Brief Usage and Significance of Euphemism

LiaoHengyu

Abstract：Usually， people would like to seek an appropriate way which could possibly make the conversation go well and also make both sides feel delighted after their talking. To adopt euphemism to express themselves could meet those demands above. Euphemism means to employ an implicit， mild or indirect expression in exchange for various intense， impolite， embarrassed or unacceptable utterances. Euphemism is a result of choosing language expressions under certain context，and it's also a product during the process of society development. This essay would focus on usage and significance of euphemism would help to analyze the practical applicability and significance of euphemism in social communication.

Key words： euphemism； usage； significance

中圖分類號：G633.41 文獻標識碼：B 文章編號：1672-1578（2016）01-0145-02

1.Fields of using euphemism

Euphemism is a much wider phenomenon which has spread to all relations of life. In the following aspects， euphemism is commonly used for unpleasant subjects （Zhang 2004）.

1.1 About disease， death， sexuality， urination， defecation， ghost.People prefer to adopt a vague expression to desalt those concepts above， aiming to reduce or avoid the awkwardness and unhappiness（Gu 2006）.

For example： go depart， depart from the world forever， decrease， expire， go to heaven， be gone， be a goner， be gone to a better world， trouble be over now， breathe one's last ，go the way of all flies， pay one's debt to nature ， be in heaven， be with God for death. As for certain disability or disease， people wouldn't go straightly to speak it out but to employ mentally handicapped for retarded， physically handicapped or disabled for crippled， sightless for blind， lunatic or mentally deranged for mad. I 'm afraid that the most common area where we use euphemism is something related toilet. Quite a lot well-mannered expressions exist in English to express that such as to wash one's hand， to relieve oneself ，to spend a penny， to leave the room， to go to meet the maker， be no longer with somebody， to go to meet one's aunt， to have a bowel movement， because nature calls for to go to toilet. Men could say to see a man about a horse， women could say to powder her nose， to fresh up， and kids could say I want to go somewhere.

1.2 About western politics， economy， military .Literally， euphemism is used to reduce unhappiness or misunderstanding that some words bring. However， euphemism here is characterizes with other political purpose， that is to cover the facts， to ease the contradictions or to avoid the public 'rage （Liang 2010）.

For example： economic recession for economic crisis， industrial action for strike， revenue enhancement for tax increase， rescue mission for invasion， strategic withdraw for retreat， one-way for mission for suicidal attack， defensive measures for bombing raids…In the 1960's ， among American youth， a revolt against moral worth， aesthetical standard， personal behavior ， social relation of regular society came about. A word - counterculture was used to describe that phenomenon. Counterculture is compounding word with counter culture which has nothing to do with emotional coloring. The usage of counterculture is a euphemism which doesn't offend anybody and even appropriately record that anti- legitimate cultural movement.

1.3 About teaching.Obviously， euphemism is adopted in teaching. As a teacher， I am supposed to report students' real situation， on the other hand， to take students' psychological health and endurance ability into consideration is quite necessary. For that reason， teachers use euphemism to desalt evaluation for those slow students.

For example： He is a bit slow or he is an underachiever for he is stupid； He is likely to embroider the truth a bit for he lies； He needs to learn how to help in learning adhere to rules and standards of fair play for the students cheat； he has got less than a passing grade for a few major courses for he has failed many major courses.

2. Social and cultural significance of euphemism.Euphemism is a common phenomenon of all languages. It is a mirror of social psychology. Recently， English euphemism has arousing wide interest. It is so widely used in our daily life. If people try not to mention directly， avoiding bad lucks or poor states， they have to use euphemism（Wu 1999）. People speak out their minds in implicit and roundabout way because they fear something， because they want to save face or because they strongly incline to avoid talking about something.

Euphemism is also common in different cultures. Since different cultures have different communications， people from different cultures will necessarily encounter many difficulties or problems when they communicate with each other. They often feel confused if they are a lack of some background information. Different cultural background makes the same thing bring about different emotions（Song， & Liu 2010）. It is necessary to make a cross-cultural study of euphemisms. We must increase the awareness of cultural differences in euphemism in order to be able to use it appropriately and effectively.

References：

[1] Liang Jiaojiao（2010）. Political Euphemism-A Strategy for POWER JUSTIFICATION. Literatures. 8， 129-130

[2] 辜同清，（2006），委婉語社會語言學分析，《西華師范大學學報》，1， 47-48

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