Euphemism is an idiomatic expression which loses its literal meanings and refers to something else in order to hide its unpleasantness。 In the early 1780s, the British writer Gorge Blunt in English for the first times a reference to the word Euphemism, and gave such a definition: Euphemism is a good of favorable interpretation of a bad word。

2。2 Findings of Euphemism

In 1981, the British linguist Hugh Rawson compiled a dictionary “A Dictionary of Euphemism and Other Double - talk”, summed up the dictionary with British, American linguists’ achievements in the study of Euphemism。 Domestic scholars beam Dingfang give this book high marks。 In 1983, the American scholar Neaman and Sliver published dictionary “Kind Words-A Treasure of Euphemisms”, which describes in detail the origin, history, development and change of Euphemism。 In 1985, D。J。Enright published a book in Proceedings “Fair of Speech, the Use of Euphemism”, which collected a lot of Euphemism discussion paper for the future and provided information for the study of Euphemism。In 1991, Allen and Burridge published a book “Euphemism and Dysphemism”, which is very useful for scholars to study English Euphemism from a pragmatic perspective, the book also beccame one of the most frequent Euphemism writings later researchers would refer to since that time。 

3。 Social function of English Euphemism

Euphemism is broadly used because it has function of making people express thoughts more smoothly and making communication go in a relaxed way。 Euphemism is rhetorically an important element of a broad social function; the function can be pided into the avoidance function, politeness function, disguise function and deceptive function。 Euphemism can help avoid some embarrassment and displeasure, or show respect for religions, its Euphemism’s avoidance function。 In daily communication, using Euphemism appropriately can build a polite and friendly atmosphere and take care of other people’s face; it can also arouse others’ favorable impression。 Meanwhile, it reflects the speaker’s politeness and good upbringing。 This function is called politeness function。 Sometimes, Euphemism is applied to deal with international affairs such as to conceal the nature of some serious wars between nations, it’s called disguise function。 Euphemism’s deceptive function is most obviously reflected in commerce。 Many merchants use this feature to promote their selling。 文献综述

4。 Application of Euphemism in Different Areas

4。1 Euphemism about Gods, death, disease 

In modern society, the taboo is not only declining, but more widely used。 For example, a number of physiological phenomena such as illness and death, are often expressed in an indirect, evasive and ambiguous tactful manner instead of unpleasant argument, it intends to talk openly about things that often unpleasant and disgusting, such as sexual taboos, body parts, and religion。 Euphemism aims to avoid the taboo of features to help people abide by moral requirements and meet the needs of communication。

Gods can be represented by their features。 Like the thunder, it represents God of thunder。 Gods can also be named according to their activity scopes, but people always attempt to avoid addressing Gods without an honorific title。 This kind of Euphemism more or less has something to do with religion。 The Bible regulates that: Addressing Jah Elohim directly is not allowed, people who do that will be deemed as guilty, by Jah Elohim, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”。 As a result, there are many appellations about God in English, some adopt phonetic devices such as: Gad, Gosh, Golly, reverent Jew usually chant “Adonai” instead of “Yahweh”; some adopt spelling phonetic like: G-, G-d, or dog; but most appellations are composed through semantic devices such as: king of kings, the Creator/Maker, Our father, the Light of the world, the Eternal, Holy one。 There are also many euphemistic appellations of Satan like the Black one Princess of Darkness, Old Nick and so on。来,自,优.尔:论;文*网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766- 英语委婉语社会功能的研究(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_86910.html