ries是什么意思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 lesns the negative or unpleasant connotations and reminds people of nicer images. When we have to touch upon some topics that are unpleasant, we tend to choo more euphemistic expressions to substitute tho painful topics so as not to hurt the hearer’s feeling. Euphemism plays a very important role in communication. Generally speaking, euphemism rves 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 arou in people can be strong (Allan and Burridge 1991).People are subjected to varieties of fear, such as dia, death, war, old age, poverty and any sort of disability; people also fear supernatural forces, that we suppo, may come from religion and superstition; people fear the negative sides of our lives as well. Pragmatically, the phenomenon of linguistic taboo has existed in almost all nations across the world. The tabooed thin
gs 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 cau harm even death to the violator or his/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 u growths and tumors since both can be benign whereas the view prevails that cancer can never be benign.
In western societies, although x education is very popular, this does not mean they can u all the words related to x without choice. Except for some medical terms in a special situation, they may u euphemistic 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 ldom mentioned the terms about the reproduction directly. There are many euphemisms for pregnancy such as in a family way, be 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 the euphemisms can make people unembarrasd and pleasant.
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Body excretion evokes disgust or repugnance in nsory organs. The place for body elimination process is equally surrounded with taboo. Hundreds of euphemistic expressions have been coined to evade mentioning its existence. Common terms are ladies and gents, women’s and men’s for gregated public loos, which have given ri to variations like boys and girls, guys and gals and in places like afood restaurant buoy and gulls. In modern western society, Christianity has a deep influence on the American and British culture, which in turn, influences people’s linguistic behavior. People especially tho who are well educated would not u any disrespectful language to offend God or the ghost Satan and make blasphemy. People u 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 euphemisms 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 clo air support.
Killing of the common Vietname people is wasting the enemy, the obvious civilian casualties is collateral damage. During the Gulf War, air operation and round operation were ud to substitute air
conraid and ground battle so that the cruelty of the war could be hidden literally. Invasion into other countries is beautified to rescue mission. After the“9.11”attack, Anti-terrorism and pre-emptive strikes are widely ud by the American Military. Pre-emptive strike impress us that the best way to curb the enemy’s attack is to assault them first, therefore, it sounds ethically correct. Actually, terrorism has been mingled with ethnical liberation and the target of pre-emptive strikes has turned to clear up dissidents.
2.2 Indirectness Function
Indirectness is a universal phenomenon in all languages. For particular purpos, people do not always express their intentions explicitly in language. Therefore, indirectness function of euphemism plays an important role in language u. 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-face 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 u indirect expression, which is one of the biggest features of euphemisms. In fact, all means of euphemism formation agree with indirectne
ss.
In conversation, people ud to make requests or give orders by means of imperative ntences and come to identify requests and orders with imperative ntences. For the sake of euphemizing, people u interrogative ntences to create a distance. And the hearer reads out the speaker’s real intention according to the context. In English, the past ten can be ud to euphemize things becau people tend to associate the prent ten with prent things or ideas. If some one wants to make a 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.
服装设计与工艺Generally speaking, we usually meet some nsitive unpleasant topics without real taboo counterparts, such as death, dia, age, private things, physical 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 lo our own face and be considered impolite to others. At this moment, euphemisms can help us with its indirectness function. Euphemisms are preferred to soften the shock of reality. For example, the phra life insurance is actually insurance for when you are dead. People u death’s antonym life to cast a veil over the reality death with so that the phra is more acceptable. In all cultures, the topic about one’s appearance is very nsitive, people u euphemis
ms 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 many topics such as dia, disability and all kinds of unpleasant things and phenomena. In this way, people can create pleasant and harmonious atmosphere and avoid offen and distress.
2.3 Politeness Function
Language and society are inter-related, each imposing its constrains on one another. Social norms and conventions have played a significant role in the way we u language. Politeness, as
one of the esntial norms, is a universal phenomenon becau politeness is usually regarded as manifestation of human civilization, and it is one of the most effective strategies modulating interpersonal 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 directly, 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 listener’s lf-esteem, sometimes
vanity from being hurt. Hence, people often choo obscure and indirect euphemism to show their politeness and sympathy.
For example, when someone is ill, we always say he is under the weather. If someone is mad, we say he is soft in mind. In Chine, we ldom 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 not directly utter ugly but plain girl instead, or emphasizing her personality instead of commenting on her appearance directly thus bringing lf-confidence to the girl conquently promoting human relations.
In order not to mention the vulgar topics such as the topic concerning x, pregnancy has a direct association with x so that a pregnant woman is euphemized to a lady in waiting, have one’s 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. 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 clo air support; the obvious civilian casualty is collateral damage.
