[Abstract] As an indispensable and natural part of English l(6)
2013-08-17 01:11
导读：4.1.4 About menstruation The desire to escape from unpleasant feelings brings out many euphemisms on excretion of women. Menstruation euphemism is one of them. Such as to have a visitor; my friend has
4.1.4 About menstruation
The desire to escape from unpleasant feelings brings out many euphemisms on excretion of women. Menstruation euphemism is one of them. Such as “to have a visitor”; “my friend has come”; and so on. All of these euphemisms are used to avoid the feeling of embarrassment and distaste.
4.2 In the field of education
Teachers have to make comments on students. When they want to point out shortcomings or bad behavior of students, they often use roundabout ways in order not to hurt students and their parents. The following are some mostly used euphemisms in this field and their real meanings.
“(36) The student is obtuse. ---The student is a bit slow for his age. The students seems to be mentally retarded.
(37) He has failed (flunked) a major course. ---I’m sorry to find him an underachiever for a major subject.
(38) The student is lazy. --- The student needs to raise his ambition a bit. I’m afraid the student has to exert himself in his study. He is sure to go far if he can use his resources fully. He’ll go somewhere if he is highly motivated.
(39) The student is noisy. ---He needs to develop quieter habits of communication.
(40) The student is a bully. --- He needs help in learning to use is leadership qualities democratically
(41) He lies. ---He has difficulty in distinguishing between imaginary and factual information.
(42) The student cheats. ---He needs help in learning to respect the property right of others.
(43) The student must mend his way. –He needs to be brought back into the mainstream.”[19]
4.3 In the field of law
Since crimes are tabooed in many social situations, people create a large number of euphemisms to replace them. Here is a list of crimes and their corresponding euphemisms.
Crimes Euphemisms
中国大学排名 crooked, fraudulent free-wheeling
thief five fingers, a dip, a fork
violence action
murder take care of
prostitute brass, daughter of eve
heroin Big Harry
opium black stuff
4.4 In the field of politics
Politics is one of the fertile fields for the growth of euphemisms. With euphemisms, politicians always justify their actions and beautify the harsh realities for some certain purposes. Only when the public believes that the society under their lead has become better, can their political life survives. The list of such kind of euphemisms is endless, e.g.: “economic crisis” is replaced by “depression” or “recession”; “strike” is said to be “industrial action”; “aggression” is spoken as “preemptive action”, “police action” or “anti-terrorist action”; “civilian casualties” is substituted by “collateral damage”; “killing of citizens” is euphemized as “wasting the enemy”; “concentration camps” is replaced by “strategic villages or hamlets”; “retreat” is said to be “strategic withdrawal”; “ground war” is spoken as “ground operation”; etc. “This kind of euphemisms is used to cover up the true nature of some political events, misleading the public with pleasant and sweet words.”[20]
（科教范文网 Lw.nsEAc.com编辑整理） 4.5 In the field of commerce and industry
Euphemisms can also be seen in the area of commerce and industry. Example:
(44) John was out of game and he jumped from the 20th floor of a building out of desperation.
(45) She is a negative saver for she always buys something expensive but unnecessary so she has to borrow money from others at the end of each month.
In the above sentences, “bankrupt” and “over spender” are substituted by “out of game” and “negative saver”.
Some companies are not large enough to be called large companies, but they don’t want to use “fairly large” to describe themselves for the sense of dignity. So “substantial” is employed to replace “fairly large”, in the euphemistic expression “a substantial and well-diversified group companies”. In this field, “small” is regarded as a taboo word too, so people use many nice-sounding words to substitute it. In Europe “a compact” is equal to “a small car”. And “a subcompact” means “a type of very small and inexpensive car”. As it is inexpensive, it is attractive to people. Sometimes “small” is replaced by “intimate” or “limited”. As everybody knows, “an intimate gathering” is usually “a small gathering”. “cheap” is another taboo word. People don’t like to use the word “cheap”. Instead, they use its euphemisms, such as “low-cost”, “realistically priced”, or “economy priced”. In order to attract customers, shopkeepers use “premium-priced” to describe “expensive”. So, “premium-priced Scotches” in fact is “the most expensive Scotches”.
