A Study Of Euphemisms In The Doctor-patient Discourses From The Perspective Of Prototype Theory

Euphemism is a common yet complicated linguistic phenomenon,and people use it consciously or unconsciously in daily life.With its indispensable role in the social interactions,the study of euphemism has a significant place in the development of linguistics.The appropriate use of euphemisms can avoid the conflicts and misunderstanding in communication,and even ease the tensions between the two parties,to make the interpersonal communication smoother.Therefore,euphemisms are widely used in the discourses of business and trade negotiations,foreign affairs and many service industries.Especially in the doctor-patient discourses,the application of euphemism seems much more important.As is known to all,in recent years,the incidents of doctor-patient disputes have seen a dramatic increase.And the escalation of some doctor-patient contradictions originates from the doctor-patient discourses,which have drawn extensive academic attention.If doctors could pay attention to their language use,especially the proper use of euphemisms,the conflicts and tensions between doctors and patients would be reduced and settled.Many researchers have by far discussed the doctor-patient contradictions and discourses from the perspectives of psychology and sociology,but few studied the doctor-patient euphemisms.This thesis intends to explore and study the euphemisms in the doctor-patient discourses under the framework of Prototype Theory.Thus,it expands the scope of euphemism study,and illuminates the impact of euphemism on easing the doctor-patient contradictions and conflicts as well as improving the quality of medical service.According to Ungerer and Schmid(2012),cognitive categories are made up of prototypes and peripheries,with the members rated on a typicality scale ranging from good to bad examples between prototypes and boundaries,and the prototypes are more cognitively salient than non-prototypes,more accurately remembered in short-term memory and more easily activated from long-term memory;the categories are combined in a sort of hierarchical relationship,where the basic level categoryoffers the largest bundles of correlated attributes,which are accumulated in their most complete form in the prototype and expressed by the category name.This thesis bases its theoretical foundation on Prototype Theory and adopts the qualitative and quantitative method: firstly,seasons 5 and 6 of Grey's Anatomy,an American medical drama,are chosen as the source corpus,and the conversations between doctors and patients are extracted as the data of the doctor-patient discourses,from which the euphemisms are collected for a qualitative analysis of prototypes and peripheral members of the same category and among the basic level,the superordinate and the subordinate category;secondly,according to the patients' mental emotion process and psychological stress response,the euphemisms are classified into such categories as treatment-directed,negative-stressor-dissolving,biological-stressor-attenuating,psychologically-tacit,privacy-respecting and implied euphemism;finally,the working mechanisms of euphemisms within each category are demonstrated in case study.The major findings of the thesis are listed as follows:Finding 1: according to Prototype Theory,various treatments,the things that are negative,biologically-stressed,psychologically-stimulative or privacy-violating,and certain parts of the human body are seen as the prototypes and basic level subcategories,and they provide maximum stimulus to the patients,which may result in the doctor-patient disputes.In order to avoid conflicts,the doctors could make use of the peripheral members and the superordinate or subordinate subcategories of each category of euphemisms.Finding 2: the fluctuation from the basic level category,the deconcentration of prototypicality via family resemblance and the disruption of gestalt perception can motivate the formation of euphemisms in the doctor-patient discourses.Finding 3: euphemisms in the doctor-patient discourses are in dynamic changes.This thesis starts from the perspective of Prototype Theory to categorize the euphemisms in the doctor-patient discourses and clarify the different functions of doctor-patient euphemisms in different contexts: firstly,the study helps the doctors to know how to choose the appropriate euphemisms in different occasions and convey a variety of diagnostic information to the patients and their family members without hurting their feelings;secondly,according to Prototype Theory,euphemisms in thedoctor-patient discourses are in dynamic changes,so the doctors could utilize this rule and adjust the formation of doctor-patient euphemisms accordingly to maintain a good doctor-patient relationship and the social stability.