從語用學的角度探析英語中的委婉語

英語論文編號:YY280  字數:7953.頁數:27，有開題報告，任務書，文獻綜述

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Literature review on euphemism 3
2.1 Definition and classification of euphemism 3
2.1.1 Definition of euphemism 3
2.1.2 Classification of euphemism 4
2.2 General review of the study on euphemism 5
2.3 Pragmatic study on euphemism 6
3. Pragmatic analysis of euphemism 8
3.1 The cooperative principle and euphemism 9
3.1.1 The violation of the maxim of quality 10
3.1.2 The violation of the maxim of quantity 11
3.1.3 The violation of the maxim of relevance 12
3.1.4 The violation of the maxim of manner 12
3.2 The politeness principle and euphemism 13
3.2.1 Face theory 13
3.2.2 The politeness principle 14
4. Pragmatic analysis of euphemism on the basis of Neaman & Silver’s eleven categories 17
4.1 Parts of the body: forbidden territory 17
4.2 Parts of the body: neutral territory 18
4.3 Blood, sweet & tears: secretion, excretion & bathrooms 18
4.4 The seven deadly sins & sundry peccadilloes 19
4.5 Sickness: fear & trembling 19
4.6 Death 20
4.7 Crime & punishment 20
4.8 Sex: amateur & professional 21
4.9 Placement & outplacement: the word of work 21
4.10 The language of government: bureaucratese and urbababble 22
4.11 The game of war: the players, the props, the strategies 22
5. Conclusion 24
Acknowledgements 25
References 26

摘    要
 委婉語(euphemism)這個詞來自于希臘語，前綴eu是良好的，美好的或者聽上去好的意思，pheme是講話的意思。因此整個詞的意思就是適當的講話。做為英語詞匯中不可分割的一部分，委婉語一直引起人們的關注和語言學家的研究。
 在過去的幾十年里，許多學者從不同的角度對委婉語做了多方面的研究，成果斐然。但之前的研究還局限在修辭和社會語言學的層面，對于委婉語的研究還主要停留在委婉語這一語言現象本身，對于說話者使用委婉語的目的并沒有給予應有的關注。人們很少不含目的地進行語言交流。而為了達到交際目的，人們通常會采取一些語言手段和策略，委婉語的使用就是這其中之一，因此從語用學的角度研究委婉語就顯得非常必要。
 因此，本文將從語用學的角度對委婉語進行分析，提出當人們在交流過程中有時刻意使用委婉語，實際是對于“合作原則”的違背，從而達到“使對方感受到你的友善”的目的。委婉語的使用就是對于“合作原則”的違背和對“禮貌原則”的維護。為了驗證這一假設，作者將先分析語用學中可以被用來分析委婉語的語用原則，然后再通過對實例進行具體分析，實例將按照Neaman & Silver對于委婉語的11種分類分別進行分析。

 關鍵詞：委婉語；語用學；合作原則；禮貌原則；Neaman & Silver

ABSTRACT
 The word “Euphemism” originated from Greek. With the prefix “eu” meaning fine, favorable or nicely-sounded, and “pheme” meaning speech, the word as a whole conveys the meaning of proper or felicitous speech. As an indispensable part of English vocabulary, euphemism has received an incessant attention from people and constant study from linguists.
 During the last few decades, many scholars have made various studies of euphemism from different aspects, which were so brilliant that they are still cherished these days. However there still exist some limitations in terms of completeness and depth of the studies. The previous studies are confined to the level of rhetoric and sociolinguistics. The linguistic phenomenon of euphemism itself is focused on, whereas the motives of the speaker’s using euphemism is to some extent neglected. People seldom make language communication without specific purposes. In order to achieve their purposes, they usually adopt some linguistic means and methods, which are inclusive of euphemisms. Therefore, it’s real need for us to study euphemism from the perspective of pragmatics.
 Therefore, this thesis tries to analyze euphemism from the pragmatic perspective and propose a hypothesis that when people use a euphemistic expression in communication, they choose not to cooperate, for they want to show their politeness to other person. They tend to use euphemism is to violate the cooperative principle and maintain the politeness principle. In order to verify this hypothesis, the author first discusses the pragmatic principles that can be used to analyze the euphemism and then offer a pragmatic analysis of euphemistic examples which are labeled according to Neaman & Silver’s classification.

Keywords：euphemism; pragmatics; cooperative principle; politeness principle; Neaman & Silver