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A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms in Press Conferences
A Pragmatic Study of English Euphemisms in Press Conferences
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东北K予冠大莩
硕士学位论文
新闻发布会中英语委婉语的语用研究
作者:周婷婷
指导教师:于秀成副教授
学科专业:外国语言学及应用语言学
研究方向:语用学
学位类型:学历硕士
东北师范大学学位评定委员会
201 1年9月
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Abstract
commonly acknowledged that euphemisms originate from religious taboos,and then develops
every aspects of social life.Many linguists and scholars are extrelnely interested in this
phenomenon and have conducted various studies from different perspectives like rhetoric.
Press conferences held by governments are used to release news to the press and public.
Language is one of the most important carriers of press conferences and i s al so a use th l too l
euphemisms carefully in their language and do not observe Cooperative Principle and
Politeness Principle.
combines a quantitative study with a qualitative one and analyzes euphemisms in the selected
twenty transcripts of American press conferences held in the White House.7l'he authol‘probes
into the relationship of euphemisms in press conferences with CP and PP,and summarizes the
seven chapters,Chapter Five and Chapter Six are the core chapters of this thesis.
Chapter Two is the literature review,in which the author makes a systematic review and
Chapter Three establishes the theoretical framework on the basis of the Cooperative
Chapter Four introduces the research methodology of this thesis.’Fhe autho r’lnainly
elaborates the methods of data collection,research methodology and steps in this chaptm’.
Chapter Five and Chapter Six are the main body of this thesis.They elaborate in detail
respectively,also probe into the pragmatic attributes of euphemisms and how CP and PP
Chapter Seven concludes the major findings of this research,pointing out the limitation
from the perspective of pragmatics,and tries to discover the pragmatic attl‘ibutes of this
phenomenon.It is also hoped that this research can deepen the understanding o
l、euphemisms
in a particular context.
pragmatic analysis
摘 要
委婉语是人类交际中一种普遍的语言现象,也是人类为了达到理想的交际结果而
使用的一种语言策略。目前,英语委婉语的起源被普遍的归结于宗教t.|1的禁忌语,这些
宗教禁忌语进一步发展成为交际中粗俗、生硬表达方式的替代语,它们几乎存在二J:人类
社会中的各各方面,因此,委婉语不仅是一利,语言学现象,同时也是一利・社会现缘。这
一现象引起了中外很多语言‘学家以及社会学家的浓厚兴趣,他们从修辞学、社会!孚:、沿
用学等多方面对英语委婉语的定义、特点、使用等进行深入和系统的研究。尽铃划1英语
委婉语的相关研究并不少,但这些研究大多集中于修辞、语义和词典编纂等儿方_|l_汀,{艮
少有人对像新闻发布会这样特定语言环境下使用的委婉语进行深入研究。
新闻发布会是各国政府为直接向新闻界以及公众发布消息,解释重大习i件m俏!;;;办
的活动。语言是新闻发布会的重要载体之一,同时也是新闻发言人、政治家或外交官等
用来捍卫自身以及国家利益的有力工具。政府举办的新闻发布会中通常会涉及到政治、
军事、外交等敏感问题,而发言‘者的语言运用将会直接影响一个凼家的形缘及利/.;置。存
这种语境下,发言者经常会采用含蓄、婉转的委婉语作为他们的语言‘策略,从而避免在
处理敏感话题时使用刺激性语言‘。因此,新闻发布会是委婉语的重要来源之 。 ‘股情
况下,为了保证交流的顺利进行人们会遵循一定的交际原则,其中最:重要的两个原则便
是“合作原则”和“礼貌原则”。但由于在新闻发布会中发言‘者所代表的不仅是个人利
益,因此,为了实现预期的交际目的,他们经常大量而谨慎的使用委婉语,丽不是严格
遵循“合作原则”和“礼貌原则”,这也成为他们的语言策略之一。
本文以Grice的“合作原则”和Leech的“礼貌原则”为理论依拟t:,采Hj定量1j定
性研究相结合的研究方法,通过对选取的二十篇美国白宫新闻发布会中所…现的委婉沿
进行实例分析,集中探讨了在这一特殊语境下,委婉语与合作原则和礼貌原则的关系,
进一步分析归纳了委婉语的构成、实现方式以及功能。全文共包含六章,其中第叫、’h
章为本文的核心章节。
第一章为引言‘,主要用来介绍研究背景、研究目标、研究意义以及伞文的框架结
构。
第二章为文献综述,在详细介绍了委婉语的定义、分类及构成的基础上,m,・?、i剥
国内外学者在此方面所做研究进行系统整理与评论,总结其中的贡献语不足。
第三章为本:丈的理论框架。详细阐述了作为本文理论基础及研究工具I,l勺“合作原
则”和“礼貌原则”,为下面的分析奠定了基础。、
第四章为研究方法,本章主要用来说明本次研究的数据收集方法,具体研究方法
及研究步骤。
第五章和第六章为本文重点章节。在第三章理论基础的指导下,分别使用“合作
原则”和“礼貌原则”对新闻发布会中使用的委婉语进行了实例分析。探究这些委婉语
的语用特性,以及它们是如何在交际中影响“合作原则”和“礼貌原则”。
第七章总结了全文的研究结论,归纳了新闻发布会中委婉语的构成方式及作用,
同时指出本次研究的不足之处,并为日后研究提供建议。
总之,本文从语用学角度对新闻发布会中委婉语的使用进行了全面剖析,试图发
掘这一特殊语境下委婉语的语用特性,拓宽委婉语的研究范围,同时也希鸳!通过此研究
能够进一步加深人们对委婉语的认知和理解。
关键词: 委婉语;合作原则;礼貌原则;新闻发布会;语用分析
lV
Contents
A bStract……………………………………………………………………………I
中文摘要……………………………………………………………………………………II
Contents……………………………………………………………………………………III
1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1
1.2 Organization………………………………………………………………………………1
1.3 Significance………………………………………………………………………………2
2.5 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………16
3.1 Overview…………………………………………………………………………………17
3.5 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………22
V
5.2 Violating the Quality Maxim……………………………………………………………zo
5.6 Findings…………………………………………………………………………………j斗
6.8 Findings…………………………………………………………………………………qz
7.1 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………%
7.2 Limitation of This Thesis and Suggestions for Further Study……………………………48
References……………………………………………………………………………………)u
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………)-)
VI
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
1.1 Introduction
public relations and building positive images for governments.Every nation has to adj ust their
relationship through official contacts like press conferences where the choice of words
matters much.Therefore,the ability of using language and selecting the most pz’ccise and
proper words is critical to spokesmen.As one of the most commonly used language strategies,
successful communication.
every already known language.The origination of euphemisms can date back to Norman
come from religious taboos and many of them come from The Bible at the bcginning.
Euphemisms develop with elapse of time,and domain of euphemism also expanded from
religious taboo to the realm of sex,war,body part,politics and many other aspects of humanjS
different perspectives have been made by linguists and other scholars all OVCI’the world.
critical communicative strategy which is commonly adopted by human beings in their social
communications.
discussed and euphemisms are employed as a powerful tool to conduct diplomatic aft'airs by
euphemism,the author will employ two important theories to analyze euphcmisms used in
press conference from the perspective of pragmatics in the following chapters of this thesis.
