Sometimes, people use euphemism to make their statement more persuasive. Thus the cosmetic words have a special communicative function, which is called inducing function. As Channell has analyzed in the discussion of the communicative functions of vague language that “A specific setting where speakers may withhold information which they know is where they feel that they can be more persuasive by doing so.” [21]
Euphemism has been widely applied in advertisement and sales promotion activities. Some airline companies divided the grades of passenger compartments into four ranks. They used “deluxe” or “premium class” to replace “first class”. And the “second class” is transformed into “first class”. The “third class” is revised as “business class” or “tourist class”. They sound more pleasing.
The rooms of hotel are also compartmentalized in the same way. They can be divided as first class, standard and private. Those words are sweet sounding and have nothing to do with customers’ self-esteem. Also, “‘antiques’ is the substitution of ‘second-hand furniture’.” [22] In the merchants’ eye, the former will make the price higher. People often use “compact car” to replace “small car”. Though their meanings are the same, “small” will be associated with an image of cheap and bad while “compact” emphasizes the image of artistic, delicate, and terse.
Those euphemisms desalinate the unpleasant feeling that the former concepts give us and intensify a feeling of more reliable and elegant. As a result, those products will be identified with the consumers and achieved the promotion goal. “From the pragmatic view, the achieving of inducing function is caused by the glorification of the intrinsic meaning.” [23]
3.5 Tactical function
If a same meaning is expressed in many different ways, their effects are entirely different. This is what we called the art of speaking. If we apply this strategy to our daily life, our life will be more colorful.
For example, on the plane, there are some bags that can be used by the passengers to shoot his cookies. People don’t print the words “vomit bag” on the surface of the bag. Instead, they use the words “for motion discomfort”. [24] And the result proved that the vomit phenomenon has reduced. Because compared with the former words, the word “for motion discomfort” prevents the passengers from vomiting when in a state of airsickness. This is the tactical function of euphemism.
By contrary, if we use euphemism inappropriately, the result would be worse. Try to compare the following two statements:
(9) I am an old cripple, drawing an old-age pension, working hard to raise vast quantities of vegetables on an allotment and well aware that, one of these days, I shall die.
(10) If, however, I listen to the voice of officialdom, it turns out that I am a disadvantaged senior citizen, registered as disabled, drawing a retirement pension, renting a leisure garden and, presumably, immortal because I shall never die--- I shall merely pass away.
We can see that in the first statement, the author talks directly about his life status. The second statement is that the government officials make a survey of the hardship of citizens. They try to cover the facts by using euphemisms.
3.6 Humor function
Jocular euphemism has been used to help people face the fact more easily. For example, people use “push up daisies” to take place of “be buried” because the former words can reduce people’s horror towards death. And “be sent into prison” is replaced by “live at government’s expense”. This expression is witty. Another example, “after three days in Japan, the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.” Its implicature is that in Japan, people are very polite. They usually bow many times a day to greet someone.
4. Euphemism and politeness
4.1 Euphemism and interpersonal communication
Euphemism has been widely used in the real human communication. It can be regarded as a kind of polite terms .In primitive and traditional society, taboo and euphemism are the two sides of a coin. They are used for social control and religious control. And in modern English, there are a number of words connected with holy, sex, body organ and body function. So when people’s topic refers to those, they have to find euphemisms to replace them. They often use some vague language to avoid mentioning them directly.
4.2 Politeness and face-threatening theory
The main function of euphemism is polite function. Thus, the main character of euphemism is polite. Politeness plays an important role in human communication. It oils human relationships. So euphemism accords with politeness will accelerate human communication.
4.2.1 The definition and features of politeness
“We view politeness as one of the major social constrains on human interaction which regulates participants’ communicative behavior by constantly reminding them to take into consideration the feelings of the others. It is necessary to consider their feelings so as to establish levels of mutual comfort and promote rapport, which in turn accelerate and facilitate human communication.” [25] The final goal of politeness is to make all of the parties relaxed and comfortable with one another.
