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
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Issue: 3, 2016
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: ACTUAL PROBLEMS OF COGNITIVE-DISCURSIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 15 — 19
Downloads: 988