英語本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)（論文）英語委婉語語用分析及其在文學(xué)翻譯中的運(yùn)用

1、本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計(jì)）題 目： a pragmatic analysis of english euphemism and its application to literary translation 英語委婉語語用分析及其在文學(xué)翻譯中的運(yùn)用 院 系： 專 業(yè)： 英語（翻譯） 學(xué)生姓名： 學(xué) 號： 指導(dǎo)老師： （職 稱）二九年 四月abstractenglish euphemism is very popular in our daily communication, especially in dialogues. as we can see from dictionaries, it r

2、efers to a way of speaking good words so that speakers can achieve the goal of communication instead of offending others. as regards english euphemism, we focus on the reflection of politeness in a speech environment. developing from a cultural background in english countries, english euphemism has

3、its distinctive formation, pragmatic functions and other relevant features. with a comprehensive analysis of these aspects, the author will try to apply the findings to translation studies. euphemism can be found in literature, which calls for a correct understanding of its functions and usage. with

4、out proficient knowledge of euphemism, readers cannot taste the deep feeling of speakers or narrators in literature. for a translator of literary works, it is very important to compare different pragmatic functions between english and chinese versions. only in this way can he achieve a good translat

5、ion of euphemism. led by the previous studies of english euphemism, this dissertation will continue with the discussion about its application to literary translation from the perspectives of culture, grammar, lexis, context and rhetorical effects. then based on the results, suggestions are proposed

6、to achieve a better understanding of literary works and above all to improve the quality of literary translation. key words: english euphemism, pragmatic function, literary translation摘要英語委婉語普遍出現(xiàn)在人們的日常交流中，尤其應(yīng)用于對話。通過查閱委婉語的含義，我們可以發(fā)現(xiàn)，說話人采用婉轉(zhuǎn)言辭表達(dá)事實(shí)或個(gè)人看法，以便達(dá)到交際目的，避免冒犯他人。談及英語委婉語，我們關(guān)注它在言語環(huán)境中所體現(xiàn)的禮貌原則。英語委婉語在

7、英語國家的文化背景下產(chǎn)生，因而有其獨(dú)特的構(gòu)成、語用功能以及其它特征。通過對這些領(lǐng)域進(jìn)行全面分析，筆者嘗試把相關(guān)知識應(yīng)用到筆譯研究領(lǐng)域。文學(xué)作品經(jīng)常會出現(xiàn)委婉語，這一現(xiàn)象要求我們正確理解它的功能和使用方法。倘若缺乏委婉語的相應(yīng)知識，讀者無法體會文學(xué)作品中說話人或講述人的深層含義。對于文學(xué)翻譯的工作者，他們更需要比較文學(xué)作品中英兩個(gè)版本委婉語的語用功能。只有這樣，他們能打造出更為完善的翻譯作品。基于前人對英語委婉語的研究，本文將繼續(xù)深入討論，從文化、語法、語境以及修辭效果等方面探究英語委婉語在文學(xué)翻譯中的應(yīng)用，并根據(jù)分析結(jié)果，提出一些建議，從而幫助讀者更好地理解文學(xué)作品，更重要的是提高筆譯質(zhì)量。關(guān)

8、鍵詞: 英語委婉語 語用功能 文學(xué)翻譯contentschapter one introduction11.1 background information.11.2 research questions.11.3 organization of the dissertation.2chapter two literature review32.1 definitions of english euphemism32.2 formation of english euphemism32.2.1 phonetic device42.2.2 lexical device42.2.3 grammat

9、ical device42.2.4 figurative device42.2.5 pragmatic device52.3 euphemism and pragmatic functions52.3.1 taboo52.3.2 avoiding vulgarity62.3.3 beautification62.3.4 concealing62.3.5 humor72.4 principles of using euphemism72.4.1 the cooperative principle72.4.2 the politeness principle9chapter three resea

10、rch methods123.1 an analysis of various sources123.2 case studies and contextual analysis123.3 research process13chapter four case studies and discussion144.1 case one: a dream of red mansions144.2 case two: pride and prejudice204.3 results and summary224.3.1 summary of pragmatic functions224.3.2 th

11、e cooperative principle and the politeness principle234.3.3 summary of factors in translating euphemism234.3.4 suggestions for translating euphemism24chapter five conclusion255.1 summary255.2 limitations25bibliography26acknowledgements28chapter one introduction1.1 background knowledgeenglish euphemi

12、sm is often used in our daily communication, where inoffensive words are used to replace the offensive ones so that communication can be harmonized. the word “euphemism” originates in ancient greek, with “eu” meaning “well, pleasant, good” and “-pheme” meaning “speech, saying”. thus the word “euphem

