On the Translation of English Euphemism from the Perspective of Skopostheorie

Abstract

As a kind of figurative use of language, Euphemism is a language phenomenon as well as a cultural phenomenon. In people’s daily communication, euphemism is often used. Euphemism is just like a lubricant in people’s daily communication and closely connected to people’s life. In people’s daily life, they often encounter many unpleasant taboos. In order to make language more polite and pleasant, people use metaphors to suggest and dilute the taboos in an indirect way. For example, people call death as passing away, funeral as something happened afterwards. The translation of euphemism not only brings a huge amount of new vocabularies to the target language, but also shows different cultures so as to narrow differences and promote the further communication of different cultures. Skopostheorie is formally proposed by Hans J. Vermeer in the 1970s. The birth of German functional translation theory pioneers a new perspective for the research on the translation theories. Skopostheorie indicates that translation strategy must be based on the purpose of translation. The reference in the translator’s translation process should be the desired communication function in the target language environment. The same euphemism has different translation versions in different contexts when facing various people. This thesis will summarize the translation strategy of euphemism under the guidance of skopostheorie. Keywords: Euphemism, Skopostheorie, Taboo, Translation strategy DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/97-03 Publication date: March 31 st 2023