英语中的委婉语

Euphemism in English

委婉语最初是与和宗教迷信有关的禁忌语形影相随的。随着人类文明的进步 ,其使用范围逐步扩大到了现代生活的各个方面。委婉语的表达形式多种多样 ,其词义的演变有 4种倾向 ,即词义的扩展、词义的缩小、词义的扬升和词义的贬降。委婉语的语言特征还属于语用学中人与人交际的范畴 ,与“社会语境”、“合作原则”、以及“礼貌原则”等主要语用原则有着密不可分的关系。

Euphemistic expressions are originally used to replace taboos related to religions and superstitions. With the advance in civilization, the use of euphemism extends to all aspects of modern life. Euphemism takes assorted shapes in its expressions and the development of its meaning has four tendencies, i.e. generalization, specialization, amelioration and deterioration. The language features of euphemism belong to the communicative category expounded in pragmatics, and are closely related to such rules as social context, cooperation principle and politeness principle discussed in pragmatics.