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从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用,http://www.dxs89.com
2.3.4 UnderstatementUnderstatement displays people’s desire to make theirlanguage less painful and direct. So there is never an uglywoman in this world, she is at least plain. Teachers only tellparents that their child is a bit slow for his age, notretarded. And call senior citizen for old person. "Takeother's things without permission" can be instead of "steal".
2.3.5 PeriphrasisPeriphrasis is just beating around the bush. People oftensay euphemisms are weasel words, because people never call aspade a spade when using euphemisms. Fart is not pleasant toear, so people call it wind from the behind. Someone wants youto go away, but he only says he will call your carriage foryou. Someone living at the government expense may make youenvy him, but actually he is in prison. "Many sayings aboutgoing to WC make a good use of periphrasis like wash one’shands, powder one’s nose, spend a penny. So do the 'drop' for'adjustment downward'[13]"2.4. Grammatical waysAccording to Bolinger, "Euphemism is not restricted to thelexicon. There are grammatical ways of toning something down”.
Therefore, euphemizing should not be limited to lexical ways;it can also be achieved by grammatical ways.
2.4.1 TenseIn English, tense can lend a little euphemistic color tothe expressions for something undesired. Especially whenpeople use want, hope, think and wonder or words like thatthey may also make use of the tense to sound moreeuphemistically. For example, I wondered if you would mindhelping me? or "I wondered if you could help me?"[14]. Askinghelp this way, people won’t feel so embarrassed if they wererefused.
2.4.2 Syntactical negationThis method can lesson the painful impact of the languagethat is not welcomed. We say she is not pretty (Actually sheis very ugly), but that is acceptable, because not pretty doesnot equal to “ugly”, it could be “plain” too. Not pretty has awider range of meaning than ugly. Similar usages are as thefollowing: I don’t think, I am afraid, I am not sure, I don'tlike,etc.
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2.4.3 First personal pronounsThe use of first personal pronouns like we, ours, us, etc,can also make our speeches sound more euphemistic. You wouldfeel more welcomed if you used we or our quite often. If adoctor said to you how do we feel today, you would feel verywarm and comfortable, because it makes you think that thiskind doctor takes your illness as mutual concern.
3 Communicative functions of euphemismsLanguage is for communication, whereas euphemisms may leadto better communication. Using euphemisms can avoid beingpresumptuous in language communication. When we have to touchsome topics that are unpleasant, we tend to choose moreeuphemistic expressions to refer to those painful topics so asnot to hurt the hearer’s feeling. We can find the theoreticalfoundation for this motivation in Leech’s PolitenessPrinciple. Euphemisms just minimize the impoliteness andmaximize the politeness in communication. The functions ofeuphemisms are in agreement with those of Politeness Principletoo, as they both offer more benefit to the hearer and leavemore cost to the speaker, with the purpose that both of thetwo sides will feel respected and have favorable impression ofeach other. As politeness is usually regarded as themanifestation of human civilization, euphemism is one of themost effective strategies to display politeness whilemodulating interpersonal relationship in human communication.
3.1 SubstitutionAccording to the definitions of euphemism and we know thata great number of English euphemisms serve as thesubstitutions for verbal taboos. The term taboo ( ta meaning“mark”, boo meaning “exceedingly”) of Polynesian origindenotes anything linguistic and nonlinguistic, which isprohibited or forbidden. Taboo refers to the situation inwhich a word or name can be used in a community only underspecial conditions, whether only by certain persons or only incertain circumstances. Just as violating a cultural taboo canbe quite offensive, so is it with a verbal taboo in pressconferences. The “word” has been and continues to be in mostsocieties perceived as a powerful instrument that may evokeevil spirits, make bad things happen and instigate to violenceand revolution and numerous other activities. While taboo ofwords occurs when a particular topic is considered valid fordiscussion, euphemistic expression or terms are required. Sodiplomatic euphemisms have a very serious reason for being.
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They can conceal the things people fear most —death, the deador the supernatural. Euphemisms can also eliminateunhappiness, embarrassment and fear etc. so as to relievepeople psychologically.
3.2 PolitenessPoliteness is another very important function thateuphemisms serve in social life. "Some of the euphemisms areused to avoid crudeness and indecency for the sake of a politeconversation."[15] Grice formulated Cooperative Principle ofutterance in which the Maxim of Manner was defined as “Beperspicuous and specific; To avoid obscurity; To avoidambiguity; To be brief and to be orderly.” The roundaboutnature of euphemisms goes against the Maxim of Manner, whichcan only be fairly explained well by Leech’s PolitenessPrinciple “Approbation Maxim: minimize dispraise of other,maximize praise of other”. In other words, euphemisms are tominimize impolite expressions and maximize polite expressions.
3.3 DisguiseBesides the two functions of euphemisms mentioned above,there is still another one more important function at work ineuphemistic communication, namely, the Disguise Function. Herewe mean that because of the vagueness of euphemisms, it hasbecome a very important tool for political leaders or thediplomats or statesmen to distort the facts or and present afalse picture of peace and prosperity and to beautify whateverthe authority have done. For example, in the Iraq War, theyuse “Operation Iraqi Freedom” for beautifying their militaryinvasion, “possible movement” refers to military attack, “airoperation” or “air strikes” for air attack, “enter the war” toshow their reluctance to fight the war etc. and we may findmany such kind of these euphemisms in press conferences. Themost important and ultimate function or purpose of the use ofdiplomatic euphemisms in press conferences is to disguise orbeautify their invasive essence or other evil actions or theseparation of words from truth. In American and Britishsocieties nowadays, diplomatic euphemisms are always purposelydevised to disguise scandals in wars and politics,deliberately invented to beautify lowly occupations andexcessively inflated to promote sales in advertisement.
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4. The Cooperative PrincipleBefore going on, we look at two examples, as follows:
(1) "A: Can you tell me the time?
B: Well, the mail has already come.
(2) A: Are you going to John’s birthday party?
B: I’ve heard Mary is going."[16]
It seems there are some mistake in the conversations. Butin fact, it is correct. The Cooperative Principle will help usunderstand more.
The Cooperative Principle is as follows:" Make yourconversational contribution such as is required, at the stageat which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction ofthe talk exchange in which you are engaged."[17]
According Grice, Cooperative principle is classified intofour categories: quantity, quality, relation and manner. Thecategory of quantity relates to the quantity ofinformation tobe provided, and under it fall the following maxims：
4.1 The maxim of Quality:
"Try to make your contribution one that is true,.specifically:
，从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用