A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms英语委婉语的语用研究.doc

广东外语外贸大学英语教育本科毕业论文( 2011届 )论文题目 A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms（英文） 论文题目 英语委婉语的语用研究（中文） 专 业学院 继教（公开）学院英语教育准考证号班级自考010112318592作者姓名指导老师 完稿时间 成绩 A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms Abstract: Euphemism is a kind of mild, agreeable, or roundabout word expressions used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. Nowadays, English euphemisms have been playing an increasingly important role in interpersonal communications, and it gives us a wonderful show for a strong national culture characteristic. It is an indirect way to express peoples words. Obviously, using euphemisms can bring many friends to us, and it can also ensure communicate in languages going on smoothly. This paper aims to analyse the pragmatic study of euphemism in English, and it can help us learn more about the way of Britishs thinking, even the style of national culture and Britishs values. Moreover，there is a little doubt that pragmatic study of English euphemisms can improve us oral English communication skills.Key words: euphemisms; taboos; characteristics; application,英语委婉语的语用研究 摘要：委婉语是一种不可明说的、能使人感到赞同的或者含糊的表达方法，它代替了那种具有令人不悦或者不够尊重的表达方式。近年来，英语委婉语在人们的交流中扮演者越来越重要的角色，它给我们展示了极强的民族文化特征，它是一种间接地语言表达形式。我们可以清楚地意识到运用委婉语可以给我们带来许多的朋友，它可以确保语言交流的顺利进行。本文旨在分析英语委婉语的语用研究，从而进一步的了解英国人的思维方式、民族文化和英国人的价值观。更值得一提的是，对英语委婉语用的研究可以提高我们自身英语交际能力。关键字：委婉语；禁忌语；特点；用途Contents1. Introduction42. English euphemism in taboos.4 2.1 Taboo for death.4 2.2 Taboo for Eros and pregnancy.5 2.3 Taboo for physical disability6 2.4 Taboo for secretions and excretions.6 3. Characteristic of English euphemism.6 3.1 National character.6 3.2 Regionalism.7 3.3 Language performance.74. The application of English euphemism.7 4.1 Euphemism for job.7 4.2 The application of euphemism in business.8 4.3 The application of euphemism in political and economical.9 4.4 Euphemism for negative emotion.95. Conclusion.10Work site.11 A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms 1. IntroductionThe word euphemism origins from the Greek word eu, meaning “good, and phemism, meaning “speech” or “saying”, and thus means “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner.” (Neaman and silver 1983).Later on, euphemisms is defined more precisely. In the Concise Oxford Dictionary, it is described as "substitution of mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or direct one” (491). Broadly speaking, euphemism is characterized by elusive language and evasive expression. In short terms, the speaker uses words as a protective shield against the anger or disapproval of natural or supernatural beings.In modern society, euphemism is not only a linguistic and cultural phenomenon, but also a rhetoric and communicative strategy. And it plays an important role in interpersonal communication such as avoiding fraction, maintaining friendly atmosphere and hamonizing interpersonal relationship. So euphemism is also called “gilded words”，“cosmetic words ", and " comfortable words". Moreover, we can easily learn form Zhao zhengqing (1996:153), euphemism is the figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparative favorable implication or less unpleasant associations instead of the harsher or more offensive one that would more precisely designate what are instead”. Of course, as a language variation of deception and evasion, euphemism should be used cautiously and restrictively in our daily life.2. English euphemism in taboos Taboo generates euphemism. “The existence of taboo words or taboo ideas stimulates the creation of euphemisms. A euphemism is a word or phase that replaces a taboo word, or that is used in the attempt to avoid either fearful or unpleasant subjects (Fromkin, 1983:256). There is no doubt that the appearance of euphemism results from many fearful things, most of them focus on belief and religion. In ancient times, because of the poor education, people also led a very low level life. So they dont understand some natural phenomena. They keep the main mind that there are devils and gods in this world. “When people were unwilling to or dare not say something unpleasant, they had to shun them by using pleasant wordings, to imply something others were reluctant to mention by metaphors (Summers,D&gadsby, A 1998:243).”2.1 Taboo for death Life and death is the norm for people. People also enjoy the living life but fear death, death is the invisible enemy. So when people cant have the opportunity to avoid death, they hope there is an implicit way to express death. The Christians believe that all of them must be sent to be in front of God and their behaviors are judged by God at the last judge day (刘纯豹，1993：7983). Therefore, people