语言学论文.docx

语言学论文.docx

《语言学论文.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《语言学论文.docx（14页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

语言学论文

语言学-论文

2011—2012学年第二学期

《英语语言学》学期论文

OnEnglishEuphemismundertheCooperativePrinciple

andPolitenessPrinciple

合作原则和礼貌原则下的英语委婉语

Abstract：

Aeuphemismisanindirectorpleasantexpressionpeopleapplyincommunicationinsteadofamoredirectoneinordertoavoidupsettingothers.Asanindispensablepartofhumanlanguage,euphemismiswidelyusedincommunication.Anditisoftensaidtobeasasortof“lubricatingoil“aswellasthebridgetoestablishharmonioussocialrelationship.

ThepaperattemptstoseektherelationsbetweeneuphemismsandCooperativePrinciple（theCP）andthepolitenessPrinciple（thePP）.Afterthegeneralunderstandingandintroductiontothedefinitionoftheeuphemism,itscommunicativefunctionsarediscussed.ThenextisthecontentofCooperativePrincipleandthePolitenessPrinciple.TherelationbetweentheeuphemismandCooperativePrincipleandthePolitenessPrinciplewillbeanalyzedbysomeexamples,thatis,howtheeuphemismviolatestheCooperativePrincipleandobservesthePolitenessPrinciple.

Keywords:

EnglishEuphemism,CooperativePrinciple,PolitenessPrinciple

摘要：

委婉语是一种人们在交际中采取迂回曲折的方法来表达思想，交流信息从而避免使用引起双方不快从而损害双方关系的语言。

作为人类语言不可缺少的一部分，它广泛用于人际交往中并且也一直被视为人类交流的“润滑油”和构建和谐人际关系的桥梁。

这篇论文探讨合作原则和礼貌原则下的英语委婉语。

首先对英语委婉语的定义做了总体上的介绍，接着介绍了委婉语的交际功能。

再次分别阐述合作原

functionsoftheeuphemism,therelationsbetweenthetwoprinciples,theCooperativePrincipleandPolitenessthePrinciple,andtheeuphemism,andtheconclusion.Therelationsbetweentwoprinciplesandeuphemismwillbeelaboratedbymanyconvincingexamples.Thecommunicativefunctionoftheeuphemismincludes

Toavoidsomethingpeopledon’twanttomentionorsomethingtheyfeartomention.

Tobemoreurbane

Toshowrespect,politenessandsaveface

Forpolitical，economicandmilitarypurpose

Forotherreasons.

2.LiteratureReviewoftheStudyofEuphemisms

Asacommonlanguagephenomenon,Englisheuphemismshavebeenarousingwideinterestofmanyscholarsathomeandabroadforalongtime.

Earlyinthewest,adventurersandanthropologistsdescribedtaboosinallkindsofwritings.Intheearly1580s,theBritishwriterGeorgeBluntforthefirsttimeintroducedtheterm“euphemism”anddefineditas“agoodorfavorableinterpretationofabadword”（Neaman&Silver,1990:

4）.BasedonthehistoricalandculturalbackgroundofAmericansociety,theAmericanlinguistH.M.MenkenwroteTheAmericanLanguageinwhichheanalyzedhowandwhyhundredsofEnglisheuphemismscameintobeingandbecamepopular（ShuDingfang.1995）.TheBritishlinguistHughRawsoncompiledADictionaryofEuphemismsandOtherDouble-talk,arepresentativeoftheachievementsmadeontheeuphemismstudyoverthedecades.Hemadeanextensivediscussionofthedefinition,classification,featuresanddomainsofeuphemism（ShuDingfang.1995，19）.AnotherclassicdictionaryKindWord:

AThesaurusofEuphemisms,compiledbyAmericanscholarsJudithS.NeamanandCaroleG.Silver,isalsoofgreatreferentialsignificancetothestudyofEnglisheuphemismstoday.EnrighteditedFairofSpeech,theUseofEuphemism,whichisacollectionofsixteenessays,eachonlydiscussingtheusesandfeaturesofeuphemismsinonespecificdomain.Thisbookisregardedasthestudyofeuphemismsfromthesociolinguisticperspective.AllanandBurridgepublishedEuphemismandDysphemism,inwhichaninterestingperspectiveonthehumanpsycheistobegainedfromthestudyofeuphemismsusedasprotectiveshieldagainsttheangerordisapprovalofnaturalorsupernaturalbeingsandeuphemismisdefinedbyreferencetoconcernsaboutface,concernsthatareofimmensesignificanceonanyoccasionoflanguageinterchange.ThisbookisveryvaluabletothestudyofEnglisheuphemismsfromapragmaticperspective.WarrenwroteWhateuphemismstellusabouttheinterpretationsofwordswhichprovestobeamoredetailednarrationofhoweuphemismsareusedincomparisonwitheverydaylanguage.

InChina,manystudiesabouteuphemismsweremainlystartedfromtherhetoricperspective.ChenWangDao（2009）wasregardedasapioneer.Hiscontributionisthateuphemismisnotlimitedtothelexicon,butextendedtothelevelofsentencesorevendiscoursesinhisbookAnIntroductiontoRhetoric.ItisFanJiacaiwhofirstgivesusadetaileddescriptionofeuphemisminhisbookAppreciationandAnalysisofEnglishRhetoric（Fan,1992:

168-178）.Inthisbook,theauthorassimilatestheachievementsofresearchingeuphemismandsystematicallydiscussesthecauses,featuresandconstructingmeansofeuphemism.AnothertwobooksdiscussingeuphemismontherhetoricaspectareEnglishRhetoricandWritingwrittenbyPanShaozhang（1998:

60-65）andADetailedStudyofFiguresofSpeechinEnglishbyLiXinhua（2000:

109-130）.InLiXinhua’sbook,henotonlydiscussesthedefinition,constructingmeansandtheapplicablescopeofeuphemism,butalsodiscussestherelationbetweenaestheticsandeuphemism,whichindeedbringinsomenewconceptsineuphemismstudy.

