Abstract：Euphemism is a common social phenomenon. It involves all aspects of people’s social life, and it plays a very important role in the communication among people. It has aroused great interest in a large number of scholars, who have studied it pragmatically, semantically, culturally and sociologically as well as with vague linguistics. But most studies are inclined to a single theoretical research, however, in the combination of the vague semantic category and cultural communication is seldom involved. 

　　　The author is very interested in the cognitive analysis of Chinese and English euphemism in cross-cultural communication, that’s why the author will research in this area. This paper will use the vague semantic category as the entry point, and then do the further analysis, explore the important function of the vague semantic of euphemisms in the cross-cultural communication.

　　　Firstly, the author will explain the definition and the formation of euphemism, at the same time, the importance of using the cognitive semantics to research euphemism will be told, and then the vague meaning of euphemism categories and semantics in euphemism will be analyzed. Meanwhile, the English as well as the Chinese socio-cultural background will be shown, and the author figures out that Chinese students have difficulty in understanding of English euphemism. This study proves that vagueness in euphemistic expressions will influence positively and negatively social communication. The author hopes this dissertation will help us to overcome the obstacles in the intercultural communication and enhance communication ability.

Key words:  euphemisms; semantics; intercultural communication

摘要：委婉语是一种普遍的社会现象，它涉及到社会生活的方方面面，在人们的交往中扮演着十分重要的角色。许多学者已从修辞学，语言学，语用学，及社会学的角度，还有在模糊理论方面对委婉语进行了研究。但是这些研究很多是偏重于单一理论角度的研究，然而多方面理论结合的研究却相对较少涉及。

作者对委婉语，语言学，文化交际领域特别感兴趣。所以作者选题为从认知语言学角度分析委婉语的跨文化交际。文章以模糊语义范畴为切入口，通过对其分析，从而探讨委婉语的模糊性语义在跨文化交际中的重要作用。

文章首先指出委婉语的定义和构成手法，指出运用认知语言学研究委婉语的重要性。然后，分析委婉语的语义特征。接着，引入模糊认知理论和语用理论和不同的文化背景，从而分析中国学生理解英语委婉语的困难，进一步比较分析委婉语的模糊语义在社会交际中的作用。结果表明，委婉语的模糊语义在跨文化交际中具有积极的社会功能，同时也有消极的社会影响。作者会通过深入分析委婉语的模糊性语义在跨文化交际中的重要作用从而做到扬长避短，克服跨文化交际中存在的障碍，提高交际能力。

关键词：  委婉语；模糊语义；跨文化交际