On Characteristics and Application of English Euphemism.doc

on characteristics and application of english euphemismcontentsabstract摘要introduction11 the origin and definition of euphemism22 the characteristics of english euphemism32.1 universality3 2.2 having division of the sentimental color 3 2.3 having life 42.4 sociality42.5 re-symbolism4 2.6 arbitrariness5 2.7 accuracy5 2.8 conventionality53 the application of english euphemism in daily life6 3.1 in occupation application63.1.1 to raise the professional status 63.1.2 to beautify coarse, grating occupation73.1.3 to use the analogy7 3.2 in education application8 3.3 in politics and war application8 3.4 in disease application9 3.5 in age and weight application10 3.6 in sex application11 3.7 in birth application11conclusion13 bibliography14 abstract：in every society there are certain things that are supposed to be unspeakable. a fair number of words make someone embarrassed、unhappy、dislike or fear when used in communication. if we express the meaning in the direct way, we will make such impression which is vulgar, frivolous, and impolite. in order to avoid the embarrassment or ease the sting of harsh words, man has created euphemisms. in western cultures, many of the fields that people tend to euphemize widely are not different from anywhere in the world. this paper introduces the origin and definition of euphemism, the characteristics of english euphemism and the application of english euphemism and the causes of using euphemism, with much weight attached to the latter three.key words：english euphemism taboo context characteristics application 摘要：在任何一个社会中，总有些不能直截了当说出来的话。在人们交际的过程中，有些词语使人尴尬，惹人不快，招人讨厌或令人害怕，如果直接表达出来会给人一种粗俗、轻浮、无礼的印象。因此在一些场合为了避免难堪，或减轻对人的感情伤害，人们创造了委婉语。在西方社会文化生活中，在很多领域，人们广泛地使用着委婉语，这和世界上多数地区是一样的。本文追溯了委婉语的历史渊源，界定了委婉语的概念，随后着重介绍了英语委婉语的特点及在各个领域的应用，并探讨了人们使用这些委婉语的原因。关键词: 英语委婉语 禁忌语 语境 特点 应用14introductioneuphemism refers to mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or offensive ones. invention here being the mother of necessity, the need for euphemism arose. in every society, there are certain things that are not supposed to be speakable or mentioned directly. a fair number of words are labeled frivolous, vulgar, or at least inconsiderate. but in communication, for better maintaining social relationship and exchanging ideas, people have to resort to a kind of language, which can make distasteful ideas seem acceptable or even desirable. this type of language is defined as “euphemism” in linguistics and it comes in a variety of forms and is used for a variety of reasons. unlike other figurative language devices, for example, the metaphor of poetry or prose, euphemism aims to surprise and entertain (lee, 1966:125), strives to avoid offense by means of circumlocution. as a communicative skill-“feeling it like it is not (time, 1978:164) euphemism abounds in our life.” euphemisms are powerful linguistic devices which “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those on being plainspoken, ever get through a day without using them (rawson, 1981:245).” much research has been done on euphemism because of its prominence in language. a lot of great works came into being during the study of euphemism, which lay a foundation for further research. in 1936, in his book the american linguistic meneken fully discussed why hundreds of euphemisms had been born and become popular on the basis of american history and social altered background. his book is a valuable legacy for euphemism study. in 1981, british linguist hugh rawson complied a dictionary of euphemism and other double talks which embodied the achievements of research on euphemism over the decades by many british and american linguists.the euphemism is one phenomenon of language in human society, which is an important method of harmonizing the relationship between people. it is a figure of speech. english euphemism also becomes an inalienable part in topic of the trans-culture human relations.1 the origin and definition of euphemismenglish euphemism has a long history, and many euphemism words come from the bible .and in the canterbury tales written by chaucer and plays and poems of shakespeare, varities of euphemism words were applied. in britain, the usage of euphemism could be traced back to 11th century. in that time, genteel vocabulary and obscene vocabulary were distinguished obviously. the former is just the precursor of euphemism. in the early 1580s, english writer george blunt first used word “euphemism”. it originates in greek prefix “eu” which means “good, sounding well” and stem “pheme” which means “speech or saying”. people applied it in order to avoid mentioning things considered to be taboo and specific