a study on cultural connotation of english euphemism 英语委婉语文化内涵的研究.doc

A Study on Cultural Connotation of English Euphemism 系 别 外语系 专 业 英语 学 生 姓 名 学 号 指 导 教 师： 指导教师职称: 2013年5月25日 A Study on Cultural Connotation of English Euphemism Abstract：Euphemism is a common phenomenon in language, which is a kind of special language form created by people in social activities to seek the ideal communication effect. In many communicative situations, it can disguise unsatisfying, disgusting, embarrassing and even terrifying facts and phenomena. At the same time, it can maintain the speaker’s image and the listener’s self-esteem, so that it could save the two parties’ faces and make sure that communication go on very well. Therefore, euphemism has become an essential language tool to coordinate interpersonal relationship, which is called “the driving force in the communication”. As a language figures of speech, euphemism is a language phenomenon as well as a social phenomenon and cultural phenomenon. Hence, due to the different cultural background of every nation, the usage of euphemism’ is different. There are all kinds of euphemism in English, as a language phenomenon it has its own unique origin, feature, constructive method, social function and so on, it also follow a certain law of development. Euphemism is an indispensable part in English culture as well as important topic in cross-cultural communication. In this view, being familiar with and mastering English euphemism not only help us know well the social psychology and cultural connotation in Britain and Americans, but also smooth interpersonal relationship and provoke communicative activities to achieve the ideal effect. This thesis is made up of four parts. The first chapter gives a brief introduction about the definition, origin of English euphemism and different scholars’ re