英语语言中委婉语的特点与社会功能

The Features and Social Functions of Euphemism in the

English Language

I. Introduction

Euphemism is a cultural phenomenon as well as a linguistic concept. Every language has its own euphemism, so does English. It is deeply rooted in social life and has a great influence on social communication. As an indispensable and natural part of English language, English euphemism has attracted people‟s attention for a long time. Since Euphemism was coined, it has many special features and has been playing a very important role in people‟s communication. The communication without euphemism is unimaginable. Euphemism is used as lubrication, which makes the communication go on smoothly. This thesis has an overview of the features and communicative function.

English euphemism, as a linguistic concept, has close relationships with the western culture, and it truly reflects the life and values of English people and their history. Euphemism is a particularly good medium for（providing an effective approach to）understanding the human mind. The study of features of English euphemism can help us understand the western culture and enhance the international understanding .Because euphemism is widely used in international negotiations. So there is a great need for us to study English euphemism, especially its features and social functions.

II. The Definitions of English Euphemism

Euphemism is a universal linguistic phenomenon. Nearly in every language, there are some disgusting words, which make people feel embarrassed. In the process of communication, the unsuitable or too direct words will make people feel uncomfortable, even angry. Then there is a great need for us to use a tactful way to express emotion, exchange ideas. That is to say, to use a pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases taking the place of tabooed words. As is known to all, euphemism

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plays a very important role in communication .Without them any language would seem to be vulgar and rude, void of politeness and vividness to some extent. As a common communicational way, euphemism is an important way for people to coordinate the social relationships.

The word “euphemism” was derived from the Greek word “euphemismos”, which means “fine speech”. The prefix “eu” means “good, sound well” and “pheme” means “saying” or “speech”. And thus the literal meaning of “euphemism” is “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. That is to say, euphemism is used as an alternative to unpleasant expression, in order to avoid possible lose of face, either one‟s own face or making offence, that of the audience, or some of third party. This unpleasant expression may be tabooed, fearsome, or for some other reasons that speakers can‟t or intend not to use directly on some occasion. “In Webster‟s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, euphemism is „the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought substituted‟. Rawson Blunt, a British writer, defined euphemism as „a good favorable interpretation of a bad word.‟” Encyclopedia Britannica also defines euphemism as “a figure of speech in which something of an unpleasant, distressing or indelicate nature is described in less offensive terms.” (Li Qing, 24).

From the above mentioned, we could clearly see that euphemism is characterized by avoidance language and evasive expression. The speakers use words or expressions as a protective shield against the anger or disapproval of natural or supernatural things. It is one form of language and a linguistic phenomenon

III.Features of English Euphemisms A. National Feature

As a tool for human communication, euphemism is a kind of language phenomenon which is very common all over the world. However, different countries, different nations, whose environment、society、living and culture are different, there is no doubt that euphemisms in different languages differ considerably, this reflection is just the national feature of euphemism.

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Zhang Yuping、Jiang Yanping and Yu Nianhu mention a good example in their works, “poor” is a fearful word in English ,which means living a bad life, and meanwhile marks low position in society, as a result, there are lots of alternate words. The following example is a section of descriptions about poor by a young woman, which could show us a serious of English euphemisms about “poor”(Wu ChangQi, 11).

I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn‟t poor, I was needy. Then they said it was self-defeating to think of as needy, that I was culturally deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, that I was underprivileged. Then they told me that underprivileged was overused, that I was disadvantaged. I still don‟t have a dime but I have a great vocabulary!”

According to the example ,we could find out four euphemisms which synonym with poor、needy(缺乏生活日用品), culturally deprived(丧失教育机会), underprivileged(社会地位低下), disadvantaged(生活条件差).

A report in The New York Times 1973,says that there is an official document to tell people that when reporting officially American economy ,try to use “low-income ”, “needy” ,and “unprivileged”, “ disadvantaged” and other indirect words to be instead of “poverty”(Wu ChangQi, 12).

As we all know, in 43 A.D. Roman Empire conquered England and brought Latin to England and Latin became official language in England. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, French became the governmental language in England. But French and Latin were only spoken by the upper classes, and among the low classes English was spoken. The upper classes held the view that words used by them were superior to those used by the low classes. So they used French or Latin words to replace unpleasant English words. Later people accepted the view that French and Latin words are more euphemistic than English words.

“Last week it introduced tout lo France to a lovely young woman named Mazarine who is，according to journalist and author Philippe Alexder，Mitterrand‟s 20-year-old enfant d'amour” In this sentence, the French word “enfant d'a mour” means

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illegitimate child in English. It is not easy for English readers to accept this fact. That is why the writer uses a French word to express this fact.

It is natural for people to experience adult, middle age, old age and death. But to westerners, old age means worthless and the old will be looked down upon or even deserted. So no one would like to admit that he is old. People dread about old age so much that they see the word “old” as a taboo. Thus, they try their best to borrow other words to express it, e.g., “the advanced in age”、“the mature”、 “the longer living”、“seasoned man”、“senior citizens”etc. In short, western nations have “senior citizens” or “the longer lived” but no “old age”.

B. Universality

Universality is something that is well-known and accepted by all of the people. Though euphemism is indirect and it doesn‟t come straight to the point, people can easily infer its deeper implication. Some taboos connected with sex, death, or body functions are replaced by euphemisms. And the public has accepted this kind of use. For when we refer to death, we seldom say “die”. For example, in the sentence “His grandfather passed away. The phrase “go away” equals to “die”.

As far as I am concerned, disease is another fear of man. In primitive society, as the level of medicine was very low, people scarcely survived when they got sick. To them, disease was as dreadful as death. So they didn‟t speak it directly either. In modern society, although many diseases can be cured, people are still afraid of them. On one hand, the patient suffers a lot from it; on the other hand, the expense is a heavy burden to the family especially the poor. The common result is that the patient regains his health but the whole family has to live a poor life for many years or even all their lives. Thus, people usually use euphemistic words when they mention the names of disease. For example, the “Big C” replaces “cancer” and “social disease” substitutes “acquired immune deficiency syndrome”.

C. Regional Feature

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As the Chinese saying goes, cultures would be different in two villages although they are 10 miles far away from each other. Culture、customs would be different and even opposite in two areas, this kind of difference also reflects on euphemisms. Most of them tires up with its own special custom, and they mark this phenomenon obviously. Take “bread” for instance, bread is a kind of food in Britain family. It is very easy for us to find out some euphemisms about bread. For example, “take bread out of someone‟s mouth” means looting someone‟s job. In China, however, the same meaning of this phrase is change into “抢饭碗”.Because in China, the main food is rice, and people used “饭碗”to have rice. So it is very easy for us to find that a same meaning would have different expressions in different areas. Another example, “humble” is compounded of “umble” and “mumbles”. Both umble and mumbles are the gut of animals for food. About more than 1000 years ago, only the nobleman and hacienda were able to enjoy the mince pie with deer, but hunter and servant could only have mince pie with umbels. It is a symbol of humble. Later, the pronunciation was changed into humble pie. Therefore, “eat humble pie” becomes a euphemism to show someone is compelled to make an apology (Tan MengLin, 42).

There is a story which is a good example to show the Regional feature of euphemism. An Australian woman married to an American man. They spent their honeymoon in America. And one day, the couple intended to go to a party together. But the bridegroom couldn‟t find a suitable full dress. The bride took out a birthday suit that she gave him as a present a few days ago and said: “Why not wear your birthday suit?” However, the whole family all astonished because in American English, “in one‟s birthday suit” (Tan MengLin, 43) is the euphemistic expression of “naked”. So this embarrassing situation resulted from the regional differences in euphemism.

D. Diversity of Lingual Region

Frankly speaking, the ways of using euphemisms are different in different context, what‟s more, even in the same context, different age、position、education of different people ,the expression would not be the same. A study shows that female use

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more euphemisms than male do. When a lady is going to the washroom, she would say” to powder my noise” or “to freshen up”. When a man is facing the same thing, he would say“ to go to the toilet” 、“ to relieve myself”、“because nature calls” or “to rear”, but to a child, he would say that “ go to the pot and make number one”(Tan

MengLin, 10)According to the research, the rate of using euphemisms for women is

higher than men. Nobleman is higher than common people. The reason is, we can find out easily, women are constrained by society rules, as a result they get used to express carefully when communicating with others. Noblemen use graceful expressions greatly in order to show their noble.

