Euphemisms - Курсовая работа

College of Foreign Languages REPORT Discipline: Lexicology Theme: Euphemisms Prepared by: the student of the group TD 09/4 2011 Contents Introduction 1. The History Of Euphemisms 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Definition and function of euphemisms 1.3 Taboos and euphemisms 2. Semantic world behind euphemisms 2.1 Usage of euphemisms 2.2 Classification 2.3 The evolution of euphemisms 3. The division of the euphemisms to their meaning 3.1 Euphemisms of the profane 3.2 Euphemisms in job titles 3.3 Common examples Conclusion Literature INTRODUCTION Euphemisms for the majority of people is the device to create humorous situation. most can get along without them in everyday life, but they are found everywhere not only in emotive prose but also in the publicistic style, in highly emotional speech, in extreme cases to lessen the impact of the situation on the people making it sound milder. Our conceptual system plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. The perception may be global or local. Global world view is presented by philosophical, scientific, religious world views. Local world view is presented through sociological, informational, physical, artistic world views. Conceptual world view is very rich, it covers a lot of things. It contains different communicative types of thinking, verbal and nonverbal. As the language is the spirit of the people speaking it, we may state that the inner forms of the language and the conceptual world view behind the language is realized through languages. Any language forms the world view behind the language and at the same time it reflects world other views. The most important sphere of a man’s world and his personality is the sphere of emotions. It is the sphere of psychology and emotive evaluations. Our emotional world is one of the local world views behind the language. The act of cognition is emotionally coloured. Emotions cover all our spheres of life. The objective world is endless, but a man is limited in the process of cognition. Any world view contains personal subjective cognition. Thus we speak of personal, subjective interpretation of the objective world. A man reacts to the outer and inner pressure by different states of activities: perception, expressing wishes, points of view, speaking, and physical activities. Any euphemisms may be defined as a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of the one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener. It makes expression less troublesome for the speaker. Anthropocentric nature of euphemisms is well-known. Our universal emotions are characterized by national peculiarities. The following linguists as Kacev A. M., Keith Allan, Kate Burridge, Obvinceva O. V., Neuman and Sibker investigated euphemisms as linguistic and unique phenomena of the language in comparative linguistics, stylistics, euphemisms in publicistic style , pragmatic aspect of euphemisms and their stylistic aspect. Our investigation is based on the interaction of psychology, linguistics and stylistics. We analyzed not only euphemistic mapping in our conceptual system, but also their impact on the listener. The object of our investigation is euphemisms as semantic and stylistic phenomenon in the English language. The subject of study is emotive prose in the English language (British and American literature). 1. Euphemisms are particularly common for the process of reproduction and excretion and for activities, people, and bodily parts involved in those processes. People vary in what they consider to be offensive, and toleration for blunt language also varies from period to period. A euphemism may eventually acquire unpleasant associations and give way to later euphemisms: toilet and lavatory , themselves euphemisms, are frequently replaced by other euphemisms, such as cloakroom. Euphemisms can be used legitimately for politeness and tact, but they are dishonest when they are used to avoid facing unpleasant activities or to conceal and deceive. Dishonest uses are frequent in political and military language: Hitlers plan for the extermination of the Jews was called the final solution, protective custody has been used for imprisonment, industrial action for strikes, police action for war and armed reconnaissance for bombing. When a phrase is used as a euphemism, it often becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is dropped. Euphemisms may be used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas, even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive. This type of euphemism is used in public relations and politics, where it is sometimes called doublespeak. Sometimes, using euphemisms is equated to politeness. There are also superstitious euphemisms, based (consciously or subconsciously) on the idea that words have the power to bring bad fortune (for example, not speaking the word cancer; see etymology and common examples below), and there are religious euphemisms, based on the idea that some words are sacred, or that some