从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用
【摘要】委婉语(euphemism)一词起源于希腊语。Eu意思是“好的”，pheme意思是“话语”，因此字面上的意思是说好听的话或用礼貌的方式说话。委婉语是一个语言学概念，同时也是一种文化现象，长久以来一直受到人们的关注。总体上讲人们在与异性进行言语交际时，要比在同性面前更多地使用委婉语，女性要比男性更多地使用委婉语，年长的人要比年青的人更多地使用委婉语。人们在“权势关系”的语境中往往要比在“亲密关系”的语境中更多地使用委婉语。受教育程度越高的人，越注意自己的言谈，因而更多地使用委婉语。上述因素年龄、性别、社会地位、教育等并不孤立存在，在交际中，他们交织在一起决定着委婉语的使用。是否使用委婉语还要考虑说话者的态度和交谈的目的。
文章由六个部分组成。第一部分解释了什么是委婉语。第二部分简单列出合作原则的各项原则。它作为语用学的理论基石之一，是指导人们语言交际的原则之一。它可以很好地解释话语的字面意义和实际意义的关系，这对于交际委婉语显得尤为重要。第三部分说明委婉语的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婉语出于替代、掩饰、和礼貌等功能。第五部分是文章的主体，并说明委婉语出于替代、掩饰、和礼貌等原因主要违反了合作原则中的质、量和方式三个次则，基本上是遵循了合作原则中的相关原则。第六部分总结全文。
【关键字】合作原则; 委婉语; 交际功能
1. IntroductionIn the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English – ChineseDictionary the explanation of Euphemism is "(example of the)use of pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases in place ofmore accurate or direct ones"[1]. And in the LongmanDictionary of Contemporary English the explanation ofEuphemism is "(an example of) the use of a pleasanter, lessdirect name for something thought to be unpleasant"[2]. Forexample, the man who wants to us to call him a “sanitationengineer” instead of a “garbage man” is hoping we will treathim with more respect than we presently do.
"The word 'euphemism' comes from the Greek eu meaning 'good'
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and pheme meaning 'speech' or 'saying', and thus meansliterally 'to speak with good words or in a pleasantmanner'"[3]. Euphemisms have various reasons for existence.
They conceal the things people fear the most—death, the dead,the supernatural. They cover up the facts of life—of sex andreproduction and excretion—which inevitably remind even themost refined people that they are made of clay, or worse. Theyare beloved by individuals and institutions (governments,especially) that are anxious to present only the handsomestpossible images of themselves to the world. And they areimbedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even thosewho pride themselves on being plainspoken, ever get through aday without using them. But some people still mistake theeuphemisms in the conversation by the Cooperative principle.
Violating the CP, people also can continue the conversationwith euphemisms, which make the author interest in attitudesof participants and the purpose of conversation. That is ourbody today.
2.Formation of euphemisms2.1 Formal innovationTo avoid the emergence of certain letter or sound may achievethe effect of euphemizing. The formal innovation can hideaudio-visually those words we don’t want to say or weshouldn’t say so as to achieve better outcome incommunication.
2.1.1AbbreviationAbbreviation is the shortening of a word and may be seen inthe use of the British expression LADIES for ladies’ room.
There also is GENTS for gentlemen’s room.
2.1.2 ApocopationApocopation is another form of abbreviation apparent in theuse of vamp for vampire here meaning a seductive woman. Andlav is for lavatory; homo is for homosexual; coca is forcocaine; bra is for brassiere.
2.1.3 InitialingInitialing is the use of acronyms instead of their componentparts as in "JC for “Jesus Christ”, BM for bowel movement"[4],"W.C for water closet, B.O for body odor, V.D for venerealdisease, AIDS for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, SARSfor severe acute respiratory syndrome"[5].
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2.1.4 BackformingBackforming is the substitution for one part of speech (usedin shortened form) for another, as in "burgle (rob) which isderived from 'burglar'"[6].
2.1.5 ReduplicationReduplication is the repetition of a syllable or letter of aword. Particularly common in children’s bathroom vocabulary,it substitutes "pee-pee for'piss', poo-poo for 'bowelmovement'"[7].
2.1.6 Blend wordA blend word is a form of phonetic distortion in which twoor more words are squeezed together both orthographically andphonetically. An example of this is "gezunda for a chamberpot, a term derived from the fact that this object 'goes underthe bed'"[8].
2.1.7 DiminutiveA diminutive is the formation of a new term by nicking orshortening a name and adding a suffix indicating affection orsmallness. "Heinie, for example, is the diminutive of 'hindend' and refers to the buttocks"[9].
