浅谈英语委婉语及其社会影响 [10]
论文作者:林芳斌 论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-06编辑:黄丽樱点击率:12747
论文字数:6562论文编号:org200904061101332556语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Euphemismapplicationsocial influencepositivenegative委婉语运用社会影响积极消极
he information is called “plumber”; The person who is against government is often called “dissidents”; American and British people name “riot” as “disturbance” or “disorder”; “strike” is called “walk-out, down tools, industrial action or industrial dispute”; “economic crises” is called “recession” or “depression”. In the aspect of military affair, “the number of the dead” is called “body count”; “aggression” is called “pre-emptive action” or “involvement”; “rout” is called “phased withdrawal”、“strategic withdrawal”、“light and scattered action” or “break off contact with enemy”. The euphemisms for “to kill” are often called “to take care of, to dispose of, to remove, to rub out, to puff out, to put away, to touch off etc.” “U.S. overseas military employment” is called “American presence”; “civilian casualties” is called “collateral damage”; “bombing and blasting” is called “softening up the resistance”. People seldom mention “nuclear weapons”, but “an anti-personnel weapon”. “Non-nuclear weapon” is called “a conventional weapon”. American media called their invasion to Haiti by their marines “an incident”, called the investigation of American airplanes in Russian territorial air space “an over flight”. We can see the concealing function of euphemisms becomes the needs of the struggle, the tool of cheating people.
3.3.2. The euphemisms for crime
Crime is also a very sensitive topic. The judge can say, “I hereby sentence you to five years in prison.” While the families and friends of the criminal are likely to use the euphemistic expression, such as “to send to the big house, to send up the river, to be living at the government’s expense.” “juvenile delinquents” is a euphemism for “young criminals”; “prison” is called “correctional center”; “burglary” is called “surreptitious entry”; “rape” is called “criminal assault”; “the officer’s act of stealing or embezzling” is called “They misuse public funds.” “Death penalty” is called “capital punishment”.
3.4. The countries’ names as euphemism
In English, there is another special euphemistic expression. That is to use other countries’ names instead of some harsher or more offensive words. The appearance of these euphemisms is mostly because of the historic and cultural reasons. For instance, because French had ruled Britain, British people like to make fun of the French. They called “syphilis” “the French disease”. “French letter” is a euphemism for “condom”; “abortive pill” is called “French lunar pill”; “pornographic novels/prints” is called “French novels (prints)”. It seems that the French does all the bad things. In 17th century, the war between Britain and Dutch also led to a lot of anti-Dutch words, including euphemisms. “Prostitute” is called “Dutch widow”; “commit suicide” is called “Dutch act/cure”; “Dutch courage” is an “artificial courage”; “Dutch cheer” is a euphemism for “liquor”. It was said that the Dutch often drank some liquor to build up their courage. Besides French and Dutch, Britain also makes fun of other countries. “Condom” has other euphemistic expressions in terms of country’s name, such as Spanish letter, American letter, and Italian letter. “Abortive pill” is also called “Portuguese female pill”; “Russian roulette” is a euphemism for “to intend to commit suicide”; “Mexican raise. Irish promotion” means “to be dismissed”; “Egyptian physical training” means “to sleep at daytime”; “Chinese” is also included in this usage, and it refers to a kind of “heroin”.
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