1. Taboo function
Because people are afraid or ashamed to mention certain things or phenomena, they are unwilling or afraid to speak in language expression, and when they have to express this meaning because of practical needs, euphemism is used instead. In religion, people are afraid to call their names because of their awe of God (good or evil). For example, the Romans called Nemesis Eynebdies and Erinyes. In order to avoid blasphemy, the British and Americans use Golly and Gosh to represent God. Death is the ultimate destination of mankind, and it is also the end point of life that no one can cross. The word "death" has always been considered unlucky in eastern and western cultures, so there are many euphemisms about death all over the world. There are several expressions of death in English: passing away, going to the west, climbing the golden stairs in Abraham's arms, going to a better place, expiring, visiting one's ancestors, etc. What's more, people don't want to talk about topics related to death. For example, the coffin is called a box, and the cold word cemetery is replaced by a memorial park, which makes people feel quiet and warm. In the fiercely competitive western society, old is a very taboo word. Because being old means being old, which means being dead, and the days are running out, which means you have to quit the mainstream society. If you call someone an old man or an old woman, it is offensive or contemptuous of others, and it is very impolite. Therefore, there are many euphemisms about the old in English. For example, people call the elderly senior citizens, elders, elderly, long-lived, sophisticated people and so on. In addition, nursing homes are called youth towns or sanatoriums and adult homes. Old age is called the golden age, the third age and so on.
2. Politeness function
Politeness is the symbol of human civilization, and politeness principle is an important principle of human social activities. In daily life, too straightforward language often appears vulgar and indecent, so people use euphemism to avoid embarrassment, misunderstanding, unhappiness and possible contradictions. For example, for ugly women, the word plain is often used instead of ugly. Students with mental retardation are called slow learners. In English, all kinds of disabled people are called disabled people, and blindness is called visual impairment. Many professions are beautified out of courtesy and goodwill. For example, housewives are called domestic engineers, farmers are called agricultural science experts, and cleaners are called health engineers. Waiters became restaurant waiters, gardeners were promoted to landscape designers, and even butchers became meat craftsmen. In addition, people use packaging engineers instead of porters and sanitary engineers instead of garbage collectors or cleaners. More interestingly, when you ask about the occupation of a restaurant dishwasher, he will proudly say that I am a bubble dancer. These professional euphemisms reflect the desire of the bottom people for respect and recognition, and also reflect the strategies adopted by employers to attract people to engage in these shameful jobs.
3. Masking function
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Euphemism, to some extent, is like a lie wrapped in a colorful and attractive coat. It makes it difficult for people to see the essence of things at once, and it also makes it difficult for people to distinguish between good and evil and true and false. In the political field, in order to ease relations with underdeveloped countries or poor and backward countries, leaders of developed countries call them developing countries or emerging countries to avoid deadlock between the two sides. We can find many euphemisms in the war. If invasion is called rescue mission, civilian casualties are called collateral damage, and sneak attack is called preemptive strike, the war will not sound so bloody and cruel. British and American newspapers often use euphemisms to cover up some serious social problems. For example, workers' strikes are nothing more than industrial actions or industrial disputes. The corruption of government officials is understated as the abuse of public funds, slums are simply called substandard housing, and unemployed and poor mothers are called welfare mothers. The crime rate in today's society is very high, so there are many related euphemisms. The problem of juvenile delinquents being described as teenagers is not so easy to say that they are in prison, otherwise their parents will be very unhappy, so it is more interesting to say that they are in the adjustment center and enjoy the government's public expenses.
4. Humor function
Euphemism can make human language interesting and humorous, put cruel facts into humor and increase the teasing color of language. For example, when you are sent to prison, you say that you live at public expense, which gives people the feeling that you are enjoying the welfare of the government. Death is a terrible word, but people call it "in Abraham's arms", which gives people a quiet and warm feeling, as if death had become a kind of enjoyment. "Battle of the Bulb" was originally a humorous expression after World War II, which originated from the last offensive "Battle of the Bulb" launched by the Germans at the end of 1944. Now it is used to describe the protracted war with obesity in order to keep fit, exaggerating women's behavior of losing weight in order to be slim to be like a war, and humorously explaining women's determination and perseverance to lose weight. For another example, drunkenness is often used to describe drunkenness, which is a professional vocabulary, and its original meaning is drunkenness. The humor of this euphemism is to associate the image of a drunk with a soft and wet plaster that can be applied at will. The drunkenness and drunkenness come to the fore, which makes people laugh.
