从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用

1 / 35 从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用 Abstract The word euphemism comes from the Greek, eu-means good, and pheme-, speech or saying, and together it means literally to speak with good wo rds or in a pleasantt manner. Euphemism, as a cult ural pheno menon as wwell as a l inguistic concept, h as attract ed people s attentio n for a lo ng time. I t has long been a to pic of muc h interest . Generall y speaking , people w ould use m ore euphem isms in co mmunicatin g with the opposite sex; women would use more than men would ; older pe ople would use more than young er generat ions. Peopple would m ore use eu phemisms i n power relations than in cl ose relati ons. Peopl e with hig her educat ion would use more e uphemisms. The above factors: age, sex, social sta tus, educa tion, etc. do not wo rk separat ely. In co mmunicatin g, they ar e interlac ed with ea ch other a nd guide o ur choice of euphemi sms. Wheth er to use euphemisms or taboo words also depends, to a largee extent, o n the atti tudes of p articipant s (particu larly spea kers) and the purpos e of conve rsations. The articlle consist s of six p arts. Part one expla ins 2 / 35 what t he meaning of euphem ism is. Pa rt two is saying the Cooperati ve Princip le in brie fly. Coopeerative Pri nciple, th e cornerst one theory of pragma tics, is o ne of the main princ iples that guide peoople s comm unication. The Coope rative Pri nciple and its maxim s can expl ain what t he literal meaning i s and its real inten tion in co mmunicatio n and ensu re that in an exchan ge of conv ersation. Part three presents, the forma tion euphe mism, name ly, formal innovatio n, semanti c innovati on, rhetor ical devic es, and gr ammatical ways. Part four disc usses the communicat ive functi on of euph emism is s ubstitutio n, politen ess, disgu ise, defen se, etc. P art five s erves as t he main bo dy of this article. Generally speaking, euphemisms violate t he Quality , Quantity and Manneer Maxim of the CP du e to diffe rent reaso ns like su bstitution , disguise etc. And basically euphemismss observe t he Relatio n Maxim. F rom the an alysis, it can be al so found t hat someti mes an eup hemism can be regard ed as viol ation of t wo maxims of the CP at the sam e time. Pa rt six con cludes the whole art icle. Key Words Co operative Principle; Euphemism ; 3 / 35 Communic ative funcction 【摘 要 】委婉语 (euphem ism)一词起源于 希希腊语。 Eu 意思是 好好的 ， pheme 意 思思是 话语 ，因此字 面面上的意思是说好听的 话话或用礼貌的方式说话 。委婉语是一个语言学 概概念，同时也是一种文 化化现象，长久以来一直 受受到人们的关注。总体 上上讲人们在与异性进行 言言语交际时，要 比在同 性性面前更多地使用委婉 语语，女性要比男性更多 地地使用委婉语，年长的 人人要比年青的人更多地 使使用委婉语。人们在 权权势关系 的语境中往 往往要比在 亲密关系 的的语境中更多地使用委 婉婉语。受 教育 程度 越越高的人，越注意自己 的的言谈，因而更多地使 用用委婉语。上述因素年 龄龄 、性别、 社会 地 位位、教育等并不孤立存 在在，在交际中，他们交 织织在一起决定着委婉语 的的使用。是否使用委婉 语语还要考虑说话者的态 度度和交谈的目的。文章 由由六个部分组成。第一 部部分解释了什么是委婉 语语。第二部分简单列出 合合作原则的各项原则。 它它作为语用学的 理论 基石之一，是指导人 们们语言交际的原则之一 。它可以很好地解释话 语语的字面意义和实际意 义义的关系，这对于交际 委委婉语显得尤为重要。 第第三部分说明委婉语的 构构成可以有很多种方式 ：形式变化，语义变化 ，修辞手段和语法手段 。第四部分阐述了交际 委委婉语出于替代、掩饰 、和礼貌等功能。第五 部部分是文章的 主体，并 说说明委婉语出于替代、 掩掩饰、和礼貌等原因主 要要违反了合作原则中的 质质、量和方式三个次4 / 35 则 ，基本上是遵循了合作 原原则中的相关原则。第 六六部分 总结 全文。 【关键字】合作原则 ; 委婉语 ; 交际功 能能 1. Introd uction I n the Oxfo rd Advance d Learners English Chinese Dictionary the expla nation of Euphemism is (examp le of the) use of pl easant, mi ld or indi rect words or phrase s in place of more a ccurate or direct on es1. An d in the L ongman Dic tionary of Contempor ary Englis h the expl anation of Euphemism is (an e xample of) the use oof a pleas anter, les s direct n ame for so mething th ought to b e unpleasa nt2. Fo r example, the man w ho wants t o us to ca ll him a “sanitatio nn engineer” instead o f a “garb a ge man” i s hoping wee will trea t him with more resp ect than w e presentl y do. T he word e uphemism comes from the Greek eu meanin g good a nd pheme m eaning sp eech or saying, a nd thus me ans litera lly to sppeak with g ood words or in a pl easant man ner3. Euphemisms have vari ous reason s for exis tence. Theey conceal the things people fe ar the mosst death, t he 5 / 35 dead, t he superna tural. The y cover up the facts of life o f sex and reproducti on and exc retion wh ich inevi tably remi nd even th e most ref ined peopl e that the y are made of clay, or worse. They are b eloved by individual s and inst itutions ( government s, especia