A Study Of The Pragmatic Strategies Of English-Chinese Euphemism Translation

Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in the English language, as well as a cultural one. It is the authentic reflection of history and culture of various ethnic lifestyles. From the investigation of pragmatics and related translation theories of English Euphemism, we will get better understanding about the verbal communication and the use of English euphemism, and more importantly, more effective translation of euphemisms. During the process of translation, its relevant and unique pragmatic function also becomes to one of the important topic for our translational scholars.According to the relevant pragmatic translation theories, translation activity is a kind of ternary relationship among the original author, translator and reader. The translator must first correctly understand the original author's intention and the intention of the source text, then find out the differences between the source language and the target language, also make the correct assessment for the reader's cognition, and consider the acceptability of translation works in the target language environment, etc. No matter what translation theories are concerned, the most obvious purpose of translating is to retain the original message and cultural intention as perfectly as possible, In other words, we should make a veridical and objective reflection for the target language readers.This thesis is drawing on results of previous studies, from the perspective of pragmatics, applying such relevant pragmatic, linguistic theories as the distance principle, relation principle and pleasantness principle, to solve the cultural and pragmatic issues in English euphemisms'translation practice. At the same time, the thesis will make an interpretation of the significance and usage mode of English euphemisms that reflect in their translation process, and introduce the application of the literal, free translation and relevance theories, which are largely based on the studies of the pragmatic function and the cooperative principle. It also analyzes the functions of taboo, courtesy and self-protection of English euphemisms, while pointing out that the euphemisms are changing with the social and cultural tendencies. Thus, the influence of socio-cultural factor plays a leading role in using euphemisms, and it is also one of the most important aspects that we should focus on the domain of pragmatic translation.Finally, this thesis focuses on:to avoid pragmatic failures by enriching of linguistic knowledge, accurate comprehension of cultural differences, reasonable judgment of values and improving of affective sense capability; it is also presenting under the guidance of relevance theory, questing the integration for situational context, cultural context and the relevance of discourse, which has become an important mode for pragmatic strategies processing in the researches of translation; in the meanwhile this thesis also sought to prove that:pragmatic translation of euphemism is a kind of multiple dynamic study which dabbles in many subjects. And the adopting of these three pragmatic strategies-source-oriented, target-oriented and comprehensive survey of the objective fact, which may achieve the equivalence and objectivity of euphemism pragmatic translation preferably.