1.2 Organization
brief discussion
three establishes theory frameworks of this thesis.The author provides
a on
five and
methods of data collection,research methodology and steps of the thesis.Chapter
conferences the
euphemisms used in on
auantitative analysis with qualitative one Oil press
This thesis mainly aims tO find answers of the following questions after the research:
conferences of governments?
conferences and how
2.What is the operation mechanism of euphemisms used in press
press conferences?
1.3 Significance
with others,we always try our best to choose the most appropriate utterance to get thc best
human relationship.
from the
In recent decades,many linguists and scholars have studied euphemisms
two
semantics,culture and pragmatics etc..However,there
al‘c
different Derspectives,such as
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
the present of euphemism.One is that most of those
dominant weaknesses in study
researchers iust focus on the euphemisms from a broad sense,but seldom study euphemisms
in a specific realm.The other one is that most of th、ose studies are mainly theory—oriented
rather than empirical studies and hence their researches lack adequate evidence to suppol‘t.
Just as the author has introduced,euphemism has attracted people’S attention for a long
and
time.Euphemisms exist in almost every known language,because nearly every country
societv seems to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning dil’ectly.
Manv sociolinguists have strong interests in this topic because of the close relationship of
sociallife is basically one,rooted in the interdependence with social life itsell”.And Enright
instrument of communication”.
sometimes it can even influence the image of their nations.Since the purpose oI usmg
find
use euphemisms to”soften”the
harsh words or disguise facts etc..So people can
bc ol great
down of the interaction.Thus,the study of diplomatic euphemisms seems tO
like
utterances.The findings of this research may help people who often deal with languages
communications.
what the author has described above,many researches and studies arc based 021
Just as
The tem“euphemism’’was first put forward by the British writer George B lunt in his
1
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
for comprehenswe
on this phenomenon from different angles and made great contributions
of euphemism.Some of
Allan and Burridge(1991)etc.are all influential books in the study
them explained euphemisms on the basis of American history;some discussed the definitions,
of euphemism
features and classifications of euphemisms,and some probed into functions
about lace・
from difrerent perspectives.In these books,euphemism is defined as concerns
comDared with western studies,the study of euphemism began a little Iatc and Chinese
recent
sch01ars have made scientific and systematic researches euphemisms only
on in
in China.Chen Wangdao
Dhenomenon and improved the development of euphemism study
Drovide us the knowledge that the use of euphemism largely depends on the context and has a
academic papers have touched euphemism used in political realm,like government press
conferences.
to preserve harmonious
People use common euphemisms or euphemistic expressions
from comnlon euphemisms
personal relationships in their daily communication.Different
used
elegance of language,English euphemism political
in
seeking taboo.avoidance or
occasions fbcuses on national interests and maintaining the positive influence of a nation-
the
That is to say,euphemism used in political occasions by statesmen 1S dependent 011
former to the
this condition is different from that in other realms,because the belongs
4
individual behavior and the latter national.Euphemism is the fruit of the
implcmentatioll oI、
pragmatic strategy in pursuit of ideal social effects.Anytime a euphemistic cxpression is
chosen,statesmen are thinking carefully and strategically about language form.Howevcr.thc
Importance of this realm is ignored and few studies are made on this topic.Actuallv.to
“pragmatics is in need if we intend for a fuller. deeper and generally more reasonable account
By exerting efforts to rescue the unsuitable or unpleasant topics, statesmcn would get
particular study.
enlarges the scope of euphemism study from pragmatic perspective.This paper not only
attempts to approach the issue from the angle of pragmatics,but also justifics its cxistin譬
Principle.On all accounts,it's significant and necessary to probe into this interesting but
)
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
Every country,every society has its own euphemisms.As an indispensable and natural pm’t ol’
English language,euphemisms have been arousing wide interest for a long time.1,ots ol’
linguists and scholars both abroad and domestic have studied this phenomenon ffoln different
In the year 1 656,British writer George Blunt first used the word“euphemism”in his
In 1 936,American linguist Mencken wrote a book The American Language which was
very helpful for future euphemism studies.He analyzed hundreds of English euphemisms on
the basis of American cultural and historical background,and also discussed the generation
double—talk which fully revealed the achievements in euphemistic studies over the years by
British and American linguists.It was very valuable,especially the preface ol’the book.
domains of euphemisms in the preface of that book.In his book,Huge R.awson held that
his achievements is that he broadened the scope of euphemism in this book by claiming,
“Euphemism is not restricted to lexicon,and there are grammatical ways of toning something
published in 1983.This book was compiled by J.S.Neaman and C.G Silver,whicla supplied
detailed interpretation of the euphemized items and is of significant value to the study ot’
euphemisms.
6
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
D~J Enright published a collection of essays on
euphemism?f’air oL{speech—theⅢc‘)f
euphemism in 1985.In this book,Enright invited sixteen distinguished writers to ponder and
variety of perspectives and sensibilities to bear on these topics.Some specilqc topics like
In the recent two decades,some linguists also made great contributions to the study of
euphemism.Linguists Keith Allan and Kate Burridge publish their book Euphemi._I'111 and
neglected by scholars.It was H.Nicholson that first termed the euphemistic devices i11
scholars did less research on euphemism,although euphemism in china has a long history.
Systematic and scientific studies had not been done until several decades ago.Chen Wangdao
who studied euphemisms in the perspective of rhetoric is the pioneer in the field ol’
sentence,even discourses,but not only restricted to the lexicon level.This is the most
In the 1 970’S and l 980’S.as those influential western theories ot’linguistics were
introduced into China in succession,the special social function of euphemisms has been
arousing wide interest and Chinese scholars began to study euphemisms in social perspectives
In 1 983,Chen Yuan laid out a specialized chapter to make a detailed analysis ot’euphemisms
in his book‘‘Sociolinguistics”.Chen Yuan not only discussed the social and historical
background of euphemisms,but also revealed the social nature of this linguistic phenomenon.
His book has an important reference value for the further researches on euphem i sm s.
In recent years,a lot of Chinese scholars published articles and books to express their
7
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
views on euphemisms from different perspectives,and they all contributed a lot to the study
Euphemism’’in the magazine“Foreign Language”.In his paper.he broadened the study scope
of euphemism and applied pragmatic theories to analyze several theoretical questions about
and sweet-sounding principles and another important principle in the application ot’
‘彳Study ofEuphemism”in which reviewed the history of euphemism study both abroad and
at home,and also put forward deficiencies that need to be solved in the future studies.
Peng Zengan attempted to study the issue from the perspective of pragmatic in his
should take the following factors into consideration:when,where,to whom,in what situation,
what relation the interlocutors have,and what status the interlocutors have,etc.,this was what
In 2001,Yu Xiuhua proposed two principles in her paper“A Brief Discussion of the
euphemism and its referent,but the distance should not be too big.’’
the essay written by Shao Junhang and Fan Weiwei“Cognitive Linguistic Exploration of
have been collected and classified systematically in these essays,and they are of great helpful
There are some other materials that might be useful for the study of euphemism.Such
1 983);‘'An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics”rWardhaugh 2000);“A Dictionary'o/’English
deeply in people’S social lives and reflects their’social values.Every society,every country
they still have a lot in common.The followings are several definitions given by di fferent
“substitution of mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or blunt or direct OIIC:
the following definition in the 4‘“edition of Webster叠New World College Dictionary”the use
of a word or phrase that is less expressive or direct but considered less distasteRd.1ess
offensive,etc.than another”(1982:490).
