EUPHEMIZATION INSTINCT
The article presents an overview of rationales for euphemisms usage. We consider the problem from the point of psycholinguistics, social psychology, evolutionary biology and ethology. Biological researchers believe that a need for euphemisms could be one of the earliest linguistic imperatives imposed by disgust, thus euphemisms present a verbal hygiene strategy. Psychologists state that it is a distancing strategy, a means to manage human terror at the prospect of death. The article also considers the central role of politeness and cooperation principle in euphemistic and off-record indirect speech generation. From the perspective of the theory of strategic speaker indirect communication does not always involve pure cooperation between speaker and hearer but a mixture of cooperation and conflict and euphemising can be used to negotiate this uncertainty. Therefore, euphemism as a form of indirect proposition can allow for plausible deniability and has a strategic rationale.
Keywords: euphemism, indirect speech, instinct, theory of strategic speaker, principle of cooperation, politeness
References:
1. Keyes R. Euphemania: our love affair with euphemisms. New York, Hatchette Book Group, 2010. 279 p.
2. Williams J. M. Origins of the English language: A social and linguistic history. New York, Free Press, 1975. 418 p.
3. Curtis V. A. Dirt, disgust and disease: a natural history of hygiene. Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, 2007, Aug., no. 61 (8), pp. 660–664.
4. Hammond К. Na kachelyakh emotsiy. Pochemu my lyubim, nenavidim, raduemsya i stradaem [Emotional Rollercoaster: A Journey Through the Science of Feelings]. Мoscow, Olimp-Biznes Publ., 2007. 340 p. (in Russian).
5. Miller W. I. The Anatomy of Disgust. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1997. 320 p
6. Cameron D. Verbal Hygiene. Taylor and Francis, 2012. 326 p.
7. McCallum N. L., McGlone M. S. Death Be Not Profane: Mortality Salience and Euphemism Use. Western Journal of Communication, 2011, October–December, vol. 75, no. 5, pp. 565–584.
8. Becker E. The denial of death. New York, Free Press, 1973. 314 p.
9. Rosewarne L. American taboo: the forbidden words, unspoken rules, and secret morality of popular culture. Santa Barbara, California, 2013. 324 p.
10. Clark H. H. Using language. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 1996. 446 p.
11. Pinker S., Lee J. Rationales for Indirect Speech: The Theory of the Strategic Speaker. Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: selected Articles. Steven Pinker. New York,Oxford University Press, 2013. P. 302–356.
12. McGlone M. S., Batchelor J.A. Looking out for number one: Euphemism and face. Journal of Communication, 2003, no. 53, pp. 251–264.
13. Vil’danova G. A. Spetsifi ka evfemizatsii v usloviyakh komp’yuterno-oposredovannoy kommunikatsii (na materiale angliyskogo yazyka) [Specifi city of euphemization in computer-mediated communication (in the English language)]. Vestnik YUzhno-Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya “Lingvistika” – Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Series “Linguistics”, 2013, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 15–18 (in Russian).
14. Trivers R. L. Social evolution. Reading, MA: Cummings, 1985. 479 p.
15. Fiske A. P. Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations. New York, NY: Free Press, 1991. 486 p.
16. Bourdieu P. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1991. 320 p.
17. De Jaegher K., Van Rooij R. Strategic Vagueness, and Appropriate Contexts. Language, Games, and Evolution. Trends in Current Research on Language and Game Theory. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. P. 40–59.
18. Degtyareva A. R., Osadchiy M. A. Legevfemizm kak taktika ukhoda ot pravovykh riskov v novostnykh internet-izdaniyakh [Legeuphemisms as a
tactics of legal risks avoidance in news Internet media]. Vestnik KemGU – Bulletin of Kemerovo state university, 2012, vol. 3, no. 4 (52), pp. 159–162 (in Russian).
( 411.87 kB ) 
( 405.61 kB )
Issue: 3, 2016
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: ACTUAL PROBLEMS OF COGNITIVE-DISCURSIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 15 — 19
Downloads: 352