[Abstract] Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in the global culture. It plays an important part in our daily communication. As an indispensable and natural part of English language, English euphemism has been arousing wide interest by linguists and scholars from different perspectives. In the field of politics and war, using euphemism has become a strategy to lubricate the communication. This paper first briefly introduces the characteristics of the euphemism: universality, culture specificity, re-symbolism, obscurity and beautification; the communicative functions of euphemism: substitution, politeness, cover and aesthetics; and the communicative functions of euphemism on politics and war: to disguise the serious social problems, to cover political scandals, to distort the facts and violence of war and to present a false picture of peace. Then the paper mainly analyses the phenomenon of using euphemism by the Bush administration, media, military, Saddam Hussein administration and his officials during the Iraq War. Besides, it further explains the reasons of using euphemism in politics and war from the pragmatic and political points of view. Finally, the paper shows the covering and beautifying functions of euphemism in the war terms, and exposes how the euphemism is in the service of economics and politics.
[Key Words] euphemism; politics and war euphemism; the Iraq War
【摘 要】 委婉语是世界文化中普遍的语言现象，在日常生活中发挥着重要的作用。作为英语词汇中不可分割的一部分，英语委婉语一直引起语言学家和学者的广泛关注。在政治战争辞令中，委婉语体现的是一种交际策略，担负着“润滑”交际的重任。文章首先简要介绍了委婉语的五个特征：普遍性特征、文化具体性特征、言语象征性特征、模糊性特征、以及美化性特征；四个交际功能：避讳功能、礼貌功能、掩饰功能、以及美化功能；以及具体运用政治和战争委婉语所体现出来的三个主要的交际功能：掩盖严重的社会问题、掩盖政治丑闻、歪曲战争的残暴性以呈现社会和平的假景象。接着文章主要具体分析在2003年伊拉克战争期间，美国布什政府，媒体，军队，萨达姆政府以及其官方的言论中出现的委婉语现象。并从语用学和政治经济角度着手，分析战争辞令中使用委婉语的真正原因和意图。最后，文章揭示了战争委婉语的掩饰美化功能以及人们如何利用战争委婉语这一语言工具来为社会政治经济服务的目的。
【关键词】 委婉语；政治战争委婉语；伊拉克战争
1. Introduction
The word euphemism is derived from the Greek word meaning “to speak favorably” or “good speech”. Euphemism is defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English—Chinese Dictionary (the Sixth Edition, 2004) as “an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer something embarrassing or unpleasant, something to make it more acceptable than it really is”. The Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (the First Edition, 2004) defines euphemism as “(an example of) the use of a pleasanter, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant”. In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1973), the definition of euphemism reads “substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”.
The definitions above illustrate the general characteristic of euphemism---“the use of a pleasant, polite, or harmless sounding words or expressions to mask harsh, rude, or infamous truths”. [1]
2. The characteristics of euphemism
Euphemism, as a language phenomenon, has some special characteristics. According to Yan Meiying, the characteristics of euphemism can be generalized in five aspects. That is universality, culture specificity, re-symbolism, obscurity and beautification.
2.1 Universality
Almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning directly. That is, nearly every culture has its own taboos. When such a notion or thing has to be referred to, the practice will be to substitute a different term or phrase that sounds better. “So we have euphemism in almost every language.” [2]
2.2 Culture specificity
The universality of euphemism means that euphemisms are not identical in different languages. Instead euphemism is relevant to culture. Notions, things, or taboos in different cultures are not necessarily the same. Therefore, the people’s attitudes towards them are different. It is another characteristic of euphemism that we call it “culture specificity”. “So to know the corresponding culture is essential to understand and use the euphemism properly.” [3]
2.3 Re-symbolism
From the definition of euphemism, we can know clearly that euphemism is using one expression to replace another. “That is to say, euphemism is a re-symbolizing of things, ideas, or events already symbolized with precision in mind. Therefore people can’t randomly utilize an expression to euphemize the taboos. The re-symbolizing should provide clues to catch the intended meaning of the taboos and should sound indirect or pleasanter.” [4]
2.4 Obscurity
Obscurity is a basic feature of euphemism. In order to avoid mentioning some notions, things or taboos directly, we always use semantic obscurity to take place of the precise words. For example, to avoid mentioning the term death, people take pains to substitute it with the terms of pass away, be with God, go to a better world, depart from the world, etc. Therefore, if there is no obscurity, euphemism will lose its euphemistic value.