World famous linguist Leech made the definition‘‘practice of referring to something
offensive or indelicate in terms that make it sound more pleasant or becoming that it rtally
is”.(1981:15)
In Allan and Burridge’book,“euphemism is used as an alternative to a
displ‘cferred
expression,in order to avoid possible loss of face:either one’own face,or through gr‘Vl‘ng
he made the definition from the perspective of rhetoric.He considered euphcmisln as“OlaC
From the above definitions,we can find some common ground casily.All ot’these
definitions suggest that euphemism implies the usage of indirect,vaguer or mild WOI’ds or
phrases in place of what seem to be rude and vulgar.That is to say euphmnisms arc
from religious taboo and many of them come from The Bible.In addition,Chaucer’S 7he
Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’S plays and poems also applied varieties of cuphcnlism
words.
not address them directly by their names.That was seen as a blasphemous act which might
cause great wrath of the divinity and bring disaster to the one who did that.In this case,
people invented indirect ways to address the divinity SO as to“calm the spirit or avert the
9
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
them instead of their real names.For example,in American poet Longfellow’S poem“The
reaper and the Flower”.he said:“There is a Reaper whose name is Death,and,with his sickle
keen.he reaps the bearded grain at a breath,and the flowers that grow between.”1n his poem,
the Death was replaced by“reaper”to show the fear and reverence towards the God.
In the year of 1 6 1 1,Noah Webster rewritten The Bible was a significant event in the
The practice of renaming the unpleasant or tabooed things has been carried 011 from
Greek times all through human being’S history.Originally this was only a religious practice,
as time goes on,it has been extended further into“the many domains of taboo that al’c
dominated by a strong conviction about the magic power of words”(Neaman and Silver.1 990:
In the nineteenth century,the British Industry Revolution broke out and brought great
new words and expressions were created to avoid directly mentioning offensive things which
Because the world underwent great changes at times,such as the two world wars and severe
economic crises.new situations contributed a lot to euphemisms related to war and money,
technical words.Private body pans are usually referred to with medical terms.Sexual organs
such as vagina have a lot of substitutions.In order to achieve the effect of euphenaizing,some
domain that euphemisms are widely used.Language plays an extremely important role when
in governments’public communications.
governments perform their functions,especially
to distort the probably uncomfortable truth and
Politicians use euphemisms to hide or even
linguists and the development history of euphemisms,we can see although diffcrcnt linguists
use different words to define this phenomenon,there are several common points we can
talk about something coarse and painful.Second,euphemisms are strongly connected with
Euphemism describes a
polite,agreeable,or inoffensive word or
expression that is used in
Euphemism has the branch of narrow sense and broad sense,say from narrow sense?
euphemism refers to words or phrases which has been accepted by the overwhclming majority
after a period ofpractical use and usually they are conventional.For example,the euphcmism
euphemistic expressions which are established temporarily by various linguistic means like
two kinds of euphemisms are the same,and both of them present the principle of indirectness.
In this thesis,the author mainly adopts euphemism from broad sense as the object of study.
English euphemisms can be classified into different categories from different angles.In
this part of the thesis,the author will introduce several important classifications ol’
euphemisms.
Huge Rawson divided euphemisms into two types in semantic approach.Tlacy a11c the
euphemisms which glorify horrible things and make those tabooed fEatures secln less obvious
grander and more important than they really are”(Rawson:1).Positive euphemisms include
imposing job titles adopted to bolster one’S self-image or impress one’s friends and
the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that
traditional euphemisms or narrowing euphemism.They are closely connected with the taboos
一查!垦!至堇奎兰堕主兰垡笙窭
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————一一。 一.
and replace language that people prefer to avoid using.Examples include”ha。Ve811ng。。m
uniform measure because semantics of languages are quite complex,and 8u【)J ectlVe
consciously’’(Rawson,1 98 1:3).‘Fhercfore,euphemisms
can
be used either unconsciously or
also be divided into conscious ones and unconscious ones.The criterion is whether thc
Greek,but now 13
euDhemistic meaning‘‘the one moderate in eating and dining for loosing weight”・
Conscious euDhemisms are also widely employed in people’s daily life.When people
substituted by
words in news briefing to the public.For example,“murder”is usually
in common with the action of
“executive action”in public occasions,seeming have nothing
to their contents,such
euphemisms.For an instance,someone classify euphemisms according
of unemployment,eupbcm islllS of
as“eul)hemisms of sex,euphemisms of death,euphemisms
is practical and easy to understand
disease,euphemisms of politics,etc..’’This kind of method
in the world,and the classification
But there are so many things need euphemizing meanings
12
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
Some euphemisms are created on impulse on a certain occasion and will never use later,
while others are created and reused by many people and have lasted for generations,even
euphemisms.
the
To sum up.the problem of euphemism classification is very complicated and
conSi stent
“ladies,room,,:initialing,like“JC’’for“Jesus Christ’’;reduplication,like“pee—pec”for—piss”
rNeaman and Silver,1 983"1 1).Although many scholars consider this process phonetic
as
device of euphemism construction,there are still many linguists hold the view that these
euDhemisms are created by morphological device but not phonetic device.The real phonetic
stresses・In
omitting certain sounds
or
or
device should be creating euphemisms by changing
sounds.then those words which are phonetically similar to taboo words can be lost from the
thj S reason.
euDhemism in the level of lexical.The main lexical devices are abstraction,loan word and
substitution.
Abstraction
Using general terms or abstractions may weaken the strength of particular taboos.()lien,
terms such
matter of finding the lowest common denominator.These general
as it,
it is onlv a
they can refer to anything under the sun.As Tocqueville noted,“An abstraction term is like a
box with a false bottom,you may put in what ideas you please,and take them out
again
Loan、№rd
When the English words are too frightening or
negative,borrowing words from other
languages made relevant euphemisms.French and Latin are the two dominant sources,
because traditionally these two languages are regarded to be elegant languages.For example,
“brassiere”which refers to a kind of women’S underwear in English comes from French and
Substitution
in other words,using a word that has positive connotation than the term speakers wishes to
“spy,gambler and tight”,although the literal meanings of each pair are the same.For this case,
politicians usually select words carefully in their communication.7Fhey would choose WMDs
Besides lexicon,all the linguistic strategy can be used to achieve the euphemistic
grammatical ways of toning something own without actually changing the content of the
Although these two sentences have the same meaning,the second one suggests less
immediacy and carries a milder sense than the first one.In this example,euphemistic effect is
substituting for a positive one.Thus,people may use untidy or unclean in stead of。‘dirty”.
off a little earlier tomorrow morning”,we may say:“Wouldn’t it be better for uS to start off a
Metaphor
Metaphor involves a comparison between two unlike things which share at least one
euphemisms are often used in press conferences,like“go to sleep for die”,“have a road to
Undcrstatement
People may also achieve euphemizing purposes by understating the unpleasant things
are not willing to show their real opinion or attitudes,they will avoid the explicit emphasis,
and use euphemisms to achieve politeness.For example,if a girl is not pretty,people would
“he is soft in the head”;if someone steals he is described as“taking things without
permission”and SO on.
