EnglishEuphemismsinSocialCulturalPsychology英语委婉语在社会文化心理中的映射

英语委婉语在社会文化心理中的映射English Euphemisms in Social Cultural PsychologyCONTENTS1. Introduction12. The Reflections of English Euphemisms from Social Cultural Psychology33. Psychological Factors of Euphemisms43.1 Evasion psychology43.1.1 Taboo43.1.2 Comfortable words53.2 Politeness psychology53.3 Cosmetic psychology64. The Different Social Values of Euphemisms75. Conclusion8Bibliography10Acknowledgements 11The Reflections of English Euphemisms in Social Cultural Psychology 摘要：委婉语从它诞生的那一天就带上了鲜明的社会心理标记,担负着润滑交际的重任。其产生主要归因于不同的社会心理,如忌讳礼貌以及政治需要的伪装或掩饰。委婉语可以说是社会文化心理的一面镜子,折射出形形色色的社会心理状态,本文从社会文化心理里的角度来简要阐述随着社会的发展,英语委婉语所映射的交际功能及其各种社会价值观念。关键词：委婉语;禁忌语;社会文化心理;社会价值Abstract：Euphemism, which brings a sharp social and psychological marker since its birth，charges with the heavy responsibility of Lubrication Communication. Its application is attributed mainly to different social psychology, such as taboo, politeness or political purpose out of disguise. Euphemism is like a mirror reflecting social psychology of various kinds relevant to social issues in different respects. With the development of society, this thesis analyzes the application of euphemisms and the reflections of communication function in English from the angle of social cultural psychology, as well as the variable views of value concepts.Key Words: euphemism; taboo; social cultural psychology; social values1. Introduction Language is a mirror of social life and human development. In the vocabulary of any language, one finds a focused reflection of the national culture concerned. Euphemism, which is a kind of linguistic variation as well as a social cultural phenomenon, is the product of the interaction between linguistic variables and social variables. Euphemism, derived from Greek, with “eu” as a prefix meaning “well” or “sounding well” and “phemism” meaning “speech”, thus the word originally bears the meaning of “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”. Historically, euphemism originated in the accounts of taboo by many adventurers and anthropologists. In early 1580s, the British writer George Blunt first used the words “euphemism” and gave it a definition as “a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word.” Mencken, the American linguist, wrote a book The American Language in 1936, which devoted a part to the analysis of hundreds English euphemism on the basis of American has society and historical cultural background. In 1981, Hugh Rawson, a British linguist, compiled a dictionary named A Dictionary of Euphemism and Other Double-talk, whose preface is very valuable because of its extensive discussion of the definition, classification, features and domains of euphemism. The year 1983 saw the publication of another classic on euphemism: Kind Words-A Thesaurus of Euphemisms, compiled by American scholars Neaman and Silver, which supplied detailed interpretation of the euphemized items, and at the same time describe the original, development of euphemism. In 1985, D. J. Enright published a book Fair of Speech, the Use of Euphemism, which is a collection of many pieces of essays concerning this topic, each only discussing the use of euphemism in one specific domain. This book provides some clues for the study of euphemism thoroughly. From the seventies to the eighties in the 20th century, western theory of sociolinguistics was introduces into China in succession. Inspired by the newly introduced theory, some Chinese scholars began to study euphemism in the perspective of social functions. The most famous of them was Chen Yuan，who published a book Sociolinguistics in 1983, devoting a special chapter to the study and analysis of euphemism, which not only discussed the historical and social background of euphemism, but also revealed the nature of this social phenomenon. Euphemism is a proper language style that people pursue in social communication in order to reach an ideal communication effect. Euphemism can avoid and soften taboos and sensitive or awkward topics. In every stage and each nation, euphemisms are widely adopted. Thus, the creation and usage of euphemism is a common phenomenon in human language. To have a more scientific study of euphemism, it is necessary to take social and cultural factor into account and regard euphemism as a dynamic linguistic phenomenon. When dealing with euphemisms, we should watch out culture-loaded words and expressions, and avoid making mistakes that would cause “cultural shock”. This consciousness would help us to “Do as the Romans do” in an environment of foreign cultures that are gradually assimilated in the “big forge” of the world. The advantage of the thesis is conspicuous. It is a systematic study on euphemism from new angle, the sociolinguistic perspective, based on articles carried in journals and books. This thesis has made a tentative study of euphemisms. Euphemism has been widely use in all aspect