Luận văn english religious euphemisms = uyển ngữ về vấn đề tôn giáo trong tiếng anh luận văn tốt nghiệp đại học

Basing on those, this study has been conducted to provide the use of English religious euphemisms, so that English learners will deeply understandand apply them into daily communication

vinh university foreign Languages department

vinh university foreign Languages department

Supervisor: trÇn b¸ tiÕn, m.a

Student: nguyÔn thÞ th¶o, 48B - English

Vinh - 2011

For the completion of this study, I own my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor, Mr Tran Ba Tien, M.A, for his invaluable insight, contructive adviceand guidance all through my conduction of the study, without which I could nothave completed and submitted this thesis in due time

I wish to say thanks to all the teachers in Department of Foreign Languagesfor their constant supports and encouragement

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the advices and encouragementfrom my friends

Finally yet importantly, I want to show my warmest thanks to my family forall vital supports

Vinh, May 2011

Student

Nguyen Thi Thao

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

ABSTRACT v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Methods of the Study 2

5 Designs of te Study 2

PART II: CONTENTS 4

Chapter 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 Definition of Euphemism 4

1.2 The origin of English Euphemisms 5

1.2.1 Taboo 6

1.2.2 Elegance 6

1.2.3 Politeness 6

1.2.4 Disguise 7

1.3 The Forms of English Euphemisms 7

1.4 Classifications of English Euphemisms 9

1.4.1 Positive Euphemism and Negative Euphemism 10

1.4.2 Conscious Euphemism and Unconscious Euphemism 11

1.4.3 Other Classifications of Euphemisms 11

1.5 Communicative Functions of Euphemism 12

1.5.1 Avoiding Taboo 12

1.5.2 Showing Politeness 13

1.5.3 Concealing truth 15

1.6 Language, Culture, Taboo and Euphemism 16

1.6.1 Language and Euphemism 16

1.6.2 Culture and Euphemism 17

1.6.3 Taboo and Euphemism 18

Chapter 2 ENGLISH RELIGIOUS EUPHEMISMS 20

2.1 Euphemisms for God 20

2.1.1 God as Gawd 21

2.1.2 God as Good 23

2.1.3 God as Lord 26

2.1.4 God as Father 26

2.1.5 God as Golly 27

2.1.6 God as Gosh 28

2.2 Euphemisms for Jesus 31

2.2.1 Jesus as Geez 31

2.2.2 Jesus Christ as Criminy 32

2.3 Euphemisms for mild oaths and swear words 33

2.3.1 Euphemisms for Hell 34

2.3.2 Euphemisms for Damn 38

2.3.3 Euphemism for Devil 39

Chapter 3 SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TRANSLATING ENGLISH EUPHEMISMS INTO VIETNAMESE 42

3.1 Some typical features of English religious euphemism 42

3.1.1 Using to avoid taking profanation 42

3.1.2 Mostly in the informal language 43

3.1.3 Using phonetic distortions of pronuncition or mispronunciation of the main words 44

3.2 Some suggestions for Translating English Religious Euphemisms into Vietnamese 45

3.2.1 Translating by keeping the Original Term 45

3.2.2 Translating by parapharasing 46

3.2.3 Translating basing on the key words 47

PART III: CONCLUSION 49

1 Summary 49

2 Conclusion 49

3 Limitations of the Study 50

4 Suggestions for further Studies 50

REFERENCES 52

Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of

coarse, painful, or offensive ones The term comes from the Greek, eu meaning

“well” or “sounding good” and pheme meaning “speech” Euphemism literally

means good or pleasant speech As an indispensable and natural part of language,euphemism has been arousing wide interest Many linguists and scholars havestudied this linguistic phenomenon from the perspectives of rhetoric, semantics,pragmatics and sociolinguists As a result, achievements in the study of euphemismhave been conspicuous However, euphemisms naming some aspects of profanity

in society have not been paid enough attention, especially euphemisms for religiousissue Therefore, this study has been conducted in hope of contributing one hand toimprove undestanding and using euphemisms in communicating

This thesis consists of three parts, with an introduction and a conclusionpreceding and following them As euphemism is a linguistic phenomenon, Chapterone introduces the theoretical background about euphemisms Chapter Twoinvestigates English religious euphemisms

Chapter Three collects and analyzes the examples of using euphemisms andtranslating into Vietnamese, from that, this study also suggests some solutions fortranslation In the hope of investigating English religious euphemisms andproviding a general view of using euphemisms, examples from famous books andnovels have been collected

In conclusion, euphemism is one of the most common phenomenon of anylanguage and it is used widely everyday His study is conducted as a smallcontribution in providing a deeper understanding and using it in communication