There are two kinds of politeness: one is negative politeness; the other is positive politeness. Negative politeness is to make a less infringing request, such as "If you don't mind..." or "If it isn't too much trouble..." or respects a person's right to act freely. In other words, it’s deference. Positive politeness is to seek to establish a positive relationship between parties and respects a person's need to be liked and understood.
4.2.2 Face-threatening theory
Face is defined as an individual’s self-esteem. “Based on the face notion of Goffman that “face” is a sacred thing for every human being, an essential factor communicators have to pay attention to, and that face wants are reciprocal (if one wants his face cared for, he should care for other people’s face).” [26] According to Brown and Levinson, nearly all speech acts are face-threatening acts. There are two kinds of face: one is Positive Face; the other is Negative Face.
“Positive Face refers to our need to be accepted and liked by others and our need to feel that our social group shares common goals. Positive Politeness orients to preserving the positive face of other people. When we use positive politeness we use speech strategies that emphasize our solidarity with the hearer, such as information pronunciation, shared dialect or slang expressions, nicknames, more frequent reference to speaker and hearer as “we”, and requests which are less indirect.
Negative Face refers to our right to independence of action and our need not to be imposed on by others. Negative Politeness orients to preserving the negative face of other people. This is much more likely if there is a social distance between the speaker and the hearer. When we use negative politeness, we use speech strategies that emphasize our deference for the hearer. Nicknames, slang and informal pronunciation tend to be avoided and requests tend to be more indirect and impersonal, often involving could you… or could I ask you to… or even referring to the hearer in the third person.” [27]
4.2.3 The relationship between politeness and face want
Face refers to our public self-image. Politeness involves us showing an awareness of other people’s face want. In our interpersonal communication, we should pay attention to other’s face want. In the field of education, teacher has to deal with the relations with the students. There are some euphemisms about education. For example, if a student is lazy, we don’t call him “lazy student”. Instead, we call him “underachiever”. If a student cheats in class, we regard it that he depends on others to do his work. “And if a student is quarter-witted and he usually gets a low mark in the exams, we don’t call him stupid. So when the teacher talks with the child’s parents, the teacher would say: ‘Your child is a bit slow for his age.’” [28] He says the fact in a roundabout way so it will not hurt the parents’ and the child’s self-esteem. It is a face-saving strategy.
In short, in people’s daily communication, they have to be polite to save each other’s face and make their relations more harmoniously. They can achieve this goal by using euphemisms because they are sweet-sounding. And this is the polite function of euphemism.
5. Euphemism and Politeness Principle
From the above, we know that euphemism has something to do with politeness. We can associate politeness with Politeness Principle.
5.1 Leech’s politeness principle
“Generally speaking, most of the euphemisms accord with conversational principle, especially politeness principle. Leech’s (1983:132) maxims of the Politeness Principle tend to go in pairs as follows:
(1)Tact Maxim (in impositives and commissives)
a. Minimize cost to other;
b. Maximize benefit to other.
Some examples : a、If you keep this diet, you’ll be on the heavy side.
(c.f.: If you keep on eating too much, you’ll become very fat.)
b、Thank you for your kind hospitality.
(c.f.: Thank you for your delicious food.)
(2)Generosity Maxim (in impositives and commissives)
a. Minimize benefit to self;
b. Maximize cost to self.
Some examples: a、Would you do me a favor?
(c.f.: Can you help me?)
b、I shall never cease to feel grateful for your favors.
(c.f.: I shall never cease to feel grateful for your help.)
(3)Approbation Maxim (in expressives and assertives)
a. Minimize dispraise of other;
b. Maximize praise of other.
Some examples: a、He is a senior citizen now.
(c.f.: He is an old man now.)
b、Cao Yu is a Shakespeare of China.
(c.f.: Cao Yu is the best playwright of China.)
