English Euphemism and Its Social Finctions浅谈英语委婉语及其社会功能.docx

浅谈英语委婉语及其社会功能【关键词】委婉语；起源；形成；社会功能I. IntroductionEuphemism is a cultural phenomenon as well as a linguistic concept. Every language has its own euphemism, so does English. It is deeply rooted in social life and has a great influence on social communication. As an indispensable and natural part of English language, English euphemism has attracted peoples attention for a long time. Since euphemism was coined, it has played a very important role in peoples communication. The communication without euphemism is unimaginable. Euphemism is used like lubrication, which makes the communication go on smoothly. This thesis will have an overview of the origin of English euphemism, and state its formation and social functions.As a linguistic concept, English euphemism has close relationships with western cultures, and it truly reflects living values of English people and their history. Euphemism is a particularly good medium for access to language force, which has provided an effective approach to understanding the human mind. The study of English euphemism can help us understand the western culture and promote the international development because euphemisms are widely used in international negotiations. So there is a great need for us to study English euphemism, including: its origin, its formation and its social functions, etc.II. The Definition and Classification of English EuphemismA. DefinitionEuphemism is a universal linguistic phenomenon. Nearly in every language, there are some disgusting words which make people feel embarrassed. In the process of communication, the unsuitable or too direct words will make people feel uncomfortable, even angry. Then there is a great need for us to use a tactful way to express emotion, exchange ideas. That is to say, to use a pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases take the place of tabooed words.It is known that euphemism is a form of language intentionally created in social relation to achieve ideal communication. Without them, any language would seem to be blunt and flavorless, void of politeness and vividness to some extent. As a tool in the process of people using language, euphemism is an important way for people to deal with the social relationships. Like a kind of lubrication, euphemism enables people to express what cannot be uttered directly and ensures communication to be carried smoothly. It is a linguistic strategy in civilized society for avoiding taboo. It is unimaginable if there is no euphemism in daily communication.The word “euphemism” is derived from the Greek word “euphemismos”, which means “fair speech”. The prefix “eu” means “good, sound well” and “pheme” means “saying” or “speech”. And thus the literal meaning of “euphemism” is “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. That is to say, euphemism is used as an alternative to unpleasant expression, in order to avoid possible losing face, either the speakers face, or the fact of the audience, or of the third party. This unpleasant expression may be tabooed, fearsome, or for some other reasons that speakers cant or intend not to use some certain expression directly on some occasions. In Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language euphemism is the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted. Rawson Blunt, a British writer, defined euphemism as a good favorable interpretation of a bad word. Encyclopedia Britannica(1994) also defines euphemism as a figure of speech in which something of an unpleasant, distressing or indelicate nature is described in less offensive terms.From the above mentioned, we could clearly see that euphemism is characterized as avoidance language and evasive expression. The speakers use words or expressions as a protective shield against the anger or disapproval of natural or supernatural things. It is one form of language and a linguistic phenomenon.B. ClassificationGenerally speaking, there are two kinds of Euphemisms: one is the traditional euphemism, which is related with the taboo words, such as four-letter words, death, illness, poor, old, etc. The other is the stylistic euphemism, which is not connected with the taboo words. It is the “diplomatic” way of using a less offensive or less direct word or phrase or saying to replace something unpleasant or harsh. It is kind of tactful expression. It is primarily used in occupation. We can find such words in some airline companies: deluxe class or premium class means the first class, while the first class means the second class, and business/economic/tourist class refers to the third class. Moreover, we should pay more attention to the characteristics of euphemism. Being looked horizontally, different countries have different euphemisms. For example , the lunar calendar in 1933 is symbolized by the rooster. Why is it a rooster