Personification
English just because the initial letter of“Harry”and that of“heroin”are the same;“Mrs.
Circumlocution
Circumlocution is the use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language to avoid getting
the workers went outside to work.If a boss wants to fire his employees,he will give the sack
etc
2.5 Summary
东j兰!里苎三壁堡主兰垡笙窒
一一一————————————————————————————————一
theories of euphemism8,a8 we儿
一—— 1l
SO on・
as private body parts,death,war,and politics,and
nlade
Manv abroad and domestic linguists are interested in the study of euphemism8 and
different perspectives・
make researches on euphemisms from
3.1 Overview
After introducing several basic concepts and constructions of euphemisms in last chapter,
the author will discuss pragmatic theories which construct the theoretical backbones o f this
thesis.
When people communicate with each other,no matter under what conditions,they have
conference.
Therefore,in order to have a better pragmatic analysis and understanding of the euphemisms
used in press conferences,it is necessary for US to have a detailed investigation into two
first presented in his essay“Logic and Conversation”at Harvard University in 1 967 as part ol、
the William James Lectures,and later were partially collected and published in Grice’S
“Studies in the way of words”(1 989).In these lectiares,he presented a panorama of his
pragmatic theory of language use,which has since come to be known as Griccan pragmatic
theory.
Normally,it is assumed that both the speakers and the addressees should observe the
maxim of this principle,usually he would mean more than what he says.‘l'his kind of impl icit?
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
non。conventional meaning is called conversational
implicature suggested by Grice.1n his
perspicuous manner.Grice used the CP to describe talk exchanges that exhibit t11rce sDeci矗c
characteristics:
Make your conversational contribution such as is required,at the stage at whicll it()ccurs.
(ii)Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
exchange).
(ii)Do not make your contribution more informative than is re(Iujred.
(ii)Avoid ambiguity
8
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
Grice also summarizes the relationship between the speaker and these maxims.
According to him,when speakers communicate with each other,they usually have tbur
choices.First they can straightforwardly observe the maxims,or they may violate a maxim.In
addition,they can opt out of maxim,and at last,they can also choose to flout or exploit a
maxim.
From what has mentioned above,we may know the guidance of Ct’in people’S
communication.The Cooperative Principle and its components ensure that in all exchange ol、
manner.The four maxims of CP explain why speakers can often mean more than the l iteral
violate these maxims in their conversation in press conferences,we may find that the
euphemistic expressions in press conferences on the assumption that both the speaker and the
not adequate in explaining the relation between sense and force.As pointed out by 1.cech
(1 983:30),that CP in itself cannot explain why people do not convey what they mean
speakers communicate with others,they have to consider the matter ol、lace for both
themselves and others.Many scholars have great interest and touched upon this field like
linguists have realized the importance to carry out research on politeness,because politeness
is one of the important things they should bear in mind to ensure a smooth and successthl
interaction.
(1983"132)’S Politeness Principle(PP)is one ofthe most influential theories.He proposes the
(i)Tact maxim
(ii)Generosity maxim
(iii)Approbation maxim
(iv)Modesty maxim
a.Minimize praise of self
(V)Agreement maxim
(vi)Sympathy maxim
a.Minimize antipathy between self and other
(Leech,1983:1 32)
The maxims expressed in terms of maximize and minimize entail the concept of degrees
optionality and because the more indirect an illocution is,the more diminished and tcntativc
The speaker can choose different degrees of politeness in his communication,and his
choice may be largely determined by the social factors like social distance and power,because
a linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.It is found that the more remote thc
social distance between the interlocutors,the more polite the linguistic expressions tend to be.
Politeness studies entail running the risk of miscommunication,conflict and fi'iction etc.
avoid conflicts and harsh words,thus they have to violate some maxims ol’CI’partly out ot、
politeness.In other words,speakers violate CP and its maxims due to the politeness to some
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东北师范大学硕士学位论文
which rescues the CP from serious trouble(Leech,1 983).So in the following section the
politeness principle.
In Leech’S PP,politeness has a close relationship with two parties or sides whom Leech
called self and other,or we may say that the relationship of these two parties or sides is the
addressees but also to people designated by third-person pronouns or those who present the
From these maxims of PP mentioned above,we can see that the first four maxims go in
pairs because they deal with bipolar scales:the cost—benefit and praise—dispraise scales.7l'he
other two maxims deal with unipolar scales:the scales of agreement and sympathy.Although
there are various connecting links between the scales,each maxim is distinct in that it refers
to an evaluative scale that is distinct from the scales refereed to by the others.
In the theory of PP,not all of the maxims and sub—maxims are equally important.Of the
politeness is often focused more strongly on“other’’than on“self'7.or we can say people
always try to find ways to make the listeners feel comfortable.However,in press conference
things are different.People may notice that usually politeness is focused more on”。sell”!not
The original Gricean program has been revised several times with the development of
pragmatics.It is well known that the PP was proposed a little bit later than CP in the
development of pragmatics.As an
explanation of the relation between sense and three.
Grice’S CP is not sufficient.In press conferences those speakers use various euphemisms
instead of speaking them directly.In such a case,the CP itself cannot explain well why
people sometimes are indirect in conveying what they really mean and this is where PP
becomes important.Hence,we may say PP was a good complement to CP,and can explain
substitute for hard and direct one.Diplomatic euphemisms used in press conferences may
characteristics,they can mean much more than their literal meanings.The effect of
euphemism lies in a set of implicatures which can be got from the violation of the maxims of
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
CP.However,CP also has its limitation.It can well explain why the euphemisms used by
statesmen in press conferences can mean much more than its literal meaning,but can not fully
explain why they chose euphemisms or euphemistic expressions instead of conveying their
we can get a more clear analysis on the euphemisms or euphemistic expressions in press
In this thesis the author will analyze euphemisms used in the question—answer patterns in
press conferences,as it is said that CP in itself cannot fully explain why people are sometimes
SO indirect in conveying what they mean and on the other hand,we may find that the
combination of the CP and PP can give US a better explanation about this and hence we may
say that they may complement each other in pragmatic analysis.So just like what Leech
3.5 Summary
So far we have studied the concepts and the nature of euphemisms used in press
conferences,and the basic theories used to explain this phenomenon,like the CP and P P.As
mentioned above,there were many works concerned with the pragmatic analysis of
euphemisms written by scholars,but few of these researches have been tbcused on a specific
field according to the author’S research and statistics.In addition,most of the studies were
mainly theory—oriented rather than empirical studies.Hence the author would like to study the
analyze euphemisms used in political occasions.So in the next chapter,the author will mainly
focus on the pragmatic analysis of the euphemisms used in the question—answer patterns in
22
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
selected from different spokesperson’S remarks in different press conferences to make the
in the
analysis in this thesis.The ways of data collection and limitations of the data collected
current study will be discussed first in this chapter,and then the author will introduce methods
Due to the limitation of time and space,the author has just collected twenty transcripts of
press conferences as the dada of the pragmatic study of this thesis.By reading through the
documents and surfing on the internet,people can easily find numerous materials available.hi
order to make sure the authority and representativeness of the analysis material,the author
chose those data carefully,and all the material are from American official website or China’S
thesis are held by the US government in the White House,the rest were held by government
related with
of other nations for some important and influential international activities which
the USA,like G20 summit and six—parrty talks.As to the contents of press conferences,they
were carefullv selected concerning different American and international aft'airs to ensure the
the auestion-answer patterns of these transcripts are spoken by English native speakers tbr
language accuracy.
screened based definitions we have di scussed in
Euphemisms used in this study are on
the substitution of harsh and offensive words and serve the purpose of
chapter two.They are
Number of
38 26 45 32 23 33 l 9 42 7l 8
“Q andA”pairs
Times of
Euphemisms 16 7 19 8 6 10 11 l 7 236
Used
From the table we can see that of all the twenty transcripts of press confbrences,thel’e are
statesmen.This is because reporters usually prefer to use the most brief and concise language
to the point,and compared with spokesmen,they care less about their images.Froln the
above statistics,people can easily find that nearly half of the utterances in question—answer
conferences iS high.