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

How to communicate effectively is a rentless question that almost allcommunicators pursue People may go various ways to reach ultimate goal.However, no ways do not have to deal with language It is obvious that language isthe basic of all human communication and interaction We use language to think, tomake decisions, to express our own thoughts, attitude, feelings, and seeminglyparadoxically, to mask our feelings or disguise things we do not want to talk about

as well The core of problem lies in what language we choose: simple, plainlanguage or circumlocutory and roundabout one For some simple topics, peoplefeel no need to make it more complex and implicit, rather, they they use the formerones However, there are many topics that we can not mention directly, therefore weneed another means to replace these words and euphemsism is one of the mosteffective ways to deal with this kinds of profanation

Religion is an integrated part of culture, it is a taboo topic, therefore manyeuphemisms for it has been used Usually, we can hear these utterances like “Oh,

my Gosh”, “Goodness”, “Goodness Gracious”, “In the name of Heaven”, etc theyare all the euphemisms for the religious topic In fact, each aspect of the religion hasits own circumlocutions that make up a large number of religious euphemisms, such

as God’s name, Christ’s name, even religious swear words To gain the naturalinteraction as native speakers, English learners should understand the ways to usethem effectively Basing on those, this study has been conducted to provide the use

of English religious euphemisms, so that English learners will deeply understandand apply them into daily communication naturally

Although using English religious euphemisms in communicating is soimportant, it has not been paid enough attention Thus, with a hope to contribute onehand in developing the linguistic skill to English learners in understanding andusing English as fluently as possible, this study has been conducted

2 Aims of the Study

This thesis is written in the hope of:

- Providing the theoretical background of euphemisms like definitions,origins, communicative functions, its relationship with language, taboo, religion, etc

- Analyzing specific examples of religious euphemisms like the euphemismsfor the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of religious cursing words

- Analyzing some examples of translating English religious euphemisms intoVietnamese, from that, suggest some solutions applied in translation

3 Scope of the Study

Within the framework of a graduation paper, the author has no ambition ofcovering all the aspects of euphemisms It only focuses on how religiouseuphemisms are applied in communicating between English native speakers throughthe examples extracted from the famous novels like Little Women,The Adventures

of Tom Sawyer, Gone with the Wind, etc or also from contemporary articles fromwebsites like Newyork Times, Hello or online Dictionry, etc

4 Methods of the Study

This study is the realization of the combination of the two types of research:qualitative and quantitative research, in which the former is used more oftenthroughout the study Qualitative is conducted mostly in the first and the secondchapter of the thesis Data is collected from some main resources in newspapers,novels and internet Data analysis and classification is followed

5 Designs of te Study

This study consists of three main parts

The first part introduce the rationales, aims, scope, methods and design ofthe Study

The second part provides the content of the thesis with three main chapters:

- Chapter 1 provides theoretical background of euphemisms

- Chapter 2 discusses the English religious euphemisms by collecting andanalysing the examples that religious euphemisms have been used.

- Chapter 3 suggests some solutions for translating English religiouseuphemisms into Vietnamese ones

The last part summarizes the main ideas that have been discussed in thethesis and suggests for further study

PART II: CONTENTS

The term "euphemism" derived from the Greek word euphemos meaning auspicious or good or fortunate speech It was combined from Greek root eu meaning good and pheme meaning speech or speaking Therefore, euphemism literally means, "to speak with good words" However, it is not easy to define

exactly "what euphemism is", so that each linguist gives different definition ofeuphemism

Firstly, euphemism is that figure of speech which consists in the substitution

of a word or expression of comparatively favorable implication or less unpleasantassociations, instead of the harsher or more offensive one that would more preciselydesignate what is intended (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

It was defined as the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression forone thought substituted (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of theEnglish Language, 1996)

In other source, euphemism is generally defined as substituting aninoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneeringthe truth by using kind words (Enright D.J., 1985)

In addition, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, Shanghai ForeignLanguages Publishing House, 2000 defined it as "Word, etc used in place of oneavoided as e.g offensive, indecent, or alarming"

Allen gave the definition that "euphemism is used as an alternative to adispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s ownface or through giving offences, that of the audience, or of some third party".(Allen, K and Burridge, K., 1991:18).According to Oxford Advanced Learner'sDictionary of Current English, sixth edition, euphemism is "an indirect word orphrase that people often use to refer something embarrassing or unpleasant,sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is".

Another definition of euphemism is given in the Microsoft EncartaReference Library 2002 that "Euphemism is substitution of a delicate or inoffensiveterm or phrase for one that has coarse, sordid, or otherwise unpleasant associations,

as in the use of "lavatory" or "rest room" for "toilet" and "pass away" for "die"

As traditional western linguistics restricts euphemism study to the lexicon,euphemisms are, therefore, words or phrases in place of things considered to berude or unpleasant

Given from the perspective of rhetoric, all the above definitions aredetermined in a narrow sense Many linguists think that the definition of euphemismneeds to be framed in a broad sense American linguist, Bolinger Dwight oncepointed out: “Euphemism is not restricted to the lexicon; there are grammaticalways of toning something down without actually changing the content of themessage.”(1981:148) Otherwise, in "How not to say what you mean: a dictionary

of euphemisms", R.W Holder (2003:3) pointed out that euphemism is "a word or aphrase which people use in place of terms which they consider to be moredisagreeable or offensive to themselves and/or to their audience When a phrasebecomes a euphemism, its literal meaning is often dropped."