instead of a cock? Because in the U.S.A., cock, the same as ass, bull, is a taboo. Being looked vertically, different euphemisms have different times mark. Being a special characteristic of Victorian literature, euphemism reflected a mental or moral way of in which it was indecorous to speak openly of the legs of a table, and of which the very word unmentionables is a revealing symbol. Before that, especially in the novel and the play, literature was sufficiently outspoken, and writers during the present century are certainly not backward, in calling a spade.III. The Origins of English EuphemismA. The Religious Origin of English Euphemism The earliest English euphemisms come from “taboo”. The word “taboo” comes from Togan, a kind of Polynesian. It indicates evasive language or action.1 The emergence of English euphemism is to meet the need of avoiding taboos. In primitive society, people couldnt explain such things as ailment and some supernatural phenomena. “People have confusion between the name of the things and things themselves. The name is viewed as an extension of things. Just as the idiom says, Speak of devil and he appears. Naturally the words or phrases related to such things become taboos.” In the ancient times, people had blind faith in ghosts and Gods they respected. They whispered and even feared them so they did not dare to address their names directly. They thought it profane to name God. Therefore the names of gods become the earliest taboos. To speak names of gods was to evoke the divinity whose power then had to be confronted. Such dangerous practices were reserved for priests skills in negotiating with the supernatural. So the usual way to avoid is to employ euphemisms. Therefore, for the religious need, a lot of euphemisms about religion emerged. For example, in order not to desecrate God, people in English-speaking country always use some other name for God instead of calling directly, such as “Adonai, the Almighty, Caesars Cruth, the Creater, Dod, Gad, Land, Lawks, Lawd.”2 The opposite side of god is devil, which is more terrible for people. When people refer to them, they tend to use such euphemisms to replace: D, the Big D, the Evil one, the Black one, the Goodman, Jesse, Old boy, Our father, Lord of lords, King of kings, the Light of the world, etc.3 From the above mentioned, we can find that religion brings many euphemistic terms in the religious matter, especially the naming and addressing of God to the language.B. The Racial and National Origins of English EuphemismIt is known to all, the phenomenon of racial discrimination is deeply rooted in America in which “equal opportunity” is flattered by American white people as an equal right enjoyed by everyone. Due to the pressure of social public opinion, although some whites discriminate the black from their heart, they will not expose this kind of prejudice in public. Meanwhile, few people dare to humiliate and persecute blacks publicly for no reason at all. In other words, the way of discrimination becomes tactful. There are many euphemisms emerging for this reason. In the 1930s, “nigger” is still a neutral noun in England, and has no meaning of humiliating blacks. But since this word has the obvious meaning of discriminating the blacks, most of people in England and Americans use some other euphemistic words, such as “colored black” instead. When talking about some other races, it does not often use the direct words that are related to color. People often use some euphemistic expressions, such as the geographic names. E.g. Asian replaces the yellow.IV. The Formation of English EuphemismThe ways of forming English euphemism are various, which can be analyzed from different angles. In this thesis, I make analyses in the following fives ways.A. Phonetic MeansEnglish is phonographic language; so phonetic means can widely used to coin euphemism. Some unpleasant sounds or word-forms are be omitted or hidden. Phonetic means mainly refers to phonetic omission and phonetic distortion.1. Phonetic OmissionIt refers to omitting some parts of the sound to make pronunciation shorter and less unpleasant.E.g. lavatorylav     ex-convictex-conHypodermichypo   brassierebra2. Phonetic DistortionIn order to avoid violating taboo, the speakers make some alteration in spelling and pronouncing of the taboo words. For example, very religious people consider it a sin of using the name of God in a disrespectful way, so “God!” was distorted to “Gosh/Golly!” It generally includes: (1) abbreviation, e.g. tuberculosisTB Jesus ChristJC  (2) Reduplication, which reduplicate some syllables or letters of the words to form euphemism. E.g. “sis-sis”, “pee-pee” or “wee-wee” replace “piss” (3) Distortion of the pronunciation, for example, “bloody” is pronounced as “blurry”.B. Lexical Means1. Vague MeaningVague meaning refers to the generalization of the specific meanings