A Pragmatic Analysis Of Euphemisms In Harry Potter

Euphemism is a special linguistic form.Euphemism is used to effectively lubricate interpersonal relations,which can make sentences sound roundabout,mild or polite.It is commonly agreed that euphemism has become a necessary element in everyone's life and can be seen everywhere during our communication.Euphemism has been developed by many scholars and linguists from different aspects: pragmatics,sociolinguistics,rhetoric,semantics,and cognition and so on.But most scholars' analyses of Harry Potter are just confined to the perspective of rhetoric or translation and not much has been studied pragmatically.Based on the previous research results,the thesis further studies Harry Potter from the pragmatic aspect based on a large number of euphemistic sentences collected from different characters' conversations in different contexts.This thesis also studies the cultural and psychological aspects of euphemism.We can find that people can use euphemisms to properly improve communication skills,and avoid unnecessary obstacles and awkwardness,because euphemism can not only improve interpersonal relationships but also bring conversational meaning.The purpose of this thesis is to expand the scope of euphemism research from the pragmatic perspective based on the theory of the Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle.There are many euphemistic expressions in Harry Potter which together constitute its basic characteristics.This thesis applies pragmatics to analyzing the functions of euphemisms,classifying them differently from the previous studies,and analyzing how euphemisms observe or violate the CP and the PP in conversations.Euphemism is the best way for the characters in novels to express courtesy and avoid taboos,so as to make conversations more smoothly.The application of euphemism is inseparable from the context in which they observe the maxims of the PP while violating the maxims of the CP.There are five chapters in this thesis.Chapter one is the general introduction to the thesis,which includes the research background,the research purpose,the research questions and the structure of the thesis.Chapter two gives a review of the study of English euphemism,which includes the definition,the classifications and the research status at home and abroad.Chapter three describes the theoretical framework used in this thesis: the CP,the PP,their relationship and the theories of text.Chapter four,which is the main part,analyzes euphemisms in Harry Porter in a pragmatic way.Chapter five is a conclusion of the whole thesis,and then discusses the limitations,suggestions and further research directions.