| Euphemism, as a common linguistic phenomenon, as well as a socio-cultural phenomenon, has attracted people's attention for a long time. Many researchers have studied euphemisms in the rhetoric, semantic, dictionary compiling, pragmatic and sociolinguistic areas and all of them have contributed much to the study of euphemism. On the basis of these achievements, the thesis focuses on the role of interpersonal variables in the use of euphemism.In this thesis, firstly the author tries to analyze the definition, the classification and formation of euphemism and clarify the relationship between euphemism and language. Then the author emphasizes that euphemism, as a socio-cultural phenomenon, is closely related with culture and context. Euphemism comes into being only in contextual use so euphemism is not only euphemistic terms but also a strategy of language use. The use of euphemism varies from addressee to addressee.The characteristic of addressee will affect the use of euphemism. Then the author put forward a hypothesis that speakers use euphemisms more often when talking to someone who is older, who has more occupationally-based power, or is an acquaintance; speakers use euphemisms more often when talking to the opposite-gender addressee and female speakers use more euphemism than males.The thesis adopts experimental and quantitative approaches to demonstrate the hypothesis. Four studies in the thesis demonstrate how these variables affect the use of euphemism respectively. The analysis of motivation of euphemism reveals that euphemism is the product of politeness. People tend to use more euphemisms when talking to those who have more"power", to those who is with opposite gender to show politeness. Female speakers use more euphemisms than males. The ultimate purpose of using euphemism is to show politeness, to protect faces of both speakers and addressees and even the third party, which illustrate why interpersonal variables affect the use of euphemism.
|
PDF Full Text Request