Stylistically, the word “die” has hundreds of euphemisms. But in daily communication, people may use “to be gone” or “to be no more”. In obituary, people use “to pass away” or “to depart”. It also has some witty expressions, for instance, “to pop off” or “to kick the bucket”.

Euphemism is restricted by the context. For example, “On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think.” This sentence comes from Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx .This example involves the passing away of a great man. And the phrase “ceased to think” echoes “thinker”. This euphemism produces a good effect.

E. The Feature of Times

The changing of language depends on the needs and development of our society, therefore, epochal character could be also called changeable. From a historical point of view, language has been changing incessantly. New words appeared, and old words disappeared gradually, so are euphemisms. A lot of examples could show us how several words to express the same meaning.

Take the word “Watergate” for example, as we all known, it appears in 1972 which has great influence all over America ,even all over the world. After that, “Watergate” is widely used to express different kinds of political events or public scandals. What‟s more, “-gate” has been used to take place of “affair” or “scandal”.

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For example, “debate gate”、“ Koreagate”and “Monica gate”

We could also see this feature from the appellation of “black people”. At the very beginning, black people was called “negro”, then “black people”, at present, they are called“ African American”. This transition is the result of black people rights movement in America (Dai ChangXi, 24).

F .Indirect and Interrelated

One of the essential aspects of euphemisms is to avoid mentioning some unpleasant phenomenon or arrangements directly. In another word, to mention these unpleasant indirectly or with a euphemistic way of speaking could be regarded as the soul of euphemism. Therefore, it is very obviously that indirect is one of the main features of euphemism, and is as same as implicit. Interrelated, this feature reflects the formation of euphemism, that is, euphemism always gives people hints in a roundabout way. We can infer the deeper meaning and intention from the context. For example, when someone is ill, we always say “he is not well.” or “he is under the weather.”

In western countries, compared with mental work, physical labor is regarded as humble and inferior, in order to reduce the uncomfortable, people always use euphemistic ways to describe such jobs. This indirect feature is common in a lot of professions. “Many previously unwelcome professions have now taken more appealing names”, for example, beautician = hair dresser, elevator = member of the vertical transportation corps, under-take = funeral service practitioner, mechanic = automobile engineer, dustman = sanitary engineer.

G. Obscure Feature

A great deal of formation of euphemisms makes use of obscure in language, to enlarge the meanings of some words. Some linguists have attempted to explain euphemisms from the theory of obscure. They pointed out that; speaker uses some less accurate expressions to take place the exact ones. The obscure feature could gloss over the crude truth.

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For instance, when we want to say someone is stupid, it is too impolite, so we always say that “he is slow” or “he is unwise”, “depend on others to do his/her work” takes place of “cheat in class”.(Tan MengLing, 19). “Slow” and “unwise”, these two words take place of the word “stupid” which could make it more politely.

This special feature creates chances for politicians and businessmen to make use of euphemisms to achieve their selfish goals. Politicians are famous for their ability to play words. They can even turn facts upside down. They try their efforts to persuade people that they live a better life under their leadership to get supports and hold their positions. One of the effective methods they use is the usage of euphemisms. Therefore, many euphemisms about politics can be seen.

When reporting war, the practice is to use the obscure feature to reduce people‟s abomination of wars, to cover up the intention to war crime, to save from trouble. that‟s why ,when reading newspaper, we may find “collateral damage” but not “civilian casualties”, “disarm Iraq” instead of “attack” or “at war” ,and if the American army met military reverses, it must be“ an adjustment of the front” (Tan MengLing, 19) H. Humorous Feature

The use of euphuisms could increase the sense of humor of language, and make the conversation between people more interesting. It is very widely used in euphuisms. “Plastered” is often used to describe people who drinks a lot which is originally means spread soil on. The humor of this euphuism embodies the condition of people who drinks a lot, easily make people imagine how the besotted drunkard is. Another example, after dinner, British always says to the hospitable host,“ I‟m willing，but Mary isn‟t”. Here, stomach is personified into “Mary”, which is interesting and promoted friendship between the host and guest.