13、ism” literally means “pleasant speech”. english euphemism is a way of expressing facts and opinions in the process of social communication. without a proper use of euphemism, effective communication in english would be difficult or even impossible. this is regarded as the communicative function of e

14、nglish euphemism. also, we can find many examples in written works. take literature as an example. in order to harmonize the interpersonal relationship, people in the stories often employ euphemism during their talks. as for the narration part, writers tend to use it as a tool to convey a message fo

15、r readers to guess. literary translators, while constrained by the rules of literary translation, should pay special attention to the euphemisms in literary works and try to produce proper translations, which requires a study of linguistic devices, pragmatic functions, cultural differences and other

16、 related aspects. 1.2 research questionsthe aim of this dissertation is to examine the formation, principles and functions of english euphemism in order to evaluate the quality of literary translation. a research will be conducted to find out the answers to the following questions:(1)what factors co

17、ntribute to the formation of english euphemism?(2)what pragmatic functions are fulfilled in euphemism?(3)how can pragmatic analysis of euphemism be applied to literary translation? 1.3 organization of the dissertationthis dissertation consists of five parts. chapter one is a brief introduction to en

18、glish euphemism including why and how it occurs. in chapter two, the previous studies on euphemisms will be presented: (1) existing studies of english euphemism in terms of its definitions and formation; (2) theoretical researches presented with pragmatic analysis including violation of the cooperat

19、ive principle and adaptation of the politeness principle. in chapter three and chapter four, the author will try to correlate the findings in chapter two with literary translation. case studies will be taken as the major research method in this part. in the research, we find that translation of engl

20、ish euphemism should be based on its pragmatic functions in a sense. during the process, the research will be conducted with the following factors taken into consideration, including grammatical, lexical, cultural, rhetorical and contextual factor. then the author will summarize the results of the d

21、iscussion and analysis. suggestions will be given to better comprehend the euphemisms found in literary works and evaluate the quality of target texts.in the end, a conclusion will be drawn from the studies above. the author believes that the pragmatic analysis of euphemism will contribute to assess

22、ing and improving the quality of literary translation.chapter two literature reviewin this chapter, a comprehensive review of existing theories related to english euphemism will be presented with relevant examples. the first section will state different definitions of english euphemism and summarize

23、 its significant purpose. the second section will focus on its formation, which will be divided into five devices. the third section will analyze the pragmatic functions of english euphemism. the last section will state two principles which are related to the use of euphemism. 2.1 definitions of eng

24、lish euphemismdifferent people have different ideas about what english euphemism is. some of the definitions are listed as follows. according to wikipedia, “a euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to t

25、he listener, or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker” (net.1.). enright (1985) submits, “euphemizing is generally defined as substituting an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words”. from the

26、definitions were exposed to the significance of using english euphemism. the use of euphemism can make unpleasant things sound better and leave a good impression on listeners in the course of communication.2.2 formation of english euphemismguo yuhong (2007) and chen haiyan (2007) have summarized sev

27、eral devices. basically, five devices contribute to the formation of euphemism, including phonetic, lexical, grammatical, figurative and pragmatic device. 2.2.1 phonetic device phonetic device refers to the method of neglecting or changing the sound of a word. for example, we use “jc” to replace “je

28、sus christ”, “g-man” for “garbage men” and “sam” for “surface to air missile”. this can be defined as abbreviation. whats more, we use “pee-pee” for “piss” and “blurry” for “bloody”. this can be defined as phonetic distortion. 2.2.2 lexical device lexical device refers to the use of vague expression

29、s, synonyms and loan words. it is considered to be the most common method to create euphemism. we use “a growth” instead of “cancer” and we use the phrase “three sheets in the wind” to imply someone is drunk. in the sentence “he is tight with his money” the word “tight” is used instead of “frugal” s

30、o that the speaker can reach the goal of euphemism.2.2.3 grammatical device grammatical device includes negation, ellipsis and other devices in english. “you want to tell me, and i have no objection to hearing it.” from this sentence in pride and prejudice we know the speaker is actually unwilling t

31、o hear it. the writer adopts the negation device to express her implied meaning. 2.2.4 figurative devicefigurative device refers to the use of metaphor, analogy, metonymy and periphrasis, etc. if a person is a cleaner, we tend to say he is a “sanitary engineer”. when someone is “in a stew”, he is ve

32、ry angry and anxious. as for periphrasis, we can say someone is “visually retarded”, implying hes blind. there are some other methods like synecdoche and metaphor. for example, “his father was buried under this stone” (cemetery). 2.2.5 pragmatic device pragmatic device refers to delivering an indire

33、ct speech. for example, we say “can you close the window?” to indicate the imperative “please close the window”. based on the devices mentioned above, we tend to conclude that people try to use these devices to make a polite statement so that the communication is conducted in a better way.2.3 euphem

