Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 24, 03 January 2024


Open Access | Article

The Avoidance and Disguising Functions of English Euphemisms---Examples from American Political Language

Yuetong Wang * 1
1 University of Macau

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 24, 100-106
Published 03 January 2024. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Yuetong Wang. The Avoidance and Disguising Functions of English Euphemisms---Examples from American Political Language. CHR (2024) Vol. 24: 100-106. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/24/20231531.

Abstract

Euphemisms contain cultural connotations and socio-pragmatic functions of the language and are an indispensable part of language acquisition. Euphemisms are used in wide circumstances, their functions depend on different contexts. It always disguises the real meaning in order to achieve different purposes. It is quite significant to understand the real meanings of euphemisms so that L2 learners can become native speakers more effectively. Therefore, this paper is focused on the avoidance and disguising functions of English euphemisms---examples from American political language. First, this paper uses the case study, narrows the range of euphemisms to the political field, and selects relative readings such as political reports from leading newspapers and celebrity speeches. Then this paper applied specific methods: combined content analysis and discourse analysis together to handle the selected cases. This paper finds that there is a relationship between the frequency of euphemisms in specific political fields. Euphemisms are used more frequently in the political field.

Keywords

euphemisms, avoidance and disguising functions, American, political field

References

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4. Orwell, G. (1946)Politics and the English Language. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

5. Rawson, Hugh. (1981). A Dictionary of Euphemisms & Other Doubletalk [Z]. New York: Crown Publication.

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7. Allan, K., & Burridge, K. (1991). Euphemism & dysphemism: Language used as shield and weapon. (No Title).

8. Usmonova, S., Madaminova, S., & Saidmahmudova, Y. (2023). PRAGMALINGUISTIC FUNCTIONAL-METHODOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF EUPHEMISM. International Bulletin of Applied Science and Technology, 3(5), 369-374.

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10. Zhu, X.X. (2022). Yingyuweiwanyu wenhuaneihan yu yuyonggongneng[A study on the cultural connotation and pragmatic function of English euphemism]. Liaoning, China: Liaoning Economic Vocational and Technical College,(3), 62-64.

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-251-0
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-252-7
Published Date
03 January 2024
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/24/20231531
Copyright
03 January 2024
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated