从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用.docx

1、从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用委婉语that are anxious to present onl the handsomest possible images of themselves to the orld. And the are imbedded so deepl in our language that fe of us, even those ho pride themselves on bEing plainspoken, ever get through a da ithout using them. But some p

2、eople still mistake the euphemisms in the onversation b the Cooperative priniple. Violating the CP, people also an ontinue the onversation ith euphemisms, hih make the author interest in attitudes of partiipants and the purpose of onversation. That is our bod toda.Formation of euphemisms 1 Formal in

3、novation To avoid the emergene of ertain letter or sound ma ahieve the effet of euphemizing. The formal innovation an hide audio-visuall those ords e dont ant to sa or e shouldnt sa so as to ahieve better oute in muniation.1.1Abbreviation Abbreviation is the shortening of a ord and ma be seen in the

4、 use of the British expression LADIES for ladies room. There also is GENTS for gentlemens room. Apoopation is another form of abbreviation apparent in the use of vamp for vampire here meaning a sedutive oman. And lav is for lavator; homo is for homosexual; oa is for oaine; bra is for brassiere.1.3 I

5、nitialing Initialing is the use of aronms instead of thEIr ponent parts as in JC for “Jesus Christ”, BM for boel movement, W.C for ater loset, B.O for bod odor, V.D for venereal disease, AIDS for aquired immune defiien sndrome, SARS for severe aute respirator sndrome.1.4 Bakforming Bakforming is the

6、 substitution for one part of speeh for another, as in burgle hih is derived from burglar.1.5 Redupliation Redupliation is the repetition of a sllable or letter of a ord. Partiularl mon in hildrens bathroom voabular, it substitutes pee-pee forpiss, poo-poo for boel movement.1.6 Blend ord A blend ord

7、 is a form of phoneti distortion in hih to or more ords are squeezed together both orthographiall and phonetiall. An example of this is gezunda for a hamber pot, a term derived from the fat that this objet goes under the bed.1.7 Diminutive A diminutive is the formation of a ne term b niking or short

8、ening a name and adding a suffix indiating affetion or smallness. Heinie, for example, is the diminutive of hind end and refers to the buttoks.2 Semanti innovation1 Borroing Most obviousl, euphemisms ma be formed b borroing ords from other languagesterms that are less freighted ith negative assoiati

9、ons. Thus, e use Greek and Latin expressions for man bodil parts and funtions. We have oined halitosis from the Latin for “breath” and e have substituted miturition for the more vulgar Indo-European “Piss”. In addition, English euphemisms also borroed a lot of sientifi or XXdemi terms, hih are belie

10、ved to be more euphemisti and objetive than the usual terms, suh as magneti for “sex” and perspire for “seat” and so on.2 Widening Euphemisms ma be made b a semanti proess alled idening. When a speifi term bees too painful or vivid, e move up in the ladder of abstration. In this a, aner bees groth a

11、nd a girdle bees a foundation . Sometimes, in addition to idening e divide the negative onnotations of a single diret term beteen to or more ords. Instead of saing “sphilis” openl, e speak of a soial disease. 3 Semanti shift Allied to the phenomenon of idening is that of semanti shift. This is the s

12、ubstitution of the hole, or a similar generalit, for the speifi part e do not hoose to disuss. We ma reate suh metonmies as rear end for “buttoks”. Sometimes, as in the expressions to sleep ithgo to bed ith someone, e use ords naming the larger event in plae of more preise referenes to the sexual re

13、lations that are part of the proess.3 Rhetorial devies3.1 Metaphor Euphemisms ma be made b a proess alled metaphorial transfer, the parison of things of one kind to things of another. The euphemisms hosen are often romantiizing, poetiizing and softening of the original ords like go to sleep; go to h

14、is long home; be home and free; rest in peae; be at rest; go to HeavenParadise; join ones anestors; be gathered to ones fathers; join the immorals for die, shok for random bombing, onstrutive destrution for severe damage, have a road to travel for have a long time to reah an agreement and et.3.2 Apo

15、siopesis In English, there is a kind of rhetori alled aposiopesis that an also at as the a of euphemizing. When e think e should not sa something under ertain onditions, e suddenl stop as hen e sa someone is out of Polnesian origin denotes anthing linguisti and nonlinguisti, hih is prohibited or for

16、bidden. Taboo refers to the situation in hih a ord or name an be used in a munit onl under speial onditions, hether onl b ertain persons or onl in ertain irumstanes. Just as violating a ultural taboo an be quite offensive, so is it ith a verbal taboo in press onferenes. The “ord” has been and ontinu