unpleasantnesses which relate to such things as accidents, illness, death, sex, excretion, the phenomenon of physiology and natural conduct and so on directly and talk about them in an euphemismistic way. since 1970s linguistic euphemism has become popular again. and euphemism, as a language phenomenon now, is applied very frequently and widely. american scholar hugh rawson once said: “the euphemism submerges our language that none of us can get down one day without using it, even the same for who brags themselves the straight forward person.” hence, giving it an accurate definition is quite necessary:first, george blunt defined it as: a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word.second, in the radom house college dictionary it means: the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. third, its meaning is: used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either ones own face or through giving offense, that of the audience or of some third party. (allen, k. and burridge, k., 1991:18) fourth, its definition is: that figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasant association, instead of the harsher or more offensive one that would more precisely designate what is intended. (oxford english dictionary, 1989) fifth, the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted. (websters encyclopedic unabridged dictionary of the english language, 1996) sixth, euphemizing is generally defined as substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words. (enright d.j., 1985) seventh, words used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming. (oxford concise dictionary of linguistics, shanghai foreign languages publishing house, 2000) these definitions above, tell us different meanings, however, several similar features can be summarized as the following:1. euphemism is a substitution of unpleasant or taboo words.2. euphemism should be considered to be a kind of rhetoric skill.3. euphemism in the language should have the functions of softening, alleviating, concealing or showing politeness.2 the characteristics of english euphemism2.1 universalityeuphemizing generally exists in almost every nation all over the world, no matter how civilized it is. and in every natural languages both large family of languages and languages of minorities, using euphemism is a common phenomenon. because almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning directly. that is, nearly every culture has its own taboos. though using euphemism doesnt express directly, everyone familiar with english can understand what actually meant immediately. and plenty of usages of euphemizing of taboos are accepted commonly by the people.2.2 having division of the sentimental colormentioning euphemism approximately, some are lofty, some are affectionate and some are the vulgar bodies. for example, in the expression of death “to die” in meaning a series of euphemism words, a part has the lofty color; like “to expire” “to pay the debt of nature” “to sleep” and so on, but has another part for the affectionate of spoken language, slang or vulgar body, like to kick the buck , “to go west”(张廷茂1996:451).to different people, the using of euphemism words is different. they have obvious division of the sentimental color.2.3 having life some euphemisms having once completed its social intercourse mission would not be inexistence, but some then are given new life in the long-term usage, (its meanings) are accepted broadly and inherit to take over down, becoming fixed phrase language or direct expression synonym, and exist in vocabulary. such as euphemism of the expression of liquor teases: “mediline”, “high cap”, “eye-opener” and so on; and also have some substitutions of trousers , “inexpressible”, “unwhisperable”, “unspeakable”, “one-must-not-men”, “indiscribable” and so on.2.4 socialitythe language is a kind of social phenomenon; the different society could not exert a same expression method. even if in identical societys different social classes, social stratums, even different professions in the identical social class, the social stratum as well as the quantity of people under different culture backgrounds using the euphemism should be also different. for example the word “dead”, in each society, in each culture has the different expression methods. according to the research statistics provided by the related scholars, in chinese the expression of “dead” reaches more than 300, according to the incomplete statistics, in english it probably has more than 230. if taking into consideration of those tactful parlances of temporariness, its amount would be far over this number. like person believing in marxist will speak “to see a marx”; person believing in christianity will say be with god”. in brief, the euphemizing would be inevitably applied if one wants to perform in the society.2.5 re-symbolismfrom the definition of euphemism, we can know clearly that euphemism is using one expression to replace another. “that is to say, euphemism is a re-symbolizing of things, ideas, or events already symbolized with precision in mind. therefore people cant randomly utilize an expression to euphemize the taboos. the re-symbolizing should provide clues to catch the intended meaning of the taboos and should sound indirect or pleasanter.” hence, euphemism is a kind of substitution in fact; it is a manifestation of re-symbolism.2.6 arbitrarinesseuphemisms come from daily life, and most of them come from ordinary people. thus, arbitrariness is one of the most important characteristics of modern euphemism. once a man was interviewed on a farm on the west of canada, he called bull “gentleman cow”. he used euphemism very optionally. and some expressions of going to the toilet are also applied freely. such as “pass water”, “go to school”, and “wash ones hand” and so on.2.7 accuracystemming from human communications need, people do not state the matter directly, but use the relatively tactful expression the usage of euphemism, thus, an identical matter has the different expression methods. using of different expression methods should be in accordance to the different linguistic environments, the goals and the requests, each expression in the specific linguistic environment is most accurate. for example, there are many words which mean “to die”, such as “go depart”, “decease”, “pass away”, “breathe ones debt to nature”, “be in heaven”, “and be with god” and so on. in the daily life, people are often not willing to say some kind of misfortune, particularly “the death, so usually change to express with euphemism. 2.8 conventionalityafter peoples long-term use, many english euphemisms have become the fixed expressions and english glossaries. as they are used widely in peoples daily life, which let people understand others easily when communicating with others, thus, this causes these expressions way anglicizing. like “bite the dust” means go down in defeat; return to the “dust” means “died”. some expressions with same meaning expressions way are substituted by different euphemism unceasingly. such as, mad which instead by crazy, insane, lunatic, mentally deranged and so on(刘寅齐, 2000:37).3 the application of english euphemism in daily lifeenglish euphemism obtained the widespread application. we may say that nobody can communicate with others very well without using euphemism in daily life. the following gives some explanations to english euphemism application.3.1 in occupation applicationin each kind of occupation, some make much money, some make little money, certain occupations are lofty, and some professions are dirty, painstaking, tired. in order to meet peoples psychological need, the occupation euphemism appeared. the main purpose of the usage of professional euphemism is to change traditional low occupations to be dignified. euphemism is the way to express occupation which is widespread and varied.3.1.1 to raise the professional status in western countries, the mental labor is regarded as the noble work, but the manual labor is regarded as the base and low work. the manual labor workers reward is far lower than the mental workers. this characteristic is reflected in many professions. such as, we call head-waiter “captain”; call dustman “sanitary engineer”; call elevator “member of the vertical transportation corps”; call technician “engineer”; call mechanic “automobile engineer”; call butcher “meat technologist”; what is more, the suffix “-ician” means the familiarity or is engaged in some item of academic professional personnel(王佳艺, 2003:13). we use “shoe rebuilder” instead of “shoe make”, use “sanitation engineer” instead of “garbage man”, use “utter maintenance man” instead of “dishwasher”, use “clothing refresher” instead of “washwoman”, use “animal control warden” instead of “boy watcher”, use “hair stylist” instead of “barber”, and so in. so the result of this is many words with this suffix appeared. like use cosmetician, beautician instead of hair dresser, use landscape technician instead of gardener.3.1.2 to beautify coarse, grating occupationthis is to meet peoples psychological need, make the people to be easier to accept, and also cause these occupations sound be more temperate. if from some kind of angle, the funeral is one item lofty and the sacred work, but anyway, it needs to do with icy “dead”, sounding appalling(勒梅琳, 2005:17).so the fine reputable