Abstract:Euphemism, as an important phenomenon in our society and language, has been widely used in different walks of life and areas of the society. It not only can meet the needs of people in their social contacts, but also is an indispensible means to harmonize interpersonal relationships among different people. For decades, many linguists and scholars have made studies on English euphemism from various aspects. They mainly focus on the definition and classification of English euphemism, the methods and principles of the formation of English euphemism, etc. Few of them have done researches on English euphemism from the pragmatic perspective. Therefore, this thesis attempts to give a new definition of English euphemism pragmatically, mainly focuses on how people achieve the communicative function of English euphemism in their social contacts. This thesis makes hypothesis that people in the daily life violate the Cooperative Principle deliberately but observe the Politeness Principle and take the Face Theory into consideration in order to properly use the communicative function of English euphemism. It also points out that it is only in the communicative context that English euphemism can fully play its communicative function.

Keywords: English euphemism; principle; communicative function; context

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Literature Review of English Euphemism-3

2.1 Studies of English Euphemism in Western Countries-3

2.2 Studies of English Euphemism in China-3

2.3 Summary-4

Chapter 3 Communicative Function of English Euphemism-5

3.1 New Definition of English Euphemism-5

3.2 Different Communicative Functions of English Euphemism-5

3.2.1 The Evasive Function-5

3.2.2 The Avoidance Function-6

3.2.3 The Polite Function-6

3.2.4 The Cosmetic Function-6

3.2.5 The Disguise Function-6

3.2.6 The Humorous Function-7

Chapter 4 Mechanism of Realizing Communicative Function-9

4.1 Communicative Function and Cooperative Principle-9

4.1.1 Cooperative Principle-9

4.1.2 The Relation Between Communicative Function and Cooperative Principle-9

4.2 Communicative Function and Politeness Principle-11

4.2.1 Politeness Principle-11

4.2.2 The Relation Between Communicative Function and Politeness Principle-12

4.3 Communicative Function and Face Theory-13

4.4 Communicative Function and Context-14

4.4.1 What is Context ?-14

4.4.2 English Euphemism in Context-14

Chapter 5 Conclusion-17

References-18

Acknowledgements-19