also required to follow a virtuous path to “pass away” and “be no more”, or” go to glory”,”to go to one S long home” and “the final departure”. In this way, men “go to his final reward”. And “death” is only “to yield up the ghost”, whereas the ghost is “to launch into eternity”, and one can have “ones name inscribed in the Book of Life” (Rawson, H, 1981). In the western countries, most people believe in Christianity, such taboos with death are widely accepted by people in the society. Even the “funeral”, people also have a euphemism way, which is “memory service”. There have some euphemisms can be used during the beginning of death and the ending of funeral, it can be named dress, pine box, deep six, to be committed to flames, to be committed to the earth, memory picture, a reposing room and a professional car as shroud, coffin, grave, cremation, burial in the ground, remains, morgue and hearse, which can make people feel better.2.2 Taboo for Eros and pregnancy In western countries, people always hold a mind that it is very necessary to avoid some sensitive words about organs and sexual behaviors, especially in England. When they mentioned something about sex, they also get feelings like embarrassed, smuttiness and vulgar, even more, most of them think its really an immoral behavior. We can know that there are a lot of euphemisms about sexual organ and futunio. Such as “down below”, “private(secret) parts”, “parts of shame”. We can see some euphemism words about sex from some books, “to have sexual intercourse”, “it is naught but nice”, “go to bed with”. People also use these euphemism words to avoid their awkward and impolite. Obviously, there are some euphemisms about pregnancy. It is no wonder that there have some simpler euphemisms for pregnancy like “condition”, “in a delicate condition”, “in an interesting condition”, “the way”, “anticipating”, “be expecting”, “make honest woman of”, “call a spade a speadc”, etc. Or they use “in the club”, “up the spoul” and “in the family way” instead of pregnancy as their oral English. On the other hand, contraception is a better way to control the development of the population, but it is very embarrassed when people refer it by a straightforward way. Therefore, most of people also take some better ways such as “birth control”, “safe sex” and “take care” to express it. It is necessary to use euphemisms to express homosexual and prostitution. People in England or American always use “gay”, “queen”, “female identified” and “male oriented” to express homosexual. And some of phrases such as “the oldest profession”, “working girl”, “business woman”, “the profession”, “the game”, “the street”, “women of the town” can be instead of prostitution. We can conclude that whether people can use euphemisms or not shows theirs education and her/his owner deeply minds.2.3 taboo for physical disability We can comprehend the civilization of the country from the attitude about the disabled people. In order not to offend disabled people, using euphemisms can be necessary. It can make disabled people feel pleasant, or communicated with them easily. For examples, we can use “sightless”, “eyeless”, “visionless” or the romantic way “dark” to instead of the straightforward way “blindness”. “Hard of hearing”, “disabled”, “handicap” and “disadvantaged” is a suitable way to express the deaf. In England, because of over nutrition, most people can get fat easily, so it is a taboo to talk about fat directly. For fat women, “plump” must be better word than fat. If someone looks like very ugly, we can name it “plain”, “home”, “ordinary”. Using English euphemism can eliminate the psychology trouble for people; it can make people full of confidence and create a better life in the future. No matter how the occasion is, using euphemisms must be the best choice.2.4 Taboo for secretions and excretions As we all knows, a euphemism is a substitution with an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver, or to make it less troublesome for speaker, as in the case of doublespeak. The deployment of euphemisms is a central aspect within the public application of secretions and excretions. Some people also feel shy when they talk about secretions and excretions. So using euphemism can make it sounds better. When people talk about “fat”, they can use a lot of euphemisms to express it, like “to break wind”, “to back fire”, “beef-hearts”, “a breezer”, “to cut ones finger”, “there is a smell of gunpowder” and so on. On the other hand, it is really shamefaced when people talk about menstruation no matter how occasion is. So they need to use an euphemism way to express it, like “blue days”, “feeling unwell”, “that time of the month”, “looks like a wet weekend”, “shes got painters in”, “the red flag is up” and so on.Beyond that, there are so many euphemisms in different fields for secretions and excretions, like urination, defecation, bathroom and so on. Because a lot of taboos, both of communicators can feeling released. 