Euphemisms and English Learning
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
2010
9
Euphemisms and English Lear ning
( 511325)
【Abstract 】Euphemisms are a linguistic technique for people to achieve various goals in communication.So mastering euphemisms is very important for our English learning.This passage mainly talks about relations of euphemisms and English learning. 【Key words 】Euphemism ；English learning
1 Introduction
Euphemisms are “defensive in nature offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly. ”Thanks to these euphemisms, it is easy for people to accept the things that are likely to make others feel embarrassed or unhappy.It is people ’s general character to express their ideas as mildly and tactfully as possible.Euphemisms help people to reach this goal.Just as British linguist Hillaire Belloc said, euphemisms make people realize that they are not excellent and make embarrassing speech become elegant.
3
Euphemisms and English learning
2 The social functions of euphemisms
The social functions of euphemisms are often used to cover the truth. The euphemisms related to politics give an excellent explanation for this. The Watergate Scandal made people more sensitive to political language. It became necessary to use euphemisms to make the sensitive political concepts softened and vague.Hence, the “Caper incident ”substituted “phones taps ”, “go the hangout road ” for “tell the truth ” and “stone wall ” for “flatly refuse to cooperate ”.Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.This function of euphemisms also finds embodiment in some false advertisements.In the publicity materials for the car provided by Ford Company, we can find the following sentence: “Continued driving with a failed bearing could result in disengagement of the axle shaft and adversely affect vehicle control. ” The
○
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
2010
9
Euphemisms and English Lear ning
( 511325)
【Abstract 】Euphemisms are a linguistic technique for people to achieve various goals in communication.So mastering euphemisms is very important for our English learning.This passage mainly talks about relations of euphemisms and English learning. 【Key words 】Euphemism ；English learning
1 Introduction
Euphemisms are “defensive in nature offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly. ”Thanks to these euphemisms, it is easy for people to accept the things that are likely to make others feel embarrassed or unhappy.It is people ’s general character to express their ideas as mildly and tactfully as possible.Euphemisms help people to reach this goal.Just as British linguist Hillaire Belloc said, euphemisms make people realize that they are not excellent and make embarrassing speech become elegant.
3
Euphemisms and English learning
2 The social functions of euphemisms
The social functions of euphemisms are often used to cover the truth. The euphemisms related to politics give an excellent explanation for this. The Watergate Scandal made people more sensitive to political language. It became necessary to use euphemisms to make the sensitive political concepts softened and vague.Hence, the “Caper incident ”substituted “phones taps ”, “go the hangout road ” for “tell the truth ” and “stone wall ” for “flatly refuse to cooperate ”.Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.This function of euphemisms also finds embodiment in some false advertisements.In the publicity materials for the car provided by Ford Company, we can find the following sentence: “Continued driving with a failed bearing could result in disengagement of the axle shaft and adversely affect vehicle control. ” The