In general, euphemisms are roundabout words or phrases being used to soften,conceal or deceive the reality, which are unpleasant, impolite or offensive languages

1.2 The origin of English Euphemisms

Language is usually regarded as a mirror reflecting society, so euphemismsreflect people psychological world According to Enright, D.J (1985), there aremainly four causes for the origin of euphemisms:

1.2.1 Taboo

Euphemisms originated from primitive society People believed thatlanguage was not merely a symbol but also with magic power It could bring themmisfortunes as well as fortunes, mentioning a certain names ran the risk of beingpunished, so they usually avoided these taboos One of the Ten Commandments in

Bible was “Thou shalt not speak my name in vain” Thus, God was generally called

as Gad, J C., the Almighty, the Creator, and Satan as the Goodman, Black One, theOld Gentleman, etc Nowadays there are still a lot of euphemisms used in thesimilar way E.g., people would try to avoid such taboos as “old”, “disease” or

“death” as they mean something unhappy Therefore, they have the followingeuphemisms for:

- Old people: citizens, golden ager, seasoned man, the elderly, etc.

- Diseases: AIDs, T.B, Big C, mental trouble, etc

- Death: depart, sleep, go home, join the majority, etc.

1.2.2 Elegance

To seek beauty is one of human’s natures, so whenever they deal with someinelegant physiological phenomena in communication, they tend to avoid vulgarism

so as to achieve elegance These euphemisms are usually concerning:

- Bodily functions: undraped female form (female’s naked body), apples (female’s breasts), after (buttock), lower parts (genitals), etc

- Make love: art of pleasure, free love, love affairs, live together, etc

- Pregnancy: in the family way, in an interesting condition, be expecting, be

similarity and sympathy, so people often use indirect expressions to achievepoliteness Such euphemisms are usually concerning:

- Job: sanitarian (bus boy), educator (teacher), domestic engineer (housewife), secretary (typist), etc.

- Appearance: plain-looking (ugly), weight-watcher (the fat), a slow learner (a stupid pupil), the handicapped/disabled (the crippled), etc

- Character: tight-fisted (stingy), green (envious), knife-and-forker (big eater), sleepy (lazy), etc.

1.2.4 Disguise

While people use euphemisms to avoid something unhappy, vulgar or showpoliteness in their daily life, they often use euphemisms to disguise something in theother fields of life Such euphemisms are usually used in

- Politics: displaced person (refugee), incident (nuclear accident), student unrest (student on strike), a useful and businesslike meeting (a fruitless meeting), etc

- Economy: cash flow problem (short supply of cash), man at liberty loser), undeveloped countries (poor and backward countries), technical adjustment

(job-(index fall in stock market), etc

- War: air support (air bombing), conflict (armed conflict), preventive war (invading war), retire (go backward), etc.

1.3 The Forms of English Euphemisms

There are various kinds of ways to form English Euphemisms According to

Li, Tian (1998) they can roughly be classified into the following groups:

- Phonetic Distortion: Change partially the sounds of the taboo words, e.g.

gad, gosh, good (God); cripes, crikey, criminey (Christ); bally, bluggy, blurry(bloody), etc

- Rhyming Slang: Replace the taboo words with rhyming words, e.g Cousin

Sis, hit and miss, rattle and hiss, that and this (piss); boat and oar, early door, by-four (whore); gasp and grunt, Joe Hunt, sharp and blunt (cunt), etc

two Back slang and Pig Latin: Spell the taboo words from back to front or only

transfer the first letter to the back, e.g ecnop (ponce); elly-bay (belly); uck-fay(fuck), etc

- Respelling of Initials: Spell the taboo words according to their sounds, e.g.

dee (damn); eff (fuck); pee-eye (pimp), etc

- Clipping: Cut parts of the taboo words, e.g bra (brassiere); vamp

(vampire); vert (sexual pervert), etc

- Acronymy: Take out the first letters of the taboo phrases and put them

together, e.g B-girl (bar girl); BM (bowel movement); X.Y.Z (Examine yourzipper), etc

- Compounding: Spell two or more words together, e.g gezunda (goes

under); whatchamacallit (what you may call it), etc

- Euphemistic Punctuations: Replace parts of the taboo words with

punctuation marks, e.g d - (damn); son-of-a- (son of a bitch); sh**(shit), etc

- Substitution of Synonyms: Replace the taboo words with commendatory or

neutral words (the easiest and most frequent way), e.g agent (spy); economical(stingy); slim (skinny), etc

- Borrowing: Replace the taboo words with loanwords (especially with

French words), e.g derriere (arse); lingerie (underwear); nude (naked), etc

- Use of Fuzzy words: Replace the taboo words with vague words, e.g.

economic thing (economic crisis); affair (love affair); the thing(genitals/menstruation, love affairs/male homosexuals, drugs, etc.), etc