3. Characteristics of English euphemism3.1 National character It is obvious that English euphemisms are full of national character, and because of that, people also using different way to express the same word or sentence. There have a typical example about the national character of English euphemism, which is the way of looking at the word about “poor”: I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasnt poor, I was needy. Then they said it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, that I was culturally depraved. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, that I was underprivileged. Then they told me that underprivileged was overused, that I was disadvantaged. I still dont have a dime but I have a great vocabulary (Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage: 143)We can conclude from above passage that there have four euphemisms about “poor”: needy, culturally depraved, underprivileged, disadvantaged. English euphemism must full of national character.3.2 Regionalism Because of the different cultures in different countries, English euphemism has the character of regionalism, and it can be expressed obviously. For example, we are known that bread is the main food in England, so there have a phrase “take bread out of someones mouth” to instead of take somebody, to his job. And it also have its owner character, we can get some ideas to know about these culture characters.3.3 Language performance Because of the differences of ages, identities, statuses and the level of educations, people also use different euphemisms in different occasions. Like go to toilet, as for women, they can use “to powder ones noise”, “to freshen up”; as for men, “to go to the toilet”, “to relieve oneself”, “because the nature calls” and “to rear” to instead of. And for child, “go to the pot and make number one” is the suitable way to express it. The usage of English euphemism have a regular rule: the higher of women than men and the noble must be better used than the poor.Besides, there are a lot of characteristics in English euphemism, which are epochal character, indirectness, dependency and fuzzification. And if we know about it clearly, we can master it well and communicated with others better.4. The application of English euphemism There is no doubt that English euphemism has playing an increasingly role in different occasions. Using euphemism can show a gentle to others. It has becoming the extensive used during peoples daily life. There is no doubt that people cant communicated with others well when they dont use euphemisms. Using euphemisms has becoming the best way to communicated with others when they refer to some sensitively topics. Therefore, we can conclude some euphemisms in different fields.4.1 Euphemism for job There have many different jobs in this society, but no matter your job is highly or not, it is very necessary for people to use euphemism to satisfied different people in different job. We can take measures to avoid some awkward things when we communicated with others, especially for some people who worked in lowly profession. When we meet these situations, using a positive way to express your owner means can make both of yours feel pleased and enjoyable. And it can transfer theirs job sounds propriety. For examples, there also is a beautiful name for dishwasher, that is, utensil maintenance man, and they also call “janitor” instead of “maintenance engineer” or “security officer”, even more, they named butter as a graceful address: meat technologist. On the other hand, using euphemism doesnt means it is very awkward or lowly for peoples job, it may be a good way to make it sounds more solemn and propriety. Like “singer” or “dancer” can be named “culture worker”, “priest” have a better solemn name, that is, “religious worker”. So we can conclude that if a man can talk with others using good omen, there must have a satisfying communication during theirs.4.2 The application of euphemism in business With the development of the society, there are a lot of goods in different fields for business, and these goods always look like homogenization. Lots of euphemisms are used in the media. We can sure that business man need to take measures to induce consumers to make deals. So what business man does is that make some sweet words or phrases to attract consumer to buy their goods. A good example is English ads, we can see a lot of euphemisms in English ads, and it a