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1、Euphemism—therhetoricalmethodsIhavelearnedRhetoricalmethodsIhavelearned,themostimportantonetomeiseuphemism.Asaculturalphenomenon,euphemismiscategorizedasalinguisticconceptaswell.Euphemismiscloselyassociatedwithsociallifeanditstronglyreflectssocialandculturalvalues.Ev
2、erysociety,everyspeechcommunityandeverysocialclasshastheirownuniqueeuphemisms.Enrightstated:“alanguagewithouteuphemismswouldbeadefectiveinstrumentofcommunication.”1.IntroductionEuphemismmeansspeakingwithgoodwordsorinapleasantmanner.Euphemismshavevariousreasonsforexis
3、tence.Theyconcealthethingspeoplefearthemost—death,thesupernatural.Thefunctionofeuphemismistoprotectthespeaker/writer,listener/reader,orallofthemfrompossibleoffense.Accordingtothedefinition,inChineseboth“上西天”and“长眠”areeuphemismsfor“死”.Euphemismcanbedividedintomanykind
4、saccordingtodifferentstandards.Fromtheangleofsemantics,euphemismscanbeclassifiedintotwotypes:positiveandnegative.Alleuphemisms,whetherpositiveornegative,maybeusedeitherunconsciouslyorconsciously.Inthisway,euphemismscanbedividedintounconsciouseuphemismsandconsciouseup
5、hemisms.TherearemainlysixwaysbywhichEnglisheuphemismsformed:loanwords,wideningornarrowingofmeaning,formedbyrhetoricalmeans,phoneticdistortion,semanticshiftandomission.2.TheSocialFunctionsofEuphemismTherearemanyfunctionsofeuphemism,andgenerallyfourofthemareofgreatimpo
6、rtanceandattractmorelinguists’attention.Theyare:substitutionoftaboowords,strategicuseoflanguage,expressionofpoliteness,humorandsatire.2.1SubstitutionofTabooWords“Euphemismoriginatesfromtabooanditisasignificantandactivepartinlinguistics.”(WangChunna,2008:60)Asacultura
7、lphenomenon,tabooisgenerallyrecognizedtoberelatedtosuperstitionandcustom.Ifacommunityorthesocietyasawholeconsiderssomearticlesorcertainactsastaboo,usuallythenamesoftheseactsandthingsmustnotbereferredto,atleastinpublic.Peopleareoffendedbydifferenttypesoftaboowordswhic
8、hdenotesomeunpleasantmatterslikedeath,disease,oldage,fatness,ugliness,racismandsexism.Yet,thesetaboothingsoractsmustfromtimetotimeb