saying of “under-take” is “funeral service practitioner”, and we use “grief therapist” instead of “funeral director”.3.1.3 to use the analogyin the euphemism for occupation people often use analogies which make the humble name elegant. for example, “landscape worker” refers to “landscape architect”, “prison guard” refers to “prison officer”, “housing odd-job man” refers to “dwelling engineer”, “maid, housekeeper” refers to “domestic helper”, and “air-hostess” refers to “service manager”. there are many euphemistic expressions of professions.euphemistic expression original expression tree surgeon (树木整形家) tree trimmer (花木匠)custodian engineer (室内工程师) floor sweeper (室内清洁工)mattress engineer (床垫工程师) bedding manufacturer (床垫制造商)exterminating engineer (灭鼠工程师) rat-catcher (捕鼠工)route-salesman (定向推销员) milkman (送奶工)daily help (日常帮手) charwoman (勤杂工)supervisor (监督员) foreman (工头)street orderly (街道卫生员) dustman (垃圾清洁工)brush salesman (小物品推销员) door-to-door canvasser (串巷推销员) service salesman (服务性售货员) gas station attendant (汽油站服务员)table service man (餐厅服务员) busboy (餐馆勤杂工)aisle manager (商店铺面经理) floor walker (百货商店巡视员)night hostess (晚间女主人) telephone answerer (女生宿舍电话员)captain (领班) waiter (男服务员)hostess (女主人) waitress (女服务员)realtor (房地产经纪人) real estate agent (房地产代管人)3.2 in education applicationwith the development of times, there have appeared many euphemisms in educational field, and these euphemisms are to manifest the fuzzy characteristic. in specific linguistic environment, these fuzzy usages can not cause the different meanings or create barriers for the human relations, but only expands the field of using the taboo language. such as, “a stupid student” is called “a slow learner or underachiever”; when talking about below average student: she/he is working at her/his own level. it is better to say “can do better work with help” than say “slow or stupid”; and “depend on others to do his/her work” is equal to “cheat in clad”(刘寅齐, 2000:38). for those students who are lying we say “he has a tendency to stretch the truth.” and we use “special students” instead of “disable students”; use “visually retarded students” instead of “blind students”.in school, there is no “poor children”, but children unable to see much beyond the necessities to todays world because of the modest finance of the family”. and there is no “poor or lazy student”, but “children with untapped potential.” there is no “underachieves”, but “exceptional students”. and the fact that students have class is “classroom learning experience”. well, there are some euphemistic expressions in education: (1) he has difficulty in distinguishing between imaginary and fact information. (he lies.) (2) he needs help in learning to adhere to rules and standards of fair play. (he cheats.) (3) he is a bit slow for his age. (he is dull or foolish.) criticizing the student with these euphemisms, not only can it play the education role, but also can defend students self-respect. thus it can reduce distance between teachers and students, and can make the in-class atmosphere harmonious. this shows the effect which should have in education.3.3 in politics and war applicationbecause of the requirements of politics and war, the british and american politicians used some euphemisms to conceal the internal truth, and cheat the public. for example, the “water gate” is called “scenario”. some american writers criticized that these euphemisms created from the “water gate” were demoralizing and hypocritical. “time” even said directly, “these euphemisms all tell it like it is not.” the person who steals the information is called “plumber”; the person who is against government is often called “dissidents”; american and british people name “riot” as “disturbance” or “disorder”; “strike” is called “walk-out, down tools, industrial action or industrial dispute”; “economic crises” is called “recession” or “depression”. in the aspect of military affair, “the number of the dead” is called “body count”; “aggression” is called “pre-emptive action” or “involvement”; “rout” is called “phased withdrawal”、“strategic withdrawal”、“light and scattered action” or “break off contact with enemy”. the euphemisms for “to kill” are often called “to take care of, to dispose of, to remove, to rub out, to puff out, to put away, to touch off etc.” “u.s. overseas military employment” is called “american presence”; “civilian casualties” is called “collateral damage”; “bombing and blasting” is called “softening up the resistance”. people seldom mention “nuclear weapons”, but “an anti-personnel weapon”. “non-nuclear weapon” is called “a conventional weapon”. american media called their invasion to haiti by their marines “an incident”, called the investi