of social life. Its application is attributed mainly to different social psychology, such as taboo, politeness, or political purpose out of disguise. With the development of society, this thesis analyzes the application of euphemisms and the reflections of communication function in English from the angle of social cultural psychology, as well as the variable views of value. As a linguistic phenomenon and more a sociolinguistic one, can reflect in some way the interactions between language and society. With an aim of achieving as a better understanding of the connotation of the euphemism we can explore the psychology of the westerners and their values.2. The Reflections of Euphemisms from Social Cultural Psychology As we known, language is an integral part of culture. It is the primary vehicle by which a culture transmits its beliefs, values and norms. Euphemism is heavily culture-bound since its birth, because it is used in certain community and is influenced by social-culture factors, thus, it is heavily marked with social-culture features. “Euphemism can reflect the general and special features of society, social values, morality and the nationality and universal feature of culture”(Peng Wenzhao,1999). To understand a euphemism, we should have some knowledge of its corresponding culture of the nation and society. Only through the mirror of culture can we exactly and clearly understand and learn about euphemisms. When we study a culture, it is not enough to merely learn the knowledge of a language and behavioral norms, as Steinmetz, Bush and Joseph-Goldfare (1994) point out:“studying culture does not mean looking only at customs, institutions, and artifacts, but also studying peoples values, beliefs, and attitudes and how they influence or are influence or are influenced by interaction among people. Culture should be studied as a process as well as a product (1994:12). Language reflects cultural and euphemism is a mirror of culture, reflecting social psychology of various kinds relevant to social issues in different respects. The words and expresses of English reflect the English speakers attitude, facts beliefs ideas, values and knowledge in communication. From diverse angles, the features of the application of English euphemism are revealed. According to the cultural view, language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of different cultures. This has been a topic of much interest for contrastive linguists, many of whom focus on differences of euphemisms in different languages. As is believed by many sociologists, taboo is a common cultural phenomenon in all languages and it serves as the main psychological base of euphemism. But because of different cultural background in different nations, domains of taboo are not exactly the same in all languages; hence, scope of euphemism is varied. Verbal communication is a vital means to hold social relationship together and lubricate interpersonal relationship. When using English euphemism, it is unavoidable to bring about some troubles in information communication, in order to express exactly and ensure the speed of communication accurately, euphemism prevents offensive and is an inauthentic means of expression, it allows one to speak about mild words or indirect words for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. So, it is essential to give more attention to the cultures to remove the obstacle in communication between different languages.3. Psychological Factors of EuphemismsEuphemism is a social and a psychological product as well. We often say euphemism also motivated by communicators psychology. Although euphemism does not the only has the nature of class, distract and times, in a sense reflects peoples ideas views and ethics of a country. Many factors of social of psychology may account for euphemism, but the few are the most essential reflections in social cultural psychology: evasion psychology, politeness psychology, cosmetic psychology. These three aspects, they also reflect the communicative function of English euphemism.3.1 Evasion psychology3.1.1 Taboo Taboo is the main factor of the origin of euphemism. The word “taboo” derives from Polynesian. This phenomenon is called “taboo” by the Polynesians, which means “holy” or “untouchable”. It was introduced into English in the century by Captain James Cook. Taboo and euphemism are two closely related cultural and linguistic phenomenon of human society. As Robert Burchfield wrote in Fair of Speech: The Uses of Euphemism(1985), “a language without euphemisms would be a defective instrument of communication”. Every culture in the world, there are many taboos in every society. The word “taboo” was brought to sociology and anthropology as a special noun for this special phenomenon. It is interpreted as one way in which a society expresses its disapproval of certain kinds of behavior which are considered to be harmful to its members either for