2.2 Semantic innovation2.2.1 BorrowingMost obviously, euphemisms may be formed by borrowingwords from other languages—terms that are less freighted withnegative associations. Thus, we use Greek and Latinexpressions for many bodily parts and functions. We havecoined halitosis (bad breath) from the Latin (halitus) for“breath” and we have substituted micturition for the morevulgar Indo-European “Piss”. In addition, English euphemismsalso borrowed a lot of scientific or academic terms, which arebelieved to be more euphemistic and objective than the usualterms, such as magnetic for “sexy” and perspire for “sweat”
and so on.
2.2.2 WideningEuphemisms may be made by a semantic process calledwidening. When a specific term becomes too painful or vivid,we move up in the ladder of abstraction. In this way, cancerbecomes growth and a girdle becomes a foundation . Sometimes,in addition to widening we divide the negative connotations ofa single direct term between two or more words. Instead ofsaying “syphilis” openly, we speak of a social disease.
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2.2.3 Semantic shiftAllied to the phenomenon of widening is that of semanticshift. This is the substitution of the whole, or a similargenerality, for the specific part we do not choose to discuss.
We may create such metonymies (substitutions of the whole forthe part) as rear end for “buttocks”. Sometimes, as in theexpressions "to sleep with/go to bed with someone"[10], we usewords naming the larger event in place of more precisereferences to the sexual relations that are part of theprocess.
2.3 Rhetorical devices2.3.1 MetaphorEuphemisms may be made by a process called metaphoricaltransfer, the comparison of things of one kind to things ofanother. The euphemisms chosen are often romanticizing,poeticizing and softening of the original words like "go tosleep; go to his long home; be home and free; rest inpeace; be at rest; go to Heaven/Paradise; join one'sancestors; be gathered to one's fathers; join the immorals fordie"[11], shock for random bombing, constructive destructionfor severe damage, have a road to travel for have a long timeto reach an agreement and etc..
2.3.2 AposiopesisIn English, there is a kind of rhetoric called aposiopesisthat can also act as the way of euphemizing. When we think weshould not say something under certain conditions, we suddenlystop as when we say someone is out (of work); she is expecting(a baby); "to take precautions (against pregnancy); to depart(from this world)"[12]
2.3.3AnalogyAnalogy can often be seen in the vocabularies of work. Atendency to elevate menial or unskilled jobs—sometimessubstituting a grand title for a large salary—can make offalsmell like a rose by promoting garbage men to sanitationengineers or even to waste--reduction managers. Byimplication, they become highly trained technicians andexecutives. Health-club staffs become fitness coordinators,and senators now have their shoes shined by the footwearmaintenance engineer, formerly the Senate bootblack. Even ifyou are not a government official, your janitor is now yourbuiding maintenance engineer.
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2.3.4 UnderstatementUnderstatement displays people’s desire to make theirlanguage less painful and direct. So there is never an uglywoman in this world, she is at least plain. Teachers only tellparents that their child is a bit slow for his age, notretarded. And call senior citizen for old person. "Takeother's things without permission" can be instead of "steal".
2.3.5 PeriphrasisPeriphrasis is just beating around the bush. People oftensay euphemisms are weasel words, because people never call aspade a spade when using euphemisms. Fart is not pleasant toear, so people call it wind from the behind. Someone wants youto go away, but he only says he will call your carriage foryou. Someone living at the government expense may make youenvy him, but actually he is in prison. "Many sayings aboutgoing to WC make a good use of periphrasis like wash one’shands, powder one’s nose, spend a penny. So do the 'drop' for'adjustment downward'[13]"2.4. Grammatical waysAccording to Bolinger, "Euphemism is not restricted to thelexicon. There are grammatical ways of toning something down”.
Therefore, euphemizing should not be limited to lexical ways;it can also be achieved by grammatical ways.
2.4.1 TenseIn English, tense can lend a little euphemistic color tothe expressions for something undesired. Especially whenpeople use want, hope, think and wonder or words like thatthey may also make use of the tense to sound moreeuphemistically. For example, I wondered if you would mindhelping me? or "I wondered if you could help me?"[14]. Askinghelp this way, people won’t feel so embarrassed if they wererefused.
2.4.2 Syntactical negationThis method can lesson the painful impact of the languagethat is not welcomed. We say she is not pretty (Actually sheis very ugly), but that is acceptable, because not pretty doesnot equal to “ugly”, it could be “plain” too. Not pretty has awider range of meaning than ugly. Similar usages are as thefollowing: I don’t think, I am afraid, I am not sure, I don'tlike,etc.
