Euphemistic nomination of poverty in German journalism

Abstract

This article explores euphemisms, which are a means of replacing one linguistic means with another, more euphonious for the sender or addressee. Euphemisms include concepts that embellish the linguistic description that they want to avoid. In journalistic texts that are devoted to economic issues, euphemisms have an intentionally given communicative and pragmatic effect on the recipient. The purpose of the study is to identify and linguistically describe the means of euphemizing poverty found in the German article “Endlich wieder Donnerstag!” (Finally Thursday again!), devoted to problems in the economic sphere. An attempt is made to linguistically describe the means of euphemization in German economic discourse based on one article. The research material was an article on economics from the German electronic edition of the daily newspaper “Die Tageszeitung”, containing various euphemized and non-euphemized variants of the poverty nomination. So far, no attempts have been made in domestic and foreign Germanistics to describe linguistically the means of euphemization in the economic discourse of Germany based on the material of one journalistic text. In the course of the study, euphemized and non-euphemized variants of poverty nominations were identified in the following thematic areas: “causes of poverty”, “characteristics of the financial situation”, “naming people in a difficult financial situation”, “ways to solve the problem of poverty on the part of the state, charitable organizations and citizens themselves”. The analysis made it possible to reveal the fact that the authors of journalistic texts use euphemization techniques in order to hide, disguise concepts that are inconvenient to mention or discredit the ruling coalition, avoid creating a negative image of poor people in the reader, disguise their plight, and avoid spreading panic among German residents. In addition, the use of euphemisms in a journalistic text helps to soften the perception of financial difficulties and reduce communicative discomfort. The data obtained as a result of this study can be used in the analysis and interpretation of journalistic texts from the German-language press.