supernatural reasons or because such behavior is hired to violate a moral code. The primitives were often confronted with baffling and threatening situations and phenomena, such as death, and they failed to understand the essence of them. To find a way out, they became superstitious about supernatural power, or the existence of devils and gods. In their mind, everything was alive with spirit, capable of bringing down blessings and misfortune, and thus language took upon a kind of supernatural sense. We can conclude that the original reasons for euphemism are fear and desire to placate the mysterious forces the rule the universe. Ancient people, in particular, felt that death was extremely awful and unearthly. For instance, death is an inevitable stage at the end of lifes journey. In every time, death euphemism is preferred to soften the shock of reality. In English, there are terms like: go, depart, depart from the world forever, decease, pass away, breath ones last, go the way of all flesh etc. Mankinds desire to forget the process of aging that leads inevitably to death is the source of a number of “kind words” that have made the stages and roles of life seem more bearable. In English culture, old means uselessness; it means that this groups of people cannot contribute a lot to their society, and only get the materials and the penalty from society , the old people did not like that description of themselves, and likes aged or aging not much more; soon they came to be called the elderly. “Even this euphemism seems unduly doddering, so we were treated to senior citizen and golden age, and old woman keep their chins up by calling themselves nature.” (by William Safire). Bing old is an unpleasant thing. Especially to the aged women, they are sensitive to the words middle age replacing by of a certain age. In a broad sense, taboo exists in all known cultures, referring to certain acts object so relationship which the society wishes to avoid. Allan and Burridge pointed the purpose of using euphemisms by saying, “Euphemism is characterized by avoidance language and evasive expression; that is, speaker uses words as a protective shield against the anger or disapproval of natural or supernatural beings.”(Allan and Burridge, 1991:30). According to them euphemism functions have positive connotations and avoid many negative connotations.3.1.2 Comfortable words Comfortable words are another factor of euphemism. In recent years, more and more English euphemisms are being used in talking about social life and social affairs. Because in western countries, most people hold that people with different occupation have different status in society. English euphemisms are used to express some occupation titles. The positive euphemism includes the many fancy occupation titles, which save the egos of workers by elevating their status. The names of some professions can be very misleading. For example: garbage collectors for sanitary engineer, dry-cleaner for dry cleaning engineer, housewife for domestic engineer, hairdresser for beautician, maid for domestic-help. In addition, there are also many euphemisms about poor, bothering American society. poor for needy, disadvantaged under privileged, deprived, because for one thing, it is easy to enrage others by using poor directly, for another it seems that someone is looked downed upon by using poor. This kind of comfortable words are apt to satisfy the hearer and make themselves more enjoyable and acceptable so as to ease or remove the unpleasant and embarrassment cause by hearing the true, direct expression.3.2 Politeness PsychologyPoliteness is also an essential psychology foundation for euphemism. Politeness is showing awareness of another public self-image or awareness of others expectation that their public self-image will be respect. It plays a very important role in social interaction and conversation. Leech (1983) in his Principle of Pragmatics, proposed the Politeness Principle (PP), in his proposal, he gives six maxims and each maxim consists of two sub-maxims. According to Leech (1983:107), tact Maxim is “one kind of politeness” and “perhaps the most important kind of politeness in English-speaking society”. PP show respect for the speaker and listeners, we know the purpose of social interaction is to promote the friendship between the listeners not to fight or quarrel with each other. The ritual function of euphemism conceal the fact of some sensitive and un pleasant topics, When mentioning the place for body elimination process, euphemistic expression like comfort station lavatory washroom bathroom etc. And excretory activities such as answer natures call to go to toilets, restroom to wash ones hands to relieve oneself etc. When speaking to the public, they may say “Excuse me, I must pay the call of nature.” In modern society, euphemisms are produced to conceal or remove its particular embarrassments and its unsolved problems, the