英语委婉语及语用功能(初稿)

2020年12月10日发(作者：伍尚仁)
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1．Introduction
The word “euphemism” original comes from the ancient Greek. The prefix “eu” means well,
and the root “pheme” means speech or saying. Thus euphemism literally means to speak in a
pleasant way or with good words. The Oxford Dictionary define “euphemism” as an indirect way
for people often to use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it
seem more acceptable than it really is. Similarly, euphemism also belongs to a kind of figures of
speech, in which indirectness replaces directness of statement, usually in an effort to avoid
offensive bluntness in some subject involving delicacy or taboo.
No matter what definition is given, euphemism has been a widely used language, and works
in multi areas, such as death, age, disease, physical imperfection and so on. Yet less of which refer
to the other fields, such as jobs, professions, some social issues as well as some current hot topics.
Euphemisms have been studied in plenty of fields, such as social communication, newspapers,
advertisement, teaching field, military affairs, and political events. Since it acts as a kind of
culture phenomenon and plays an important role in communication, it is of great importance to
focus on studying its pragmatic functions. Euphemism is intended communication method, so one
must pay attention to what he is talking about, who he is talking with, where he is talking and why
he is talking like that while using euphemism.
2. Formation of English Euphemism
2.1 Phonetic Approach
English is an alphabetic language, which has provided ample sources for the creation of
euphemism. The following ways are used to achieve a euphemistic effect.
2.1.1 Clipping
It means to reduce some front or back syllables of a word for evasiveness. For example,
“Ladies” for Ladies’ room, “gents” for Gentlemen’s Room, and “ca” for cancer.
2.1.2 Initialing
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It refers that putting the first letters of each phase together to constitute an expression of
euphemism, for example, “WC” for “water closet”, “VD” for “venereal disease”, “BO” for “body
odour”, and “AD” for “those who swing both ways”.
2.1.3 Respelling
This approach means the formation of the euphemism repeats a word or the syllable in a
word, or part of the letter, for example, “helter-skelter”. This approach in forming euphemism is
commonly used in the situation. When a child goes to the toilet, such as “Pee-Pee”, which refers to
“piss”, he can be said a user of euphemism.
2.1.4 Backslang and Pig Latin
It means to reverse the spelling of some taboos or some sensitive terns, such as “mur” for
“rum”, “elly-bay” for “belly”, “uck-fay” for “fuck”, and “ecnop” for “ponce”.(Ma Qiaozheng,
2007, 137)
2.2 Lexical Approach
2.2.1 Compounding
It means two or more words compressed into one new word both orthographically and
phonetically. For example, “gezunda” is a form of euphemism for “chamber pot” since the object
usually “goes under” the bed.
2.2.1 Synonym Replacement
It means to use the words with similar meaning to replace the sensitive terms or derogatory
terms so as to be more tactful. Such as “slim or slender” for “skinny”, “stout” or “plump” for “fat”.
2.2.2 Negation
It means to express the disagreeable things in an opposite way, for example, “unwise” for
“stupid”, “untruthful” for “false”. (Shao Junhang, 2007, 18)
2.3 Grammatical Approach
The achievement of euphemistic effect actually depends on a psychological “distance”.
People think the linguistic signs and the objects have a kind of equivalent relations, and taboo
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words have been banned because people equal them to the things they refer to. To avoid the
direct association, the radical method is to increase the distance between the two. The past
tense is to show the distance, including the distance of the anti-clockwise time as well as the
psychological distance.

2.3.1 The Use of Past Tense
Using the past tense can drag people’s willingness backwards, which makes people feel that
those unacceptable things or face injury have been the past, thus creating a certain degree of
psychological distance to achieve euphemism effects.
2.3.2 The Use of Progressive Tense
The progressive tense emphasize the temporary movements. Using it in the euphemism makes
people feel that it is only an immature thought of the speaker, and the listener can reject it without
worrying about hurting other’s face.
2.3.3 The Use of Passive Voice
In the passive voice, the objective is the subject of the sentence, so it focuses more on the
objectivity of things and avoids referring the subject so as to help people speak tactfully and
achieve euphemistic effect.
