英语委婉语PPT
勿忘国耻作文-石家庄经济学院华信学院
1. Introduction
Euphemism is
originally from Greek, meaning, “speak with gook
words”. “eu” means “well or
sounding well”;
“pheme” means “speech”. Its definition in Oxford
English Dictionary is
“(example of the) use of
pleasant, mild, or indirect words or phrases in
place of more accurate or
direct ones.”[1]
The appearance of euphemism is based on two
reasons: one aims to take the place of “taboo”.
When giving up a taboo word, people will find
another new one to take the place of it, which
creates a euphemism. The other aims to avoid
offensiveness during the communication. It is a
figure of rhetoric by which an unpleasant or
offensive thing is described or referred to by a
milder
term.
The following part will
explain euphemism in detail from two aspects: the
ways to express
euphemism and its social
functions
2. Ways to express
euphemism
2.1. Figure of speech
2.1.1.
Metonymy.
That is to use the general words to
take the place of the concrete words. “Passed
away” which
refers to “dead” belongs to
metonymy. It can be divided into the following
forms: 1) to use the
container to take the
place of the things in the container. For example:
“to be fond of the bottle” is
a euphemism for
“liking to drink”. 2) To use the entirety instead
of the part. For example:
“abdomen” is used to
refer to “belly”; “limb” refers to “leg”. For some
special occasions, the part
can be used
instead of the entirety. In Australian English “an
old hand” is a euphemism for “an old
prisoner”. 3) To use the tools to take the
place of the objects. For example, “pick” is a
tool of
prying the lock. It can refer to
“thief”. 4) To use raw materials to take the place
of finished
products. For instance, “poppy” is
a kind of flower, but it also refers to “opium”.
5) To use
characteristics to take the place of
objects. For example, “hellow” is a greeting word,
and it is also
a euphemism for “prostitute”
because prostitutes often use this word to solicit
the whoremasters;
“blood and iron” is a
euphemism for “violence”. 6) To use proper words
to replace the objects. For
example,
“napoleon” is a French golden coin on which there
is Napoleon’s head portrait. “Borstal”
is a
name of countryside in Kent in Britain. It can
also refer to “juvenile delinquency”.
2.1.2.
Metaphor
To use metaphor can easily
avoid the offensive things. For example, “to be a
guest of the
law” is a euphemism for “to be in
prison”[4], Many euphemisms for “death” were
created by
way of metaphor, such as going to
his long home, to be home and free, to go to
sleep, to sleep the
long (or eternal, never-
ending) sleep, to rest in peace, to be at rest, to
go to Heaven (or Paradise),
to join one’s
ancestors, to be gathered to one’s fathers, to
join the immortals. More examples are:
aged→sunset years, to be poor→to be pinched,
to have improper sexual intercourse with
girls(especially maiden) →to deflower; to
degenerate→to go astray; breast→milk bottles;
catamenia→the red flag; to be pregnant→to be
on the nest; the money of bribery→grease; to
bribe→to grease somebody’s palm;
handcuffs→bracelets.
2.1.3. Periphrasis
It
is an expression of beating around the bush.
Though it is a muddled acting, its aim is to avoid
offending others, and to be more polite[6]. If
someone asked a woman whether she was knitting a
tiny garment, he meant that he wondered
whether she was pregnant. Such way of speaking is
humorous, sweet and agreeable, to be
pregnant→to eat for two. Teachers often use this
expression
to avoid the students’ and their
parents’ awkwardness. For example, laziness is
called “needing
ample supervision in order to
work well”; “cheat” is described as “needing help
in learning to
adhere to rules and standards
of fair play”; “lies” is called “showing
difficulty in distinguishing
between imaginary
and factual material”; “steal” is called “needing
help in learning to respect the
property
rights of others”; “be a bully” refers to “having
qualities of leadership but needs help in
learning to use them democratically”; “dirty”
is called “ be lack of proper health habits”.
2.2. Semantic method
2.2.1. Synonym
For example, “tight” is used instead of “stingy”;
“mad” is replaced by “crazy”, “insane”, and
“lunatic”. Such euphemism aims to use the
appreciative term to take the place of the
derogatory
term.