As we have already introduced in the second chapter,empirical studies arc rarely found
in specific discourses like press conferences in the existing literature.In this thesis,the author
focused on euphemism used in this area and collected lwenty transcripts of press conferences
concerns different topics.The qualitative study with a quantitative one was employed on the
All the materials for this research are from the internet,and they are speakers’original
words without any modification.Considering the necessity of providing sufficient
background
information for the analysis,the author tries to quote the complete form of
every remal‘k and
does not make any change of the words in it.These materials are used to make a quantitative
study.From the analysis of research statistics,the author will show a clear and detailed
illustration on the frequency of using euphemisms and the realization and constitution of
thesis.Through the observation of statistics got from quantitative research and analysis ol、
cases of euphemisms in press conferences,the author makes a qualitative study with Grice’S
Cooperative Principle and Leech’S Politeness principle to find out how spokcsmen used
24
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
summarize the function of euphemisms in this occasion.
conferences.First,the author will introduce the history,definition and Drevious studies ot’
euphemism performs in press conferences will also be summarized in this thesis.In addition.
euDhemisms and euphemistic expressions can reduce the dark side of unpleasant thing while
listeners.
Second.he or she can violate a maxim.For example,he or she may breach the first submaxlm
111aXllll-1 his
opt out of
she a call bc
of Qualitv by telling a deliberate lie.Third,he or can
and
conversational implicature by Grice and usually euphemistic meanings used by politician
in press
Dress conferences to convey meaning beyond what is expressed literally.Statesmen
means of violating
hearers can also figure out the real of intention made by speakers by
and maxims of
certain maxims.The author will analyze the relationship between euphemisms
The maxim of quality requires speakers to be honest and sincere when they are giving
26
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
information in their speeches.And violation of this maxim means speakers say something that
conversation and sometimes people simply want to avoid the tabooed contents to be
implicit and roundabout way.Therefore if hearers want to know the real meanings of the
euphemisms,they should infer the conversational implicature from the illocutionary meaning
based on the specific contexts.Let’S look at several examples taken from transcripts of White
Example l:
Question.Last week when you gave your Afghanistan drawdown speech,the word
“victory,”in terms of the overall war in Afghanistan,was not in your speech.So 1’nl
wondering,sir,ifyou can definefor the 1 00,000 troops you have in harm量way in AJghanistan
said was we can be successful in our mission,which is narrowly drawn,and lhat is lo make
sure that al Qaeda cannot attack the United Slates oj America or our allies or OHI’interests
0Ver譬e口.1. .
In this dialogue,the journalist asked a very sharp question about the war in A fghanistan.
Since this is a quite sensitive topic,president Obama used the word“mission”to substitute the
the word“war’’is always associated with blood and death in people’S mind,whereas the word
“mission”is neutral.Although it was a“war”.Obama used this word tO cover up its nature ol’
this military operation and disguise what the American government has done.By the same
token.Obama also used“attack’’instead of“military attack”in his answer.All these are used
to distort the facts to some extent and also reduce the negative impressions on the public.
Example 2:
will influence what allies do?And is there afear that a precipitous withdrawal Will take them
out as well?
coordinate with our allies and we will obviously inform our allies of our deci.vion oBe it 0
27
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
made.But we will continue the kind ofcooperation
In this example,we can figure out that using the first person plural pronoun to replace
continue,which implied that the hypersensitive issue is related with both sides.And Mr.
Carney used this pronoun to express the expectation for future cooperation euphemistical ly,
although that may be only a unilateral opinion.In addition,speakers sometimes achieve the
words,speakers can use plural forms to cover a broader spectrum,like“we coordinate with”
Example 3:
obviously are aware・of the fact that we lost US.servicemen today,and we expre.Fs
condolences to their families once notifications have been made.And f,分a stark reminder that
those who serve in Iraq do SO in a way that continues tO place them al risk,despite the
This is also a good example of flouting the maxim of quality.Both the questioner and
the replier employed vague expressions to talk about the unpleasant topic about soldiers in
And the replier used the indirect expression“servicemen’’to reply‘‘the soldiers died bravely
on the battlefield of Iraq”.“Servicemen’’can be used to refer to all the people who engaged in
the service sectors.This indirect expression can help the speaker conceal the blood and
slaughter happened in the battlefield and make hearers to ignore brutalities of war.People USe
required for the current purposes of exchange.That means speakers should give the exact
quantity of information,neither too much nor too little.Violation el、quantity maxim lllOallS
provide either less or more information.Many euphemisms and euphemistic expressions used
28
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
in press conferences are created by contributing non.informative information to avoid
unpleasant,offensive topics or words and make them sounds polite and comtbrtable in
In the field of political context,there are many confidential or sensitive issues which arc
confined only to be talked among internal people of the government and cannot come out into
the open.In this circumstance,people tend to violate the quantity maxim of C1’to realize the
are not willing to answer.However,this may usually cause a tense atmosphere lbr the
people
Example 4:
Question.‘Days or weeks?
Bush.Well,as possible.
ournalist
This is a typical example of violation of quantity maxim.In this exchange,the j
was asking for the situation of Turkey.President Bush seemed already answer his question,
but actually his reply did not provide required information.He used a vague word二。possible”
instead of the exact date in his answer,partly because the date was confidential information
which could not be released to public,and partly because the exact date have not been
evade iournalist’S sensitive question while keeping harmonious atmosphere of the press
conferences.
Example 5:
Question."On Syria,are we giving or are we thinking about giving any kind o/’support
it's communications equipment,mOney,
to the people who are
protesting there.whether
Internet—breaking software?
limited
Mr.Carney."......I said a range ofoptions,including targeted sanctions,but not
times in order to attain the objective of being euphemistic.Mr.Carney’S answer was far more
29
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
redundancy in his answer by giving more information than that is needed.He emphasized that
expression make the answer seems to be sincere,although the replier actually did not answer
Example 6:
Question.what do you say to the families oj the victims of g/H and the US3"Cole and
other terrorist acts by al Qaeda可these family members say they want the photo released SO
Answer:A couple oLf points on that.One.the Turks,the Americans and the naqis.
