Abstract:This paper aims to analyze the political euphemisms used by American presidents in their public speeches. For those politicians in American society, choosing the gentle and moderate words in the political speeches can help them better influence and persuade the public, getting their support in the end. This thesis studies the use of political euphemisms from the perspective of cooperative principle, appraisal system and associative meanings in order to help people have a better understanding of the significance of euphemism in political occasions and at the same time learn to express opinions in more gentle and acceptable way. 

Key words: political euphemisms, president, speech

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One Introduction1

   1.1 Background of the Study .1

1.2 Significance of the Study1

1.3 Purpose of the Present Study.1

1.4 Structure of the Present Study.2

Chapter Two The General View of English Euphemisms.3  

   2.1 Definition of Political Euphemisms3

2.2 The Classification of Political Euphemisms.3

Chapter Three Political Euphemism and Cooperative Principle. 7

   3.1 Definition of Cooperative Principle7 

3.2 Content of Cooperative Principle.7

3.3 The Relationship between Political Euphemisms and Cooperative Principle8

Chapter Four Analysis Of Political Euphemism from the Perspective of Appraisal System11

   4.1  A General View of the Appraisal System11 

4.2 Analysis of Political Euphemisms in the Subsystem of Attitude11

4.3 Analysis of Political Euphemisms in the Subsystem of Engagement.12  

4.4 Analysis of Political Euphemisms in the Subsystem of Graduation13

Chapter Five Analysis of Associative Meaning of Political euphemisms14

   5.1 A General View of Associative Meaning.14 

5.2  The Associative Meaning of Political Euphemisms14

Conclusion.17

Bibliography19

Acknowledgements.21