Understanding Euphemism In Cross-cultural Communication-From A Pragmatic Perspective

There is no lack of literature on the study of euphemism, but most of the study has been approached from the linguistic and socio-linguistic perspective. In contrast, pragmatic study of euphemism falls far short. This is probably because being a brand new branch of linguistics, pragmatics has not been rigorously defined and verified; and being constantly challenged, revised, implemented and developed, some of its theories have not been adapted and utilized in the field of linguistic study yet.Based on the previous studies of euphemism, this paper offers a definition of euphemism and discusses its features and classification from a pragmatic perspective. And by applying the theory of cooperative principle, politeness principle, relevance and indirectness to the study of euphemism, the author explores the main functions of its indirectness, its meaning transmission, and analyzes the causes of its meaning loss and offers some strategies for compensating the loss in cross-cultural translation.In this study, the author persistently adheres to cross-cultural application of euphemism so as to sharpen the awareness that socio-linguistic study of euphemism should not be excluded although a pragmatic discussion is carried out.