标签：英语论文范文,毕业论文范文,毕业论文格式,
从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用,http://www.dxs89.com
Let us have a look at some expressions used in pressconferences violate the Quantity Maxim of the CP.
(5) Q: General Naumann said … military targets?
A: (Cohen): As we indicated the ACTORD was … Serbian forceswere really posing a serious threat to several … the cold orfrom starving. That ACTORD was … innocent people. That ACTORDremains … General Naumann has referred to.
Let us have a look at another example:
(6) Q: General, … Could you … in the event of a conflict and …in terms of a liaison with the NGOs and …?
A: Well, their role is…civil-military affairsorganizations, … in the CENTCOM theater …In the above two question-answer patterns in pressconferences we may say that these diplomatic euphemismsviolate the Quantity Maxim because they failed to give us theright amount of information we needed or we may also say thatthey provided less information. By using these euphemisms thespeakers like the diplomats and statesmen etc. can avoidmentioning these unpleasant terms or notions like centralcommand and activation order etc. in press conferences.
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Among the euphemisms used in press conferences, we maystill find that some of the euphemisms can be regarded as aspecial case that violate both the Quality Maxim and theQuantity Maxim etc.. Hence in a broad sense we may say thateuphemisms that violate the Quality Maxim can also be regardedas a special case that violate the Quantity Maxim because thetwo maxims are closely related. If a euphemism violatesQuality Maxim, it also violates Quantity Maxim to a certainextent. For example, the euphemisms like “possible movement”
for “possible military attack” or “possible war”; “brought theworld together” mainly refers to those countries led by theUSA. Hence from this point of view we may that euphemisms like“possible movement”, “brought the world together” etc. notonly violate the Quality Maxim but also violate the QuantityMaxim because to a certain extent they distort the facts andprovide less information than people actually need.
5.3 Euphemisms and the Relation MaximAs we mentioned before that the Maxim of Relation refersto “Be relevant” and violation of Relation Maxim means thatthe utterance of a speaker is irrelevant to the conversationor the specific context for some reasons or some purposes.
Sometimes we may find English euphemisms are to use irrelevantutterances on the surface to express something that thespeakers want to say and cannot say. In fact the impliedmeaning of the utterances is relevant partially because theformation of English euphemisms abides these formativeprinciples like pleasant-sound principle etc.. For example,(7) "I approached her very hesitatly.
"Want to come and play?"Piquette looked at me with a sudduen flash of scorn.
"I ain't a kid," she said.
Wounded, I stamped angrily away..."[27]
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Here, "I ain't a kid" seems no relationto thisconversation. But there implicature meaning is only kidsplay-- I ain't kid-- I won't play with you. So, it is indirectrefuse of communicating. In English “to pass away” is used ina euphemistic sense for “to die” now. The denotation of “topass away” is “to go away for a time”; while “to die” means“to go away forever”. “To die” is euphemized as “to go away”
by violating the Relation Maxim on the surface, in fact, boththe two phrases have the relevant meaning to “to go away”.
Their difference lies only in the time, one is for a period oftime, the other is forever. So when the speaker use “to passaway” to replace “to die”, the hearers may infer theconversational implicature of “to die” from the relevantmeaning “to go away”. So with time goes on, it is now almostused as a fixed usage for “to die” in almost all thecircumstances.
5.4 Violation of Manner MaximViolation of Manner Maxim means giving obscure andambiguous information etc.. Sometimes under the communicativecircumstances, the speaker, in order to avoid mentioningunpleasant and embarrassed things in a direct way, saysomething obscurely and ambiguously, then the hearers shouldcarefully infer the conversational implicature of the speakerand what is their real intentions and meaning according to thespecific context. So we may find many euphemisms tend toviolate the Maxim of Manner so as to achieve the mild,agreeable, roundabout and pleasant-sound effects.
We can also take the following as examples to illustrate howeuphemisms violate the Manner Maxim. "A educator cannot say astudent is lazy, idle, stupid, or clever. Instead of them iseducationally and socially disadvantaged groups,underachieved, those on the lower end of the ability-scale,high verbal- ability subjects, disadvantaged homeenviornments, underprivileged child."[28] Obviously, thesewords violates Manner Maxim o f being brief.
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Another example, "Perhaps you had better get your affairsin order." This is a notion of death from the doctor. it'swordy but not unnecessary. one-way-ticket is for die. Itreflect one's experience and cognition.
6.ConclusionAs we stated earlier, euphemism is one of the importantand universal linguistic phenomena. Due to the specialcharacteristics like substitution, indirectness etc. it isbecoming one of the main communicative approaches This thesishas attempted to study the euphemistic expressions used in thequestion-answer patterns from the perspective of pragmatics.
The article is an overview of the functions and communicativefunctions of euphemism, and from the pragmatic analysis of thematerials, it can be seen clearly that the use of euphemismsbasically violate the Quality Maxim, the Quantity Maxim, andthe Manner Maxim of the Cooperative Principle and thefrequency of violating the Quality Maxim is the highest amongthe three ones. That is to say, the euphemisms used in thequestion-answer patterns generally do not violate the RelationMaxim of the Cooperative Principle.
There is an old saying in English: Necessity is the mother ofinvention. The creation of euphemisms also cannot depart frompeople’s needs of them. People need euphemisms for socialcommunication, to euphemize the taboo, to show theirpoliteness and to disguise. As a sociolinguistic phenomenon,the formation of euphemisms is the result of the combinationof various social psychological factors and pragmatic factors.
Studies on euphemisms from a pragmatic perspective revealhow euphemisms flout the Cooperative Principle so as to obeythe Politeness Principle in communication and how factors fromtheir sociocultural and communicational context influencetheir application in communication. Any change of one or morefactors of a communication event, will have an effect on ourdecision of whether to use euphemisms. The expressiveeuphemisms play a non-fungible role in communication. It iseuphemism that makes language more powerful, magical andpleasant. People’s speech does reflect their background, theiractivities, and the values they hold, therefore, we can learnmuch about the English people by looking at their use ofeuphemisms. The studies on English euphemisms can not onlyhelp to develop intercultural communicative competence, butalso enlighten English language learning and teaching.
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Therefore, multidisciplinary, multi-angle, and multi-levelstudies on euphemisms are necessary for English learners tounderstand the English history and society and communicatewith native English speakers better. There are still a lot inthis field waiting to be explored, and euphemisms deserve moreattention and comprehensive studies.
，从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用