3. Classifications of Euphemism in Different Occasions
3.1 Talking About Death
Contemporary euphemisms for death tend to be quite colorful, and someone who has died is
said to have passed away, passed on, bite the big one, bought the farm, croaked, given up the
ghost, kicked the bucket, gone south, tits up, shuffled off this mortal coil, or assumed room
temperature. When buried, they may be said to be pushing up daisies, sleeping with the fishes or
taking a dirt nap. There are hundreds of such expressions in use. For example, people use “go to
sleep forever” to politely describe one in death. Besides, in religion fields, people are inclined to
the following expressions: to return to the dust; to pay the debt of nature; to be called to God; to be
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with God; to go to the way of all flesh. In our habitual life, we often use be no longer with us,
breathed his last, join the majority.
3.2 Talking About Age
In eastern culture, it would be taken as a good quality to pay the aged ones homage. The ones
in their aged years are considered as what with rich experiences and wits. However, in western
countries, if a person is gradually going into his old age, in possibility, he might be ignored. And
there will little contribution made by them. Therefore, the aged people are often avoided being
called as old people, but they use “the elderly, the senior citizens, or the distinguished gentlemen.
Similarly, to be old often said to be in the evening of one’s life, in one’s golden age ,or not be as
young as somebody.”
3.3 Talking About Disease and Physical Imperfection
In social communication, if a man is not under health, people often say “he is looking for color
or under the weather.” Similarly, if a man is with mental deficiency, people can say “he has a tile
loose, he has a cylinder, he is out of his mind, he is in an unbalanced way, he is not all there or he
is not right in the head.” Moreover, there is a common saying that social disease are on the
increase all over the world, which means sex disease rate is rising. For some disease, it would be
ungentle to talk about their names directly. For example, a patient is diagnosed with a cancer, it is
not mercy to directly talk with him, generally, a doctor may use “the big C” or “long illness” to
replace.
3.4 Talking About Jobs and Professions
With the rapid development of advanced technology, a lot of new industries are coming up.
But there is a big gap in the big social circumstances. In the purpose of describing them out of
discrimination, there comes up a lot of euphemism, which is inoffensive to the others. Best
examples are: A dustman is called a sanitation worker or an engineer; a waitress or a waiter is
called a dining-room attendant; a barber is called a hairstylist; a tree-trimmer is called a tree
surgeon; a gardener is called a landscape architect; a secretary is called an administrative assistant;
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a housewife is called a household executive, a domestic executive or an engineer; a garbage
collector is called a garbologist.
3.5 Talking About Some Social Issues or Hot Topics
Euphemism is also wide spread in talking about social issues and hot topics. For example, if a
factory or an enterprise is going to bankruptcy, news report will publish it into the factory is
phasing itself out. When talking about aggression, people often use “police action” to veil; when
talking about poverty, people use “the negative saver, the needy, the culturally disadvantaged, the
culturally deprived.” Crime is also a very sensitive topic. The judge can say, “I hereby sentence
you to five years in prison.” While the families and friends of the criminal are likely to use the
euphemistic expression, such as “to send to the big house, to send up the river, to be living at the
government’s expense” “prison” is called “correctional center”; “burglary” is called “surreptitious
entry”; “rape” is called “criminal assault”; “the officer’s act of stealing or embezzling” is called
“They misuse public funds.” “Death penalty” is called “capital punishment”.
4. Pragmatic functions of English Euphemism
Euphemism is a mirror of social psychology and reflects different psychological states in
society. In communication, we often use euphemisms to show politeness and avoid irritation. As a
means of communication, euphemism is generated and used for a number of reasons. It may be
used to avoid taboo, or for disguising, or for being polite and considerate, or for encouraging
others.
4.1 To Avoid Taboos and Something Unspeakable
To avoid taboos and something unspeakable is the main purpose of using euphemism. When
conveying opinions, we do not want to provoke others. Therefore, we try to use mild and pleasant
words to replace unhappy, embarrassing or sad expressions. We not only try to be not
straightforward in conversations, but also try to avoid taboo words. Distancing themselves from
breaking social rules, people will use subtle words, roundabout way of saying to meet the
communicatory needs. In ancient civilization, because of less advanced technology, people did not
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understand nature but revere something unquestioningly as well as associate them language error,
for which taboo came into being. With the evolution of modern civilization, although language
taboos no longer are as stringent as they were in the primitive society, religious beliefs and social
customs still tightly maintain the existence of these euphemisms. Euphemism is essential in
people’s daily life. Its indirect and ambiguous characters dilute and weaken the discomfort that
taboo brings to people, so euphemism is psychologically easier to be accepted. Therefore, people’s
avoidance of taboo is one of the psychological motivations that euphemism came into being. In
social communication, people are commonly frightened to talk about “death”, which would bring
them horror and upset. However, they are inevitable even if humans are not willing to mention.
