A Metaphtonymic Approach To English Euphemism

This thesis is an attempt to investigate the metaphtonymic mechanisms of English euphemism. It is based on current studies conducted by scholars in many branches of linguistics. Euphemism has always been taken as a rhetorical device and studies tend to focus on its semantic formations and pragmatic functions while cognitive linguistics tries to find out the cognitive mechanism behind them since cognitive linguists hold that cognitive metaphor and metonymy are not merely rhetorical devices but our ways of thinking. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to observe euphemism from a cognitive perspective to see how we build and use euphemism in a cognitively systematic way.By observing the collected data and applying introspection, we find that there are some cognitive rules within euphemism, and a metaphtonymic approach is adopted to elaborate the building mechanism of euphemism.This thesis consists of five parts. Following an introduction and a general review of the development and studies of euphemism in the first two chapters, Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework of the study, namely, cognitive metaphor, metonymy, and their interactions, paving the path for our analysis of the metaphoric, metonymic, and metaphtonymic building mechanisms of euphemism in Chapter Four. The last part is a conclusion of the whole study.The analysis reveals that English euphemism can be analyzed by means of cognitive metaphor and metonymy while some expressions require both means in that theoretically metaphorical mappings are based on similarities between only one or some aspects of the source domain and the target domain, which provides access for metonymy to insinuate and even stand equal to metaphor.