- Nurseryism: Replace the taboo words with children’s words, e.g heinie

(buttock); poo-poo (bowel movement/shit); wee-wee (penis), etc

- Metaphorical Transfer: Replace the unhappy thing with something that has

the similar nature, e.g blossom (pimple); go to sleep (die); have a visitor(menstruation), etc

- Metonymical Transfer: Replace the taboo words with larger, e.g chest

(breast); limb (leg); go to bed with (have sex with), etc

- Understatement: Replace the taboo words with something less happy, e.g.

less than truthful (lying), smelly (stinky), the poor (the needy), etc

However, according to Hugh Rawson (1995:2), there are six principles tocreate euphemism, which can be considered as six euphemism categories They are:

- Abbreviations: in communication, there are many topics or words that we

must avoid using direct expressions to save other faces However, these topics aretoo popular to be banned; therefore, abbreviation is a suitable choice for us Byshortening the word into the initial letters only, we can speak about anythingwithout fear of rudeness or impoliteness, e.g B.O (body odor), W.C (water closet),A.C-D.C (alternating current and direct current- or bisexual)

- Foreign words: to avoid being rude or impolite, English has borrowed

words from other languages, mostly from Latin and French, e.g faux (fake),derriere (ass), brassiere (bra)

- Abstractions: that is a way to abstract shape of meaning of the expression

by using other familiar way to soften serious issue, e.g be in arm of God (die)

- Indirection: that is to avoid saying something in clear way, e.g the

unmentionables (sex)

- Longer words: these words are often used as less negative meaning to

replace for other negative ones, e.g the underprivileged (the poor)

- Technical terms: that is used as jargons or specialized languages of a group

of people, and are difficult for others to understand It is also used as euphemism tocall for sensitive issues, e.g organoleptic analysis (the act of smelling something)

- Mispronunciation: when address to the God, English has different ways to

avoid address directly, so they can use other substitutions of the words with similarphonetics, e.g golly, gosh, gad, etc

1.4 Classifications of English Euphemisms

Euphemism can be classified into many categories according to differentcriteria, rules or principles For instance, euphemisms can be divided intoeuphemisms in the Middle Ages, euphemisms in the Victorian Age, euphemisms in

the twentieth century, and contemporary euphemisms In terms of the prevailingtime, whether it is long or short, euphemisms can be divided into temporaryeuphemisms and persistent euphemisms

There is no uniform standard, but the motives of the different classificationsare to discover and understand the characteristics of euphemism from differentangles The following is a brief introduction to some representative classifications

of euphemism

1.4.1 Positive Euphemism and Negative Euphemism

Hugh Rawson (1981:1) divides euphemisms into two general types-positiveand negative Positive euphemisms can also be called stylistic euphemisms orexaggerating euphemisms “The positive ones inflate and magnify, making theeuphemized items seem altogether grander and more important than they reallyare.” (Rawson 1981:1) In order to avoid thrill, to be polite or to achievecooperation, British and American people, especially contemporary Americans,prefer using the technique of exaggeration to euphemize something unpleasant andembarrassing The positive euphemisms include the many fancy occupational titles,which save the egos of workers by elevating their job status For example,

exterminating engineers for rat-catchers, beautician for hairdressers

“The negative euphemisms deflate and diminish They are defensive innature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from thelanguage everything that people prefer not to deal with directly.”(Rawson, 1981:1).The negative euphemisms can be called traditional euphemisms or narrowingeuphemisms They are extremely ancient, and closely connected with the taboos Aeuphemism and its corresponding taboo are in fact two faces of the same coin Theyrefer to the same thing though they have different looks, the euphemism has a muchmore pleasant face than the taboo In many cultures, it is forbidden to pronounce thename of God or any SuperNatural Beings in vain So there are euphemisms such as

“Jeeze”, “Jeepers Creepers” , or “Gee” for “Jesus”, “Jesus Christ” or “Christ”,

“goodness” for “God” or “My Gum” for “My God” The names of the tabooed

subjects as the dead, and the animals that are hunted or feared, may also beeuphemized this way

1.4.2 Conscious Euphemism and Unconscious Euphemism

Euphemisms, whether positive or negative, can be divided into unconsciouseuphemisms and conscious euphemisms The criterion is the euphemistic meaningwhether correlative with the original meaning or not

Unconscious euphemisms, as its name implies, were developed long ago, andare used unconsciously, without any intention to deceive or evade For example,

now standard term as cemetery has been a replacement for the more deathly graveyard since the fourteenth century Indisposition has been a substitute for disease for a long period; people seldom realize that its original meaning is

incapacity for dealing with something Take “dieter” for another example, theoriginal meaning taking food by a rule or regulation has been substituted by theeuphemistic meaning “the one moderate in eating and dining for loosing weight”.From the above we can conclude that unconscious euphemisms were developed solong ago that few can remember their original motivations

Conscious euphemisms are widely employed, which involves more complexcategories When people communicate with each other, speakers are conscious tosay tactfully, and the listeners understand their implied meanings For example,when a lady stands up and says that she wants to “powder her nose” or “make aphone call” at a dinner party, the people present realize the euphemism means

“something else”, that is, “going to the ladies’ room”

1.4.3 Other Classifications of Euphemisms

Besides the divisions mentioned above, according to their contentsconcerned, euphemisms can be divided into euphemisms of sex; euphemisms ofoccupation; euphemisms of unemployment; euphemisms of disease; euphemisms ofcrime, etc.”

