英语专业毕业论文-The Study on the Functions of English Euphemism.doc

摘要：委婉语是一种常用的表达思想和观点的收段。许多语言学家和学者从不同的角度对委婉语这一语言现象进行研究。本文则尝试着对英语委婉语的功能进行探讨。论文包括三部分。首先，介绍委婉语的概念、分类和形成，由此可以使读者对委婉语的知识有总的了解。其次，论文通过结合生活当中一些有趣的例子着重讨论了英语委婉语的社会功能、修辞功能和交际功能。最后是结论部分。阐述了写作此文的意义和目的，同时指出我们在委婉语和其他语言现象的研究方面还有很长的路要走。关键词：英语委婉语 社会功能 修辞功能 交际功能Abstract: Euphemism is a mode of way to express our thoughts and ideas. Many linguists and scholars have studied this phenomenon from different perspectives. This thesis tries to study the functions of English euphemism. The thesis includes three parts. Firstly, it tells the definition, classification and formation of euphemism, which will let readers can get general knowledge of euphemism. Next, it mainly talks the social function, rhetoric function and communicative function of English euphemism through some interesting examples in our daily life. The last part is the conclusion. It elaborates the significance and purpose of writing this paper. It also tells us that there is a long way to go on the study of euphemism and other language phenomenon. Keywords: English euphemism, social function, rhetoric function, communicative function The Study on the Functions of English Euphemism1 Introduction A big difference between human beings and animals is that human beings can use language which is different because of its design features, such as arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement, cultural transmission etc. Though mankind has created and used language for a long history, the study on language makes little effort. Euphemism, a special language phenomenon but a common rhetorical device attracts peoples attentions a lot. It is widely used in our daily communication and some special fields such as the field of economy, politics, war etc. You may wonder why it is so widely used. Thats because of its functions. Then thesis tries to study the functions of English euphemism to let people have a better understanding of English euphemism and use it properly in their life. First, we should know something about euphemism, namely the definition, formation and classification of euphemism.1.1 The definition of euphemismEuphemism, an English word which derives from Greek. In Greek, “eu-” means “good”, “-phemism” means “speech”. Then the word euphemism itself means “word of good speech”. In Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary 6th Edition, it defines euphemism as “an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is.” That is to say if people want to talk something offensive in their conversation, they always choose some good words to replace to let both sides feel comfortable and acceptable at sane time. That may be the reason that euphemism has attracts peoples interests a lot. For example we can use “pass away” for “die”, use “fees” for “taxes” etc.Generally speaking, euphemism is also a rhetorical device, which will make its users convey their thoughts, feeling and ideas well and more elegantly.1.2 The classification of euphemismAccording to different standard, euphemism can be divided into totally different categories. These standards are whether the expression relates to taboos or not, whether the expression forgets original meaning or not, whether it can be long used or not. And euphemisms can be divided into three groups, namely: traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemisms; unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms; shorting period euphemisms and long lasting euphemisms.1.2.1 Traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemisms From above, we can know that the classification of traditional euphemism and stylistic euphemism relates to taboos. For traditional euphemisms, they can also be called negative euphemisms, which are closely related to taboos. For example, “sex”, “death”, “diseases”, “nudity”, “excretions” etc. These topics are taboos in our daily life or in religious, and express them directly, it would be rude, impolite. On the contrary, if we turn to euphemisms for help, and express in an indirect way, the impression will be gracious and polite. For example, for “death”, we can use “answer the final summons”, “be asleep in the Arms of God”, “be no longer with us”, “close up ones account” etc to replace it. For “sex” we can express it as follows: “after ones green”, “have an itch in ones belly”, “be family with”, “bed”, “business” etc. Stylistic euphemism as a rhetoric devise can also be called positive euphemism. It is a way to show politeness and avoid embarrassing thing at the same time. Usually, now, people use “funeral director” and “grief therapist” for “undertaker”, “footwear maintenance engineer” for “bootblack”, “domestic engineer” for “house wife” etc. However, these euphemisms have nothing to do with taboos. People use them just to show respect to others.1.2.2 Unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms Unconscious euphemisms refer to these euphemisms that are forgotten their original meaning and their euphemistical meaning have replaced their original meaning. Taking the word “cemetery” for an example, it comes from Greek language, which replaces “graveyard” now. However, at the beginning, it means “dormitory” or “sleeping place”. But with the development of our society and language itself, the original meaning has been forgotten. Thats to say, people just use the meaning of euphemisms. That is so-called unconscious euphemism. Some euphemisms are not like unconscious euphemisms, they contain both original meaning and euphemistic meaning. These kinds of euphemisms are called conscious euphemisms. For example, the phrase “to powder ones nose”, if one woman says she wants to powder her nose, we can know that she wants to go to the WC. Of course, we know both the original meaning and euphemistical meaning. Euphemisms can also be divided according to whether they can be long used or not, if they can be