Once a man was bathing without locking his door, one of his friends rushed into his room for emergency and found he was naked. They both felt embarrassed. Then the man with nothing on said, “You are the one besides my mother who has seen I am in my birthday suit”. Both of them immediately burst into laughter. “In one‟s birthday suit” which I have mentioned before, is one of euphemistic words about nakedness.

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IV.The social Function of Euphemism

In general, from the perspective of language communication, the functions of euphemism are avoiding taboos, to show politeness and conceal feelings. People use them to show their politeness, to avoid being offensive and to meet the psychological or beneficial needs of both speakers and hearers in communication. But sometimes they are used to conceal or cover something. Accordingly, euphemism serves four basic communicative functions: avoidance of taboo, polite function, cosmetic function and humor ironic function.

A. The Evasive Function

Every culture and society has its linguistic taboo. These linguistic taboos have a close relationship with euphemism. In communication, avoidance of taboo is a sign of self-culture and development of society. This is why euphemism is widely used in every aspect of our life.

The evasive function of euphemism is to evade using taboos, enabling the speaker to talk about tabooed things freely. These tabooed things are believed to be dangerous to certain individuals, or to the society as a whole, or to be disgusting and unpleasant, and cause fear. Such taboo things include: death, disease, disabilities, sex and body excretion etc. People can use euphemisms to talk about what cannot be talked directly. 1. In Terms of Death

It is a general sense that the fear for death exists in any cultures. Death is an inevitable stage at the end of life‟s journey. It is a common experience of human beings. People fear death and fear the loss of loved ones, fear the end of life. Therefore, all these fears, worries, and unpleasant feelings lead to verbal taboo of death. So up to now the euphemisms about death emerge in an endless stream. In English, there are more than seventy euphemisms for “death”. For example, “to be at rest”, “God rest his soul”, “to pass away”, “to be with God”, “to go the way of all the earth”, “to go over the range”, “to be all with one”, “to give up one‟s ghost”, “to pay the debt of nature, etc.” In recent years, people often use “funeral home” or “memorial park” instead of mortuary and cemetery. Because the mortuary and

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cemetery make them feel sad. It looks like they put their lover to the cold and horrible place.

We can call “being hanged death” as “doing a dance in mid-air”; we can call “electric instruments of torture” as “to get a permanent wave”. If a person kills himself, we use “to die by one‟s own hand or to drain the cup of life” instead of “committing suicide”. And “ the lover‟s leap” means that a person kills himself because of losing one‟s love. Different classes have different expressions about death. For example, if a noble was died, they often used “to ascend to Heaven”. It reflects their stage, if the assistant was died, they often used “to ascend to Heaven”, in order to expresses their love to the dead person. If the servant was died they often use “pass away or become an immortal”(Han YingYan Liu Lei, 123).

2. In Terms of Disease and Disabilities

We know that people yearn for health, and fear specific disease and every sort of disability. So, people always use tactful way to express them.

In ancient time, some diseases mean death. For instance, in the past, the disease tuberculosis and cancer means death. People were unwilling to talk about it. So people often use \"terminally ill\" instead of cancer. People use \"looks off color\" to express a person is not fine. Besides, people often use acronym to talk about some diseases. For example, (venereal disease) VD, (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes) SARS; Sexual or venereal disease such as syphilis, gonorrhea, ADIS, etc. are called “social disease”, “communicative disease”, etc. The disabled are very sensitive parts in every culture. We often called handicapped as inconvenienced or invalid. The deaf we use \"slow of hearing\". The blind we called \"visually retarded\etc. So euphemism plays a very important function in our social communication, without it, we may offend others easily. 3. In Terms of Old Age

As we all know, English and Chinese have different feelings about “old age”. Chinese is proud of being old, whereas a westerner will feel irritated and even insulted at mentioning his oldness. In English culture, people do not describe others