Inthe1970sand1980s,withtheintroductionofwesternsociolinguistictheoriesintoChina,somescholarscommencedtostudyeuphemismsintheperspectiveofsocialfunctions.InhisSociolinguistics,ChenYuan（1983）notonlydiscussedthehistoricalandsocialbackgroundofeuphemism,butrevealedthenatureofthissocialphenomenon.Eversincethen,anumberofacademicarticlesconcerningeuphemismsfromdifferentangleswerepublishedoneafteranother.Forexample,ShuDingfang’sNewProbesintoEuphemism（1989）,WuTieping’sTheInterpretiveCapacityoftheTheoryofFuzzyLinguisticsShownbytheDevicesofEuphemism（1999）.Nowadaysthestudiesabouteuphemismarecountless.LiangHongmei（2001:

30-34）inherPragmaticAnalysisofEnglishEuphemismmainlyanalyzedtheeuphemismwiththepragmatictheories.Caoman（2005:

54-56）analyzedeuphemismfromtheperspectiveofcognitivelinguisticsinherCategorizationTheoryofCognitiveLinguisticsandEuphemism.Categorizationcanbeemployedtoillustrateeuphemisticphenomena.XieYajun（2008:

148-151）analyzedthemotivationofeuphemismfromthecognitivelinguisticsinhisMetaphorMechanicinEnglishEuphemism.

Tosumup,alltheresearchesmentionedabovehavenotonlymadeextensiveandprofoundstudiesofeuphemism,buthavemaderesearchesfromdifferentanglesinthisfield.Therangeofthepreviousstudyhasbeensofarconfinedtotheleveloflexicon,rhetoricandmoreover,pragmaticfeaturesandfunctionsandsoon.Inaword,thispaperwilltrytoresearchintothedefinition,thecommunicativefunctionofEnglisheuphemismandtherelationbetweeneuphemismandCooperativePrincipleandPolitenessPrinciple.

3.GeneralIntroductiontotheEuphemism

3.1DefinitionofEnglishEuphemisms

EuphemisminEnglishisawordderivedfromGreeklanguage．InGreek．“–eu”means“good’’and“–phemism”standsfor“speech”andincombinationeuphemismmeans“wordofgoodomen”．Euphemismisanindirectwordorphrasethatpeopleoftenusetorefertosomethingembarrassingorunpleasant,sometimestomakeitmoreacceptablethanitreallyis．

（OxfordAdvancedLearner’sEnglish—ChineseDictionary，581）．

Therearesomedefinitionscitedasfollows:

（1）Useofpleasant,mildorindirectwordsorphrasesinplaceofmoreaccurateordirectones

（OxfordAdvancedLearner’sEnglish-ChineseDictionary（FourthEdition）,1993）

（2）Word,etc.usedinplaceofoneavoidedase.g.Awordfor“girl”usedofprostitutesinplaceofthespecificwordfor“prostitute”

（P.H.Mathews:

OxfordConciseDictionaryofLinguistics,2000）

（3）Substitution,restraint,softenedexpression,mockmodesty,metaphoricalspeech,verbalextenuation,wordinverbalgoodtaste,overdelicacyofspeech,affectedrefinementoflanguage.

（Webster’sNewWorldThesaurus,MeridianBook,1971）

（4）Apolitewordorexpressionthatyouuseinsteadofamoredirectonetoavoidshockingorupsettingsomeone

（LongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish1995）

Fromabovedefinitions,itcanbeeasilyconcludedthattheeuphemismistoavoidoffensivebyusingmorepolite,pleasant,mild,indirect,orlessbluntwords.

3.2TheCommunicativeFunctionsofEnglishEuphemism

（1）Toavoidsomethingpeopledon’twanttomentionorsomethingtheyfeartomention.

Indailylife,peopleoftenencountersomethingtheydon’twantorsomethingwhichmakesthemfear．Inthissituation，theyprefereuphemism．Asweknow，deathisatopicpeoplefeartomention．Peopleusesomeeuphemismstoexpressdie，suchastopassaway，todepart，togotosleep，togotoheaven,sleep，tokickthebucket，andsoon．

（2）Tobemoreurbane

Peopleuselanguagetocommunicate．Sometimes，theymayfeeluncomfortabletalkingaboutthingsdirectlylikesexualbehavior，defecationandbirthing．Ifpeopletalkaboutitdirectly，theymaygivetheimpressionofbeingvulgarandbluntandtheythemselvesmayfeelembarrassed,sotheyadapteuphemisminstead．Forexample，it’simpolitetosayinthepublic：

Sorry，Ihavetogotothetoilet．Itwouldbebettertosay：

Sorry，IhavetomydutyorIhavetogivemyselfease．

（3）Toshowrespect,politenessandsaveface

Onsomeoccasions，whenpeoplewanttoshowrespecttoothersoravoidhurtingothers，theymaytalkinaeuphemisticway．Asweknow，agingisatopicpeoplemayneverwanttotalk，especiallyforwomen．Sowhenwecometothistopic，peopleuseeuphemismtomakepeoplefeelbetter．Accordingly，wecallthepeopleofoldageseniorcitizen，secondchildhoodorthelongerliving．Wecallpeopleslowofhearinginsteadofdeafvisuallyretardedforblindorcolordeficientforcolorblindsoasnottohurtthosedisabledpeople.

（4）Forpolitical，economicandmilitarypurpose

Manyeuphemismsemergedasaresultofeconomicalandpoliticalp