Euphemism Definition - lexical meaning: —sp

Euphemism
Good morning, boys and girls. In today’s lecture, we will focus on euphemism. In our society, some acts are taboos, because they’re unacceptable. To avoid unpleasantness, embarrassment or horror, people will find a new way to talk about them, by selecting or coining new words to replace existing ones which are thought to have picked up the unpleasant or undesirable associations— then there appears the euphemism. The word "euphemism" comes from Greek. In Greek, "eu-" means good or "well", the root "-phem" means "speech", and "-ism" is a noun suffix. Therefore, the term "euphemism" means literally, speaking with good words or in a pleasant manner". Though in different books, euphemism has been defined differently, all those definitions share the same point: A euphemism is a polite, roundabout, and indirect mode of expression which is used to talk about something unpleasant. It can make the unpleasant things sound better, and make people feel good; it can make both the speaker and the hearer avoid losing face. Now let’s look at the origin of euphemisms. Euphemisms originate from verbal taboos, and verbal taboos originate from religious superstition. Almost every culture has its own taboos. In uncivilized and crude society, the primitives were often confronted with puzzling and threatening situations and phenomena, such as death and disease. As they couldn’t understand and explain the extraordinary events, they worshiped, and even dreaded the supernatural. Such psychology leads to superstition, and people dare not call them by name directly, so they work out indirect terms to replace them. Thus their names became the earliest taboo words, and other words used to replace them became the earliest euphemisms. When a taboo word is abandoned, people have to find another word to fill up the vacancy. That’s the way euphemisms are created. Then, let’s talk about the classification of euphemisms. Euphemisms can be classified into many categories according to different criteria, rules or principles. There is no uniform standard, but the motives of the different classifications are to discover and understand the characteristics of euphemisms from different angles. Here, we will give a brief introduction to two representative classifications of euphemisms. First, positive euphemisms and negative euphemisms. Hugh Rawson divides euphemisms into two general types— positive and negative. Positive euphemisms can also be called stylistic euphemisms or exaggerating euphemisms, which "inflate and magnify, making the euphemized items seem altogether grander and more important than they really are". Negative euphemisms are extremely ancient, and closely connected with the taboos. They are also called traditional euphemisms. They deflate and diminish. They are defensive in nature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly." Second, conscious euphemisms and unconscious euphemisms. Euphemisms, whether positive or negative, can be divided into two classes: unconscious and conscious according to whether the euphemistic meaning is correlative with the original meaning or not. Unconscious euphemisms were developed long ago, and are used unconsciously, without any intent to deceive or evade. Take "indisposition" for instance, the original meaning of the word is "incapacity to deal with something" and its euphemistic meaning is slight illness or ill health. It has been used frequently for so long that few can remember their original motivations. Conscious euphemisms are widely employed, which involves more complex categories. When people communicate with each other, speakers are conscious to say 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 a phone call" at a dinner party, the people present realize the euphemism means something else, that is, going to the ladies’ room. As cultures are different from each other, one item that needs a euphemism in a culture does not necessarily need one in another. So, now we’d like to talk about some situations of euphemisms in different cultures. First, euphemisms related to names. The Chinese culture places an emphasis on names. In ancient times, people were forbidden to call the emperor’s name directly. The common people even had no right to mention the characters having the same sound as the emperor’s name. However, there are few euphemisms about names in English. People in the UK or the US even call their parents’ names directly to show their friendly relation. Furthermore, it is inoffensive for the young to have the same names as the old. Second, euphemisms related to old age. Chinese and English have different connotations about "old age". In China, old people are thought to be more experienced, and people show great respect to them, so they are proud of being old and there are few euphemisms for old age. However, Americans are afraid of becoming old. They want to act, feel and look young. In their opinion, the old people live a lonely life and are no longer energetic, so there are a lot of mild and roundabout expressions to show the concept of "old age". Last, euphemisms related to fatness. In Western countries, fat is a symbol of stupid, so to mention the word "fat" directly is impolite. The people who have no self-made dint will deliver fat, so the word "fat" is a word that contains a derogatory sense. The euphemism of "fat" is weight-watcher in English. And people say "heavyset" or "on the heavy side" to express the euphemistic sense. But in China, fatness was once treated as a kind of beauty during the Tang Dynasty, so people don’t think being fat is a shame. OK, today we have discussed the meaning of euphemisms, the classification of euphemisms and different euphemisms in different cultures. As a normal phenomenon of language, euphemisms are widely used in all human interactions, and can be observed everywhere in all human societies. They are not only the grease of language, but also the accumulation of social culture. In our next lecture, we will get a close look at the principles of euphemisms.