论文总字数：34131字
摘 要
一般来说，委婉语是对带有歧视意义、让人反感的词的一个令人愉悦的替换。它使说话者在与他人交流时能够创造和维持和谐的氛围。过去的研究者主要探讨委婉语的定义、分类、功能等。近年来，Verschueren提出的语用综观说和顺应论已成为国内外学者们研究委婉语的主要理论依据。
就语言使用而言,语用综观说被看成是认知、文化和社会因素的广泛融合。该综观说的核心是顺应论，顺应论为语言研究提供了一个全新的视角，它认为人们在使用过程中不断从可供选择的不同语言项目中做出灵活的选择，以顺应语境关系。
本文具有一定的理论和实践意义。从理论意义上讲，本研究证明顺应论为委婉语的研究提供了一个很好的理论框架；从实践意义上讲，本研究对跨文化交际和外语教学有一定的启示。
关键词：委婉语；顺应论；外语教学
Contents
- Introduction………………………………………………………………1
- Literature Review…………………………………………………………2
- Definition and Classification of Euphemism……………………3
3.1 Definition….…….…………………………………………………………..3
3.2 Classification………………………………………………………………..4
- Adaptation Theory…………………………………………………...5
4.1 Introduction of the adaptation Theory……….…..………………………….5
4.2 Key Notions of Verschueren’s Pragmatic Perspective ………………........5
4.2.1 Making Choices………………………………………………………...6
4.2.2 Three Features of Choice-making…….………………………………..7
4.2.3 Four Perspectives of Investigating Adaptation Theory…..…………..8
- English Euphemism in Modern Family as an illustration of Context.....8
5.1 An Introduction to Modern Family…………………………………………9
5.2 Choice-making of Euphemisms in Modern Family………...……………...10
5.3 Adaptation to the Physical Level……....……………………..………….11
5.4 Adaptation to the Social Level…………………………………………12
5.5 Adaptation to the Mental Level.…………………………………………12
6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..13
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...15
1. Introduction
Euphemism, a common and widespread language phenomenon in virtually all languages in this world, is known as one of the most useful communicative strategies leading to the building of a smooth and steady relationship between communicators.
The main reason for which euphemism exerts such a great impact on communication is that euphemism substitutes an unpleasant and direct expression for a pleasant and indirect one and is, hence, a tactic people often adopt to avoid saying offensive expressions to others, to save both sides’ faces. Euphemism can be applied in different walks of life, which implies that euphemism is omnipresent.
According to Verschueren, the language use is a dynamic process in which linguistic choices are made continuously based on contextual correlates, especially the communicative context including the mental world, the physical world and the social world. He harbors the idea that there are four properties for language. Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory provides a more scientific and practical perspective for the research of euphemism.
On the basis of Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory, this paper is intended to make a profound analysis on how the choice-making of English euphemism dynamically adapts to communicative context through detailed case study selected from the popular American TV sitcom Modern Family. The major intentions of this paper are to obtain a more thorough comprehension on euphemism, to demonstrate the dynamics of adaptability in the process of uttering and interpreting euphemistic expressions and to give people some insight as to how to apply English euphemism to intercultural communication and teaching English as a foreign language.
This paper is made up of five sections. The first part is a general introduction of euphemism and the second one is about the previous study of euphemism. Part three introduces Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory which lays a theoretical foundation for the profound exploration and detailed analysis on English euphemism in this paper. Part four probes into the dynamic process in which the choice-making of English euphemism adapts to communicative context on the basis of Adaptation Theory with a large number of examples selected from the American TV sitcom Modern Family. The last part is the conclusion of this paper.
2. Literature Review
Euphemism is seen as the important means of communication, which is employed to improve interpersonal relationship or even international relation.
Euphemism has drawn the attention from lots of scholars in Western countries and China. Great achievements have been made by many linguists on euphemisms from different perspectives including its definition, classification and pragmatic functions. The following part will present the main points of the studies of euphemism.
As was mentioned above, the studies of euphemism in western countries include all the basic research subjects: the definition, classification and features. However, some restrictions of traditional studies are broken by some scholars who also extend its scope of study to the sociolinguistics and pragmatics, which is significant to Chinese scholars.
Western scholars have paid much attention to euphemism. George Blunt, a British writer, was the first one to create the term “euphemism” and defined it in the 1580s. After that, many other influential scholars such as Menken, Hugh Rawson, etc, changed their attention to the study of euphemism.
Menken, an American linguist, has contributed a lot to the study of euphemism for later researches, exploring the reasons why thousands of euphemisms came into being and became popular based on the historical and cultural background of American society In The American Language in 1936.
The year of 1981 saw a comprehensive and important study of euphemism. Hugh Rowson, a British linguist, complied A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk, in the induction of this dictionary, not only was the study history of euphemism reviewed but also its definition, classification, features were discussed in detail.
Influenced by western scholars, Chinese scholars averted their attention to it in the 20th century, with Chen Wangdao as the pioneer. He defined euphemism and discussed euphemism from rhetoric point, proposing that euphemism was formed not only in lexical words but also in sentences and paragraphs. Under his influence, other Chinese scholars like Guo Xiumei(1985), Xu Peng(1996) regarded euphemism as a figure of speech, which ignored the motivation of the applications of euphemism.
Many scholars changed their focus on the study of euphemism in sociolinguistics perspective when sociolinguistics was introduced into China.
3. Definition and Classification of Euphemism
3.1 Definition
Euphemism is an important language phenomenon, which plays an irreplaceable role in human’s society activities and interpersonal communication. People use frank and straightforward expression in general conditions when they use language to communicate with others, thus forming direct speech. However, the euphemism is a kind of common linguistic phenomenon which exists relatively to direct speech. The fundamental attribute of language is a kind of social attribute, which embodies in their communicative functions, and euphemism is an important and indispensible approach where languages can realize their communicative functions, therefore, the research of euphemism takes an extremely important place in language research.
