An Exploration of English Euphenism
Euphemism
2014/02/13 Wang yusheng

Introduction 1.1 The definition of euphemism 1.2 The features of euphemism
The relationship among Euphemism, Language and Culture
The comparison about English and Chinese Euphemisms
Conclusion
References

Introduction 1.1 The definition of Euphemism Oral communication is one of the important ways to maintain the interpersonal relationship. People usually use some polite words to take the place of the rude ones in order to express idea more easily, make communication go more smoothly and avoid the offensiveness in communication. For this reason, euphemism is created. Euphemism is an ordinary linguistic phenomenon in the culture and plays an vital important role in the oral communication. Euphemism comes from the Greek. “eu” means good, pleasant, and “pheme” means speech. Consequently, euphemism means “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner” (Neaman and Silver, 1990).

1.2 The features of euphemism 1.2.1 National features There are a lot of different surroundings and social environment in different countries. Whatʼs more different countries have different manners and cultures. Therefore, euphemism in different language has some different features. 1.2.2 Regional features There are different customs in different regions although they speak the same language.
For example, in American English, “in oneʼs birthday suit” means “naked”, it is a euphemistic expression. But this kind of expression donʼt exist in Australia.

1.2.3 Indirect Indirect is the most important feature in euphemism. The function of euphemism is to make use of some indirect expressions to avoid making people unhappy. For instance, when somebody is ill, we always say he or she is under the weather. This is the indirect expression. 1.2.4 Generalization Generalization is something that is accepted by all of the human beings. Euphemism almost exists in every language. And every language has its own taboos, such as death. Therefore, euphemisms are used to replace those taboos. For example, when we say somebody is dead in English, we prefer to use “pass away”or “be gone”. We always do not use the word “die”. 1.2.5 Humor Euphemisms make the language more humorous. For instance, there is a phenomenon nowadays. Husband is afraid of his wife in some families, and this kind of husband is called “henpecked husband”.

The relationship among Euphemism, Language and Culture Culture includes customs, ideas, habits, beliefs and artifact. And culture reflects the whole life of the people. Language is a system of human communications and an important part of culture. And language is also a vital tool of culture to express its values and beliefs. When people communicating with others, they can transmit their own culture to each other, and learn another culture from each other. Culture makes people know ways of thinking, living and the attitude towards life. Therefore, culture is impossible without language. There is a close connection between culture and language. Under the influence of the culture, people select euphemism to express the pleasant words. whatʼs more, euphemisms are changing along with the development of the culture. In conclusion, there is a close relationship among euphemisms, language and culture. Euphemism is a form of language, language is a part of culture, and culture is communicated by language.

3. The comparison about English and Chinese Euphemisms 3.1 Euphemisms for death There are a lot of English euphemisms on death. For example, “to die” is called “to go to heaven”, “to return to dust”, “to pass away”, “to be longer with us”. And in China, we have “qushi(去世)”, “shishi(逝世)”. 3.2 Euphemisms for poverty Poverty is a horrible word in western society. “poor” is called “hard up for money”, “less well off”. These euphemisms are more pleasant to hear. In Chinese, euphemisms for poverty are fewer. Such as “jieju（拮据）”，“shoutoujin（手头紧）”。

Conclusion Under the development of the economy and society, the world is becoming smaller and we have more chances to have a communication with people from different countries and culture. Euphemism is an important form in language use, and plays an important role in interpersonal communication. Euphemism also can help people build a positive communicative system to establish a good social relationship.

5. References Judith S. Neaman & Carole G. Silver. "Kind Words: A Thesaurus of Euphemisms"（Expanded & Revised Version） 1983 World Publishing Corp