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2.4.3 First personal pronounsThe use of first personal pronouns like we, ours, us, etc,can also make our speeches sound more euphemistic. You wouldfeel more welcomed if you used we or our quite often. If adoctor said to you how do we feel today, you would feel verywarm and comfortable, because it makes you think that thiskind doctor takes your illness as mutual concern.
3 Communicative functions of euphemismsLanguage is for communication, whereas euphemisms may leadto better communication. Using euphemisms can avoid beingpresumptuous in language communication. When we have to touchsome topics that are unpleasant, we tend to choose moreeuphemistic expressions to refer to those painful topics so asnot to hurt the hearer’s feeling. We can find the theoreticalfoundation for this motivation in Leech’s PolitenessPrinciple. Euphemisms just minimize the impoliteness andmaximize the politeness in communication. The functions ofeuphemisms are in agreement with those of Politeness Principletoo, as they both offer more benefit to the hearer and leavemore cost to the speaker, with the purpose that both of thetwo sides will feel respected and have favorable impression ofeach other. As politeness is usually regarded as themanifestation of human civilization, euphemism is one of themost effective strategies to display politeness whilemodulating interpersonal relationship in human communication.
3.1 SubstitutionAccording to the definitions of euphemism and we know thata great number of English euphemisms serve as thesubstitutions for verbal taboos. The term taboo ( ta meaning“mark”, boo meaning “exceedingly”) of Polynesian origindenotes anything linguistic and nonlinguistic, which isprohibited or forbidden. Taboo refers to the situation inwhich a word or name can be used in a community only underspecial conditions, whether only by certain persons or only incertain circumstances. Just as violating a cultural taboo canbe quite offensive, so is it with a verbal taboo in pressconferences. The “word” has been and continues to be in mostsocieties perceived as a powerful instrument that may evokeevil spirits, make bad things happen and instigate to violenceand revolution and numerous other activities. While taboo ofwords occurs when a particular topic is considered valid fordiscussion, euphemistic expression or terms are required. Sodiplomatic euphemisms have a very serious reason for being.
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They can conceal the things people fear most —death, the deador the supernatural. Euphemisms can also eliminateunhappiness, embarrassment and fear etc. so as to relievepeople psychologically.
3.2 PolitenessPoliteness is another very important function thateuphemisms serve in social life. "Some of the euphemisms areused to avoid crudeness and indecency for the sake of a politeconversation."[15] Grice formulated Cooperative Principle ofutterance in which the Maxim of Manner was defined as “Beperspicuous and specific; To avoid obscurity; To avoidambiguity; To be brief and to be orderly.” The roundaboutnature of euphemisms goes against the Maxim of Manner, whichcan only be fairly explained well by Leech’s PolitenessPrinciple “Approbation Maxim: minimize dispraise of other,maximize praise of other”. In other words, euphemisms are tominimize impolite expressions and maximize polite expressions.
3.3 DisguiseBesides the two functions of euphemisms mentioned above,there is still another one more important function at work ineuphemistic communication, namely, the Disguise Function. Herewe mean that because of the vagueness of euphemisms, it hasbecome a very important tool for political leaders or thediplomats or statesmen to distort the facts or and present afalse picture of peace and prosperity and to beautify whateverthe authority have done. For example, in the Iraq War, theyuse “Operation Iraqi Freedom” for beautifying their militaryinvasion, “possible movement” refers to military attack, “airoperation” or “air strikes” for air attack, “enter the war” toshow their reluctance to fight the war etc. and we may findmany such kind of these euphemisms in press conferences. Themost important and ultimate function or purpose of the use ofdiplomatic euphemisms in press conferences is to disguise orbeautify their invasive essence or other evil actions or theseparation of words from truth. In American and Britishsocieties nowadays, diplomatic euphemisms are always purposelydevised to disguise scandals in wars and politics,deliberately invented to beautify lowly occupations andexcessively inflated to promote sales in advertisement.
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4. The Cooperative PrincipleBefore going on, we look at two examples, as follows:
(1) "A: Can you tell me the time?
B: Well, the mail has already come.
(2) A: Are you going to John’s birthday party?
B: I’ve heard Mary is going."[16]
It seems there are some mistake in the conversations. Butin fact, it is correct. The Cooperative Principle will help usunderstand more.