Euphemism originates from the Greek word “euphemism”. “Eu” carries the meaning of “good or sounding well”, and “pheme” means “speech or saying”. The meaning of the word “euphemize” is “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”, while “euphemism” is “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”, thus forming “words of good omen or good speech”.
In English, George Blunt was the first one to use the word “euphemism” among the western scholars. In the early 1680s,he defined it as “a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word”(Neaman amp; Silver, 1983:4). Later, more definitions are given either in dictionaries or by a certain linguists. Taking the following version for example:
(1) Use of other mild, vague and indirect words or phrases in place of what is required by truth or accuracy.
(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 1984)
(2) The figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasant association, instead of the harsher or more effective one that would more precisely designate what is intended.
(The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991)
(3) A polite word or expression that you use instead of a more direct one to avoid
shocking or upsetting someone.
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2004)
3.2 Classification
English euphemism is a key part in English. Euphemism can reflect the speakers’ elegance and what is more important is that it can transform the originally rude and unpleasant words into milder and more pleasant, or more vivid and humorous ones. As a result, the language will be more standard and is easy to be accepted by people. So, being familiar with and mastering English euphemism can not only enhance the ability of reading comprehension, but also can obviously improve the ability of English language appreciation level and application of language. English euphemism is expressed directly, but it is mainly to be classified from the perspective of semantics.
Euphemism can be roughly classified into positive euphemism, negative euphemism and natural euphemism from the point of semantics. Positive euphemism is the ascension of semantics, making the original “low, poor” into “good”. Ascending semantics can beautify and refine the facts which are unpleasant or detrimental to the dignity. For example, we call the elderly senior citizen. Sometimes positive euphemism is also used as euphemistic criticism, for example, “the student is very lazy” is expressed as “I’m afraid he has to exert himself in his study” by his teacher. However, negative euphemism is the weakness or fuzz of semantics so that we can express the terrible things gently. The euphemism about birth, death, illness, war and being older are fallen into this category, for example, “be born” is conveyed as “see the light of day”, “death” as “to be at rest” or “to go to one’s long home”, and “the old man’s friend” as “pneumonia”. Natural euphemism does not involve the changes of semantics, with the help of foreign words as euphemism belonging to this category, for example, lots of the British employ the French words “chemise” and “mouchoir” instead of the English words “shirt” and “handkerchief”
English has become an indispensible part in English culture because euphemism has strong persuasion and is popular among people throughout all walks of life.
4. Adaptation Theory
4.1Introduction of the Adaptation Theory
Adaptation Theory, which explored language use from a new perspective, appearing in the thesis Pragmatic as a Theory of Linguistic Adaptation, was firstly put forward by Jef Verschueren in 1987. That paper didn’t conclude Adaptation Theory comprehensively, nevertheless, he published Understanding Pragmatics in 1999, further developing and improving this theory. He treated a new perspective on pragmatics which he put forward as a general social, cultural and cognitive integration on language use. The basic concept of “pragmatic perspective” is Adaptation Theory, providing a comprehensive theoretical framework for linguistic analysis. Language use is seen as a continuous making of linguistic choices which can be negotiated from a variable range of possibilities to adapt to a series of linguistic contexts and communicative contexts.
Adaptation Theory has been introduced and studied by lots of scholars in China since it has appeared.
4.2 Key Notions of Verschueren’s Pragmatic Perspective
The term “pragmatic” was firstly put forward by the American philosopher Charles W. Morris in1938. As a study perspective, pragmatics can be employed to explain any linguistic phenomenon at any level of structure, including all linguistic resources. In addition, Verschueren believes that, as the use of language is a form of behavior and any social action, there is a link between language and human life, i.e. a link between linguistics and the rest of the humanities and social sciences. Verschueren defines pragmatic as “a general cognitive, social, and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomenon in relation to their usage in forms of behavior”. To answer the question “what do people do when using language?”, several “key notions” are introduced, which can explain almost any linguistic phenomenon in order to bear a clear understanding of what happens in language use in mind. This part will discuss the notions which include making choices, the three features of making choices and four angles of investigation. These notions, laying an important foundation for the remainder of this paper, are of great demand to illustrate in detail.
4.2.1 Making Choices
Verschueren believes that language use must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal (i.e. structural) or language-external reasons. These choices can be situated at any level of linguist form: phonetic/phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic. They may range over variety-internal options, or they may involve regionally, socially or functionally distributed types of variation” (Verschueren, 2000: 55-56). He states it in detail to classify it and provide further understanding of choice-making from the following seven aspects:
First, every possible level of structure may lead to choice-making. To start with, language users should decide which language they are going to choose or which word or phrase they will adopt to help them communicate with others more effectively. Further more, a genre is also required to construct sentences, as well as words and grammatical forms.
Second, language users have to choose strategies not only forms. When choosing a strategy, we should take style, terms of address, lexicon into consideration rather than only language forms.
Third, choice-making may be seen as a conscious act or may be an unconscious one, however, it may show at some degree of consciousness, which varies with different users. For example, when an English beginner puts “s” to the verb in the cat eats too much, he must be much more conscious than the native speakers whose choices are made automatically.
Fourth, choices are made both in the process of language production and interpretation, both of which “are of equal importance for the communication flow and the way in which meaning is generated”（Verschueren, 2000:57）
Fifth, when communication begins, language users have to make choices because they are under an obligation to make choices and they have no rights to decide whether to make the choice or not unless they can decide whether to employ the language to convey the idea or keep silent.
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