An Iconic Analysis Of English Euphemism

Euphemism, as a common phenomenon in all languages, has long been the focus of interest in linguistic circle. Many linguists and scholars have studied this linguistic phenomenon from different perspectives, such as rhetorical, semantic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. They have made great contributions to euphemism study, but those studies are mostly descriptive. To explain the building mechanism underlying English euphemism, it is necessary to adopt a new approach.Cognitive linguistics, which emerged in the eighties of the twentieth century, is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it. As an important theory in cognitive linguistics, iconicity is of great significance in revealing the mapping relationship between cognition and language structure, and the universality of human thought. Iconicity can also provide a reasonable explanation for language phenomena instead of just describing them.Based on the theory of iconicity, this thesis aims to explain the building mechanism and cognitive motivation by exploring three kinds of mapping relationship between the linguistic structure and the conceptual structure of English euphemisms. The three kinds of mapping relationship, i.e. principles of iconicity, are: the iconicity of distance, the iconicity of quantity, and the iconicity of markedness. By analyzing English euphemisms based on those iconicity principles, the author finds that there is iconicity at different levels in English euphemisms. At lexical level, we could find examples demonstrate the iconicity of quantity. At syntactic level, there are manifestations of all those three principles. Iconicity of distance manifests in transferred negation, causation and past tense; iconicity of quantity exists in the use of hedges, periphrasis, and omission; iconicity of markedness is reflected in the use of subjunctive mood and interrogative sentences. At textual level, iconicity of distance is reflected in the use of indirect approach, iconicity of quantity in the use of more words, and iconicity of markedness in the order from good news to bad news. At pragmatic level, iconicity of distance is reflected in the expression of social distance, iconicity of quantity in the expression of the weight of imposition.The analysis reveals that iconicity can provide a more reasonable explanation for the building mechanism of English euphemisms. The study from this perspective can also help to make the teaching and the learning of language more meaningful and efficient.