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

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.