A Study Of Communicative Context Adaptation Of English Euphemisms In American TV Series Desperate Housewives

Previous studies of euphemism phenomenon mainly focus on a single topic,and lack of an integrated and systematic theory as theoretical framework.There is still a large extending space for euphemism.However,the Adaptation Theory which is based upon "the perspective on language" could exactly compensate for this major fault.The Adaptation Theory mainly devotes itself to exploring that using language is composed of the continuous making of linguistic choices.In accordance with it,communicative context adaptation by Verschueren is selected to be the guiding theory of this thesis.The author chooses a large quantity of examples from a popular American TV series:Desperate Housewives.The author studies how to apply euphemism appropriately in communicators' mental world(mental motivations.emotive factors,and personal traits),physical world(body languages,eye contact.physical status,and relative positions),and social world(social conventions,social status.gender.and religious beliefs).The purposes of this thesis are:the utilization of euphemism is a powerful device of choice-making:communicators make choices in accordance with their needs:using euphemism is a result of adapting to various context factors.The significances of this thesis are:theoretically speaking,this thesis is of great theoretical significance for further studies in that euphemism studies have been enriched from a different angle;realistically speaking,this thesis has a great value for people to know euphemism correctly in cross-cultural communication and English teaching.The author finally arrives at the conclusion:English euphemism is a process of language selection which is a result of dynamically adapting communicators' mental,physical and social world.