2.5 Beautification
Another characteristic of euphemism is beautification. For the reason that taboo words sound unpleasant, harsh and offensive, people use euphemisms to replace them. They resort to euphemisms to dress up the taboos with more beautiful clothes and to beautify the terms or notions.
From the characteristics of the euphemism, it seems that the employment of euphemism is viewed positively as the use of kind words to avoid mentioning taboos. However, some recent trends in English euphemisms have gone beyond the traditional definition, such as those comfortable words used to cover up the social, political and war problems. Hence, euphemisms are often used by politicians or statesmen as a mean to cover up and beautify their actions. In a sense, euphemism as a figure of speech therefore, is more than just saying something unpleasant in a pleasant way especially in the politics and war affairs.
3. Politics and war euphemism and its relevant contents
3.1 Definitions of politics and war euphemism
Just like the definitions of euphemism, different people have different ideas of the definition of politics and war euphemism. But the common thing is that the political and war euphemism is the language used in political and diplomatic activities. Hence, the expression generally is used by governments, media, diplomats, etc. in their conversation or correspondence to describe that guarded understatement which enables them to say sharp things without becoming provocative or to “say roundabout expressions that stand for ‘something else’ with ‘gilded words’ substituted for ‘true words’ or to tell something that it isn’t.” [5]
3.2 The concrete use of euphemism in politics and war
There are various kinds of euphemisms used in all works of life, which are mainly about parts and functions of human body, sickness and death, social life and economics, education, and politics and war. Such as people use the term “ thing” for “male genital”, “to sing a song” for “to go to the toilet”, “Big c” for “cancer”, “be with God” for “death”, “downturn” for “slump”, “underprivileged” for “poor”, and “an underachiever” for “a lazy person”, etc.
As for the euphemism in politics and war, the governments are the pioneers. “Governments are gold mines for euphemism. They use it primarily for the purposes of defending and rationalizing their actions and for disguising or diminishing their failures or unpopular proposals and policies.”[6] Therefore when a member of the State Department informs you that there is a need for more fully informed judgments, he is diplomatically saying, “You don’t know your elbow from a hole in the ground.” [7]
Diplomats are a rich source for euphemism too. “Because they often seek to minimize international tensions, they frequently obfuscate both their true motives and their real failures. Only the cognoscenti recognize that a useful and business meeting between two diplomats is one at which nothing is accomplished and that a serious and candid discussion is actually a major disagreement.”[8]
The military seems to have a particular fondness of euphemism. The purpose of military euphemism is to “slant language to minimize defeats, destruction and the violence of war”. [9] Therefore, this is natural when one considers beautifying the business to be done. There are only advances, no retreats; only victories, no defeats. “Like the language of government, the military euphemism depersonalizes, generalizes and abstracts.”[10]
4. The communicative functions of euphemism on politics and war
4.1 The communicative functions of euphemism
The communicative functions of euphemism mainly include substitution, politeness, and cover and aesthetics.
4.1.1 Substitution
According to the definitions of euphemism, we know that a great number of English euphemisms are served as the substitutions for verbal taboos. The term taboo is originally used in Polynesia. It demotes anything linguistic and nonlinguistic, which is prohibited and forbidden. When a particular topic is considered valid for discussion, the taboos of words occur, so euphemistic expressions are required. Therefore, “Taboo and euphemism are thus two faces of the same coin.”[11] This is the reason that variety of types of euphemisms have been employed to replace the tabooed words or expressions, such as the term “‘sit-down job’ for ‘defecation’, ‘neutralize’ for ‘kill’ and ‘cold feet’ for ‘cowardice’’’, [12] etc.
4.1.2 Politeness
The other function of euphemism is to avoid offending others. This fear of causing psychic pain and this desire to be well thought of has led us to use “kind words”. We can find the root of this motive from the G.N Leech’s Politeness Principle: “To minimize cost to others, to maximize benefit to others; to minimize benefit to self, to maximize cost to self; to minimize dispraise of others, to maximize praise of others; to minimize praise of self, to maximize dispraise of self…” [13] The core of his politeness principle is to minimize the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize the expression of polite beliefs. It’s obvious that the politeness function of euphemism is accord with the Leech’s Politeness Principle. Therefore, to be polite, we say someone is discontinued when he/she is fired by the boss.
