An Analysis Of The Communicative Functions Of English Euphemism From The Perspective Of The Cooperative Principle

Euphemism, as a common phenomenon in people’s language using procedure, it is existing and being used actively in different language communities and diverse social levels. It is important, and has been attracting the attention and interest of language lovers or learners and especially language researchers. Therefore, in the language field, the researches of it are every abundant. Among them, there are some about euphemism’s origin, some about euphemism’s formation principles, some about comparative study of Chinese and English euphemism, and some about the communicative functions of euphemism from the angle of Politeness Principle. This thesis analyzes the communicative functions of euphemism from the perspective of the Cooperative Principle.Although many research results about the relationship between euphemism and the Cooperative Principle have been done by language researchers, there are still many shortages existing in the researches. Firstly, there is little deep research on euphemism, most theses are just about the superficial introduction of euphemism, such as about the formation and the classification. Secondly, the research of the relation between euphemism and the Cooperative Principle is not thorough enough as well.The thesis tries to overcome the obstacles, doing relatively in-depth research on euphemism. First, we make a conclusion for the research of euphemism at home and abroad. And then in the third chapter of the thesis, we make a study of English euphemisms in terms of their definition, origins, classification, characteristics, formation, and an analysis on the relation of euphemism and the Cooperative Principle will come after that. The relation between the euphemism and the Cooperative Principle can be concluded as the following two aspects:first, there is incompatibility between them:the euphemisms violate the maxims of the Cooperative Principle. The violations include the violation of the maxim of Quantity, the violation of the maxim of Quality, the violation of the maxim of Relation, the violation of the maxim of Manner. Second, there is coordination between them. They have same purpose to achieve good communication effect in communication activities. After a general understanding of the relation between euphemism and the Cooperative Principle, we discuss the communicative functions of English euphemism from the perspective of the Cooperative Principle. In this part, the thesis introduces the motivation of using euphemism, and then does an analysis of the relation between euphemism and the Cooperative Principle, and then the thesis introduces English euphemism’s communicative functions from the angle of the Cooperative Principle. Euphemisms violating different maxims function differently. Among them, there are more euphemisms violating the Quality maxim and the Manner maxim then those violating the Relation and Quantity maxim. Correspondingly, the functions of the two kinds of euphemisms are more abundant then the latter two kinds. In one word, the communicative functions of English euphemism include to avoid taboos, to avoid offending others, to conceal facts, to show respect and to protect others’ face and so on.Euphemism, as a significant language phenomenon, is difficult yet interesting to be researched on. Although the thesis has introduced euphemism’s definition, classification, characteristics, the relation between euphemism and the Cooperative Principle, and the communicative functions of euphemism under the prospective of the Cooperative Principle, still the research is not so in-depth because of the pressing time and the writer’s ability. And it is obviously not so easy to do an analysis of the degree of violation except the violation of the first maxim—the violation of the Quantity. Nevertheless, the writer still has done the thesis with the hope to do something to help English favors and learners.