A Cognitive Study Of Semantic Inheritance In Euphemism

Euphemism is not only a ubiquitous phenomenon in language, but also an important cognitive tool of human being. Early scholars have made initiative efforts in analyzing euphemism. Yet with the development of cognitive linguistics, which is regarded as more inclusive and convincing paradigm to explain inner operation of natural languages, the researches of euphemism tend to explore the depth of human being's mind. Though many scholars have studied euphemisms from their definitions, classifications and many different theories, they have not yet taken systematic study euphemism in the process of semantic construction and interpretation. Proceeding with the paradigm of cognitive linguistics, an explanatory way will be taken to further explore the semantic inheritance in operation process of euphemism.In the framework of Conceptual Blending Theory and inspired by Inheritance Hypothesis, this thesis mainly investigates the cognitive mechanism of euphemism in semantic construction and interpretation process, in order to discover the semantic inheritance of euphemism. It is assumed that the semantic inheritance exists in euphemistic construction and interpretation processes which mainly show the conceptual mappings between different mental spaces. According to this research hypothesis, the study will be taken from three aspects: firstly, cognitive devices of euphemism will be investigated; secondly, in construction process, the producer'mental preparation of semantic inheritance will be explored; thirdly, in interpretation process, the way euphemistic effect is realized by recipient through semantic inheritance will be studied. Besides, the data in this thesis are abundantly collected from books, movies, novels, and internet for the sake of explaining the universality of semantic inheritance in natural languages. Through data analysis, both static euphemisms and dynamic euphemisms in speech will be researched. Finally, the result of semantic inheritance will also be explored from the pros and cons.Through analysis and discussion, this research is summarized in the following three aspects: to begin with, the process of semantic inheritance is a continuous behavior between producer and recipient: the euphemistic purpose starts from the producer, and changes from the euphemistic utterance to the implicit meaning of recipient inheriting until the euphemistic effect is established; and then in the process of semantic construction and interpretation, the cognitive subjects'logical reasoning may build a possible world to achieve the reasonable meanings. Finally, when euphemism recipient successfully receives the producer's euphemistic purpose, intereuphemisity will be established, and euphemistic effect will finally be realized. To sum up, the phenomenon of euphemism is not a simple communicative interaction, but a heritance relation in human being's cognition, and a result of the conceptual integration in the process of construction and interpretation of euphemism.This thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the definition of euphemism, arguments, datum and organization of this thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review on the studies of euphemism from four perspectives. Chapter Three focuses on the introduction of theoretical framework. Influenced by Conceptual Blending Theory and Inheritance Hypothesis, it indicates that the cognitive process of semantic inheritance exists in euphemism. Chapter Four and Chapter Five are the central parts of this thesis. Chapter Four explores the two cognitive devices in the process of euphemism semantic construction, namely, metaphor and metonymy. In Chapter Five, the process of semantic inheritance throughout semantic construction and interpretation in euphemism is investigated, with the major findings that once the intereuphemisity establishes from successful interpretation, the euphemistic effect will be finally accomplished. The last chapter, Chapter Six summarizes the whole thesis, puts forward limitations of this study and provides suggestions for future research.