(4)Modesty Maxim (in expressives and assertives)
a. Minimize praise of self;
b. Maximize dispraise of self.
Some examples: a、This is a token of my regard for you.
(c.f.: This is a present for you.)
b、Your praise is the highest honor for me.
(c.f.: Thank you for your praise.)
(5)Agreement Maxim (in assertives)
a. Minimize disagreement between self and other;
b. Maximize agreement between self and other.
Some examples: a、I couldn’t share the same idea with you.
(c.f.: I don’t agree with you.)
b、If you were in my position, you would do the same.
(c.f.: I have to do so.)
(6)Sympathy Maxim (in assertives)
a. Minimize antipathy between self and other;
b. Maximize sympathy between self and other.” [29]
Some examples: a、I am sorry to hear that your father rested in Abraham’s arms.
(c.f.: I am sorry to hear that your father is dead.)
b、If I were you, I would have taken a route of egress as you did.
(c.f.: If I had been in your position, I would have been defeated by the mighty enemy, too.)
Leech ties politeness to the relationship between both parties and the language used. He claims that “static” feature, such as social distance, interact with “dynamic” features, such as the kind of illocutionary demand the speaker is making on the maker, to produce an appropriate degree of politeness. The core of his politeness is to minimize the expression of impolite benefits.
5.2 Polite function and Politeness Principle
Polite function is the basic social function of euphemism. And Politeness Principle shows this function. Euphemism always abides by the Politeness Principle. In such a case, euphemism can make people’s relationship more harmonious. But there are also some exceptions. Euphemisms of military do not accord with Politeness principle most of the time.
5.3 Politeness Principle and the cooperative Principle
The Politeness Principle shows equal and friendly relationships between people in the society. It demands that in communication, the speaker should cooperate with the hearer. The two parties use euphemisms to replace harsh words because it can meet the psychological needs of face-want. And the language used by the two parties should be appropriate. Generally speaking, the appropriateness of the speech is closely related with euphemism. However, “The Maxim of Relevance” of Grice’s “Cooperative Principle” limits the choice of euphemism. He suggests that in communication, the reply of the hearer should be closely related to the speech of the speaker. In the process of communication, the euphemisms used just now should be connected with the primary language symbols. In such case, it will provide a clue to the hearer so that he can understand the connotation of the speech. This principle provides a lot of standard conversational implicatures. In a word, the two parties can understand the intention of each other from the context.
(11) A: How is John doing with his study at school?
B: He’s a machine.
Here, from the literal meaning of B's reply, he seems haven’t answer A’s question. But at least, his answer violates Quality Maxim and Relation Maxim. We know that though B’s answer doesn’t cooperate with A’s question, we can still understand B’s meaning by the deeper implication of his speech. First, we should suppose that this conversation tally with Cooperative Principle. Second, we can guess the implication between machine and study. At last, we can infer that John is hard-working. Thus, if the utterance is not relevant with each other, we can reason. “Unlike presuppositions and entailments, implicatures are inferences that cannot be made from isolated utterances. They are dependent on the context of the utterance and the shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer.” [30]
6. Conclusion
Euphemism is an appropriate language form created by people to achieve an ideal communicative effect in the social interactions. “Enrighr D.J. stated that ‘If euphemism doesn’t exist, the movement of the world will stop and it will be filled with hatred.’” [31] Nearly no one can live without euphemism.
Euphemism is not only a social phenomenon, but also a lingual phenomenon. The formation of euphemism is the result of social factors and psychological factors. From the day of its birth, there are countless ties between euphemism and the social culture. Euphemism develops while the society develops. Euphemism is a mirror. We can learn the values and moral concepts of the society. Euphemism that accords with Politeness Principle oils human communication because polite function is the main function of Politeness principle. If we make good use of this language form, it will accelerate and facilitate human communication. People’s interpersonal relations will be more harmonious. We can make full use of euphemism and make our life more colorful.
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