Some euphemisms are created on impulse on certain occasions and are neverrepeated later, while others are coined and reused and ratified by many people and

have lasted for generations, even centuries In these cases, we have nonceeuphemisms and sustained euphemisms For instance, most of the euphemismsconcerning the Vietnam War and the Watergate Incident are one–day wonderswhile many euphemisms connected with taboo areas have become everlastingterms; some have even become idiomatic expressions.

In short, there are many ways to classify euphemisms, however, positive andnegative euphemism are two main categories of English euphemism that this study

is concerning about

1.5 Communicative Functions of Euphemism

Language communication is the most important means by which peoplemaintain their social relationship During their communication, people willinevitably encounter unpleasant situations Using direct and definite language totalk about unpleasantness will undoubtedly displease both sides and possibly affecttheir relationship Under such conditions, the use of euphemism may be the bestway As Enright (1985:113) says, without euphemism, the rotation of the worldwould have stopped with rubbing and would have been flooded with feud.Euphemism has been shouldering the duty of “lubricating” language and socialcommunication since its production Seen through this angle, euphemism is morethan a rhetorical device It is a communicative means So when it comes to thefunctions of euphemism, we refer to the communicative function Generallyspeaking, the main communicative functions of euphemism, whether English orChinese, are to avoid taboo, to show politeness, and to use pleasant, mild or indirectword to replace more accurate or direct ones

1.5.1 Avoiding Taboo

Neaman et al (1990:130) points out the two chief social psychological bases

for the production of euphemism, one is taboo, and the other is politeness

The word taboo (also spelled tabu) was first used by Captain James Cook in

1777 in his journal; he had heard the word from the speakers of Tongan, a

Polynesian language It referred originally to persons, activities (including speech),

or things under prohibition Afterwards, it was borrowed into English

To violate the taboo will automatically cause harm (even death) to theviolator or his/her fellows In many cultures, the names of God and devils aretaboos as well and people manage to avoid mentioning them directly; otherwise,they would commit the error of blasphemy Accordingly, western people euphemizethe name of Satan as “god of this world”, “His Sable Majesty”, “old gentleman inblack” and “Old Harry” In ancient China, there also existed taboo People at thattime had a belief that the powerful and mysterious forces, such as wind, rain,thunder, etc will decide their fate, so they had a fear as well as a desire to placatethem in communication by using euphemisms However, nowadays many of thetaboo terms are avoided not just because the speaker fears that physical ormetaphysical harm may befall, but because their use is regarded as distastefulwithin a given social context Some speakers would claim that to utter the tabooterms would offend their own sensibilities, because of the supposed unpleasantness

or ugliness or the taboo terms themselves Social taboos in most English–speakingcommunities stretch from those on bodily effluvia, reproductive process, theassociated body parts and death In order not to mention or talk about the taboomatters, euphemisms are employed as substitutes for taboo words that often result inanxiety, embarrassment and public shame

With the development of society and science, taboo has been brokencontinuously and what is now put under taboo is not mysterious or frightening asbefore That is, the psychology for the production of euphemism has changed inmodern societies, the motivation for euphemism is not usually such fears, but ismore concerned with not harming the sensibilities of any parties involved (Neaman

et al, 1990:128) It will lead to the most important communicative function ofeuphemism: to show politeness

1.5.2 Showing Politeness

Politeness plays a very important role in social interaction and conversation

In other words, “face saving” must be taken into account to keep communication

going Everyone needs to keep face in communication Such mutual self–interestrequires that conversational participants maintain both their own face and theirintegrators’ face But many verbal interactions are potential threats to face.Therefore, the communicators manage to weaken face threatening through a series

of strategies including euphemism

To the criminal, the judge can claim “You have been sentenced to five years

in prison.” While if a person has to mention the similar thing in front of thecriminal’s parents or relatives, he/she will probably say “He has been sent to the bighouse.” or “He is now living under the government’s expense.” People useeuphemisms in try to avoid being impolite in speech and not hurting the feelings ofthe criminal’s parents and relatives

The fear of causing mental pain and the desire to be more polite andconsiderate, lead people to use kind words; the Westerner prefers to “discontinue”rather than to “fire” employees, the miserable fact of unemployment is said to be

“involuntarily leisured”, “between jobs”, “to be self–employed”, or “to bedeveloping a new project.” In order to inflate the egos of others, people often makethe humble occupation sound higher in rank and pleasant to the ear For example,

shoe maker is replaced by shoe rebuild; sanitation engineer is for garbage man; funeral directors is for undertaker Other example like: "He was both out of pocket

and out of spirits by that catastrophe, failed in his health and prophesied the speedyruin of the empire".(John.M.Thackerary: Vanity Fair)

