English Euphemism: An Adaptation-based Approach

Euphemism is a common phenomenon, a linguistic and a social one. Every society, every speech community and every social class has their euphemisms of various kinds. Euphemism is also a communicative strategy. To speak euphemistically is a universal trait (Enright, 1985: 29). Hugh Rawson (1981:73) has also affirmed "Euphemisms are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plain-spoken, even get through a day without using them". So it is not surprising that euphemism has long been a focus of interest in linguistic circle, and a considerable amount of literature on euphemisms has been accumulating.Traditionally, euphemisms are confined to rhetorical speech and are regarded as a literal technique for writers or speakers to give their expressions more elegantly. Few studies make systematic researches into euphemisms from the pragmatic perspective and even fewer have been made on the introduction of "theory of adaptation' into euphemism. Thus on the basis of other scholars' researches and with the aim to shed light on the use and understanding of euphemism in communication, this thesis attempts to do a tentative study in this new area, by adopting a new theory in pragmatics—the theory of adaptation—to the current study. It is organized as follows:Part one of this thesis is a brief introduction. It demonstrates the need and objectives of the study.Part two presents a survey of general knowledge concerning English euphemism. As an indirect speech act in essence, euphemism, though violating Cooperative Principle, obeys the politeness principle, face-saving theory, fuzziness theory and relevance theory, with its aim being to convey the intended meaning of the speaker. As a matter of fact, the essence of the motive for generating euphemism has reflected a central focus—the notion of face, and the common psychological tendency to beauty and comfort in response to reaching a kind of psychological balance.Part three elaborates on the theoretical framework for the analyses of euphemism. It is based on Jef Verschueren's theory of linguistic adaptation (2000) which holds that...