An Adaptation Study On Euphemism Of Business English Communication

Euphemism as a common linguistic phenomenon, as well as a cultural phenomenon, is widely used in human communication. In the more civilized modern world, the interpersonal and international communication without euphemism is unimaginable. Correct and appropriate use of euphemism is helpful to obtain the success of business English communication.Many scholars abroad and at home have done a lot of research work on euphemism from various fields. But it seems most of them are mainly restricted to lexicon, sentence, grammar and rhetoric levels and ignore more or less the social cultural causes and other underlying impulses of euphemism employments. The purpose of this thesis is to present a detailed analysis of euphemism of business English communication on the basis of Adaptation Theory. Through analysis, we hope to find a more scientific explanation of euphemism as a result of linguistic choice so as to help obtain more successful communication and understand each other appropriately.Adaptation Theory, put forward under the concept of"pragmatic perspective", provides a comprehensive and scientific angle for pragmatics and there lies great theoretical significance and practical value. In Adaptation Theory, pragmatics is not a component discipline of linguistics but"a general functional perspective"on language. Because the production and use of euphemism are closely related to such factors as society, culture, psychology and so on, a comprehensive study on euphemism can not be disposed within those traditional theories. Comparatively, Verschueren's Adaptation Theory is more suitable for this research.In the study, the analysis of euphemism employment is illustrated by giving some examples found in business daily life and business correspondences. Based on the adaptation theory, the study has found that the generation of euphemism of business English communication has to adapt to linguistic structure, linguistic channel and communicative context, and euphemism is not static and its change adapts to the variation of the time and context as well. In detail, euphemism of business English communication is adaptation to category, diction, modality and grammar of linguistic structure; linguistic channel; politeness motivation, profit desire and self-protection intention of the language users; cultural differences and social conventions of social world; temporal and spatial references of the physical world where euphemism occurs and physical conditions of participants and material conditions of the speech. In addition, this study also reveals that euphemism is not static and its change adapts to the variation of time and context.This thesis can be divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction. It will give the rationale, purpose and research methodology of this study. Chapter two is the literature review. It will give a brief review of euphemism and business English communication in details. Chapter three is the theoretical background of this thesis, and the contents of Verschueren's Adaptation Theory will be presented. Chapter four is the main part of this thesis, which will apply the theoretical framework to the analysis of euphemism of business English communication. In terms of Adaptation Theory, this part will find out what elements euphemism adapts to and how it adapts. Linguistic structural objects, three kinds of worlds of communicative context and linguistic channel will be embraced. Moreover, this chapter also illustrate that euphemism is not static and its change adapts to the variation of time and context. Chapter five is the conclusion which will summarize contributions and limitations of the study and at the same time give some suggestions for further research.