been despised. It is very impolite, so the English speakers seldom use the expression of the type sentence (11). However, this kind of negation is limited to verbs of judging, supposing or feeling in main clauses. They are think, believe, expect, fancy,

58、reckon, suppose, imagine, feel, seem and appear etc. Transferred negation is relatively mild in mood and euphemistic effect is achieved. When negative questions are used to suggest, invite and voice ones opinion, these questions are polite in mood.(12)Cant you come and join us? 1.3.2 TenseTense is o

59、ne of the main euphemizing approaches that are used more often. Here is an example from Bolinger(1981):(13)He has been known to take a bribe now and then.(14)He is known to have taken a bribe now and then. (ibid: 148)According to Bolinger, sentence (13) and sentence (14) refer to the same matter, but the tense of sentence (13) is tender and more euphemistic than that of sentence (14), hence, sentence (13) is