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1、A Comparison on Pragmatic Functions of English and Chinese Euphemism Abstract: Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. The term comes from the Greek eu, meaning well or sounding good, and pheme, “speech. Euphemism plays an important ro
2、le in our daily communication. From the day it came into existence, euphemism has been functioning to lubricate our communication, help establish a good relationship between human beings and even strengthen social stability. Many linguists and scholars have studied this linguistic phenomenon from th
3、e perspectives of rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguists. As a result, achievements in the study of euphemism have been conspicuous. Thus, on the basis of others researches, this thesis attempts to do an analysis of pragmatic functions of English and Chinese euphemisms by comparatively a
4、nalyzing their linguistic and cultural characteristics. Key words: euphemism; cultural connotation; pragmatic function; communication 1. Introduction 1.1. Language Variations: Euphemism In the beginning was the word. There followed, at an undetermined but one assumes decent interval, private, harsh,
5、 and dirty words. Invention here being the mother of necessity, the need for euphemism arose. (Epstein 1985). In every society there are certain things that are not supposed to be spoken or mentioned directly. A fair number of words are labeled as frivolous, vulgar, or at least inconsiderate. But in
6、 communication, for better maintaining social relationship and exchanging ideas, people have to resort to a kind of language, which can make distasteful ideas seem acceptable or even desirable. This type of language is defined as “euphemism in linguistics and it comes in a variety of forms and is us
7、ed for a variety of reasons. Unlike other figurative language devices, for example, the metaphor of poetry or prose, euphemism aims to surprise and entertain (Lee, 1966), strives to avoid offence by means of circumlocution. As a communicative skill“telling it like it isnt, (Time, 1978), euphemism ab
8、ounds in our life. Euphemisms are powerful linguistic devices which “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken, ever get through a day without using them. (Rawson 1981) 1.2. Definition No doubt, euphemism is a widely and frequently us
9、ed figure of speech. As a hot research issue in the field of linguistics, it needs a concise and definite criterion to judge the scope of euphemism. . English Euphemism Western linguists think the word “euphemism comes from the Greek “eu( meaning “good) and “pheme(meaning “speech or “saying), and th
10、us it literally means “to speak with good words. Later on, euphemism is defined differently and more precisely. Some of the definitions are listed below: (1) That figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasant ass
11、ociations, instead of the harsher or more offensive one that would more precisely designate what is intended. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989) (2) The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted. (Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Langu
12、age, 1996) (3) Euphemizing is generally defined as substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words.(Enright D.J., 1985) (4) Word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming. (Oxford Conci
13、se Dictionary of Linguistics, Shanghai Foreign Languages Publishing House, 2000) (5) Used as an alternative to a preferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either ones own face or through giving offences, that of the audience, or of some third party. (Allen, K. and Burridge, K.,
14、1991) As traditional western linguistics restricts euphemism study to the lexicon, euphemisms are, therefore, words or phrases in place of things considered to be rude or unpleasant. Given from the perspective of rhetoric, all the above definitions are determined in a narrow sense. Many linguists th
15、ink that the definition of euphemism needs to be framed in a broad sense. American linguist, Bolinger Dwight once 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. Afterwards, the gramma
16、tical ways of forming euphemism such as negation, tense, voice, and mood and so on were carefully attended to. We deal next with clarifying the term English euphemism in this thesis. The term “nativeEnglishspeakersincludespeopleofmanycountries-Americans, Englishmen, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and others. Each of these belongs to a culture that is somewhat different from the other