As everyone is in pursuit of being slender, plump, stout, heavyt and king-sized are ud to substitute fat. Examples also emerge in ntences:
(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 dominant. 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-sized, role-poly, well-fed well-round, thick-t, etc. The euphemistic expressions are helpful for maintaining people’s face and dignity and make social communication easier and smoother.
Likewi, old people is expresd indirectly as nior citizen or the longer-lived.
In educational field, teachers 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 one’s age replaces obtu; needi
primyng to develop quieter habits 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 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:
贾斯丁比伯的歌(44)Would you plea clo the window?
(Clo the window.)
(45)I wonder if you could stop talking in the library.
(Stop talking in the library.)
(46)You’d 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 don’t want to publish your lousy manuscript.)
(48)We’ll have to let you go. (You’ve been fired.) (Allan&Burridge 1991)
In the language u, 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 Function
Decoration function refers to using good words to decorate things which are not beautiful in reality. People often utilize euphemisms for the purpo of decorating tho 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 “linguistic coating” to wrap up tho troublesome subjects. In addition, euphemisms created through fuzzy words can be called decorative words. Such euphemisms are often ud by government and military to disgui the reality. It is the ca that an innocent term is substituted for a wicked one, ordinary nonpolitical e暑假英语作文
uphemism 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.
Language is a victim of war. War is a rearrange of language as well as of cities and bodies. That rearrange 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 unmistakable orders to direct them precily 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 prent Saddam Husin 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 phra’s new meaning is directly to target a tantalizing opportunity that has arin unexpectedly.
Politics is a fertile area for the growth of euphemisms of which is cosmetic in expression but deceptive in nature. In this n, euphemism caters for the psychological characteristics of cheating or outwitting. In order to cover the reality, many politicians in the history ud a lot of euphemism. At the beginning of this century, becau of the ten relation between labor and capital,
striking became the most rious social problem. In order to disgui the reality of contradiction, the press called it industrial relation instead. So, the labor dispute became industrial dispute. The u of such a political euphemism helps government decorate the actual and prevents people from taking any anti-government action. However, overu of euphemism of this kind is going against the code of ethics which people can accept, and is incompatible with the people’s value outlook.
In this chapter, we demonstrate four pragmatic functions of euphemisms. In communication, people can choo and u them according to different contexts. Only in proper context can euphemisms function properly. Furthermore, since there are great cultural differences, in communication, how to u and interpret euphemism effectively to achieve successful communication is very important.
Grammatical Euphemism
As 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 method, euphemistic devices can be divided into negation, ten and subjunctive mood.
1.3.1 Negation
Negation involved here is ntence 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. Transferred negation is a grammatical phenomenon in which the negative word“not” is transferred from its mantic place to another place(the predicate of the main clau).The concept of it was firstly propod by R.Quirk,G.Leech and J.Svarivik(1985)in their common book called A Grammar of Contemporary English according to the data collected by them, people tend to u transferred negation and ldom u logical non-transferred negation in everyday life becau using direct words or changing positive form into negative form sometimes can relax the tone of speaking in conversations and form euphemism. Transferred negation can form euphemism. Two examples are given as follows:
(10)I don’t think (that) John can manage the work.
(11)I think that John can not manage the work.
decision的用法Sentence (11) means that it is a fact that John cannot manage the work, I think so. This ntence express a stronger negative force and a little arbitrary tone. In comparison, the ntence (10) is more euphemistic. It’s not easy for a listener to accept the type ntence (11) becau in ntence(1
1),John definitely will interpret it as he has no ability to finish the work, or he is not capable of doing this work; even wor, he may comprehend it as he himlf has been despid. It is very impolite, so the English speakers ldom u the expression of the type ntence (11).
However, this kind of negation is limited to verbs of judging, supposing or feeling in main claus. They are think, believe, expect, fancy, reckon, suppo, imagine, feel, em and appear etc. Transferred negation is relatively mild in mood and euphemistic effect is achieved. When negative questions are ud to suggest, invite and voice one’s opinion, the questions are polite in mood.
(12)Can’t you come and join us?
1.3.2 Ten
Ten is one of the main euphemizing approaches that are ud 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)
should
According to Bolinger, ntence (13) and ntence (14) refer to the same matter, but the ten of ntence (13) is tender and more euphemistic than that of ntence (14), hence, ntence (13) is euphemism of ntence (14).Many more examples can show this type of euphemistic effect created by ten. Sentences, started by past ten I wanted…, I wondered…,could you…,are much more polite than tho started by prent ten. Some more examples are given as follows:佳禾日语