The direct address of “poor” will make people involved ashamed, while “out

of pocket” is more polite to him At the same time, it is parallel in structure to “out

of spirits”, which forms a delightful contrast In other situation teacher can say that:

"The student is a bit slow for his age." It means the student is stupid However,teacher wants to save face for listeners who may be blamed for student's stupid

Seen through the instance here, euphemism does express politeness to others,thus avoiding the unpleasant situations and lubricating people’s socialcommunication as well as their relations

1.5.3 Concealing truth

Euphemism in daily life is for politeness or avoidance of taboo, whileeuphemism in political life is for disguise Because of fuzziness in semantic sense,euphemisms can be tactfully or deliberately deceptive Political life is the fertile soilfor euphemism Whenever political situations change, a large number ofeuphemisms will be produced The media and politicians take advantages of thefuzziness to conceal truth in order to avoid offending the public and help maintainthe steadiness of political, economic and military situations

In the Vietnamese War, in order to conceal their outrage, the American sidechanged “wanton and indiscriminate bombing” into “close air support”, and

“civilian casualties” into “collateral damages” American invasion into Grenada in

1983 was turned into “a rescue mission”, and the air attack of Libya into “surgicalstrikes”, even the furtive “surprise attack” was called by the fine–sounding name of

“perceptive strikes” The Gulf War in 1991 created many new euphemisms such as

“air operation”, “ground operation”, “home in on”, etc The use of euphemisms notonly concealed the American acts but also weakened in some measures the brutality

of war and the dreads and hate of war

In order to divert public attention so as not to intensify social contradictions,

industrial action substitutes for strike, depression for economic crisis, substandard housing for slum During the period of the Reagan Administration, tax increase was replaced by contribution To conduct international affairs better, “poor nations”

can’t be found in English, “backward nations”, “underdeveloped/under developingnations” and “emerging nations” are in its place After the Watergate affair, the

American government created lots of euphemisms to hide such a scandal: The scheme was called scenario, burglars became plumbers, and the government– sponsored crime became a White House horror.

In addition, many other social problems are concealed with euphemisms, aslisted below:

A house of correction (prison), call girl (prostitute), love child (illegitimate child), income maintenance/welfare benefit (slum), grey area(area with low

employment)

Politicians and the media really give much thoughts to such a matter Theyuse euphemisms to deliberately cloud an issue or to distract people’s attention, andeuphemism really does play an important role in concealment and disguise Inaddition, that may be a reason why euphemism is called “cosmetic words” Fromwhat is stated above, we can conclude that in communication, some topics mayhave relevance to taboos; people will use euphemisms to avoid taboos, or to avoidconflict to be polite and to meet some other social needs So resorting toeuphemisms in social life is a social need or even a social pressure we have to giveinto In communication with others, we can use euphemism to help people form apositive communicative atmosphere to establish harmonious social relationshipsand eventually to achieve the communication goals.

1.6 Language, Culture, Taboo and Euphemism

Euphemisms are society’s basic lingua franca As such, they are outward

and visible sign of our inward anxieties, conflicts, fears, and shames They are likeradioactive isotopes By tracing them, it is possible to see what has been and isgoing on in our language, our minds, and our culture

Rawson (1981:1)

1.6.1 Language and Euphemism

Hugh Rawson (1981:3) pointed out the close relation between language andeuphemism, “Euphemisms are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us,even those who pride themselves on being plain-spoken, ever get through a daywithout using them.” The relation between language and euphemism is sointrinsically close that it is impossible to study one without an analysis of the other

First of all, language is the vehicle of euphemism Ronald Wardhaugh(1986:229) said, “Language is used to avoid saying certain things as well as toexpress them.” To some extent, we can say that where there is language, there iseuphemism In our daily life, usually certain things are not said for some reasons Ifthey are said, they should be said in very roundabout ways In this case, we have the

mentioning certain matters directly, which can make unpleasant things sound betterand acceptable.

Secondly, euphemism is one form of language; we can derive euphemismfrom family talks, official meetings, literary words, scribbles on walls, telephonetalks, television programs, letters, cards, advertisements, E-mails, and so on Acasual look at language will show that there are a host of linguistic devices, whichare habitually adopted in presenting euphemism Such figures of speech ashyperbole, metaphor, understatement, circumlocution and many others are socommonly used in euphemistic utterances that when people discuss euphemism,rhetorical analysis takes up the whole picture of euphemistic language analysis

Thirdly, as far as the change of euphemism is concerned, euphemism hasexperienced the process of growth, development and decline Therefore, euphemismnot only expands and enriches English vocabulary but also contributes to theappropriate and effective use of the English language And what is more,euphemistic effect enables language communication to go smoothly andsuccessfully

