英语论文网

r pattern, usu determined by an individual’s status in a particular society. b. a function (Addison Wesley Longman Company, 1984:1288). It is similar to the definition in Webster’s Third-New International Dictionary. The definitions of “role” in The Oxford English Dictionary and Cambridge International Dictionary of English are: the part or character which one has to play; undertakes or assumes chief fig. with reference to the part played by a person in society or life (A S Honby, 1969:1996) and the position of a person or group of people in a particular situation and the degree to which they are involved in it, or the duty, or use which someone or something is expected to perform or have separately (Procter.P, 2001:2183). Briefly, the definition of “role” is a. a part or character assumed by an actor or actress in a film, play b. a function performed by someone or something in a particular situation. The main definition of “role” using in the thesis is the position of a person or group of people in a particular situation. 2. Three pairs of roles’ relationship In this section, we will introduce three pairs of roles’ relationship: equal and unequal, distant and intimate, formal and informal. People in communication have different social positions in unequal roles’ relationship. One is in an authority and the other isn’t. The roles’ relationship between the old generation and the young generation in blood lineal relationship and the roles’ relationship between the higher level and the lower level in administrative relationship are unequal roles’ relationship. But people in communication with their counterparts have equal roles’ relationship. All people in the profession roles’ relationship are workers. The roles’ relationship between the workers is equal. In distant roles’ relationship, the psychological distance is long, just as the psychological distance between you and a stranger. By contrast, the psychological distance is short in intimate roles’ relationship. Just as the psychological distance between you and your intimate friends. In formal roles’ relationship, the social relationship of the people in communication is formal. The administrative roles are in formal roles’ relationship. By contrast, in informal roles’ relationship, the social relationship of the people in communication is informal. The blood lineal relationship is informal. 3. Reasons for peopl e’s using euphemism in the three pairs of roles’ relationship 3.1 People use euphemism to communicate for some psychological factors. We will talk about seven psychological factors in the following. A．People use euphemism in the sense of shame. People always use euphemism in order to avoid talking the forbidden zone of human body, the reproductive organ, urinary organ and the name of all human organs and the physiology, the sexual behavior and the venereal disease etc. E.g. A: It’s gone very cold, hasn’t it? B: M-it’s freezing. A: M-I’m … B:You’re knitting (laughs quietly for-) what are you knitting? That’s not a tiny garment. A: No. B: (laugh for…) A: No, it’s for me but it’s very plain. (Crystal and Davy, 1969:98) What B wants to ask A is that is whether A is pregnant? But B doesn’t ask directly. B uses “What are you knitting” and “That’s not a tiny garment” to implicate his real meaning for a sense of shame. In this example, the roles’ relationship between A and