Example jj:
Council?
orⅣPZ but because a dissident group pointed it out to the world,and 1uhich raised
Acronym and abbreviation are also two important ways of the formation of euphemism
United States Ship Cole was once the powerful symbol of U.S.military.However,on October
12,2000 it was destroyed by a suicide attack while it was harbored and refueled in the
Yemeni port of Aden and seventeen American sailors were killed,3 9 were inj ured.7Fhi s event
was the deadliest attack against a United States Naval vessel since 1 987.Both of the
questioner and the replier did not want to mention this tragedy directly,thus they chose the
abbreviations and avoided to mention the full names in his answer,because the full names call
remind the participants of nuclear weapons,even death and war.These euphemisms violate
the quantity maxim because they failed to give the right amount of information people
needed
30
查j!!至垄奎兰堕主兰垡笙窒——
————————————————————————————————————————————————————一一一
5.4 Observing the Relevance Maxim
About this maxim,euphemisms can be used either by observing or violating this rule.
solemn anQ
relevance in press conferences.This is because press conferences
are occaslons
Example 8:
that
chamber nedr this hospital that was used by Iraqi forces.Do you have any information
c11itton prtSoners.,
Iraqis have used torture on co
Clnrke:I don、have any information on what you just saiK but there are reanis,and
ne口ms clnd renHls of information about what the Iraqi regime has done,for decades.J mean,n。
iS poticvj it is prnctice?there’s bureaucracy behind tt—c栅i clns and military alike一'。w11“l t hey
ol coalltlon
Ms.Clark was asked a question about a sensitive issue—about the torture
she denied that she had any information on this matter;on the other hand,she stressed that
the
of Iraqi forces.Her answer seems irreleVant to
torturing prisoners was the routine practice
auestion on the surface,but from her conjecture the reporter can get the implicatu。C that there
Example 9:
he made.
Presidentfelt very strongly and made the decision
that he
question is out of his working purview and“President made this decision”,SO
cannot
answer it.Then he provides information which is not asked by the reporter about how the
infer
president made his decision.However,this is not useless after all,and the reporter
can
Example 10:
Some supporters of the president who may have been donors have got administration
jobs.The correspondent questioned that people who got jobs in administration raised money.
irrelevant to the question一“I didn’t raise any money”instead.He used himself as all example
to imply that not all people worked in administration have to raise money,and they can get
matter what
spokespersons to soften the harsh reality and avoid sensitive questions.Hence
no
break down.Hence the number euphemisms formed by violating the relation maxim is the
least among the four maxims of cP,that to say in press conferences,people may basically
32
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
maxim are commonly used by politicians and statesmen in public occasions like press
conferences to avoid mentioning embarrassing terms in a direct way and achieve the mild,
agreeable and roundabout effects.This requires the hearers to infer the conversational
Some instances will be cited in the following part to illustrate how euphemisms used in
press conferences violate the maxim of manner of the cooperative principle by giving obscure
Example 11:
go研er the most wanted man in the world,the most wanted terrorist in the WOll珏lhe illan
In this interlocution,the reporter wanted to know that after American’S fight against al
Qaeda and Bin Laden,what the effect on relationships between the U.S.and Musl i n world
was.In Mr.Carney’S answer,Bin Laden’S name was not noted directly,but substituted by a
series of descriptions,such as“the most wanted man in the world”,“the most wanted terrorist
in the world”,“the man who ordered the attacks on SO many Americans and killed SO many
Americans”.It is obvious that Mr.Carney’S reply has violated the manner maxim ol、being
brief and avoiding obscurity of expression by using redundant expressions to replace a silnple
name.On one hand,this complicated expression can be used to avoid mentioning the nalne of
“Bin Laden”,SO as to evade the sensitive and unpleasant terms in his answer.On the other
hand,the speaker also used these excess detailed descriptions to emphasize Bin Ladcn’S guilt
and implied the justice of their fight,and they just do this for the peace of the U.S.and the
whole world.
Example 12:
Question."But isn Z there something you took away you can qffer to yore。SUCC(7..7S01。
We can also take the above interlocution as an instance of euphemisms violating the
maxim of Manner.In the above example,the President was asked how to handle the
relationship with president of Russia.This question concerns the friendships between two
33
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
countries,SO President Bush addressed this question very cautiously.From his answer the
hearer knew that Bush had disagreement with some countries’leaders.President Bush didn’t
helped him prevent harming the relation of two countries.Although he didn’t mention the
name,people can also inter from the context that“certain leader’’was the—president ot’
spare embarrassment.
5.6 Findings‘
Politicians and statesmen may employ euphemisms in press conferences out of wlrious
reasons.Some are used to avoid talking about sensitive issues or terms,S01]le al‘c used to
replace confidential information.In the above paragraphs,the author has discussed the
analysis,we can summarize part of the operation mechanism of euphemism and find out how
principle,and they are the Quality Maxim,the Quantity Maxim and the Manner Maxim of the
CP.In addition,some euphemisms violate more than one maxim,but two,three,or even al l
the four maxims of the cooperative principle at the same time.However,because of the
34
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
flout maxims of CP is also viewed as polite.In some special occasions like press
one’S own and other’S faces,people still have to be polite in addition to being cooperative.
Leech pointed out that CP in itself cannot explain why people are often SO indirect in
be polite when they choose words in their conversation.Based 011 Grice‘S theory ot、CI’and
relationship of politeness and indirectness.He claims that the more indirect the illocution,the
more polite should be reevaluated.The maxims of PP have already been explained in detai l in
(i)Tact maxim
a.Minimize cost to other
(ii)Generosity maxim
a.Minimize benefit to self
(iii)Approbation maxim
(iv)Modesty maxim
a.Minimize praise of self
(V)Agreement maxim
a.Minimize disagreement between self and other
(vi)Sympathy maxim
a.Minimize antipathy between self and other
飞气
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
‘
一一。—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————一
b.Maximize sympathy between self and other
(Leech 1983:132)
to contemplate whether the words or expressions they use will damage the interests of the
use mild and roundabout euphemisms in order to avoid offences in the occasion like press
conferences.In the following part,we will put the attention on the relationship between
The tact maxim is stated as“minimize the expression of beliefs which imply cost to
other:maximize the expression of beliefs which imply benefit to other”in I,eech’s(1 983)
book.The first part of this maxim fits in with Brown and Levinson’S negative politeness
requires the speakers to minimize cost to other and maximize benefit to other at the same time.
Example 13.’
lending,and to grow oHr economy over the long term,and we’re beginning to s'ee signs o./’
progress.
This remark was given by president Obama in the press confe:rence about American
revive American economy in this press conference.In the above example,president Obama
the
used a Dhrase“responsible homeowners’’which is a public relation phrase i nvented by
White House.This new phrase was used to refer to homeowners who failed to repay their
mortgages any more after the American economy recession.The president used this
who do not pay their bills deliberately and implies negative meaning.I—Iowever,“Responsible
homeowners’’indicates that these people are also victims of this recession and also prevent
obseIved the maxim of tact to show the politeness to these people and make them more
36
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
comfortable
Example i4l
Question:Do you believe that the Gaza conflict will have ended by the time you leave
office?Do you approve of the way that Israel has conducted it?And why were you unable Io
President Bush:……in other words.helping the Palestinians in the West Band develop
security forces,which we have worked hard to do over the past years.A nd those security
forces are now becoming more efficient。and Prime Minister Fayyad is using them够{j、ccl{、,c iy.
