A Cognitive-pragmatic Study Of Euphemism In Desperate Housewives From The Perspective Of Relevance

Euphemism, a common linguistic phenomenon, plays an important role inharmonizing interpersonal relationship. So it is also regarded as “lube” in the processof human communication. Linguistic researchers have studied it from differentperspectives, including Lexicology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Sociolinguisticsas well as Cognitive Linguistics. Great achievements have been made and at the sametime they also provide some foundations for further study.Relevance Theory provides a scientific and comprehensive perspective for thestudy of euphemisms. And it also has great theoretic significant and practical value. Inthis thesis, euphemism is studied on the basis of Relevance Theory. After reviewingthe previous researches on euphemisms abroad and at home, the author discussessome relevance-theoretic bases, including cognitive context, cognitive environment,mutual manifest, ostensive-inferential communication, contextual effects and optimalrelevance. In the thesis, euphemisms are mainly illustrated from two perspectives,namely the addresser’s ostension as well as the addressee’s inference. As the theoreticframework of this thesis, Relevance Theory can help to restrict the addresser’sostensive behavior. On the other hand, it also guides the addressee’s inference.Because of the indirectness of euphemisms, it is not an easy job for the addressee toinfer the informative intension and communicative intention of the addresser directly.The addressee should make a suitable inference in the light of the addresser’s ostension so as to get the real intention of the utterances. Euphemisms selected from apopular American TV series, Desperate Housewives, are used in this thesis. Theproduction and comprehension of these euphemisms are illustrated on the basis ofRelevance Theory.Because of various reasons, the failure of euphemistic communication wouldoccur in daily life. Hence, the failure of using and understanding euphemisms will bediscussed in this thesis from two perspectives. For the addresser, he should select theassumptions which are manifest to the addressee. Meanwhile, for the addressee, inorder to achieve certain cognitive effect, he should try his best to establish potentialrelevance during the process of euphemistic communication.