Contextual Analysis Of The Variation Of Euphemism

Euphemism, as a special language variety, covers a broad range of topics, from various subjects about human beings to matters related to government, war, and diplomacy. It plays an important role in human communication to harmonize interpersonal relationship and to smooth social interaction. Although it is accepted as an effective strategy widely used in communication, the application of it is always subject to many factors, the dominant one being context. The contextual study of euphemism by previous scholars has not been enough, so more effort is needed in this aspect.Context, usually known as the language environment, is a significant component in communication. It has been the focus of study of many scholars since the 1980s, and many aspects of it have been probed, such as the definition, the function and the classification of it. Context has two main functions — restrictive function and interpretive function; so it can exert great impact on the production and the interpretation of language forms applied in communication. There are many classifications of context by different scholars, but most of them are developed on an equal plane, which probably results in overlooking many obscure contextual factors. In this paper, the author argues that context enjoys hierarchical nature, and therefore insists a hierarchical classification of it so as to include all direct as well as indirect contextual factors. On the basis of the restrictive function of context and the hierarchical nature of it, the author puts forward a contextual hierarchy, in which context is classified into four levels, according to the degree of influence they exert upon linguistic choices. The four levels of context are: linguistic context, situational context, socio-cultural context and physical context, with linguistic context on the lowest level and physical context on the highest level.There is usually a repertoire of rich euphemistic varieties about the same topic; they can be used in different communicative environments. In different levels of context, different varieties evading the same topic should be used. In other words, what is considered as the appropriate term euphemizing the same tabooed subject varies in different language environments. That is what we mean by "the variation of euphemism." The content of euphemism being comprehensive, death euphemism - a typical genre of the family of...