Abstract

Euphemism is a universal language of the world's cultural phenomenon, which plays an important role in the daily communication. Political euphemism is one of the euphemisms, which is used in political activities. It has the general characteristics of euphemisms and is widely used in the national political culture. Because of the ambiguity that political euphemism has, it is widely used both in the American news reports and in the president's speech .At present, many studies of political euphemism focus on its diplomatic function. In fact, its function is not limited to this.
This article is mainly divided into four parts. The first part introduces the definition and basic principles of political euphemism; Second part focuses on the analysis of political euphemisms in American presses; The third part introduces the major influential factors of American culture on political euphemism; And the fourth part analyzes the communicative functions of political euphemism and its important role in daily communication. Through the above analysis and based on the past researches, the author summed up the three cultural factors of political euphemism in American press: the individualism, equality and history; and the four communication functions of political euphemism: covering up serious social problems, smothering up political scandal, covering the essence of aggressive war and prettying up the reality. Hope that through these, readers can have a rough idea of the basic communicative functions and role of political euphemism.

Key words: American news reports; political euphemism; communicative function

摘  要

委婉语是世界文化中普遍的语言现象,在日常交际中发挥着重要的作用。政治委婉语是按照委婉语的使用范围划分出来的一类委婉语,它具有委婉语的一般特征,在各国政治文化中被广泛应用。因为政治委婉语具有相当大的模糊性，所以无论是美国新闻报道还是总统演讲，都能看到政治委婉语被广泛使用。目前多数对政治委婉语的研究主要集中在其外交功能上,实际上政治委婉语的功能并不仅限于此。
这篇文章主要分为四个部分。第一部分主要介绍政治委婉语的定义和基本原则；第二部分着重分析美国新闻报道中的政治委婉语；第三部分主要介绍影响政治委婉语的主要因素；第四部分主要分析政治委婉语的交际功能及其重要作用。通过上述的分析,在前人研究的基础上,作者归纳出美国新闻报道中政治委婉语三个文化因素即个人主义、平等与历史，与四个交际功能即掩盖严重社会问题、掩盖政治丑闻、掩饰侵略战争实质及粉饰社会现实。希望以此能使读者能基本了解政治委婉语的基本交际功能与作用。

关键词：美国新闻报道；政治委婉语；交际功能