Abstract

Euphemism means using good words or a pleasant manner to express embarrassing, uncomfortable and vulgar words. As we all know, English euphemism is not only a common linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. Euphemism is of significance to people’s social communication, which is an indispensable lubricant in language communication, which can avoid taboos, and show people’s politeness. Without euphemisms, the world comes to a halt because the frication and resentments would arise among people(Enright 113). And euphemism has four pragmatic functions, including evasion, indirectness, politeness and decoration function. In daily communication, the cooperative principle guides the use of euphemism; but euphemism often violates relation maxim of CP to avoid embarrassment. This thesis makes a pragmatic analysis of English euphemism, aiming to point out the important role of euphemism in daily communication, make us understand and use English euphemism well and correctly, and avoid pragmatic failure, finally achieve the desired communicative goals.
This paper consists of three parts. In the first part, it firstly deals with an analysis of English euphemism, which describes previous study, origin, definition, formation, classification and features of English euphemism briefly. Then in the second part, it elaborates a pragmatic analysis of English euphemism, which includes the introduction of the cooperative principle, the relationship between English euphemism and the cooperative principle. Finally in the third part, it states pragmatic functions of English euphemism.

Key words: English euphemism; pragmatic function; cooperative principle; relation maxim

摘  要

委婉语是使用优美的词汇或者以愉悦的方式来表达令人尴尬、不悦和粗俗的话语。众所周知，英语委婉语不仅是一种普遍的语言现象，也是一种文化现象。委婉语对人们的社会交际相当重要，它是语言交际中不可或缺的润滑剂，既可避免禁忌，也可显示礼貌。如果没有委婉语，世界的运转会因摩擦而停止，人间将充满仇怨（Enright 113）。而且委婉语具有避讳、掩饰、礼貌和美化四大语用功能。在日常交际中，合作原则指导着委婉语的使用；但委婉语经常违背合作原则里面的关联准则以避免尴尬。本文通过对英语委婉语的语用分析，旨在指出委婉语在日常交际中的重要作用，使我们深刻认知并能正确使用英语委婉语，避免语用失误，最终达到预期的交际目的。
本文由三个部分构成。第一部分首先对英语委婉语进行了分析，简述了先前对英语委婉语的研究，英语委婉语的起源，定义，构成，分类以及特征。第二部分，对英语委婉语进行语用分析，综合论述了合作原则以及英语委婉语和合作原则之间的关系。第三部分阐释了英语委婉语的语用功能。

关键词：英语委婉语；语用功能；合作原则；关联准则