Palestine and Israel and how to achieve the peace in the Middle East.In President Bush’S
answer,he admits that the U.S.is‘‘helping the Palestifiians in the west bank develop security
Bush did not use the word‘‘troop”or“military forces’’which may be associated with“war
developed military forces to strengthen the defense capabilities.This tbrce is used to pl‘otect
its own country and folks and has nothing to do with military attack.Based on the maxim of
tact,President Bush maximized the benefit of Palestine and used euphem ism to glori i’y the
Leech’S Generosity maxim states“minimize the expression of beliefs that express Ol‘
imply benefit to self;maximize the expression of beliefs that express or imply cost to sell”.
From this definition,we can summarize that people all try to be generous in a dialog in that
we try to minimize benefit to self,and maximize cost to self.Unlike the tact ITIaxim,the
maxim of generosity focuses on the speaker,and says that others should be put first instead of
the selE We can figure out how spokesmen use euphemisms to keep polite to participants of
press conferences.
Example i5:
helps our national security interest to maintain it.Pakistan has worked with US 10 go(:lfler
terrorism and terrorists.More terrorists have been killed on Pakistani soil than in any other
country.
37
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
This is Mr.Carney’S announcement before
going to questions in a press conference.He
introduced the relationships between the U.S.A.and Pakistan,and explaincd whv the
express dispraise of other and maximize the expression of beliefs which express approval of
other”by Leech.From this statement,we know that approbation maxim require pe()plc trv
their best to show the approbation in a dialog while minimize dispraise of others at the same
speakers should choose to sidestep the issue,to employ euphemisms to give some sort of
spokesmen use direct criticism often manifests a kind of tough attitude which is dctrimental to
the government’S international image and even break the friendship of two countries.
disagreement as much as possible.For this case,euphemism which obeys the maxilll 011
Example 16:
Answer."……you know,one of the very difficult parts of the decision I made On the
Wall Street firms that caused the crisis in the first place.In order to get people’s support of his
decision,he adhered to the maxim of approbation and praised them as“hardwol・king people,,
38
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————一
Example 1 7.。
Question."When do you think he'S going to feel the full impact?And椭∽if alo?thing,
have you and the other Presidents shared with him about the somelime.y isolalio,7.
effects of
the SO—called bubble ofthe office?
President Bua’h.・……and sD——6“,he j a better speech—maker thanⅢe,sD力P’ll bP(7blc
In most people’S eyes,the president is a difficult job under great pressure and usually
feels isolated.The journalist asked whether President Bush could give some to thc
suggestion
President。elect Obama.Obviously Bush did not want to speculate Obama’S
feelings,SO he
said Obama was a“better speech—maker’’than him to show his to the new president
respect
Example 18.‘
country......
This interlocution was extracted from President Bush’S last press conference in the White
“dedicated,smart and capable”.Through his praise to his team,Bush ducked the question
successfully and politely on one hand,and affirmed his team’S contribution on scrving the
Politeness Principle.They express the same idea from different angles.As modesty maxim
requires the speaker to minimize the praise of self and’maximize dispraise of sell'.In political
39
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
Example i9:
Question."Do you believe that the Gaza conflict will have ended by the time yoH leave
office?Do you approve ofthe way that Israel has conducted it?And 1',hy were you unable to
In this dialogue,President Bush’S answer has nothing to do with the question and
which,when listen to,seems irrelevant with the question to reply the correspondent.Older
men usually have a poor hearing and memory.Therefore,the president in fact dispraised
himself by exaggerating his age and wanted to use this indirect but polite expression to imply
that he did not catch the question and expected the reporter to
repeat it.7Fhe reporters got the
Compared with asking the reporter to repeat the question directly,president bush’S
expression which adheres to the modesty maxim seems more polite to the reporter.
between self and other;maximize the expression of agreement between sel f and other”.It is in
line with Brown and Levinson’S positive politeness strategies of‘‘seek agreement”and二‘avoid
disagreement”,to which they attach great importance.However,it is not being claimed that
people totally avoid disagreement.It is simply observed that they al‘e much more direct in
do exits,spokesmen usually stress on the agreement of two sides with the help of euphemism
and ignore disagreement.They intend to make other’people feel good through adapting the
Example 20.‘
Question:I believe that the president—elect himself has talked about the damage that
Gitmo,that harsh interrogation tactics that they consider torture,办DⅥ7 going to war in h"aq
without a UⅣmandate have damaged America§moral standing in the world I'm lI,ondering
40
东:ILIJ币范大学硕士学位论文
The correspondent believed that the U.S.went to the war in Iraq without a U.N.mandate
had damaged America’S moral standing in the world.Actually the spokesmen did not want to
admit this truth which carried the connotation that participating the war of Iraq was a totally
agreement with the correspondent with an indirect expression.He used modal verb’。may be’’
to express this possibility and achieve the agreement.At the same time,he expressed his
damage was only among“some of'’the elite but not a11.Most people still believed that
America was justice and stood for freedom.The disagreement is covered with euphemism in
this example and spokesperson also shows the politeness to this correspondent.
Example 2l:
G20.And with old G7 partners like Germany opposing you,does this not make it much
harder fo,the United States to press China for Yuanl appreciation and persuade other’G20
partners to support your goals ifthey sense that the U.s.is being isolated at the sumntit?
President Obama:……Well,I think that you will see at this summit a broad-based
is my expectation that the communiqud will begin to put in place mechanisms that heO)US
track and encourage such balanced and sustainable growth.......
This is question was asked at the press conference of six—party talks,although the
question was about G20 summit.The journalist questioned that president Obama’S monetary
reporter wanted to know whether Germany’S opposition will influence the implement of the
American policy.The president did not use simple word“yes”or“no’’to answer his question
questions.On the contrary,he refuted the journalist’S view mildly by emphasizing that there is
“a broad.based agreement from all countries”of G20 summit which implied Germany also
supported the US.Although he didn’t agree with the reporter’S opinion,he still maximized the
This helped him to maintain a good relationship with other country which would be uselhl fol’
to anothcr in
By the sympathy maxim,it is meant that we all try to be sympathetic
one a
— —……n,i…n
— — — 茎型业受垦堂堕主兰篁笙窒cliM g,-一+,-ut,:,一、,u…tah…t minimize antipathy between self and others.and
Y
maximize—s—ym—pa—lhy
betwe朗self and others・This includes a small group of speech acts such con舯tL蜥on.
as
Example22.