4.1.3 Cover and aesthetics
With the features of obscurity and beautification, euphemism is naturally used by businessmen, organizations or governments to cover, defend or rationalize their actions or to diminish their unpopular proposals and policies. For example, there was a fire once broke out on the New York tracks and delayed the trains. This was announced as: “we have a fire situation.” President Ronal Reagan called for revenue enhancements instead of tax increases when he was faced with the realities of national finances.
4.2 The communicative functions of euphemism on politics and war
The characteristics of obscurity and beautification as well as the communicative functions of cover and aesthetics are the key causes for the creation of euphemism on politics and war. Because in the political life and affairs and during the war time, a special linguistic protocol is badly needed to disguise the serious social problems, to cover political scandals, to distort the facts and violence of war and to present a false picture of peace.
4.2.1 To disguise the serious social problems
Because of the vagueness of euphemism, it has become a very important tool for governments to disguise the serious social problems. For example:
The slum is called “substandard housing or inner city”. [14]
A geographical area with low employment is termed as the grey area.
The prison is called a house of correction, a cross bar hotel.
The death penalty is called capital punishment.
4.2.2 To cover political scandals
Certain trends in American euphemisms should be noted. In recent years more and more euphemisms are being created and used to cover political scandals. For example, in the Watergate Event, the group of burglarizing spies was termed as plumbers. In order to protect their family jewels (the most embarrassing secrets), they had a scenario (a plot) to have an intelligence gathering activity (the crime of breaking and entering). This kind of expressions doesn’t hurt the government’s pride, does it?
4.2.3 To distort the facts and violence of war and to present a false picture of peace
The military is fond of euphemism. “In this respect, the most recent commanders-in-chief of the American armed forces, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, have led the way. The helicopter raid to rescue American captives in Iran in 1980 was called an incomplete success.”[15]
The Vietnam War, officially known as the Vietnam Police Action was more than an accident. It is more accurately classified a Limited War (an American expression for an Overt Military Confrontation or Overt Military Conflict; that is, a war). During the war, the wanton killing of Vietnamese was sometimes called wasting the enemy or pacification by American soldiers. The saturation bombing is known as ordnance delivering. “This reminds the treatment of prisoners in Nazi Germany during World War II---the concentration camp is called strategic village. Some carried papers with return unwanted; others were assigned special treatment. Both meant death. When losses are on one’s own side, the natural tendency is to soften the blow. The term light casualties is common for loss of lives in combat. When deaths or injuries are caused by one’s own action, the need for tactful language is even greater, such as the “accidental delivery of ordnance for the shelling of American troops by Americans”. [16]
In the Gulf War (1991), Americans created many “dressed-up” expressions:
For the aim of humanitarian intervention (war), we (Americans) pacified (attacked) the area. By using the air option (air strike), air support (bombing) and one-way mission (suicidal attack), we softened up the resistance (bombed and blasted) and finally the enemy’s defense neutralized (crushed), although we also made collateral damage (civilian casualties) when we were engaged in hostilities and in combat (both meant war).
The American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a greater tactful language. She referred the continuous bombing as NATO’s operations. What’s more, when three Chinese journalists were innocently killed, White House officials explained that it was not a deliberate bombing but a mistake bombing. Their efforts have raised euphemism to new heights.
After the 9.11, America had the Anti-terrorism War on Afghanistan. They used the “collateral damage” for “the deaths of innocent people in conflict”, “smart bombing” for “bombing”. “Clean bomb/war” gives the false impression that the war is aimed at actual and exact targets instead of civilians. “Surgical strikes” conveys the idea that it is a necessary military action to remove an evil. And then in 2003, they attacked a target of opportunity in Iraq (a target of the Iraqi leadership).
The example above all illustrate one purpose of the politics and war euphemism, that is slanting language to minimize defeats, destruction, to disguise the violence of war and to distort the facts. So how about the euphemism in the Iraq War?
5. Euphemism in the Iraq War
As the motivation of the Iraq War has been questioned by people all over the world, euphemism naturally becomes a great tool to disguise and diminish the embarrassment. Analyzing the euphemisms used by American government, media, military and Saddam Hussein administration will greatly help us to be aware of the current political reality.