The Cooperative Principle is as follows:" Make yourconversational contribution such as is required, at the stageat which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction ofthe talk exchange in which you are engaged."[17]
According Grice, Cooperative principle is classified intofour categories: quantity, quality, relation and manner. Thecategory of quantity relates to the quantity ofinformation tobe provided, and under it fall the following maxims：
4.1 The maxim of Quality:
"Try to make your contribution one that is true,.specifically:
(i) do not say what you believe to be false.
(ii) do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence"[18]
4.2 The maxim of Quantity:
"(i) Make your contribution as informative as is required forthe current purposes of the exchange(ii) Do not make your contribution more informative than isrequired"[19]
4.3 The maxim of Relation:
"Make your contribution relevant."[20]
4.4 The maxim of Manner:
"Be perspicuous and specifically:
(i) avoid obscurity of expression.
(ii) avoid ambiguity.
(iii) be brief(iv) be orderly."[21]
From what mentioned above, we may know that theCooperative Principle enables one participant in aconversation to communicate on the assumption that the otherparticipant is being cooperative. These four maxims form anecessary part of the description of linguistic meaning inthat they explain how it is that the speakers often “mean morethan they say” in their communications.
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"We may decide to withhold whatever information wepossess:’ No comment!’ We may inadvertently infringe a maximor we can secretly violate a maxim—e.g. A could maliciouslyand falsely tell B that Janet had walked in the oppositedirection from the post office. Or – more importantly – we canmake a blatant show of breaking one of the maxims (Grice termsthis flouting a maxim), in order to lead the addressee to lookfor a covert, implied meaning."[22] . For examples,(3) "At the time of recording, all the members of the castwere members of The BBC Players. ( Implicature: One or more ofthem are no longer members of The BBC Players.)"[23]
Generally speaking, "in Grice’s analysis, the speaker’sflouting of a maxim combined with the hearer’s assumption thatthe speaker has nor really abandoned the co-operativeprinciple leads to an implicature"[24]. One thing thatdeserves our attention is that the four maxims, expressed inthe imperative mood have sometimes been misunderstood asinstructions for a speaker to behave in conversation.
5.Possible violating the Cooperative Principle in the use ofeuphemismsIn the light of the foregoing literature review and thetheoretical bases, we know that euphemisms or euphemisticexpressions are important and people often use them incommunication. In reality, it can be found that thesediplomats and statesmen etc. also use euphemisms oreuphemistic expressions in the question-answer patterns. Thesestatesmen make sharp things or unpleasant things soundpleasant etc. otherwise the use of euphemisms may even causemisunderstandings. So the next we will talk aboutcommunication with the theories of Cooperative Principle. Forexample, to be specific, diplomatic euphemisms of pressconferences are mainly chosen as the substitution of anagreeable or inoffensive word or expression for one that isharsh, indelicate or unpleasant to the other side. They arechosen from both the lexical approach and the rhetoricalapproach.
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In communication like the question-answer patterns inpress conferences, generally people or participants arerequired to observe the CP in order to make their conversationmoves forward smoothly and successfully. But in reality, inorder to meet a certain communicative need, especially inpress conferences concerning diplomacy, actually people seldomspeaks by always faithfully observing these four maxims of theCP. Therefore Grice himself also suggests 5 ways participantscan deal with these maxims. First, speakers canstraightforwardly follow the maxims, that is, they can speakthe truth while giving just enough relevant information in aclear, unambiguous, succinct and orderly manner. Many peopledo just that most of time. Second, someone may violate amaxim, as you would do if you told a deliberate lie. A thirdthing that can happen is that a speaker can ‘opt out’ of amaxim, this seems to be an uncommon occurrence. The fourthpossibility is the maxim clash; cases in which you would haveto violate one maxim in order to fulfill another. And perhapsthis is the most case of violation of the maxims in pressconferences. The fifth and most intriguing way to deal withthe maxims of conversation is to flout one of them. When amaxim is flouted, a speaker doesn't observe the maxim, butcannot be accused of violating it either, because thetransgression is so flagrant that it is totally obvious thatthe speaker knows he or she is not observing it and realizeseveryone else in the conversation knows it too.
The existence of the maxims of the CP makes theconversational implicature possible especially on theconditions like in press conferences etc.. Conversationalimplicature allows a speaker of any side in press conferencesto convey meaning beyond what is literally expressed. Speakersin press conferences can often use euphemisms or euphemisticexpressions to produce conversational implicature or moremeaning that the hearers can also figure out its realintentions rather than the literal meaning by violating somecertain maxims.
