Abstract:
 Euphemism is widely used in every aspect of the social life, and plays a role as “lubricating oil” to harmonize interpersonal and social relationship in language communication. As a social linguistic phenomenon, euphemism has drawn the attention of researchers at home and abroad for a long time. This paper firstly introduces the definition and classification of euphemism; mainly discusses the motivation and function of using euphemism; and then illustrates the methods and attentions of using euphemism; finally, the author talks about the implication of this study and puts forward some suggestions to English learning and teaching. It is hoped that readers can get a general knowledge of euphemism, realize the importance of euphemism, and learn to use euphemism accurately so as to be successful in cross-cultural communication.

Key words: euphemism; motivations; functions; methods

摘  要：
委婉语广泛应用于社会生活的各个方面，是语言交际中协调人际关系和社会关系的“润滑剂”。委婉语作为一种社会语言现象一直以来吸引国内外研究者的关注。本文首先介绍了委婉语的定义和分类；主要探讨了委婉语的目的和功能；然后阐明了使用委婉语的方法和注意事项；最后，作者谈论了这次研究的启示并且针对英语教学提出了一些建议，旨在使读者对委婉语有一定的了解，意识到委婉语的重要性，学会准确地使用委婉语，从而顺利进行跨文化交际。

关键词：委婉语；目的；功能；方法

1 Introduction
Language reflects culture (Wierzbicka, 1986). In daily communication, people want to use a polite and convincing way of speaking to achieve their aims. As a result, there appears a great plenty of euphemism. The word euphemism comes from Greek, the prefix “eu” is related to “good and sounding good”, while the root “pheme” means “saying speech; speech”. When the two parts are put together, it means speaking with acceptable words or in a pleasant manner.  Scholars of language often treat euphemism as figures of speech, or they call it comfortable words or decorated words. Euphemism is a way of speaking when people talk about something unpleasant or uncomfortable or the aspects of private such as age, job, illness, death, etc. Euphemism plays a very important role in communication.
The most important feature of euphemism is the vagueness of abstract concept with rhetorical skills, which means both sides talk about something indirect when they are chatting. Euphemism exists in many situations in our daily life, drawing people’s attention for a long time. The researches of euphemism focus on rhetoric, linguistics and pragmatics. Through the skills in grammar and pragmatics, people can make use of euphemism and the skills are used widely in communication. People use euphemism to state their points politely, express their wishes and put forward their request or suggestion. By using euphemism, people can possibly approach the expected purpose.