The Pragmatic Analysis of English Euphemism.docVIP

The Pragmatic Analysis of English Euphemism 　　【Abstract】In daily communication， euphemism is used to hidden embarrassing facts and unpleasant things.The originality of this paper lies in the study of English euphemism from the perspective of pragmatics. Some fundamental knowledge and the pragmatic functions of English euphemism will be discussed. 　　【Key words】English euphemism； Classification； Pragmatic function 　　1. Introduction 　　Language is the subjective response of objective society （Deng Liu， 1989）， playing an important role in travel service， politics， military activity and foreign academic exchange. （Gu Lu， 1990） So it is necessary for people to avoid the word which will cause embarrassment. 　　Therefore， in order to improve our communicative skills， it’s quite necessary for us to study English euphemism from the pragmatic aspect . 　　2. Literature Review 　　In the early 1580s， the term “euphemism”was created by George Blunt， a British writer， and defined it as “a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word”（Neaman Silver， 1983： 4）. In 1981， the British linguist， Hugh Rawson， compiled a dictionary―A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Double-talk， which discussed the definitions， functions， classifications and domains of euphemism. Then Euphemism and Dysphemism was published by Allan and Burridge in 1991， which is a valuable study of English euphemism in a pragmatic way. In 2000， The Sociolinguistics of Language was written by R. Fashold which discussed not only the historical and social background of the euphemism， but also the essence of this social phenomenon. （Li Guonan， 1989） 　　In brief， great contribution has been made to the research of English euphemism， but there still remain lots of aspects need to be further studied. 　　3. The Pragmatic Analysis of English Euphemism 　　As a means of communication， euphemism is used for different reasons. It may be used to avoid taboo， or for humorous and ironic effect， or for being polite and modest，