lly) that are anxiou s to prese nt only th e handsome st possibl e images o f themselv es to the world. And they are imbedded s o deeply i n our lang uage that few of us, even thos e who prid e themselv es on bEin g plainspo ken, ever get throug h a day wi thout usin g them. Bu t some peo ple still mistake th e euphemis ms in the conversati on by the Cooperativ e principl e. Violati ng the CP, people al so can con tinue the conversati on with eu phemisms, which make the autho r interest in attitu des of par ticipants and the pu rpose of c onversatio n. That is our body today. of euphemismss Formal i nnovation To avoid t he emergen ce of cert ain letter or sound may achiev e the effe ct of euph emizing. T he formal innovation can hide audio-visu ally those words we dont wan t to say or we should nt say s o as to ach ieve 6 / 35 bett er outcom e in commu nication. Abbreviat ion is the shortenin g of a wor d and may be seen in the use o f the Brit ish expres sion LADIE S for ladi es room. There also is GENTS for gentle mens roomm. Apocop ation is a nother for m of abbre viation ap parent in the use of vamp for vampire he re meaningg a seducti ve woman. And lav is for lavat ory; homo is for hom osexual; c oca is for cocaine; bra is for brassieree. Initia ling is th e use of a cronyms in stead of t hEIr compo nent parts as in JC for “Jes u s Christ” , BM for bo wel moveme nt4, for water closet, f or body od or, for v enereal di sease, AID S for acqu ired immun e deficien cy syndromme, SARS fo r severe a cute respi ratory syn drome5. Backfor ming is th e substitu tion for o ne part off speech (u sed in sho rtened for m) for ano ther, as iin burgle (rob) whic h is deriv ed from b urglar66. Redup lication i s the repe tition of a syllablee or letter of a word . Particul arly commo n in child rens bath room vocab ulary, it substitute s pee-peee forpiss , poo-poo for bowel movement 7. 7 / 35 wordd A blen d word is a form of phonetic d istortion in which t wo or more words are squeezed together b oth orthog raphically and phone tically. A n example of this is gezunda for a cham ber pot, a term deri ved from t he fact th at this ob ject goes under the bed8. A dimin utive is t he formati on of a ne w term by nicking or shortenin g a name a nd adding a suffix i ndicating affection or smallne ss. Heini e, for exa mple, is t he diminut ive of hi nd end annd refers t o the butt ocks9. innovation Borrowing Most obvi ously, eup hemisms ma y be forme d by borro wing words from othe r languagees terms th at are les s freighte d with neg ative asso ciations. Thus, we u se Greek a nd Latin e xpressions for many bodily par ts and fun ctions. We have coin ed halitos is (bad br eath) from the Lat i n (halitus ) for br e ath and w e have sub stituted m icturition for the m ore vulgarr 8 / 35 Indo-Euro pean Pis s . In add i tion, Engl ish euphem isms also borrowed a lot of sc ientific o r academic terms, wh ich are be lieved to be more eu phemistic and object ive than t he usual t erms, suchh as magnet ic for s e xy and p e rspire for sweat a nd so on. Euphemisms may be ma de by a se mantic pro cess calle d widening . When a s pecific te rm becomes too painf ul or vivi d, we move up in the ladder of abstracti on. In thiis way, can cer become s growth a nd a girdl e becomes a foundati on . Somet imes, in a ddition to widening we divide the negati ve connota tions of a single di rect term between tw o or more words. Ins tead of sa ying syp h ilis ope n ly, we spe ak of a so cial disea se. shift Allied to the pheno menon of w idening is that of s emantic sh ift. This is the sub stitution of the who le, or a s imilar gen erality, f or the spe cific partt we do not choose to discuss. We may cre ate such m etonymies (substitut ions of th e whole fo r the part ) as rear end for b uttocks. Sometimes, as in 9 / 35 the expressio ns to sle ep with/go to bed wi th someone 10, we use words naming the larger ev ent in pla ce of more precise r eferences to the sex ual relati ons that a re part of the proceess. devicees Metaphor Euphemism s may be m ade by a p rocess cal led metaph orical tra nsfer, the compariso n of thing s of one k ind to thi ngs of ano ther. The euphemismss chosen ar e often ro manticizin g, poetici zing and s oftening o f the orig inal words like go to sleep; go to his long h ome; be ho me and fre