Third, the pragmatic features of euphemism
1. British Times (1785)
The change of language depends on the needs and development of society, so the times are also called variability. From a diachronic point of view, language is constantly changing, with new words constantly appearing and old words gradually disappearing. Euphemism is even more so. For example, "she is pregnant" is euphemistically expressed as "canceling all her social activities; In the19th century; Become an interesting condition; In a fragile state. In the 20th century, with the continuous opening of people's minds, "pregnancy" was simply expressed as a family name. ; Pregnant. In the Victorian era, names below the chest were taboo, and neither breasts nor legs could be said, so euphemisms were used at that time, such as white meat and black meat, which respectively meant chicken breast and chicken leg on the table, but now they are no longer used. In17th century English, "occupation" was used as a euphemism for sexual relations. With the gradual lifting of the taboo on sexual relations, sexual behavior is directly mentioned in western TV debates. It can be seen that the use of euphemism is constantly changing due to the needs of social life, rational thinking has replaced mysterious concealment, and some so-called dirty words have entered the room.
2. Register variability
In different contexts or in the same context, people with different ages, identities, status or education levels have different euphemisms. Let's compare three different euphemisms to describe someone's madness: Tom is a mental patient. Tom has a dull mind. Tom is missing a screw. (playful humor). In American English, there are many euphemisms for "toilet", such as: the convenience station is written, the bathroom is spoken, John is slang, and the poet's corner is almost a joke. Other expressions include: toilet, power room, comfortable room, smallest room, etc. In addition, "going to the toilet" is tangy for women, booing for men, and going to the toilet and going to the toilet for children. It can also be directly expressed as doNo. 1 (urine) or do No.2 (stool). Some also use onomatopoeic words pee-pee (urine) and poo-poo (stool). The common expression of "going to the toilet" is going to the toilet, slang is going to the toilet, polite expression is excuse me, other expressions are going to the toilet, taking a shit, relieving nature, relieving yourself, answering the call of nature, calling of nature and so on. It can be seen that when using euphemism, we must pay attention to the occasion, context and speaker.
3. Regionality
As the saying goes, "a hundred miles of different winds, a hundred miles of different customs." Due to the differences in natural environment, mode of production and social life style in different regions, euphemism also shows different characteristics. Take someone's job. For another example, when the Normans conquered Britain more than a thousand years ago, only manor owners and nobles could eat pies made of deer meat, while hunters and servants could only eat pies made of deer viscera, which in itself showed their inferiority. Later, due to the change of pronunciation, Umbre became humble, and "swallowing up" became "forced to apologize".
4. Indirect suggestion
The biggest feature of euphemism is to use general and vague words to express unpleasant things, so as to make them general and general, thus avoiding the embarrassment and unhappiness caused by directly mentioning these things. This is what people call implication. An affair refers to an affair, and an accident refers to an accident such as a stroke or assassination; Replace pickpockets with five fingers; Replace the fence with Mr. Road; Underground hero refers to heroin; Drug dealers are said to be candy people; The massacre was diluted to search and clear, and the additional operations of war were called war games. The example of poverty, using lay off (seasonal temporary dismissal) instead of dismissal, using needy (poverty) instead of poverty, says that sending a person to a big house is sending him to prison. These all reflect the elegant, tortuous and obscure aspects of euphemism, which is one of the reasons why it is favored.
Four. conclusion
Euphemism is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also an important means to adjust interpersonal relationships with language. It is also the embodiment of social and cultural values. It is a mirror reflecting society, which is closely related to cultural traditions and people's values. Therefore, the development of euphemism is compatible with the development of society, culture and economic life. Learning euphemism must be combined with the cultural and economic background of each country, so as to understand euphemism more accurately and use euphemism appropriately.