摘  要

委婉语是一个语言学概念，同时也是一种文化现象，长久以来一直受到人们的关注。合作原则, 它作为语用学的理论基石之一，可以很好地解释话语的字面意义和实际意义的关系，这对于交际委婉语显得尤为重要。本文将从委婉语的定义及交际功能入手，在回顾前人研究的基础上，着重从合作原则的角度，分析委婉语言与合作原则各准则之间的关系。
合作原则是指人们在交际过程中应该遵循质量、数量、关联和方式准则，而委婉语言恰恰违反了这些原则，文章引用了大量说服性的实例说明了委婉语的使用是如何违反合作与原则以更好地达到对话效果。对于英语学习者来说，理解委婉语言和合作原则的关系显得尤为重要，能更好地运用委婉语言进行交际。

关键词：委婉语言；合作原则；交际功能

Abstract

   Euphemism, as a cultural phenomenon as well as a linguistic concept, has attracted people’s attention for a long time. It has long been a topic of much interest in linguistic research, and is playing a more and more important role in our daily life. Cooperative Principle, the cornerstone theory of pragmatics, can explain what the literal meaning is and its real intention in communication and ensure that in an exchange of conversation. Based on the scholars’ achievements, this paper studies euphemism from its definitions and communication functions. It mainly aims to analyze euphemism language within the framework of Cooperative Principle and its maxims.
    Cooperative Principle refers to the quantity maxim, quality maxim,relation maxim and manner maxim which people should observe in communication. However, it turns out that euphemisms violate the principle. There are many examples confirm it. As it for English learners, understanding the relations between euphemism and Cooperative Principle is of great importance in communication.

Key words: euphemism language; cooperative principle; communicative functions

I．Introduction

The word “euphemism” comes from Greek, in which “eu” means “good” and “pheme” means “speech” or “saying”, and together it means literally “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. Euphemism is a form of language created in social relations to achieve ideal communication. Using euphemism can help to make the language communication go smoothly and successfully.