Pragmatic Enrichment Of Diplomatic Euphemism

Euphemism reflects the indirectness, mildness and vagueness in linguistic communication. Diplomatic euphemisms, as a branch of euphemism, are employed by diplomats and statesmen to achieve various political purposes. So far, a considerable amount of researches have done on euphemisms from the perspective of semantics, pragmatics, cognition linguistics, etc., but few systematic and comprehensive researches have been conducted on diplomatic euphemism.This thesis attempts to conduct a systematic analysis of the pragmatic enrichment in the understanding of diplomatic euphemisms employed by the spokespersons in press conferences from the perspective of pragmatic enrichment. In lexical pragmatics, pragmatic enrichment refers to a process in which the meanings of words or structures are specified by the communicators in accordance with the concrete context. This process involves pragmatic narrowing and pragmatic broadening.This thesis, by drawing upon the previous studies and insights, proposes a three-level model of pragmatic enrichment, including the lexical, grammatical, and rhetoric levels. This model covers pragmatic enrichment for pronouns, vagueness, abstraction, negation, passive voice, metaphor, understatement, and circumlocution. Backed up by the principle of optimal relevance, this model employs both pragmatic narrowing and pragmatic broadening as basic strategies to interpret diplomatic euphemisms. Then self-enrichment by the spokesperson is proposed and discussed. Besides, a simple description is also given for some diplomatic euphemisms which cannot be enriched even under the framework established in the present research.The major research findings of this project are as follows:(a) The interpretation of diplomatic euphemism is a process of pragmatic enrichment; (b) The audience obtains optimal relevance of diplomatic euphemism, namely its ad hoc meaning, through pragmatic narrowing and broadening; (c) The spokesperson sometimes carries on self-enrichment in the talk-turns of the press conference; (d) The spokesperson may deliberately adopt some diplomatic euphemisms which cannot be smoothly figured out even when adequate information is provided.