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5.1. Violation of Quality Maxim"Violation of Quality Maxim means by saying things thatare not true or the fact and making irresponsible andinsincere remarks by the speakers. It can produce somespecifical content: humor, or disguise the intention such asMinistry of Defence for Ministry of War, life insurence forinsurance when you are dead, freedom fighters forterrorists."[25] Frankly speaking, euphemisms have a tendencyto violate Quality Maxim in order to express unpleasant thingsor ideas etc. in an indirect, roundabout and pleasant way.
Therefore if hearers want to know the real intentions , theyshould infer the conversational implicature from theillocutionary meaning based on the special context. Moreoverhyperbole and understatement also don't obey the QualityMaxim, for all these contribution are true . Let us look atsome examples as follows:
(4) Q: Britain and France both put troops on standby alert …for possible movement into Kosovo. While … has the U.S. putany units on stand-by for a possible movement to Kosovo?
A: In view of the fact that … our forces remain at theircurrent state of readiness. There … increase that state ofalertness at this point. Obviously… on short stand-by… airoperations, would… .
In the above Q-A patterns of the transcripts, we can seediplomatic euphemisms like “possible movement”, “at theircurrent state of readiness” and “air operation” etc. are usedin press conferences that violate the Quality Maxim. From thespecific context we know that here “possible movement” mainlymeans “possible military attack”, “at their current state ofreadiness” refers to “at their current state of fighting ” and“air operation” refers to “air war” or “air fight” etc.. Stillwe can find more examples violating Quality Maxim of the CP inpress conferences like “Ministry of Defense” for “Ministry ofWar”, “entering into Kosovo” or “go into Kosovo” for “invadeKosovo” or “invasion” and “information” for “militaryintelligence” and also “active defense” for “attack” etc.. Bysaying that, the authority can distort the facts to someextent and also reduce its bad impressions on the public.
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Hence the authority can present a false picture to the publicand to beautify or disguise whatever they have done.
5.2 Violation of Quantity Maxim"Violation of Quantity Maxim is by providingnon-informative information or by either providing less ormore information than actually needed. Strictly speaking,acronym and abbreviation, two main ways of the formation ofeuphemism, are the two main ways of violating the QuantityMaxim. For example, execute is for execute death penalty, Ineed to go is for I need to go to the lavatory, commfu forcomplete monumental military fuck up , S.O.S forson-of-a-bitch."[26] Some euphemisms or euphemisticexpressions are created by contributing less information toviolate the Quantity Maxim in order to make unpleasant, rudeor offensive words sound more pleasant, polite and elegant.
Let us have a look at some expressions used in pressconferences violate the Quantity Maxim of the CP.
(5) Q: General Naumann said … military targets?
A: (Cohen): As we indicated the ACTORD was … Serbian forceswere really posing a serious threat to several … the cold orfrom starving. That ACTORD was … innocent people. That ACTORDremains … General Naumann has referred to.
Let us have a look at another example:
(6) Q: General, … Could you … in the event of a conflict and …in terms of a liaison with the NGOs and …?
A: Well, their role is…civil-military affairsorganizations, … in the CENTCOM theater …In the above two question-answer patterns in pressconferences we may say that these diplomatic euphemismsviolate the Quantity Maxim because they failed to give us theright amount of information we needed or we may also say thatthey provided less information. By using these euphemisms thespeakers like the diplomats and statesmen etc. can avoidmentioning these unpleasant terms or notions like centralcommand and activation order etc. in press conferences.
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Among the euphemisms used in press conferences, we maystill find that some of the euphemisms can be regarded as aspecial case that violate both the Quality Maxim and theQuantity Maxim etc.. Hence in a broad sense we may say thateuphemisms that violate the Quality Maxim can also be regardedas a special case that violate the Quantity Maxim because thetwo maxims are closely related. If a euphemism violatesQuality Maxim, it also violates Quantity Maxim to a certainextent. For example, the euphemisms like “possible movement”
for “possible military attack” or “possible war”; “brought theworld together” mainly refers to those countries led by theUSA. Hence from this point of view we may that euphemisms like“possible movement”, “brought the world together” etc. notonly violate the Quality Maxim but also violate the QuantityMaxim because to a certain extent they distort the facts andprovide less information than people actually need.
5.3 Euphemisms and the Relation MaximAs we mentioned before that the Maxim of Relation refersto “Be relevant” and violation of Relation Maxim means thatthe utterance of a speaker is irrelevant to the conversationor the specific context for some reasons or some purposes.
