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that are harsh, indelicate, or otherwise unpleasant, people always violate the cooperative principle and use the indirect euphemism to express his real meaning. In this condition, they obey the politeness principle. Leech analyzed the politeness principle by the use of maxims: A. Tact maxim: minimize cost and maximize benefit to others. People want to get benefit as much as possible and cost as little as possible. So many people think that minimizing cost to others and maximizing benefit to others is polite. The use of euphemism is suitable for this idea of people. So people use euphemism for tact maxim. E.g. London had made an unsuccessful attempt at the recitation, and the doctor, somewhat nettled, said: “London, you don’t seem to be going on very fast in this subject. You seem to be lack ambition. Why, at your age Alexander the Great had conquered half the world.” “Yes,” said London, “he couldn’t help it, for you will recall the fact, doctor, that Alexander the Great had Aristotle for a teacher.” (Ke Yanfen, 1995:19) In this example, London obeys the tact maxim of politeness principle. London minimizes cost to the doctor and maximizes benefit to the doctor. London uses the euphemistic sentence “ … that Alexander the Great had Aristotle for a teacher” instead of expressing his true meaning “I don’t have a good teacher as Aristotle”. The roles’ relationship between London and the doctor is unequal, distant, and formal. B. Generosity maxim: minimize the benefit and maximize cost to oneself. It is consistent with tact maxim. Minimizing the benefit to oneself means maximizing benefit to others. Maximizing cost to oneself means minimizing cost to others. E.g. George III asked the once well-known wit, Horne Tooke, whether he could play cards. “Your majesty,” replied Tooke, “I am a mere child where cards are concerned. I cannot even tell a king from a knave.” (Ke Yanfen,1995：18) In this example, Tooke violates the generosity of politeness principle. Tooke said: “I cannot even tell a king from a knave.” We know that Tooke maximizes the benefit to himself and minimizes cost to himself from the sentence real meaning. The roles’ relationship between George III and Tooke is unequal, distant, and formal. C. Approbation maxim: minimize dispraise and maximize praise to others. In politeness principle, people must let others know that they are polite to them. Praise is a kind of politeness. So people must minimize dispraise and maximize praise to others. E.g. Writer: Do you like Chinese food? Englishman: I am getting used to it. Englishman obeys the approbation maxim of politeness principle in this example. He minimizes dispraise to the writer. If his answer is “No, I don’t like it,” he will violate the approbation maxim of politeness principle. In order to avoid violating the approbation maxim of politeness principle, the Englishman uses euphemism to express his real meaning that he doesn’t like Chinese food. The roles’ relationship between Writer and Englishman is equal, distant, and informal. D. Modesty maxim: minimize the praise and maximize dispraise to oneself. It is consistent with approbation maxim. Minimizing the praise to oneself means maximizing praise to others. Maximizing dispraise to oneself means minimizing dispraise to others. E.g. Strasser: What’s your nationality? Rick: I’m a drunkard. Renault: Ha, ha! That makes Rick a citizen of the world. (The film: Casablanca) T