1.6.2 Culture and Euphemism

Euphemism, as an indispensable part of every language, is a mirror ofmorality, customs, politics, life style, social psychology, etc Euphemism itselfcannot exist without social culture with the evidence that expressions used insensitive areas tend to pick up negative connotations and be replaced byeuphemisms We are sensitive about death, so “grave digger” was replaced by

“undertaker”, originally a general word for someone who assumes a job or amission; later on “undertaker” was replaced with the Latinate “mortician” We aresensitive about bodily functions, so there are many euphemisms for “bathroom”(itself a euphemism, replacing the earlier euphemism “toilet”, from the French

“toilette”, originally a cloth used in shaving or hairdressing)

Learning euphemism well means more than merely mastering thepronunciation, words and grammar It means learning to see the world as native

speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflectsthe ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, and learning to understand their

“language of the mind” The relationship between euphemism and culture isobvious: euphemism, as a cultural–linguistic product, displays its multiple mappingrelations with culture; it changes along with the development of society, and the use

of euphemism varies with the variation of the context It is a reflection of cultureand carries vestigial patterns once dominant in a society Within a single culture,whether acceptable or forbidden, the subjects and portions of euphemisms havevaried from one historical period to another Understanding of the cultureunderlying euphemisms enables us to catch the meaning conveyed

1.6.3 Taboo and Euphemism

A taboo is a strong social ban relating to any area of human activity or social

custom that is sacred and forbidden based on moral judgment and sometimes evenreligious beliefs Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable orabhorrent by society The term comes from the Tongan language, and appears in

many Polynesian cultures In those cultures, a tabu (or tapu or kapu) often has

specific religious associations When an activity or custom is taboo, it is forbiddenand interdictions are implemented concerning it Taboos in a language reflect a part

of culture

Obviously, euphemism originates from verbal taboo, and verbal taboooriginates from religious superstition, which reflects the importance of socialpsychology in the origin of euphemism Taboo and euphemism are two closelyrelated cultural and linguistic phenomena of human society We can’t talk about onewithout referring to the other

Almost any of the cultures in the world has its own taboo There are twoaspects of verbal taboo: one is word–fetishism; the other is the forbidden use oflanguage In uncivilized and crude society, the primitives were often confrontedwith puzzling and threatening situations and phenomena, such as death anddiseases As they couldn’t understand and explain the extraordinary events and

performance, success and failure, they worshiped, and even dreaded thesupernatural Such psychology leads to superstition, and then developed intoFetishism The specific language was also defied, that is, Word Fetishism Out ofthe worship of gods and ghosts, their names must be avoided So their namesbecame the earliest taboo words, and other words used to replace them became theearliest euphemisms When a taboo word is abandoned, people have to find anotherword to fill up the vacancy That’s the way euphemism is created

In most language speech communities, the most obvious taboos have to dowith bodily functions, body parts, death etc Taboo changes over time New taboosare racism, ageism, and taboos concerning other social and commercial life Moderntaboos are motivated more by notion of decency, politeness, decorum andcommunicative appropriateness than by pure fear or sense of danger in earlier taboopractice They reflect sensitivity to and respect for others’ feelings Meanwhile,euphemism develops with taboo, so euphemistic words and expressions not onlyallow us to talk about unpleasant things and disguise or neutralize theunpleasantness, e.g., the subjects of sickness, death and dying, unemployment, andcriminality, but also allow us to give labels to unpleasant tasks and jobs in anattempt to make them sound almost attractive

Chapter 2

ENGLISH RELIGIOUS EUPHEMISMS

Religion is one of the most distinguishing domains that have many thingsforbidden In many religions, including Judaism, Brahmanism, and Islam, directreference to the name of God is taboo The God is considered as Supreme Being,however in any cases, people tend to call the name of God That is reasons whyEnglish language has created a number of euphemisms instead of naming Goddirectly to forbid people to speak out the evil and the offensive words as well asswearing Since English has developed for most of its history in Christian societies,great numbers of euphemistic variants of this sacred name have grown up over thecenturies The same process has, understandably, occurred in the cases of the names

of Jesus, Christ, and Lord, but to a lesser extent

2.1 Euphemisms for God

In Christian religion, God is the Eternal Being that creates and preserves theuniverse The Bible never speaks of God in an impersonal sense Instead, it refers tohim in personal terms - as one who is, who speaks, who sees, hears, acts, and loves.God is understood to have a will and personality and is an all powerful, divine andbenevolent being He is represented in Scripture as being primarily concerned withpeople and their salvation

God is believed by most Christiansto be immanent (meaning that he is withand within all things) While others believe the plan of redemption in scripturesshow he will be immanent later as seen in 1 Corinthians 15: 28, Colosians 1:19-20,and the Epessians 1: 10 And most believe he is also transcendent (meaning that he

is outside space and time, and therefore eternal and unable to be changed by forceswithin the universe)

God is usually held to have the properties of holiness (separate from sin andincorruptible), justices (fair, right, and true in all his judgements), omnipotence (allpowerful), omniscience (all-knowing), Omni-benovolence (all-loving), omnipresence(everywhere present) and immortality (eternal and everlasting)

As a matter of fact, God is sacred to Christians Therefore, taking God'sname in vain is profanity That is reasons for origins of a number of euphemisms for

the name of God In the Bible the phrase, Name of God includes all the ways God

reveals Himself George Boardman writes, "God's name not only signifies all hisvarious titles that were little to say: it also signifies his nature, his attributes, hischaracters, his authority, his purposes, his methods, his providences, his words, hisinstitutions, his truths, his kingdom; in short, all that God is, all that God says, all

that God does, all that God bids Thus comprehensive is the phrase Name of God."

