A Pragmatic Analysis Of Euphemisms In Friends

Euphemism, a common linguistic phenomenon, is a special way of expressionadopted by people in social interaction in order to achieve ideal communicative goalswithout threatening the hearers face by some blunt or explicit utterances. Nowadays,euphemisms have gradually filtered into every part of people s social lives, thusbecoming an indispensable tool to ensure the successful interpersonal relationship inlanguage use, as a result of which wide interest has been aroused so that large numbersof linguists and scholars have made contributions to many valuable analysis ofeuphemisms from different viewpoints of linguistics, including the rhetoric, semantic,cultural, sociolinguistic and pragmatic ones as well. However, it s a pity that most ofthem so far just focus on euphemisms in a broad sense---more theory-oriented thanempirical studies.Based on the Cooperative Principle by Grice and the Politeness Principle by Leech,this thesis probes into the relationship of euphemisms with CP and PP, and summarizesthe constructive devices, realization and communicative functions of euphemismsemployed in the show by means of the combination of a quantitative study with aqualitative one towards the script as well as the video of688euphemistic expressions inthe100sample dialogues selected from the American sitcom Friends at random.After some detailed analysis of euphemisms employed in the show, we havereached the conclusion as follows:1. Euphemisms adopted with a high frequency in the show can be constructed notonly by verbal devices such as phonetic devices, lexical devices, grammatical devices,and rhetoric devices, but also by some unconventional verbal devices----bycontradictions, by giving hints and by topic-shifting; as well as by some non-verbaldevices----facial expressions, eye-contact, and body gestures.2. The euphemistic effects can be achieved by the intentional violation of themaxims of the CP and the simultaneous observation of the PP. What s more, suchintentional violation of the CP is not only the simple one----violating one maxim at onetime, but a more intricate one----violating two or more maxims at the same time, that isto say, the violation of each of the four maxims in practice sometimes can overlap insome degree.3. Euphemisms in the show mainly have three communicative functions: thefunction for humorous effect, the function for self-protection and the function forpoliteness. In summary, this thesis aims at probing into the pragmatic attributes ofeuphemisms in Friends----a specific sphere, thus extending the scope of euphemisticresearch. It is also hoped that this research can offer some further insights into a deeperunderstanding and appreciation of euphemisms, thus promoting the interpersonalrelationship and even the cross-cultural communication.