Consequently, if they come up as accidents, people would rather talk them in an implicit way to
express their hope. For example, Death is journey to the heaven (Damaris, 2012: 1452) to remove
one’s horror. Besides, some of human body parts are unspeakable in conversations. For example,
people use “the secret part, the bottom, and the box” to substitute the genitals.
4.2 To Show Politeness and Respect
Politeness is one of the most principles to avoid something ungentle to talk directly. The
philosopher Engels once said：“On the 14
th
of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the
greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when
we came back we found him in this armchair, peacefully gone to sleep……but
forever. ”(GuoNing,2006:277) The words were for lamenting for Marx, in which “cease to think”
and “go to sleep” are used to talk “death”. Similarly, if someone is pregnant, that is often said that
“she is in the family way” to show respects.
In times of economic difficulties, such as during a depression, finding a profession may not be
easy, even a job of most low-paid involving manual labor might be hard to get. Then one might
become unemployed; or to use a more recent and sophisticated term, be involuntarily leisured. Of
course, long periods of such “leisure” can be quite miserable, especially for the poor. The term
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poor, though, is having a struggle to survive. During the last twenty years or so, several other
words have been trying to take its place, at least among educated circles and in “officials”. As
some unfortunate person put it: “At first I was poor, then I became needy, later I was
underprivileged. Now I’m disadvantaged. I still don’t have a cent to my name, but I sure have a
great vocabulary.”
4.3 To Euphonize the Words and Encourage
In teaching activities, euphemisms are used to show respect. Teachers must use positive words
to encourage the students and not to hurt their self-esteem. The motivation of encouraging others
means that using fuzzy expressions to avoid some unpleasant or harsh words, specifically, to
encourage the ones with poor intelligence, poor academic performance or less successful careers
to make further efforts so as not to lose their confidence. For example, people beautify the
unsuccessful ones into “coming from the lower and of the achievement range”. When talking
about the student with poor academic performance, we may say: “He is working at his own level”,
or “He can do better work with help”. If the student is obtuse, we may say in other words like “He
is a bit slow for his age”, while “lazy students” or “poor student” may be said as “underachiever”.
In order to encourage others, the sentence “He has failed many major courses” can be expressed in
other ways, “He has got less than a passing grade for a few major courses” or “I’m sorry to find
him an underachiever for some major courses”. The above motivations of euphemism reflect that
at all levels of communication, the use of euphemism can maintain the self-esteem, strengthen
people’s confidence, balance their mind, and eliminate the misunderstanding and friction among
people.
4.4 To Veil and Disguise
Since euphemism is fuzzy, politicians began to take advantage of its “camouflage” to
whitewash the reality. At this point, euphemism conforms to the politicians’ cheating
psychological characters. After “the Watergate scandal” in the US, this plot is known as “scenario”
and the ones who steal intelligence are known as the “plumbers”. (He Qing,2011,61) At the
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beginning of the 20th century, the western labor relations were tight and striking became a serious
social conflict, but the press described the “labor dispute” as the “industrial dispute”, while “labor
relations” was replaced.
In addition, sometimes people feel shameful to directly say some “disgraceful” things in daily
life. They think that disgraceful things not only tarnished their image, but also would result in
embarrassing conversation between the two. Therefore, people choose to avoid using vulgar and
indecent words or the so-called offensive words, but use the euphemistic words, for example,
when people in Britain and America talk about the illegitimate children, they generally do not use
“bastard” but use the euphemistic expression “love child”. The former one has an obvious
meaning of “hybrid” besides the meaning of “illegitimate child”, while “love child” does not
contain censuring or cursing meanings, which not only reflects the open-minded attitude of “no
discrimination against illegitimate children”, but also reflects the elegant manner of the user. 1.3
Being Polite and Considerate. Euphemisms are used to veil and disguise, particularly in political
events and diplomacy, in which some countries or states use the access to veil facts, to euphonize
their vicious behaviors. In the Vietnam War, the Americans called the bombing raid as the
defensive measure and the close air report.
5. Conclusion
This thesis discusses the motivation and formation of English euphemism. In daily life, people
often do not frankly say what they want to say, instead, they use euphemism to express themselves
in an indirectly way, which may be more easily accepted. Euphemism is frequently used in
communication and it has large impacts on the communicative effects. The study of it is not only
practical, but also instructive. Just like other language phenomena, euphemism is a means taken
by the speaker for their communicative purposes.



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