4.The social communicative function of English euphemism
From the perspective of language communication, euphemism functions to avoid taboos, to show politeness and conceal feelings. Thanks to euphemism, it is easy for people to accept the things that are likely to make others feel embarrassed or unhappy. It is people’s general character to express their ideas as mildly and tactfully as possible. Euphemism helps people to reach this goal. From the moment euphemism came into existence, it has played a very important role in our daily communication, and help establish a good relationship between human beings and even strengthen the social stability. Euphemism are motivated by the desire not to be offensive. People use them to show their politeness, to avoid being offensive and to meet the psychological and beneficial needs of both speakers and hearers in communication. But sometimes they are used to conceal or cover something. Accordingly, euphemism serves three basic communicative functions: evasive function, polite function and cosmetic function.
4.1 The evasive function of English euphemism
The evasive function of euphemism is to evade using taboos, enabling the speaker to talk about tabooed things freely. These tabooed things are believed to be dangerous to certain individuals, or to the society as a whole, or to be disgusting and unpleasant, and cause fear. Such tabooed things include: disease, disabilities, death, sex, body excretion and body elimination process, etc. People can use euphemisms to talk about what cannot be talked directly.
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