A Metonymic Study Of The Generating Mechanism Of Euphemism

Euphemism, as an indispensable lubricant in our daily communicative activities, claims its status with its initiative skill to avoid unpleasantness in a polite manner. It could possibly create art out of unromantic and bland language as well as render sharp or pressing diction with a certain bit of delicateness, as a result of which, contradictions, or rather, interpersonal relationships could possibly be greatly relieved or maintained. Euphemism, the magical crystallization of human wisdom, is indeed a mysterious maze, every single bit of which deserves careful and insightful exploration. However, researches regarding the generating mechanism of euphemism in a long time have centered upon the pragmatic and semantic approaches, a cognitive consideration especially a combination of metonymy and euphemism has been seldom touched upon.The rapid development of cognitive linguistics has provided a set of refreshing and effective thoughts and methods to solve problems long remained in linguistics. Metonymy is gradually to be believed as a kind of conceptual phenomenon which plays a significant role in the process by which we know and conceptualize the world around us. Salience and contiguity, the operating basis of conceptual metonymy, furnish it with the ability to powerfully interpret various kinds of language phenomenon. Meanwhile, an insightful study of euphemism could only be achieved by means of an investigation of the internal generating mechanism of euphemism. Conceptual metonymy, a kind of mapping from one concept or entity onto another within the same cognitive domain, is in nature, a sort of substitution while euphemism also fulfill its function by replacing unpleasantness with politeness although it has some requirements on the two entities. This thesis therefore holds that the formation mechanism of euphemism could be insightfully interpreted with the help of the famous conceptual metonymy theory.Metonymy operates itself within the ICM, on the basis of which, this thesis firstly systematically presents a vivid illustrative investigation into euphemism formation and what closely followed is a further metonymical exploration of euphemism on various linguistic levels ranging from phonetic to pragmatic. It is finally safe for us to conclude that the generating of euphemism is inherently metonymic. Metonymy could help us a lot to maintain a harmonious relationship, achieve certain goal or express one’s elegant personality no whether on daily or formal occasions. This thesis has proved the possibility of adopting a metonymic approach to an exploration of euphemism and meanwhile provides us a more detailed insight into conceptual metonymy.