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as or to be described as “old” because the old, who no longer work, are ignored by society. Therefore, people create “the second childhood, golden years, senior citizen, gray hair, mature golden age” when they refer to “old age” in which it attempts to conceal the fact of becoming old and avoid arousing old people‟s sad feeling of aging .but add some color of respect to the elderly people, who have much more experiences in their seasons of life. (Mao GenXin, 23). 4. In Terms of Sex, Body Excretion Process

Language is the implement of communication. Sometimes, we can not express our means directly, such as sex, body excretion etc. So we use the euphemism. It is very common that people feel ashamed when sex is talked about. Some vocabulary involving sex is believed the taboo. For example, sex knowledge called “facts of Life”; pornographic movies called “adult film”; free love are called “trial marriage”.

With the development of society people talk sex with friends or parents. But in some formal occasions, except some medicine terminology, the words about sex are regarded as taboo. For example, sexual behaviors have other expressions: “make eyes at somebody”; “sleep together”; “make love “etc.

The topic concerning being pregnant is touchy because it tends to arouse the association with sexual behaviors. So people often use these euphemistic expressions: “A lady-in-waiting”; “To be in a family way”; “Full of heir”; “Have one on the way”. In term of contraception, people will say: “birth control” or “family planning”

Attention should be given that except for tear; all the body excretions are considered as taboos.

In people‟s daily life or in some formal occasion, if the talk or discussion refers to something about drainage, people will try to avoid using vulgar language. They tend to use some implied or neutral words to make conversation comfortable. For instance, Men‟s lavatory is called “gents”, “the john”, “and the washroom”, women‟s lavatory is called “Lady‟s”, “the powder room”, “Mrs. Jones”. When we are in the meeting, someone wants to go to W.C. If he said, “sorry I have to go to the toilet”.

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That is very impolite. We can say “sorry, I have to do my duty” or “sorry, I have to fix my face” or “sorry, I have to give myself ease” etc. There are lots of expressions about going to W.C., such as: “to wash one‟s hand” “to spend a penny”, “to go and see one‟s aunt”,” to answer the call of nature”,” because nature calls”, etc (Li ShengJuan, 13).

B. The Polite Function

Another social function of euphemism is the polite function. When we have to talk something unpleasant, we should choose euphemistic way to avoid hurting others.

For example politeness is the symbol of human‟s civilization and one of the important principles guiding people‟s activities. For instance, Chinese are proud of being old, whereas a westerner will feel irritated and even insulted at mentioning his oldness. In English culture, people do not describe others as “old”. Because the old means they will be ignored by society. Therefore, people created the “senior citizen”, second childhood, the longer living instead of old age and senility.

We also use the polite function of euphemism to express our respect. For example in the “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx”, Engels said: “on the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think, he had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep–but forever.” Here both “the ceased to think” and “gone to sleep-but forever” means death. Engels uses these words to express his honor and respect to his friend Marx.

In school, if you are a teacher, you can‟t tell the students‟ parents that their children are stupid boys or girls. So the euphemistic way to express it might be “the student is a bit slow for his or her age” or “She /He is working at her /his own level” or “She/he can do better with the help” (Li ShengJuan, 12). .

The polite function of English euphemism is embodied in every occupational language. Occupational discrimination gives people pressure and emotional irritation.

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Although euphemisms cannot uproot this kind of phenomenon, at least, they can give them some psychological comfort by upgrading the career name. For example，the word engineer refers to a person who is professionally trained to build and repair machines, roads, bridges and harbors. So there are a lot of professional words to beautify their occupation. For example, garbage collector called sanitation engineer; plumber called heating engineer; salesman called sales engineer; mechanic called automobile engineer; etc.

In English, there are many adjectives about people‟s appearance, such as “good looking, handsome, pretty, charming, and attractive”, etc. They are all commendatory words. When talking about someone who is not pretty, we cannot use “ugly” or „awfully‟. We had better use some euphemisms such as “plain, ordinary, not particularly looking”, etc. instead of them. So euphemism‟s polite function can save people‟s face in their process of communication. It is so important that we cannot neglect it.