2.2.2. Negation
Such euphemism uses the contrary term to express
the same meaning, and it could be more
useful
than synonym in replacing the taboo and make
people more understandable and
comfortable. We
could call stupid people unwise people. “A fat
chance” means “a slim chance”.
2.2.3. Vague
words and expressions
That is to make
the harsher or offensive words more general. For
example, if somebody has
some mental problems,
we can express it like this: His roof leaks a
little; he has a screw
loosemissing; he is not
at home. There are other examples which use vague
expressions, such as
disease→trouble, problem;
to come across an unfortunate thing→to have an
accident; to live
together illegally→to
cohabit; a squint→an obliquity of vision; a man of
bad taste→a man of
doubtful taste;
strike→industrial action; the poor→the
underprivileged, the disadvantaged; in
debt→in
difficulties; to be killed→to be put to sleep.
2.3. The variety of spelling form
English is an alphabetic writing. The variation of
phonetic form can avoid the original
conception in a certain degree and achieve the
purpose of euphemism. 1) Compounding: gezunda
(goes under沉落、沉没；失败破产). 2) Acronym: DA (drug
addict), J.D (juvenile delinquent).
3 The
Social Functions of Euphemism
Euphemism is
widely used in America and Britain. It has a long
history. New euphemisms emerge
in an endless
stream. Its functions, can be divided into three
parts: Avoidance, Courtesy and
Disguise.
Through studying the three functions, we can
understand the western society’s view on
value
and morality.
3.1. Avoidance
The earliest
subject of Euphemism is religious. The conception
of taboo is deep-rooted in people’s
mind, and
it is not easy to remove. Because fearing of the
secret power of God, People use
euphemism to
avoid mentioning the guilty, unpleasant, rude or
offensive words, which plays a role
of
purifying languages. For example, European
Americans avoid speaking “Friday” and “13”.
When the two things appear in the same day, it
is an ill omen. This avoidance function is the
first
communication function of
euphemisms[13]. Such function is often used in the
following
situations:
3.1.1. The
euphemisms for God and devil
In oral English,
using “God” causally would be considered
blasphmous. They usually adopt
semantic
methods to refer to God, such as the Creator, the
Maker, the Supreme (Being), Holy One,
the
Almighty, the Eternal, Our Father, the Light of
the World, Sovereign of the Universe. There are
many euphemisms for “the devil”, such as old
enemy, old Ned, Old Nick, Old One, Ole’un (Old
Man), Old Scratch, Old Serpent, the Old Boy
etc. For example, “He was frightened as if Old
Harry were before him.” In English they often
use “heck” instead of “hell”. “hell” has other
expressions: “the other place, a very
uncomfortable place, the other way etc.” For
example, “We
were all going direct to Heaven;
we were all going direct the other way.” [15]
3.1.2 The euphemisms for death
Euphemism
is often caused in speaking of things that are
painful and distressing to think about.
Death
is one of expressions. The euphemisms for death
are a widely used item, especially when it
concerns one’s own families and friends. It
has a lot of expressions[16]. For example, if
anything
should happen to me (= when I die);
to pass away on; to depart; to go to sleep; to be
no longer
with us; to be interred. “Death”
also has some humorous expressions: “to pop off;
to push up
daisies; to cash in one’s chips; to
kick the bucket ”. “Death” also has an intimate
relationship with
religion. There are many
euphemisms from Bible, for example, to return to
dust earth; to pay the
debt of nature; to be
called to God to answer the final summons; to go
to heaven; to be at peace,
to be asleep in the
Arms of God; to yield up the ghost; to launch into
eternity; to have one’s name
inscribed in the
Book of life etc. Some words, which concern
“death”, also have euphemistic
expressions.
For example, “coffin” is called “casket”; “dead
body” is called “earthly remains”;
“funeral”
is called “memorial service”; “graveyard” is
called “memory garden”.
3.1.3. The euphemisms
for illness, natural and man-made calamities
Most westerners avoid talking about some serious
diseases. For instance, “terminally ill” is a
euphemism for “cancer”. “tumour” is called “a
growth”; “commit suicide” is called
“self-
deliverance or self-violence”. People often use
initialing to avoid talk about some diseases
directly, such as AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome); Big C (Cancer) etc.