An example of this is found in Kings 8:20 where Solomon's Temple isdescribed as "the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel."

Another example is where God says to Moses in Exodus 33:19, "I Myselfwill make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lordbefore you "

Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology writes, "In the Bible a person'sname is a description of his or her character Likewise, the names of God inScripture are various descriptions of his character In a broad sense, then, God'sname is equal to all that the Bible and creation tell us about God."

2.1.1 God as Gawd

As mentioned previously, there are many ways to name God to avoidprofanity One of the most common and the easiest to understand is the distortion ofpronunciation for “God”: Gawd God is pronounced as /gɔd/ (Vdict.com/God), andGawd is pronounced as [gO:d/ (Urbandictionary.com) As a mater of fact,sometimes-English language wants to express their feeling or exclamation bycalling the name of God However, calling the name of God in vain is considered asprofanity, therefore, it uses the misspelled word of “god” as an intentional word toavoid naming name of the God by itself Obviously, each word or each expressionhas its own connotation meaning and is used in different context, to conveydifferent attitude toward objects or events It does not except the “gawd” Englishlanguage uses this expression as a way of saying “Oh, my God” while denoting theaddresser is rolling his/her eyes at the same time, as the following example:

Boy: "Hi, I'm a boy making some lame comment to you!"

Girl: "Oh my gawd, what a nerd."

(Urbandictionary.com/gawd)

In that example, the boy told the girl a truth the girl had never thoughtbefore, so that she was really surprised (as rolling her eyes as mentioned)

It is also known that “Gawd” is a kind of accent or slang word As stated in

Urbandictionary.com, it is a “slang term for God, used to avoid using the Lord name

in vain” It is also used by non-secular people to attain the meaning of the word

“God”, “god” or any form of it For example,

“Oh my Gawd”

Or “Gawd, don’t make me come over there!”

Even “Gawd damn it!”

Or “Oh my Gawd, did you just see that?”

(Urbandictionary.com/Gawd)

As illustrated above, English language uses “Gawd” in the situation that thespeaker or the writer wants to express their feeling of being surprised Looking upthe origin of the term “Gawd”, it is widely believed that “Gawd” is anotherdenotation of “God” for two reasons:

- firstly, it is created as a censor to prevent user from typing God, so instead

of using “Oh my God!”, the user would type “Oh my Gawd!”;

- secondly, it may be considered as a messing around and just typing it to befunny As the following example:

“Oh my gawd, That guys hacking!", or

"I was playing some AVA yesterday and Gawd from that Dog Soldiers clan

friggin owned me!"

(Urbandictionary.com/Gawd)However, in general, it is not named “Gawd” by chance or aimlessly It,surely, conveys the meaning and speaker’s attitude itself To many people, it is asecularized version of the term “God”, sometimes, it is used by secular people who

still wish to use a phrase such as “oh my God” but don’t actually want toacknowledge a deity since that would be hypocritical as in:

“Oh my Gawd, are you hurt?

Gawddamnit, that was my last doughnut!”

(Urbandictionary.com/dawd)

In short, “Gawd” is a common euphemism of the “God” It mostly conveysthe meaning of being surprised or being affected by anything happened suddenly

As any other euphemisms for the name of God that will be analyzed later, it is used

to avoid naming the name of Supernatural Being directly As its nature, this termmay be the easiest way of denoting the name of God, because, it is derived from theway to pronounce “God” Similar pronunciation in different spelling, “Gawd” is aneffective term for avoiding naming the Lord in vain

2.1.2 God as Good

God Himself is good! It is what He is and what He creates, gives, and commands Good is defined in terms of "God," not vice versa God, and God alone,

is good without qualification He is the Judge and the only standard of goodness

the Standard of excellence and righteousness Every attribute and every action ofGod is good, producing only good fruit "God" blesses everyone in the world- that

is belief of all Christians, so that "God' also means "good" Christians always bear

in their mind that God is the best in the world In addition, English is spoken asnative language of most Christians and God is supernatural being to them, thus, theytry to avoid naming God as much as possible That is reason for a lot of words

created from “good” to indicate God, such as Good God, Good Lord, Goodness Gracious, Goodness, Good Heaven

First of all, “God” is sometimes replaced by “goodness” As widely known,

“Good” is one of the most frequently used word in English language However, it isnot only in everyday language, but it conveys the meaning of the God orcharacteristics of the God in particular It is used as a noun, an adjective, an adverb