17、es to be in most soieties pereived as a poerful instrument that ma evoke evil spirits, make bad things happen and instigate to violene and revolution and numerous other ativities. While taboo of ords ours hen a partiular topi is onsidered valid for disussion, euphemisti expression or terms are requi

18、red. So diplomati euphemisms have a ver serious reason for being. The an oneal the things people fear most death, the dead or the supernatural. Euphemisms an also eliminate unhappiness, embarrassment and fear et. so as to relieve people pshologiall.3.2 Politeness Politeness is another ver important

19、funtion that euphemisms serve in soial life. Some of the euphemisms are used to avoid rudeness and indeen for the sake of a polite onversation. Grie formulated Cooperative Priniple of utterane in hih the Maxim of Manner as defined as “Be perspiuous and speifi; To avoid obsurit; To avoid ambiguit; To

20、 be brief and to be orderl.” The roundabout nature of euphemisms goes against the Maxim of Manner, hih an onl be fairl explained ell b Leehs Politeness Priniple “Approbation Maxim: minimize dispraise of other, maximize praise of other”. In other ords, euphemisms are to minimize impolite expressions

21、and maximize polite expressions.3.3 Disguise Besides the to funtions of euphemisms mentioned above, there is still another one more important funtion at ork in euphemisti muniation, namel, the Disguise Funtion. Here e mean that beause of the vagueness of euphemisms, it has bee a ver important tool f

22、or politial leaders or the diplomats or statesmen to distort the fats or and present a false piture of peae and prosperit and to beautif hatever the authorit have done. For example, in the Iraq War, the use “Operation Iraqi Freedom” for beautifing their militar invasion, “possible movement” refers t

23、o militar attak, “air operation” or “air strikes” for air attak, “enter the ar” to sho their relutane to fight the ar et. and e ma find man suh kind of these euphemisms in press onferenes. The most important and ultimate funtion or purpose of the use of diplomati euphemisms in press onferenes is to

24、disguise or beautif their invasive essene or other evil ations or the separation of ords from truth. In Amerian and British soieties noadas, diplomati euphemisms are alas purposel devised to disguise sandals in ars and politis, deliberatel invented to beautif lol oupations and exessivel inflated to

25、promote sales in advertisement.4. The Cooperative Priniple Before going on, e look at to examples, as follos:A: Can ou tell me the time? B: Well, the mail has alread e.A: Are ou going to Johns birthda part? B: Ive heard Mar is going. It seems there are some mistake in the onversations. But in fat, i

26、t is orret. The Cooperative Priniple ill help us understand more. The Cooperative Priniple is as follos: Make our onversational ontribution suh as is required, at the stage at hih it ours, b the aepted purpose or diretion of the talk exhange in hih ou are engaged. Aording Grie, Cooperative priniple

27、is lassified into four ategories: quantit, qualit, relation and manner. The ategor of quantit relates to the quantit ofinformation to be provided, and under it fall the folloing maxims：4.1 The maxim of Qualit: Tr to make our ontribution one that is true, .speifiall:do not sa hat ou believe to be fal

28、se.do not sa that for hih ou lak adequate evidene4.2 The maxim of Quantit:Make our ontribution as informative as is required for the urrent purposes of the exhangeDo not make our ontribution more informative than is required4.3 The maxim of Relation: Make our ontribution relevant.4.4 The maxim of Ma

29、nner:Be perspiuous and speifiall:avoid obsurit of expression.avoid ambiguit.be brief be orderl. From hat mentioned above, e ma kno that the Cooperative Priniple enables one partiipant in a onversation to muniate on the assumption that the other partiipant is bEing ooperative. These four maxims form

30、a neessar part of the desription of linguisti meaning in that the explain ho it is that the speakers often “mean more than the sa” in thEIr muniations. We ma deide to ithhold hatever information e possess: No ment! We ma inadvertentl infringe a maxim or e an seretl violate a maxime.g. A ould maliiou

31、sl and falsel tell B that Janet had alked in the opposite diretion from the post offie. Or more importantl e an make a blatant sho of breaking one of the maxims At the time of reording, all the members of the ast ere members of The BBC Plaers. Q: Britain and Frane both put troops on standb alert for

32、 possible movement into Kosovo. While has the U.S. put an units on stand-b for a possible movement to Kosovo? A: In vie of the fat that our fores remain at their urrent state of readiness. There inrease that state of alertness at this point. Obviousl on short stand-b air operations, ould . In the above Q-A patterns of the transripts, e an see diplomati euphemisms like “possible movement”, “at their urrent state of readiness” and “air operation” et. are used in press onferenes that violate the Qualit Maxim. From the speifi ontext e kno that here “possible movement” mainl