The polite function is also embodied in another way. For example, in the company, the boss doesn‟t use the word fire. They use discontinue. The word professor, we all know, referring to the college teacher. It also means the hotel boss. Even, it could mean everyone. All these come from politeness.

C. The Cosmetic Function

Besides the evasive and polite function, euphemism has the cosmetic function. This kind of euphemism is usually used in the government, military, politics and commerce. It refers to using good words to beautify things, which are not beautiful in reality and make the thing be more persuasive and acceptable. Because euphemism has the nature of vagueness, to some extent, it is deceptive. Traditionally speaking, euphemism plays a positive role in social life. Using it, people can avoid some embarrassed and ungracious occasion. But just as every coin has two sides, euphemism has no exception. Abusing it will mislead the public, will cover up the essence of things. For example, in modern Western society, the poor is called as “the needy”, later it was changed to “the culturally deprived”, then to “the

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underprivileged”, at last to “the disadvantaged”. So it will confuse people that this country is so rich that there is no poor people at all.

Firstly, the government and the military often use them to disguise the reality from truth. They describe “economic crisis” as “recession” or “depression”; “attack” as “active defense”(Kun YiFeng,Wang YanJun, 25).At the beginning of 20th century, the relationship between labor and capital become strained, and the agitation of striking became a serious social problem. In order to hide the fact, politicians call the strained labor-capital relationship as “industrial climate”, striking as “industrial action”. If the negotiation between labor and capital is successful, it will be claimed as “productive”, on the contrary, it is “counter-productive” .

Secondly, this kind of euphemism is widely used in commerce. It is often used to play tricks and to deceive the customers. The commercial exaggerates the product‟s function and quality. In the same way, the English euphemism is also used to make customers feel pleased. For example, in order to meet the passengers‟ sense of dignity, some Airlines call First Class , Deluxe Class or Premium Class; Second Class First Class; and Third Class become Business Class, Economic Class, or Tourist Class. In this way, it seems that all passengers‟ position are promoted. Their purpose is to attract more passengers and gain more profits by using euphemisms in the communication, meanwhile, the customers feel more decent, and it helps customers save face.

In short, euphemism of this kind may make an idea more palatable, but they inflate language, reduce precision and often tamper with truth. Some people condemn euphemism as demoralizing because of its hypocrisy, which other consider them useful in the aspect of coordinating social relationships. However, the fact remains that euphemisms are very much a part of the language and what‟s more important for us is not to debate their merits or demerits, but rather to be able to realize that English euphemism can serve the special social activities under certain circumstance.

D. The Function of Being Humorous

This pragmatic function is not as important as the former three functions, but

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some English euphemisms can surely make language more vivid and humorous. A typical example in point is to call “naked” by saying “in birthday suit”. The other example is: “battle of the bulge”. It originated from the last battle ---the battle of the bulge of Germany in the World War Ⅱ. It point to the World War Ⅱ. Now people often use it to describe these women who want to lose weight. What‟s more, together with the roundabout and mild tone, euphemisms, if not misleading, usually aim at more implications, so they can bear full sense of irony. Still take “pregnancy” as an example, the ironic meaning is self-evident by saying “to have an accident” or “to have an Irish toothache” (Mou YiWu, 133). The British laugh at the fact that the Irish‟s pregnancy is as frequent as their toothache, for Irish Catholicism is against birth control, so pregnancy is really common.

IV. Conclusion

On the issue of the features and social functions of English euphemism, this thesis has a tentative exploration. As the author has mentioned above, we can conclude that euphemism is an important measure taken to smooth interpersonal relationship and plays an important role in communicating. It avoids some obverse conflicts and unnecessary misunderstandings. As a common communication medium and a rhetoric method, it has the nature of deceit, especially in politics and government. So we cannot deny the fact that euphemism is very helpful in the process of human communication. The 21st century is a period when people of different cultures have ever more touches with each other. So it is vital for us to have a good understanding of English euphemism. It will be unimaginable, if the diplomatic negotiation goes without euphemism. Using euphemism is a kind of language skill that each of us should master. That is why euphemisms are widely used in social life. That is the value and main functions of euphemism. With better understanding of euphemism, we can communicate with each other more skillfully and smoothly

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