English pregnancy euphemism“have a little tax reduction”is a reflection of tax system. There are many expression such as, she has canceled all her social engagements; she is in an interesting condition; she is in a family way. The coming of the new born child means one more dependents on the familys tax form. The notion for looking to the time of birth provides key pregnancy such as to be expecting a baby, be to an expectant mother .etc. Euphemism has the duty to lubricate our communication, and help establish a good relationship between human beings and even strengthen the social stability.3.3 Cosmetic PsychologyCosmetic psychology refers to using good words and sound words to beautify things which are not beautiful or decent in reality. This kind of euphemism is usually used by the government and the military, etc. Politics is a fertile area for the growth of euphemisms, which are cosmetic in expression but deceptive in nature. The cosmetic euphemism can be easily found in American English, governments discussion of the Vietnam War was stated with euphemisms, villages were burned and the inhabitants imprisoned, which was called pacification by American government, and the war itself is not a war but a conflict. It is obvious destroying crops but deceived as defoliation. There is a book about composition which is according to the identity of the speaker making the values as following judgment: “It is obvious that those euphemisms used by the ordinary people are meant to soften harsh reality ,but those used by politicians may aim at deceiving the public”(by Philip Howard,2003) . The use of such political euphemisms helps government beautify the actual, and prevents people from taking any anti-government action. For example, slums is expressed as sub-standard housing. There are no poor children in school, only children unable to secure much beyond the necessities of the family. Vagueness and deceptiveness cater for statement in using euphemisms. In accordance with the baffling development of modern times, euphemism, as a tool, is also widely used in this field to prettify the world in the following ways: (1) To conceal the seriousness of poverty, crime and other social problems, such as, “the social evil” for “prostitution” “a house of correction” for “prison” and so on. (2) To disguise political scandals, such as a lot of euphemism caused by Watergate affair with euphemisms: withholding information was “containment” burglars were “hombres”; and “clemency” was offered “from the oval office”. (3) To hide the reality of wars, such as euphemism born in the Vietnam War. (4) To beatify the reality, such as “police action” or “preventive military action” for “invasion”.4. The Different Social Values of EuphemismsNeaman (Neaman 1990:3) points out: what are accepted and tabooed are decide by different cultural norms. Even in the same culture, the norms vary in different ages. Social value influences language largely; it affects euphemism even more. Hartwell(1982:31) also proclaims that euphemism provides us much information on value of a certain culture. Chinese and English belong to different cultural systems, so the great difference in their social value is seen in the formation, development and change of euphemism. Euphemism is like a mirror reflecting social psychology of various kinds relevant to social issues in different respects. Euphemism can reflect the general and special features of society, social values, morality and the nationality and universal feature of culture. English euphemism covers a much wider scope of usage than Chinese euphemism as in English speaking countries; to speak in a euphemistic way is considered a sign of civilization. In Chinese, euphemism is prevalent, but it is not so wide spread as in English. As a result, English euphemism has spread over nearly every aspect of human life. The truth is that euphemism is not a linguistic phenomenon but also a sociolinguistic one. It varies over time, space and across societies. To have a more scientific study of euphemism, we need to take all those all those social psychology and cultural factor into account and regard euphemism as a dynamic phenomenon. The use of euphemism varies from person to person, society to society and culture to culture. Euphemisms are related to society closely, just like society, it is constantly changing. New euphemisms are invented almost daily. Meanwhile, with the rapid development of society, there are permanent and temporary euphemisms. The latter sometimes are also called “one-day wonders”, meaning that they are used only once with a life span as short as one day. Euphemism is a proper language style that people pursue in social communication in order to reach an ideal communication effect. In todays world, national boundaries are constantly changing, and societies are moving towards greater inter dependency and inter connectedness. The increasing globalization poses uniq