QueStion Are you at all uncomfortable that there could be different rules.『1 diffe训
5妣5,yo“k鞠ow,nnd for somebody to make the argument that's whafWe洲她咖窖 一
segregation--
Presldenl Obama:I think what
you jre seeing is a profound recognition 1)n th e part of-!he
Amerlc锄pe01)je thnt gays and lesbians and
transgenderpersons cfre OHY
brothe呱Ou吲s螂
omr
ch№en,our∞usins,o弘r friends and that they:ve
got to be f陀cfted like
ev2ry o÷her
6.8昏‘indings、
As snowed aboVe,we
Leech’s politeness can see
principle has great value in analysis of
euphemlsms of press conferences and PP also
deeply influences people,s selection of mild
and roundabout in order
expressions to achieve a smooth and successful
communication.As
Leech(1 983:1 08)suggested that one of the ways to obtain a scaJe of politeness is
using a
more and more indirect kind of
illocution.Usually sharp contradictions and co】1tlicts are
1neVltabJe ln communications of press conferences hold by
governments. 1n t11is case.
order to respect the participants of press conferences,and spokesmen will carefully selected
their language to protect their nations’positive image to the great extent.Hence,for the sake
of being polite,euphemisms basically fulfill all the maxims of the politeness principle.The
greater the oncoming face—affront,the greater is the politeness shown,and the greater the
The cooperative principle and politeness principle are not opposite but actually
complementary in the deep sense.Spokesmen sometimes use euphemisms violated the maxim
show their concern of the politeness.So we can come to the conclusion that euphemism is a
completely performing under the framework of the conversational principles or theories that
From the introduction of euphemism in chapter two,we have the knowledge that
device,grammatical device,and rhetorical device,and each device can also bc divided into
features as well.After observing the statistics of researches on materials collected fiom the
modifying the normal pronunciation of taboo words deliberately.Just like what we have
already discussed in the second chapter,there are not SO many euphemisms which arc strictly
formed by this device in people’S daily communication,thus the author haven’t found this
Second,1 26 euphemisms are formed by the device of lexicon which contains numerous
devices like abstraction,loan words,substitution and etc..This iS the most important devices
used to form euphemisms in press conferences.After making the research,the author finds
that spokesmen often use general terms to weaken the tabooed items.In transcripts ot’press
are used commonly.For example,the secretary of the White House has used“econom ic
kind of substitution,in other words,using a word which has positive connotation to substitute
a negative one.For instances,in White house’S press conferences,when spokesmen talk about
martial behaviour,they usually use mild words like‘‘operation’’to shift the original negative
meanings.
is not restricted
chapter,the domain of euphemism have been widening gradually.Euphemism
to lexical level,scholars has extended domain of euphemism to syntax level and even the
research.In the press conference held on April 26,20 1 1,the press secretary ol、America Jay
answer this question directly,but considering the special situation,he could not keep silence.
affirmation.For times
negation instead of example,the express‘‘I doubt that’’appears several
when spokesmen did not want to negate the views of reporters or other participants in the
example,when people mention an agreement which need a long time to reach,they use‘‘have
conferences.spokesmen did not call some sensitive term directly by its own name,but by the
name of something intimately associated with that thing and the substitution is based on some
specific similarity.So using a positive or neutral concrete term to replace negative and
First,disguising is the one of the most important function of euphemisms used in press
m isguide the
extremely popular instruments adopted by spokesmen
to
conferences.They are
7
and
euphemisms to minimize the international
tensions in governments press contcrence8
fal8e
important tool for them disguise the truth and present
a
to
euphemism has become an
of this kind・
picture to the public.From the corpus of this thesis,we
can easily find examples
When sDokesmen talk about Vietnam War,Gulf War,Iraq War etc.,they tend to adopt
reaction”or a“P。eVcntlVe
described into an“air option”,“active air defense”,“protective
beautl
war,’.From these examples we can see that governments often use euphemisms to fy
the
their invasive essence or soften the violence in the war.This kind of euphemisms covers
Drohibited and should not be mentioned directly in public.In this case,euphemism 1S adoPtcd
as"die"
to avoid ofiensive or evil things,and make them more acceptable by listeners・Such
the battle
is usually replaced by a mild expression“pass away’’;soldiers who sacrificed in
in Publlc
association,speakers often use‘‘recession’’to substitute“depression”,especially
45
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
occasions like press conferences.To sum up,spokesmen prefer to in
employ euphemisms
press conferences mainly because they can eliminate unhappiness,embarrassment and fear etc.
select Droper words or expression to ensure smooth and successful interaction.From the
there are some euphemisms used to save lace for both self and others and also show
politeness to the hearer as well as to third persons who participant i11 the press conferences.
These euphemisms used to achieve the purpose of politeness can be divided into three types.
embarrass them and make them feel slighted.The last type is euphemisms used to show
conference.If people’S topic is related to the third party’S negative part in press
press
or nation,thus he has to consider the interests of his party or his country.In order to maintain
use“fine words’’to avoid harsh words and resort to various euphemisms in the press
truth or to show politeness to others,are adopted to protect their benefits of their nations.
conferences.
and also regarded as a visible signs of the inward anxieties,conflicts,tears and slmmes el’tile
46
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
of American speeches and documents which is named as gobbledygook language.r11he US
useful tool for communication,and then we may say that languages without euphemisms in
above ones,although this phenomenon is not quite common.Just as what we have ah'eady
discussed,euphemisms are used to avoid negative and tabooed terms such as death,war and
sex.There are many euphemisms formed by slangs in English have the function ot’humor,
terms.This kind of function can be also found in the euphemisms used in govcrlnncnt’s press
conferences.Like example in chapter four,when President Bush did not catch the
uses this expression of self-mockery to hedge the embarrassment that he does not hear
well.On the other hand,this euphemistic expression also has the function of humor,and
47
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
This thesis focuses on the pragmatic usage of euphemisms used in press confei‘ences
held by govemments.It tries to explore how the Cooperative Principle and the I’oliteness
7.1 Summary
After making a detail review on influential studies made by scholars both abroad and
domestic in the second chapter,the author have analyzed euphemisms with theories o f CP and
PP empirically in chapter four and five.Based on the analysis of materials,the aulhoi’gets the
the analysis we
following major findings about euphemism in press conferences.First,from
can find how CP and PP influence the use of euphemism.As researches show,cuphemislns
usually violate Quality Maxim,Quantity Maxim and Manner Maxim of the ct;but observe
the Relation Maxim most of the time.In addition,for the sake of press conferences’special
the research,the
function.euphemisms basically fulfill all the maxims of the PP.Second,from
of
substitution,politeness,defensive and humor.Third,the author also concluded the features
conferences are formed by the device of lexicon like abstraction,loan words,substitution and
etc..Some of the euphemisms are formed by grammatical device,such as the use ot’
device,since this kind of device also seldom appear in people’S daily languages.
Although the author wanted to make a sound analysis on euphemisms used in press
conferences from pragmatic perspectives,there are still several disadvantages in this thesis.
concern.Therefore。it leaves a lot of room for the future researches,and moi’c cffol‘ts and
attentions should be taken on this common phenomenon.The followings are some aspects
which were neglected in this thesis but might be taken into consideration in the future studies.
The first of all,in this thesis the author only collected twenty transcripts of press
conferences,and these materials are too limited to reveal all the features and aspects for the
48
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
research of euphemism used in
press conferences.Therefore,if we want tO have a more
comprehensive study,it is necessary for researchers to collect more materials,0r cven sct up a
large corpus.
euphemisms may produce a barrier between speakers of the communications.and this barrier
may even cause the communication breakdown.So in future studies on this linguistic
to make further researches and find out whether there are other communicative Drineiplcs
49
东北师范大学硕士学位论文
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东北师范大学硕士学位论文
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people who have provided tremendous to nlc with this
support
suggestions and instructions during the whole process of this thesis,and also for his great