英语小论文-委婉的艺术.docVIP

Art of Euphemism Do you know the origin of the English word “euphemism”? It’s derived from Greek. Prefix “eu-” means “good”, stem “phemism” means “saying; speech”. When they are put together, it means “good speech”. So we can define euphemism as “substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words.” It is generally divided into two categories, which are traditional euphemisms and stylistic euphemisms. In some books they are also called narrowing euphemism and exaggerating euphemism .There are various types of euphemism in a more detailed way. I will explain them in the following passages. Physiological behavior euphemism Perhaps this kind of euphemism is the most familiar one to people .It is used to avoid vulgarity and to show a sense of elegance For example, there are many kinds of elegant ways to say “WC” such as “restroom”, “convenience”, “men’s”, “ladies’ etc Correspondingly, to go to the WC is expressed elegantly. Westerners often say “to wash one’s hands” “to answer the call of nature” “to ease oneself” “to go somewhere” instead of it. In class, when a student wants to go to the WC, he or she can say “May I be excused?” Besides, we usually refer to sexual act by means of euphemism. We can say “make love” or “sleep together” instead of “have sexual intercourse”. Moreover, anything related to sex isn’t expressed directly. Facts of life substitutes for sex knowledge, adult films substitutes for pornographic movies, call concubine by a good name of trial marriage, and an illegitimate child is called a love child. The great divide , willing woman, gay boy, lost girl can be used to replace divorce, loose woman, male home sexual and prostitute. Death and diseases euphemism People are not willing to mention death, the death of our relatives and friends bring us grief. So we often seek some words that will not hurt feelings to express death. Expressions such as pass away, fall asleep, be at