used for a long time, they are long used euphemisms, if not and just be used for a short period of time, they are shorting period euphemisms.1.3 The formation of English euphemismEuphemism is a kind of word, for the formation of new words, from restricted sense, refers to the process of how words are formed. The ways to form new words are various. Usually, two sub-types are included: compound and derivation. Except these two ways, invention, blending, abbreviation, acronym, back-formation, analogical creation, borrowing and so on can be used to form new words. Ways to form new words above can also be used to form euphemisms. Here it is necessary to grasp the way to form euphemisms; we may create our own euphemisms in our communication.1.3.1 Compounding Compounding, a common way of forming new words in English, refers to those words that consist at least two morphemes. Briefly, it refers to the way to join two separate words to produce a single one. Such as the word “cream-jugs”, it is made up of two totally separated words: cream and jugs. Words like “hereafter”, “call-girl”, “haircut”, baby-sit”, “drumstick”, “dream-wax”, “half-sea over”, and so on are formed in this way.Compounding words can be written in different ways. Some can be written as a single word, such as “washroom”, “daylight”, etc. Some can be joined with a hyphen “-”, such as “wee-wee”, “what-do-you-call-it”, “simple-minded” etc. Some can be written with ordinary space between the two parts, such as “wedding breakfast”, “wipe off”, “wipe out” and so on.1.3.2 Back-formation You may feel confused at the first sight of this word, but it is simple in forming new words. It refers to a way that a short word is derived by deleting the imagined affix from a longer one to form new word. A typical example is the word “burgle” it comes from the word “burglar” by deleting its imagined affix “-ar”. Word “frag” comes from the word “fragmentation” by deleting the affix “mentation”.1.3.3 Acronym Acronym is also a widely used way to form new words. Acronym word is made up of the first letters of the name of an organization or long word groups. For example “GTH” comes from the phrase “Go to Hell”, “CWR” comes from the phrase “counseling warning and relating”, “BOT comes from “balance of time”, “CS” comes from “chicken shit”. You may know some words are formed through this way, but it is also a must to know some euphemisms which are created by acronym.1.3.4 Clipping Clipping is also a common way to form new words. Many English words have come into being through this way, and this way can also be called as abbreviation. It is a way that cutting the beginning and end part of a word, then a new word will appear. Such as the word “gents”, comes from “Gentlemans Rom”, “bra” comes from “brassiere”, “con man” comes from “confidence man”, “law” comes from “lavatory”, and “chamber” comes from “chamber pot” etc. These words are formed by cutting their beginning and end parts. A large number of words can be created through this way. So it is important to grasp this way to create new English euphemisms by ourselves in our daily communication. According to Professor Liu Chunbao, there are other ways to form new English euphemisms.1.3.5 Phonetic distortionYou may not familiar with this way, but it plays an important role in forming new English euphemisms. Briefly, it refers to the way that people change the pronunciation of some taboo words on purpose. In this way, they can avoid mentioning the offensive easily. Taking “God” for an example, in order to avoid mention it directly, people choose “gosh”, “good”, “gad”, etc to refer to “God”. Also, we may use “bally”, “bunny” to refer to “bloody”. Of course, the pronunciations of these words are closely to the original words, but have been changed, and people may feel more comfortable to hear these changed words than before.1.3.6 Rhyming slang It is a way that people use some words to replace some taboo words which are rhyme to taboos. For example, “Cousin sis”, “hit and miss”, “rattle and hiss”, “sis”, “that and this” can be used to refer to “piss”. “boat and oar”, “early door”, “six-to-four”, “two-by-four” are used to refer to “whore”. “gasp and grant”, “Joe Hunt”, “Sin Berkeley Hunt” are used to replace “hunt”. Words rhyme to “piss”, “whore” and “hunt” can be used as the euphemisms of these taboo words, just because they have same rhymes. 1.3.7 Back slang and Pig LatinThis way is special in forming new euphemisms. It refers to the fact that creating a new euphemism in an inverting way, namely, write or speak euphemisms from last word to the first one. Such as the word “ecnop”, which comes from the word “ponce” Of course the word “mur” comes from the word “rum”. May be few other words are created through this way, but it is a useful way in forming new English euphemisms. And we can create our own by ourselves by back slang or pig latin.1.3.8 Respelling of InitialsIn this way, euphemisms are formed by pronouncing the first letter of taboos or some words which are executive. For example, the word “damn”, the first letter is “d”, which is pronounced as di:, then, we can write “dee” to refer to the whole word “damn”.English euphemisms formed in this way is special but common, such as the word “eff” for “fuck”, “Jay” for “joint”, “pee” for “piss”, “pee-eye” for “P.I” (pimp).1.3.9 Euphemistic punctuation This way is easy to form a new euphemism. When it is used, we just use some punctuations to replace some letters of a taboo word or an executive words to avoid it. For example, “sh*” can be used to replace the word “shit”. “Son-of-a-” can replace “son of a bitch”, “fly a k” can refer to “swindling”. Then, we just use some punctuations and some parts of some words can form new English euphemisms. And it is easy.1.3.10 Substitution of synonymsFor this way, we just use some commendatory word or netter word to take the place of other offensive words, because they have similarly meaning. For example, we can use “agent” to replace “spy”, “spectacular” can refer to “gambler”, “economical” can be used to refer to “stingy”, “little brother” can take the place of penis. So we can know that some synonyms can also be the euphemisms of some words.1.3.11 NurseryismChildren have their own way to speak or communicate with other people around them. Then, adults, especially some old people, imitate childrens language. Then, the effect of euphemism can be seen in the communication. For example, “wee-wee”, “pee-pee” can refer to urination. “doo-doo” and “poo-poo” can refer to defecation. “Reenie” and “weenie” can also be used to refer to penis. That is to say, childrens language is also the resource of the English euphemisms. If we want to create more euphemisms we can learn from children. 