A Study On The Adaptation Of English Euphemism In Communicative Context

Previous studies of euphemisms mainly focus on a single topic and lack asystematic and general theory as a directing concept. The theory of adaptation, however,which is based upon “the perspective on language”, could make up for this major fault.Its core idea is that using language is a continuous process of making choices, a processwhich should adapt to contextual correlates. Therefore, this dissertation will chooseVerschueren s communicative context adaptation as the theory foundation and try tocomprehensively analyze how the euphemisms in Desperate Housewives adapt to thecommunicators mental world(motivations, emotions, and personality traits), socialworld(conventions, social status, gender, and religious beliefs) and physical world (bodylanguages, gazes, health conditions, and relative positions). The aim is to reveal thatadopting euphemisms is a way of making choices made by communicators according todifferent communicative needs and a need to adapt to communicative context.