3.1.4. The euphemisms for birth
Contrary to the Chinese traditional opinion, in
western countries, “being pregnant” and “having
a baby” are not considered “a blessed event”.
In America, “to wear the apron high”, “to wearhave
the belly high” are euphemisms for “to be
pregnant”, while in Britain, “to wear the bustle
wrong”
is a euphemism for “to be pregnant”.
Some one even called “to be pregnant” “to be
caught” or “to
be fallen”. Some vague
expressions also show a kind of restless mood,
such as: that way, in a
certainparticulardelicate condition etc.
3.2. Courtesy
Another reason to use
euphemism is that it avoids the harsh and direct
word in a polite way, and
makes the sentence
sound more pleasant. To grasp the polite function
of euphemism can help you
build a good
relationship with others. The polite functions are
especially reflected in the
occupations, or
trades. It relate with Politeness Principle of
Leech[17]. It is obvious that
advertisement is aimed at helping
businessmen propaganda their goods, for the sake
of soliciting
customs. As a pleasant way,
using euphemisms in advertisements has become more
and more
widespread. Now, “secondhand store”
has been replaced by “resale store”, “super”,
“giant”,
“special”, such words, have become
more popular. Moreover, we can often see the same
phenomenon about the expressions for classes
of cabins. To defend passengers ’honor, “First
Class” is changed to “Deluxe Class”, “Second
Class” is to “First Class”, “Third Class” to
“Business Class”, and “Economic Class” to
“Tourist Class”. This function undoubtly plays an
active role of improving the progress of
society:
3.3. Disguise
Opposite to the
positive influences of euphemism, there are some
euphemisms which can bring
about negative
influences. which are embodied in the following
two aspects according to its
concealing
function:
3.3.1. The euphemisms for the
requirements of politics and war.
Because of
the requirements of politics and war, the British
and American politicians used some
euphemisms
to conceal the internal truth, and cheat the
public. For example, American and British
people name “riot” as “disturbance” or
“disorder”; “strike” is called “walk-out, down
tools,
industrial action or industrial
dispute”; “economic crises” is called “recession”
or “depression”. In
the aspect of military
affair, “the number of the dead” is called “body
count”; “aggression” is
called “pre-emptive
action” or “involvement”. American media called
their invasion to Haiti by
their marines “an
incident”, called the investigation of American
airplanes in Russian territorial air
space “an
over flight”. We can see the concealing function
of euphemisms becomes the needs of
the
struggle, the tool of cheating people.
3.4.
The countries’ names as euphemism
In
English, there is another special euphemistic
expression. That is to use other countries’
names instead of some harsher or more
offensive words. The appearance of these
euphemisms is
mostly because of the historic
and cultural reasons. For instance, because French
had ruled Britain,
British people like to make
fun of the French. They called “syphilis” “the
French disease”. In 17th
century, the war
between Britain and Dutch also led to a lot of
anti-Dutch words, including
euphemisms.
“Prostitute” is called “Dutch widow”; “commit
suicide” is called “Dutch actcure”;
“Dutch
cheer” is a euphemism for “liquor”. Besides French
and Dutch, Britain also makes fun of
other
countries. “Russian roulette” is a euphemism for
“to intend to commit suicide”; “Mexican
raise.
Irish promotion” means “to be dismissed”;
“Egyptian physical training” means “to sleep at
daytime”. In a word, the British and the
American relate a lot of offensive things with
other
countries’ names.
4. Conclusion
Euphemism appears with a different appearance,
and exerts a subtle influence on exposing the
truth. That is to use the neutral or pleasant
words to express some awkward or offensive
contents.
As English learners, we should not
only pay attention to its application on
appropriate occasions,
but to its influences.
Its active functions can coordinate the
interpersonal relationships, release the
contradictions and avoid the conflicts. The
negative functions are to confound right and
wrong,
beautify the shameful behaviors and
conceal the essence. Language itself has not the
class
character, but different people,
political parties and countries can consider it a
tool to serve for
them. That is why someone
named euphemisms as “comfortable words” or
“cosmetic words”. In
daily life, we should pay
attention to the influences that the active and
negative functions of
euphemisms bring us, and
keep the negative functions from corrupting our
thoughts.