Sometimes we may find English euphemisms are to use irrelevantutterances on the surface to express something that thespeakers want to say and cannot say. In fact the impliedmeaning of the utterances is relevant partially because theformation of English euphemisms abides these formativeprinciples like pleasant-sound principle etc.. For example,(7) "I approached her very hesitatly.
"Want to come and play?"Piquette looked at me with a sudduen flash of scorn.
"I ain't a kid," she said.
Wounded, I stamped angrily away..."[27]
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Here, "I ain't a kid" seems no relationto thisconversation. But there implicature meaning is only kidsplay-- I ain't kid-- I won't play with you. So, it is indirectrefuse of communicating. In English “to pass away” is used ina euphemistic sense for “to die” now. The denotation of “topass away” is “to go away for a time”; while “to die” means“to go away forever”. “To die” is euphemized as “to go away”
by violating the Relation Maxim on the surface, in fact, boththe two phrases have the relevant meaning to “to go away”.
Their difference lies only in the time, one is for a period oftime, the other is forever. So when the speaker use “to passaway” to replace “to die”, the hearers may infer theconversational implicature of “to die” from the relevantmeaning “to go away”. So with time goes on, it is now almostused as a fixed usage for “to die” in almost all thecircumstances.
5.4 Violation of Manner MaximViolation of Manner Maxim means giving obscure andambiguous information etc.. Sometimes under the communicativecircumstances, the speaker, in order to avoid mentioningunpleasant and embarrassed things in a direct way, saysomething obscurely and ambiguously, then the hearers shouldcarefully infer the conversational implicature of the speakerand what is their real intentions and meaning according to thespecific context. So we may find many euphemisms tend toviolate the Maxim of Manner so as to achieve the mild,agreeable, roundabout and pleasant-sound effects.
We can also take the following as examples to illustrate howeuphemisms violate the Manner Maxim. "A educator cannot say astudent is lazy, idle, stupid, or clever. Instead of them iseducationally and socially disadvantaged groups,underachieved, those on the lower end of the ability-scale,high verbal- ability subjects, disadvantaged homeenviornments, underprivileged child."[28] Obviously, thesewords violates Manner Maxim o f being brief.
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Another example, "Perhaps you had better get your affairsin order." This is a notion of death from the doctor. it'swordy but not unnecessary. one-way-ticket is for die. Itreflect one's experience and cognition.
6.ConclusionAs we stated earlier, euphemism is one of the importantand universal linguistic phenomena. Due to the specialcharacteristics like substitution, indirectness etc. it isbecoming one of the main communicative approaches This thesishas attempted to study the euphemistic expressions used in thequestion-answer patterns from the perspective of pragmatics.
The article is an overview of the functions and communicativefunctions of euphemism, and from the pragmatic analysis of thematerials, it can be seen clearly that the use of euphemismsbasically violate the Quality Maxim, the Quantity Maxim, andthe Manner Maxim of the Cooperative Principle and thefrequency of violating the Quality Maxim is the highest amongthe three ones. That is to say, the euphemisms used in thequestion-answer patterns generally do not violate the RelationMaxim of the Cooperative Principle.
There is an old saying in English: Necessity is the mother ofinvention. The creation of euphemisms also cannot depart frompeople’s needs of them. People need euphemisms for socialcommunication, to euphemize the taboo, to show theirpoliteness and to disguise. As a sociolinguistic phenomenon,the formation of euphemisms is the result of the combinationof various social psychological factors and pragmatic factors.
Studies on euphemisms from a pragmatic perspective revealhow euphemisms flout the Cooperative Principle so as to obeythe Politeness Principle in communication and how factors fromtheir sociocultural and communicational context influencetheir application in communication. Any change of one or morefactors of a communication event, will have an effect on ourdecision of whether to use euphemisms. The expressiveeuphemisms play a non-fungible role in communication. It iseuphemism that makes language more powerful, magical andpleasant. People’s speech does reflect their background, theiractivities, and the values they hold, therefore, we can learnmuch about the English people by looking at their use ofeuphemisms. The studies on English euphemisms can not onlyhelp to develop intercultural communicative competence, butalso enlighten English language learning and teaching.
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Therefore, multidisciplinary, multi-angle, and multi-levelstudies on euphemisms are necessary for English learners tounderstand the English history and society and communicatewith native English speakers better. There are still a lot inthis field waiting to be explored, and euphemisms deserve moreattention and comprehensive studies.
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