e; rest in peace; be at rest; go to Heav en/Paradis e; join on es ancest ors; be ga thered to ones fath ers; join the immora ls for die 11, sho ck for ran dom bombin g, constru ctive dest ruction fo r severe d amage, hav e a road t o travel ffor have a long time to reach a n agreemen t and etc. In Engli sh, there is a kind of rhetori c called a posiopesis that can also act a s the way of euphemi zing. When we think we should not say so mething un der certai n conditio ns, we sud denly stop as when we say so meone is o ut (of wor k); she is expecting (a 10 / 35 baby); to take precaution s (against pregnancy ); to depa rt (from t his world) 12 Anal ogy can of ten be see n in the v ocabularie s of work. A tendenc y to eleva te menial or unskill ed jobs so metimes su bstituting a grand t itle for a large sallary can ma ke offal ssmell like a rose by promoting garbage me n to sanit ation engi neers or e ven to wasste-reduct ion manage rs. By imp lication, they becom e highly t rained tec hnicians a nd executi ves. Healtth-club sta ffs become fitness c oordinator s, and sen ators now have their shoes shi ned by the footwear maintenanc e engineer , formerly the Senat e bootblac k. Even if you are n ot a gover nment offi cial, yourr janitor i s now your buiding m aintenance engineer. Understat ement disp lays peopl es desi re to make t heir langu age less p ainful and direct. S o there is never an ugly woman in this w orld, she is at leas t plain. T eachers on ly tell pa rents that their chi ld is a bi t slow for his age, not retard ed. And ca ll senior citizen fo r old pers on. Take others th ings witho ut permiss ion can b e instead of steal. Periphra sis is jus t beating around the bush. 11 / 35 Peo ple often say euphem isms are w easel word s, becausee people ne ver call a spade a s pade when using euphhemisms. Fart is no t pleasant to ear, s o people c all it win d from the behind. S omeone wan ts you to go away, b ut he only says he w ill call y our carria ge for you . Someone living at the govern ment expen se may mak e you envy him, but actually h e is in pr ison. Man y sayings about goin g to WC ma ke a good use of per iphrasis l ike wash o nes hand s , powder o nes nose , spend a p enny. So d o the dro p for ad justment d ownward1 3 Gramma tical ways According to Boling er, Euphe mism is noot restrict ed to the lexicon. T here are g rammatical ways of t oning some thing down . Theref o re, euphem izing shou ld not be limited to lexical w ays; it ca n also be achieved b y grammati cal ways. Tense In E nglish, te nse can leend a littl e euphemis tic color to the exp ressions f or somethi ng undesir ed. Especi ally when people use want, hop e, think a nd wonder 12 / 35 or words l ike that t hey may al so make us e of the t ense to so und more e uphemistic ally. For example, I wondered if you wou ld mind he lping me? or I wond ered if yo u could he lp me?14 . Asking help this way, peopl e wont f e el so emba rrassed if they were refused. negation Th is method can lesson the painf ul impact of the lan guage that is not we lcomed. We say she i s not pret ty (Actual ly she is very ugly) , but that is accept able, beca use not pr etty does not equal to ugly , it could be plain too. Not pretty has a wider r ange of me aning than ugly. Sim ilar usage s are as t he followi ng: I dont think, I am afraid , I am not sure, I d ont like, etc. perso nal pronouuns The use of first personal p ronouns li ke we, our s, us, etc , can also make our speeches s ound more euphemisti c. You wou ld feel mo re welcomeed if you u sed we or our quite often. If a doctor s aid to you how do we feel toda y, you wou ld feel ve ry warm an d comforta ble, becau se it make s you thin k that thi s kind doc tor takes your illne ss as mutu al concernn. 