A Study Of English Euphemism From Pragmatic And Cultural Perspectives

This thesis is primarily concerned with the study of English euphemism from a pragmatic and cultural perspective. The main purpose is to discover how euphemistic effects are achieved in the use of English euphemism, how speakers use euphemism to preserve face and how English euphemism is related to culture.The data used in the discussion are examples of English euphemisms commonly seen and heard in everyday communication; some of them are extracted from news reports, movies, novels and so on. They are the basis of the qualitative analysis of the pragmatic and cultural dimensions of English euphemism. Grice's Cooperative Principle, Brown & Levinson's Face Theory and Leech's Politeness Principle are applied to the pragmatic analysis of English euphemism. Meanwhile, Fishman and Kramsch's proposals concerning the relationship between language and culture serve as the foundation of the discussion of the relationship between English euphemism and culture in the thesis.While using euphemism in communication, speakers intentionally exploit at least one of the maxims of Grice's CP to achieve euphemistic effects; they employ various politeness strategies to preserve their interlocutor's face as well as their own face. This study also demonstrates that English euphemism is interweaved so tightly with the culture of the speakers that the belief systems, values and concepts shared by native speakers play a pivotal role in the appearance and use of euphemism to such a degree that we can infer that euphemism is actually a reflection of what they think and believe in. Resultant from this culturally relevant characteristic of English euphemism, any deficiency in cultural knowledge may result in pragmatic failure in euphemism usage during inter-cultural communication.