It is well known that the Iraq War has been planned for quite a long time by America, who has put forward a rational reason, so called “a potential threat to American security and world’s peace”, although it shows no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Therefore, President George W. Bush made a speech on Iraqi Threat in Cincinnati:
“Tonight I want to take few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace, and America’s determination to lead the world in confronting that threat. The threat comes from Iraq…. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnessed Iraq’s eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith…. Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof--- the smoking gun--- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud…. For the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition forces to disarm him…. Now, as before, we will secure our nation, protect our freedom, and help others to find freedom of their own…. By our courage, we will secure the peace, and lead the world to a better day.”[17]
Looking at the above speech from a linguistic angle, we can easily find that euphemisms are actually little windows into people’s minds and hearts; peeping holes into people’s culture.
Let’s keep track of euphemisms in the Iraq War to understand their functions and to see how they are in the service of politics.
5.1 Euphemism in Bush administration and American media
The American government and media have already made full use of politics and war euphemism long before the Iraq War. Such as the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the 9.11 Event, and the Afghanistan War have all seen the employment or the creation of the war euphemisms. And in the Iraq War, they had brought the usage of politics and war euphemism to a new height.
(1) Pre-emptive action
Early before the Iraq War, President Bush has already put forward his “pre-emptive action” idea. On Jane 1, 2002, he delivered the graduation speech at West Point:
“Our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for pre-emptive action when necessary to defend our lives.”[18]
The surprised attack against Iraq is termed pre-emptive action by Bush. A pre-emptive action gives the impression that the action is considered necessary to deter an enemy attack. Or the enemy will attack their country firstly. It therefore seems morally right to justify its invasion. But in fact, it shows no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons programs and no signs, traces or examples of chemical weapons being deployed in the field to attack America.
(2) Operation of Iraqi Freedom/ disarm the Iraqi regime/ military action/ military conflict
President George W. Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48-hour deadline to flee Iraq or face a US-led invasion, saying American forces will wage war “at a time of our choosing”.
The President:
“My fellow citizens, events in Iraq have now reached the final days of decision. For more than a decade, the United States and other nations have pursued patient and honorable efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime without war…. We have sent hundreds of weapons inspectors to oversee the disarmament of Iraq. I hope this will not require military action. Our good faith has not been returned…. Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing….” “Saddam Hussein must disarm himself or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition force to disarm him.”[19]
Whether the “disarm of Iraqi regime” “military action” “military conflict” or the “Operation of Iraqi Freedom”, they all mean the “war”. These euphemisms sound good and elegant to conceal the naked war and to beautify their military invasion or other evil actions. At the same time, the uses of these euphemisms soften the tone of launching a war.
(3) Coalition forces
As for the “Anti-Iraq Union”, more than one third of counties do not want to openly stand by the America, except Britain. So the Bush administration declared that “more than 35 countries joined the ‘coalition forces’, more than 35 countries gave it crucial support and to bore the duty and shared the honor of serving in our common defense”. [20] Bush also claimed that common threats of terrorist violence had united the coalition forces together. But in fact, the allies had gone with the wind.
(4) Rapid dominance/ Shock and Awe
“Rapid dominance” is the Pentagon’s current philosophy to follow from a successful “Shock and Awe” offence. It is designed to hit the Iraqi forces and political structure at all critical nodes and intensity then terrify the enemy into submission immediately.
(5) Regime target
Even with serious allied bombing and destruction in Basra, the US and British insisted that they are only striking the Saddam Hussein and infrastructure that supports his regime, such as presidential palaces, the army, security service and intelligence headquarters.
(6) Exit strategy/ the logic of withdrawal
“Exit strategy” is a euphemism for failure in Iraq. Based on a growing awareness that the Bush administration’s pre-emptive invasion has not only taken vital resources away from the “war on terror”, it has made the world an unstable place. This phrase also means taking an option to withdraw from Iraq.
(7) Embedding
As for the war correspondents, who have been embedded inside troop units, eating and sleeping among soldiers, abiding by the laws and restrictions of the war are called embedding. And those who follow the action freely by themselves are called unilateral.
(8) Vertical envelopment
“Vertical envelopment” is the “Pentagon’s term for the prepared method of outflanking Iraqi forces by flying troops over them and then attacking from the rear or the sides. Special forces are believed to have already identified mobile forces, including tanks, to engage Iraqi positions from several directions.”[21] They had use of this obscure and abstract phrase to describe their powerful military forces in an indirect way.
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