1.3.12 NegationTo tell others bad facts from the opposite perspective, that is the way of negation. It is also a way to form new euphemisms. For example, if you want to express someone is ugly, we may say that “she is not beautiful”. If some one is ill, then we can say “He dose not feel good”. “Untruthful” is equal to “false”, “unwise” has the same meaning with “stupid”. Here, we know that, words have the meaning against other words can also be euphemisms1.3.13 Metonymical Transfer.Metonymical transfer refers to the fact that people use the whole body for a part. For example, “chest bosom” can refer to “breast”, “limb” can refer to “leg”. “Flesh”, part of thigh, can be used to refer to “posterior”. Here, we should pay attention to the words of whole body; they must be sounded comfortable rather than some sharp words.1.3.14 UnderstatementIt is a kind of reserved way to express something which is fainting. Such as the word “subnormal” can be used to refer to “mad”, word “needy” can replace “poor” and “less than truthful” can refer to “lying” etc. “Armed conflict” can refer to “war”. In this way, people just express their ideas in a concealed way, in order to cover the dad facts.1.3.15 Metaphorical transfer This is a way that euphemisms are created according to the character of taboos and describe it as a kind of thing which is acceptable. For example, “break wind backwards”, “drop a nose”, “make a noise”, “pass air”, etc can be used to refer to farting, because these words contains the same character with farting. “flagging”, “red devil”, “red light”, “The Red Seas in”, “show”, “full moon”, “wrong time”, these words and phrases are used to refer to menstruation. Of course, the phrase “in ones birthday suit” can be used to take the place of nude. 1.3.16 Periphrasis It is a way that people express something which is embarrassed to speak in a crab-wise way. “Adjustment downward” can substitute drop. “needs ample supervision in order to work well” can refer to “lazy”. “needs guidance in developing good habits of hygiene” can refer to “some one who needs to have bath”. In fact, we can use fewer words to replace these facts but if so, we can not feel it is humors, so to express in a long way is necessary to some degree. 1.3.17 Reinterpretation of Initials This is the way that explains the meaning of a word in an unusual way, and this way is the most humors way in forming new English euphemisms. “Bullshit”, we can use it as “B.S”, “Bessie Smith” can also be used to refer to it. “H and C”, “hot and cold” can be used to refer to “heroin and cocaine”.This is the last way for making new English euphemisms in this thesis, but we can create new ways to form our own euphemisms.2 The Functions of English Euphemisms Compared with animals language, the language of human being is special, not only because of its design features: displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, discreteness, duality and cultural transmission etc, (Yule. F18) but more important is the functions. The functions of language are varied. (Poole. P5). According to Mr. Hu Zhuangling, abstractly, the functions of language are informative, interpersonal function, performative, emotive function, Phatic Communion, recreation function, mentalingual function, etc. Here, I would like to study the functions of English euphemisms from three aspects: the social function, rhetorical function and the communicative function.2.1 The social function of English euphemism This part can be divided into six parts: to refer to some taboo words, positive function, humorous function, cheating function, ironic function and ritual function. All of these functions are closely related to our social life, so it is of great significance to know these six social functions. 2.1.1 To replace some taboo words If some words are taboo words, they must make people feel offensive and shock, if we mention these words directly. For example, “sex”, “the body” or “peoples race”. If we have to use them, we can turn to euphemisms for help. In western countries, if people want to talk about “god”, he should use other words to replace to show his respect. These words may be “dog”, “King of kings”, “Light of the world”, “lord of lords”, “Maker of Heaven and Earth” etc. “Death” is also an offensive topic in our communication. Then we may use “be gathered to ones fathers”, “be home and free”, “be taken to paradise”, “cross over”, “be translated into higher sphere” etc to refer to “death”. If we can use these English euphemisms in our life and communication, we will avoid using taboo words successfully and make our words interesting.2.1.2 Positive function Word itself may be derogative or commendatory. In some situations, it is necessary for us to choose some commendatory words instead of some derogative words. For example, if a teacher wants to say something about an unintelligent student, the teacher may use “a slow student”, “an underachiever” to replace. In this way, the intelligent student may feel better, will not lose his confidence in his study. Meanwhi