to alleviate the bad effect of fear, shame or anxiety. E.g. “Youve lost license” instead of “your fly is open”“He is disadvantaged” instead of “he is disabled”  “Partner” instead of “sex-companion”2. Synonyms ReplacementMaking use of the subtle differences of synonyms in emotional color is another common way to forge the euphemisms, which is more polite and acceptable.E.g. Slim/slenderskinny      Sleepdie     End/bottom buttock3. Borrowing LoanwordsIn the development of English language, English absorbs large amount of vocabulary from other languages. People use the borrowing words to express some tabooed language. E.g. Enceinte pregnant (French)   Cojonesspermary (Spanish)Bordellobrothel (Italian)     CemeteryKoimeterion (Greek)Cremain  cremated and remain (Latin and French)Yen yin (Chinese, to have a yen means to make love)C. Rhetorical MeansSome figures of speech can make the language more exact, vivid and implicative. The following are some types of figures of speech with its identical examples.Metaphorical transfer:The flowers/mother naturemenses Mountainbreast Cease to thinkdieMetonymical transfer:The gray hairthe old Cradlechildhood Synecdoche transfer:Chestbreast Understatement:Venereal diseasecommunicable diseases, social diseasesFuneralmemorial garden Toiletcomfort station, restroom, powder roomIdiottotally dependentD. Grammatical meansAmerican linguist, Ballinger 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.”(1981:148) Afterwards, the grammatical ways of forming euphemism such as negation, tense, voice, and mood and so on were carefully attended to. For example we usually say, in daily communication, that  “could you please?”. Such expressions are very polite compared with the imperative sentences. The grammatical means can be classified into the following ways:(1) Negative is a widely used way in euphemism. Negative expressions are used for suggestion, invitation, or personal opinions.E.g. I dont think he is clever.Cant you go and post the letter for me?(2) Tense is another important means. In daily life, people are likely to use the proper tense of the verbs “want, wonder, hope, think”. The progressive tense usually shows the wish or request of the speakersE.g. I am wondering do you mind opening the window.I am thinking whether you can come dinner with me?(3) Subjunctive mood is also very common way of forming euphemism.E.g. If I had known the truth, I would have told you.Peter is the last man Id like to marry in the world.  (4) Verbal phrases and prepositional phrases are effective in euphemism. E.g. Thank you for keeping your hands off the exhibits.The authors name slipped from my memory at that moment.He is far from clever.The deluxe car is beyond his afford.V. Social Functions of English EuphemismHere in after will use the social linguistics, sociology to analyze the different social functions in use. A. Taboo Function“Taboo is the main psychological basis of the emergence of euphemism. Euphemism is the avoidance of the unpleasant, inelegant things. A famous sociolinguist Mr. Chen Yuan once said: Generally speaking, the coming into being of euphemism all begins from taboo. From the origin of euphemism, we can see that taboo is the first function of euphemism. Euphemism has been using for a long time, and it is closely related to taboo. In fact, euphemism dates back to the language taboo in the early period of human civilization. When people try to avoid and give up taboo words, they have to find another word to replace this vacancy at the same time. Hence, people created euphemism.” 4There are some taboo things, such as birth, death, funeral, sex, nakedness, defecation, and urinate. If they are expressed directly, they are called taboo words and the feelings they give us are vulgar, crude and harsh, whereas if they are expressed indirectly, they are called euphemism, and the impressions they made on us are elegant, implicit and polite. The evading function of euphemism also works today. Some taboo notions cannot be easily removed from peoples mind. Though science and technology are highly developed today, the word “death” is the taboo words to all nations. Thus there are a lot of euphemisms related with it. “Such as pass away, answer the final call, be asleep in Jesus, be safe in the arms of Jesus, be at rest, be called to God, be home and free, be in Abrahams bosom, cross the River Jordan, final sleep, go home, go to meet ones maker, go to ones own place, join ones ancestors, join the great majority, return to dust, with God, be no longer with us, pay the debt of nature, tick the bucket, etc.”5 “Among those, one-way-ticket is the synonym of die. It reflects the speakers experience of life. Life is just like travel. People set out to travel, but when they arrive to the termination, they cannot go back. In the past, people often used graveyard to express the place where the dead sleep