13 / 35 Communic ative func tions of e uphemisms Language is for commu nication, whereas eu phemisms m ay lead to better co mmunicatioon. Using e uphemisms can avoid being pres umptuous i n language communica tion. When we have t o touch so me topics that are u npleasant, we tend t o choose m ore euphem istic expr essions to refer to those pain ful topics so as not to hurt t he hearers feeling . We can fi nd the the oretical f oundation for this m otivation in Leech s Politenes s Principl e. Euphemi sms just m inimize th e impolite ness and m aximize th e politene ss in comm unication. The funct ions of eu phemisms a re in agre ement with those of Politenesss Principle too, as t hey both o ffer more benefit to the heare r and leav e more cos t to the s peaker, wi th the pur pose that both of th e two side s will fee l respecte d and have favorable impressio n of each other. As politeness is usuall y regarded as the ma nifestatio n of human civilizat ion, euphe mism is on e of the m ost effect ive strate gies to di splay poli teness whi le modulat ing interp ersonal re lationship in human communicat ion. 14 / 35 Subst itution Ac cording to the defin itions of euphemism and we kno w that a g reat numbe r of Engli sh euphemi sms serve as the sub stitutions for verba l taboos. The term t aboo ( ta meaning m ark, boo meaning e xceedingly ) of Poly nesian ori gin denote s anything linguisti c and nonl inguistic, which is prohibited or forbid den. Tabooo refers to the situa tion in wh ich a word or name ccan be used in a comm unity only under spe cial condi tions, whe ther only by certain persons o r only in certain ci rcumstance s. Just as violating a cultura l taboo ca n be quite offensive , so is it with a ve rbal taboo in press conference s. The w o rd has b e en and con tinues to be in most societies perceived as a powe rful instr ument that may evoke evil spir its, make bad things happen an d instigat e to viole nce and re volution a nd numerou s other ac tivities. While tabo o of words occurs wh en a parti cular topi c is consi dered vali d for disc ussion, eu phemistic expression or terms are requir ed. So dip lomatic eu phemisms h ave a very serious r eason for being. The y can conc eal the th ings peopl e fear mosst death, the dead o r the supe rnatural. Euphemisms can 15 / 35 also eliminate unhappines s, embarra ssment and fear etc. so as to relieve pe ople psych ologicallyy. Politene ss is anot her very i mportant f unction th at euphemi sms serve in social life. Somme of the e uphemisms are used t o avoid cr udeness an d indecenc y for the sake of a polite con versation. 15 Gric e formulat ed Coopera tive Princ iple of ut terance inn which the Maxim of Manner was defined a s Be pers picuous an d specific ; To avoid obscurity ; To avoidd ambiguity ; To be br ief and to be orderl y. The ro undabout n ature of euphemisms goes agai nst the Ma xim of Man ner, which can only be fairly explained well by Leeech s Poli teness Pri nciple Ap probation Maxim: min imize disp raise of o ther, maxi mize prais e of other . In oth e r words, e uphemisms are to min imize impo lite expre ssions and maximize polite exp ressions. Besides the two funct ions of eu phemisms m entioned a bove, ther e is still another o ne more im portant fu nction at work in eu phemistic communicat ion, namel y, the Dis guise Func tion. Here we mean t hat becaus e of the v agueness o f euphemis ms, it has become a very impor tant tool for politi cal leaderrs 16 / 35 or the d iplomats o r statesme n to disto rt the fac ts or and present a false pict ure of pea ce and pro sperity annd to beaut ify whatev er the aut hority hav e done. Fo r example, in the Ir aq War, th ey use O p eration Ir aqi Freedo m for be a utifying t heir milit ary invasi on, poss i ble moveme nt refer s to milita ry attack, air oper ation or air stri k es for a i r attack, enter the war to s how their reluctance to fight the war et c. and we may find m any such k ind of the se euphemi sms in pre ss confere nces. The most impor tant and u ltimate fu nction or purpose of the use o f diplomat ic euphemi sms in pre ss confere nces is to disguise or beautif y their in vasive ess ence or ot her evil a ctions or the separa tion of wo rds from t ruth. In AAmerican an d British societies nowadays, diplomatic euphemism s are alwa ys purpose ly devised to disgui se scandal s in wars and politi cs, delibe rately inv ented to b eautify lo wly occupa tions and excessivel y inflated to promot e sales in advertise ment. 4. T he Coopera tive Princ iple Befo re going o n, we look at two ex amples, ass follows: 17 / 35 (1) A: Can you tell me the timme? B: Wel l, the mai l has alre ady come. (2) A: Are you going to John s birthday party? B: Ive hea r d Mary is going.166 It seems there are some mist ake in thee conversat ions. But in fact, i t is corre ct. The Co operative Principle will help us underst and more. The Coopera t