英语委婉语及语用功能(初稿)

1．Introduction

The word “euphemism” original comes from the ancient Greek. The prefix “eu” means well, and the root “pheme”means speech or saying. Thus euphemism literally means to speak in a pleasant way or with good words. The Oxford Dictionary define “euphemism”as an indirect way for people often to use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is. Similarly, euphemism also belongs to a kind of figures of speech, in which indirectness replaces directness of statement, usually in an effort to avoid offensive bluntness in some subject involving delicacy or taboo.

No matter what definition is given, euphemism has been a widely used language, and works in multi areas, such as death, age, disease, physical imperfection and so on. Yet less of which refer to the other fields, such as jobs, professions, some social issues as well as some current hot topics. Euphemisms have been studied in plenty of fields, such as social communication, newspapers, advertisement, teaching field, military affairs, and political events. Since it acts as a kind of culture phenomenon and plays an important role in communication, it is of great importance to focus on studying its pragmatic functions. Euphemism is intended communication method, so one must pay attention to what he is talking about, who he is talking with, where he is talking and why he is talking like that while using euphemism.

2. Formation of English Euphemism

2.1 Phonetic Approach

English is an alphabetic language, which has provided ample sources for the creation of euphemism. The following ways are used to achieve a euphemistic effect.

2.1.1 Clipping

It means to reduce some front or back syllables of a word for evasiveness. For example, “Ladies” for Ladies’ room, “gents” for Gentlemen’s Room, and “ca” for cancer.

2.1.2 Initialing

It refers that putting the first letters of each phase together to constitute an expression of euphemism, for example, “WC” for “water closet”, “VD” for “venereal disease”, “BO” for “body odour”, and “AD” for “those who swing both ways”.

2.1.3 Respelling

This approach means the formation of the euphemism repeats a word or the syllable in a word, or part of the letter, for example, “helter-skelter”. This approach in forming euphemism is commonly used in the situation. When a child goes to the toilet, such as “Pee-Pee”, which refers to “piss”, he can be said a user of euphemism.

2.1.4 Backslang and Pig Latin

It means to reverse the spelling of some taboos or some sensitive terns, such as “mur” for “rum”, “elly-bay”for “belly”, “uck-fay”for “fuck”, and “ecnop”for “ponce”.(Ma Qiaozheng, 2007, 137)

2.2 Lexical Approach

2.2.1 Compounding

It means two or more words compressed into one new word both orthographically and phonetically. For example, “gezunda” is a form of euphemism for “chamber pot” since the object usually “goes under” the bed.

2.2.1 Synonym Replacement

It means to use the words with similar meaning to replace the sensitive terms or derogatory terms so as to be more tactful. Such as “slim or slender” for “skinny”, “stout” or “plump” for “fat”.

2.2.2 Negation

It means to express the disagreeable things in an opposite way, for example, “unwise”for “stupid”, “untruthful” for “false”. (Shao Junhang, 2007, 18)

2.3 Grammatical Approach

The achievement of euphemistic effect actually depends on a psychological “distance”. People think the linguistic signs and the objects have a kind of equivalent relations, and taboo