浅谈英语委婉语和伊拉克战争

浅谈英语委婉语和伊拉克战争

    [Abstract] Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon in the global culture. It plays an important part in our daily communication. As an indispensable and natural part of English language, English euphemism has been arousing wide interest by linguists and scholars from different perspectives. In the field of politics and war, using euphemism has become a strategy to lubricate the communication. This paper first briefly introduces the characteristics of the euphemism: universality, culture specificity, re-symbolism, obscurity and beautification; the communicative functions of euphemism: substitution, politeness, cover and aesthetics; and the communicative functions of euphemism on politics and war: to disguise the serious social problems, to cover political scandals, to distort the facts and violence of war and to present a false picture of peace. Then the paper mainly analyses the phenomenon of using euphemism by the Bush administration, media, military, Saddam Hussein administration and his officials during the Iraq War. Besides, it further explains the reasons of using euphemism in politics and war from the pragmatic and political points of view. Finally, the paper shows the covering and beautifying functions of euphemism in the war terms, and exposes how the euphemism is in the service of economics and politics.
    [Key Words] euphemism; politics and war euphemism; the Iraq War
    【摘 要】 委婉语是世界文化中普遍的语言现象,在日常生活中发挥着重要的作用。作为英语词汇中不可分割的一部分,英语委婉语一直引起语言学家和学者的广泛关注。在政治战争辞令中,委婉语体现的是一种交际策略,担负着“润滑”交际的重任。文章首先简要介绍了委婉语的五个特征:普遍性特征、文化具体性特征、言语象征性特征、模糊性特征、以及美化性特征;四个交际功能:避讳功能、礼貌功能、掩饰功能、以及美化功能;以及具体运用政治和战争委婉语所体现出来的三个主要的交际功能:掩盖严重的社会问题、掩盖政治丑闻、歪曲战争的残暴性以呈现社会和平的假景象。接着文章主要具体分析在2003年伊拉克战争期间,美国布什政府,媒体,军队,萨达姆政府以及其官方的言论中出现的委婉语现象。并从语用学和政治经济角度着手,分析战争辞令中使用委婉语的真正原因和意图。最后,文章揭示了战争委婉语的掩饰美化功能以及人们如何利用战争委婉语这一语言工具来为社会政治经济服务的目的。
    【关键词】 委婉语;政治战争委婉语;伊拉克战争
    1. Introduction
    The word euphemism is derived from the Greek word meaning “to speak favorably” or “good speech”. Euphemism is defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English—Chinese Dictionary (the Sixth Edition, 2004) as “an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer something embarrassing or unpleasant, something to make it more acceptable than it really is”. The Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (the First Edition, 2004) defines euphemism as “(an example of) the use of a pleasanter, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant”. In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1973), the definition of euphemism reads “substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”.
    The definitions above illustrate the general characteristic of euphemism---“the use of a pleasant, polite, or harmless sounding words or expressions to mask harsh, rude, or infamous truths”. [1]
    2. The characteristics of euphemism
    Euphemism, as a language phenomenon, has some special characteristics. According to Yan Meiying, the characteristics of euphemism can be generalized in five aspects. That is universality, culture specificity, re-symbolism, obscurity and beautification.    
    2.1  Universality
    Almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning directly. That is, nearly every culture has its own taboos. When such a notion or thing has to be referred to, the practice will be to substitute a different term or phrase that sounds better. “So we have euphemism in almost every language.” [2]
    2.2  Culture specificity
    The universality of euphemism means that euphemisms are not identical in different languages. Instead euphemism is relevant to culture. Notions, things, or taboos in different cultures are not necessarily the same. Therefore, the people’s attitudes towards them are different. It is another characteristic of euphemism that we call it “culture specificity”. “So to know the corresponding culture is essential to understand and use the euphemism properly.” [3]
    2.3  Re-symbolism
    From the definition of euphemism, we can know clearly that euphemism is using one expression to replace another. “That is to say, euphemism is a re-symbolizing of things, ideas, or events already symbolized with precision in mind. Therefore people can’t randomly utilize an expression to euphemize the taboos. The re-symbolizing should provide clues to catch the intended meaning of the taboos and should sound indirect or

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