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The thesis includes the introduction of euphemism and analysis of euphemism in Desperate Housewives. First, the thesis briefly introduces the definition and the origins of euphemism, and some studies about euphemism in the western countries and China. Then, the thesis selects some examples in the series Desperate Housewives and analyzes why people use such euphemism in some situations according to some topics, and later analyzes some reasons about euphemism, such as personal, cultural and social factors, and last makes an conclusion of the whole thesis, pointing out the purpose of using euphemism, giving some
suggestions on it. It aimed to help people minimize the mistakes or even do not make mistakes and realize what will be gained in the wrong. It will help people express something impolite or unpleasant successfully and carry on the communication.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Euphemism
Euphemism is widely used in the world. Previously, the word “euphemism” originates from the Greek, “eu” means “good” or “well” and “pheme” means “speech” or “saying, so the word “euphemisms” means speaking in a pleasant way. In this case, euphemism can literally mean using good words to speak. Hugh Rawson (Rawson 32) wrote that the effect of euphemism on our language is so important that almost all of us, including those who think they themselves speak plainly, use them everyday. From then on, euphemism has been defined from different point of views of many linguists in different dictionaries and books. Some representative versions are cited below: “A euphemism is used as all alternative to a impolite expression, in order to avoid to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or, through giving offence, that of the audience, or of some third party.”(Allan and Burridge 18). The use of a pleasanter, less direct name for something thought to be unpleasant, Hugh Rawson (Rawson 81) says: “Euphemism is society’s basic lingua franca. As such, they are outward and visible signs of our inward anxieties, conflicts, fears and shames. They are like radioactive isotopes. By tracing them, it is possible to see what has been and is going on in our language. According to the definition above, “euphemism” is not restricted to lexical level because it is defined as “expression” and “way”. Therefore, we can apply many linguistic methods to learn euphemism.论文网
The research into euphemism has a long history both at home and abroad. It has been arousing wide attention and interest among scholars. Throughout history, studies can be found a long time ago, in 1958, the word euphemism was first created and defined it as a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word, afterwards, the British linguist Hugh Rawson compiled and published A Dictionary of Euphemisms (Rawson 65-88) and other Doubletalk, which is a
comprehensive manifestation of year’s studies done by British and American linguists. In China, since 1970s, many scholars found great interest in the studies of the social function of euphemism. In the following decades, inspired western countries, many Chinese scholars also make great contributions in the academic field, such as Li Guonan’s (Li 1-32) Euphemism in English in 1989, which exerts great influence on people’s understanding of euphemistic phenomenon. In summary, the study on euphemism has achieved a lot in the recent years.
But the researches mentioned above are mainly concentrated on study. In daily life, people have to use polite words when they meet some unpleasant topics, so there are different expressions in different subjects. This thesis selects the hot series which is close to people’s life and aims to use lines in the series Desperate Housewives to analyze euphemism from the perceptive in personal, cultural and social reasons.