34、ism and pragmatic functionseuphemism is frequently introduced on formal and informal occasions to avoid unnecessary embarrassment and maintain a comfortable atmosphere. zhu guiping (2001), lu changhuai (2003), zhang li (2005), deng fang (2006) and guo yuhong (2007) have listed several pragmatic func

35、tions of euphemism. basically, there are five pragmatic functions including taboo, avoiding vulgarity, concealing, beautification and humor. 2.3.1 taboodifferent cultures in different countries lead to the existence of their own linguistic taboo. in this part, two aspects will be presented to briefl

36、y introduce the first function. taboo of deaththousands of expressions can be found to replace the meaning of “die”. here are some examples: “to go to sleep”, “to pass away”, “to be gone to a better place”, “to be at rest”, “to be with god”, “to be safe in the arms of jesus”, “to close ones days”, “

37、to be no more”, “to pay the debt of nature”, “to lay down ones life”, “to do ones bit”, “to make the ultimate” and “to fire ones last shot”, etc. taboo of ageusually old people are gently called “senior citizens” and old teachers are given the title of “experienced professors”. we can also find many

38、 other expressions like “golden ager” and “seasoned men”. 2.3.2 avoiding vulgarityif we say she is “plump”, actually she is “fat”. similarly, if someone says she is “plain and homely”, she may be “ugly” in fact.2.3.3 beautificationmen usually say a girl is “slender” or “slim” to imply she is “skinny

39、”. if a teacher finds a student cheating in class, she may say “the student is depending on others to do his work”. the purpose of using euphemism in this situation is to avoid the violation of the students dignity and to educate the student in a positive way. in this way, the student will not feel

40、hurt or discouraged. 2.3.4 concealingthis function means that we change a bad thing into a totally good one, which can be found especially in political issues because governments or politicians often take it as their political means. for example, during world war ii, “slaughter of the jews” was call

41、ed “depopulation”. similarly, “genocide” was taken as “final solution”. moreover, “iraq war” was demonstrated by the us government with the banner of “free iraq operation”.in our daily life words like “engineer” and “officer” are employed to enhance the status of their positions in their mind. here

42、are some examples. we use “automobile engineer” for “mechanic” and “footwear maintenance engineer” for “bootblack”. 2.3.5 humorthis function enables people to accept the unpleasant reality. for example, a man is in jail and his cellmate comforts him by saying “it doesnt matter, because we are living

43、 at governments expense”. “to live at governments expense” reveals a kind of humor in this context.2.4 principles of using english euphemismbased on the analysis of pragmatic functions of english euphemism, we can find that they have much to do with the following two principles: the cooperative prin

44、ciple and the politeness principle. 2.4.1 the cooperative principle“the american philosopher grice (1975) noticed that in our daily communication people do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them” (see hu 2006:190). he raises the cooperative principle or cp for short, arguing that spe

45、akers and listeners stick to some rules in order to reach their communication goals. grice points out the cooperative principle, which means that you should “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk e

46、xchange in which you are engaged” (1975:45). in order to explain this theory, he introduces four categories of maxims as follows: quantity, quality, relation and manner. quantity maxim1. make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). 2. do not make y

47、our contribution more informative than is required. however, as we learn the usage of english euphemism, we seem to find out its opposite opinion in our daily communication. as is mentioned above, we use “jc” to replace “jesus christ”. in a sense, this usage violates the quantity maxim. here is anot

48、her example. piggy: david, do you think we can win the match tomorrow?david: if we should fail, go to.! (see luo 2007)we can infer from davids response that he wants to say “go to hell”, which is considered a bit rude or impolite. so the speaker is induced to say like this although it will lead to i

49、nadequate information. listeners can still understand the whole meaning.quality maximtry to make your contribution one that is true and two more specific maxims:1. do not say what you believe to be false.2. do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.luo argues that in order to beautify the

50、 meaning of a certain position, people usually dont say a “garbage collector” but a “solid ecologist”. in political life, we can find more “guest workers” rather than “foreign laborers”. here is another example. piggy: david, im going to the cinema tonight. would you like to come with me?david: id l

51、ove to, but i cant. ill do my homework at home. (see luo 2007)in this dialogue we can see obviously that david tries to decline piggys invitation in a more polite way. he doesnt say “no, i dont want to come”. instead he expresses his willingness and gives his reason. in a sense, the usage of this se

52、ntence violates the quality maxim.relation maximbe relevant piggy: how do you like my painting?david: i dont have an eye for beauty, im afraid. tom: all paintings are alike to me. (see luo 2007)from what david says, we know he doesnt like the painting. from toms words, we find that he is not good at

53、 enjoying paintings. although literally these two answers have nothing to do with the question, we can still get the implied meaning from the statement. in this way, english euphemism violates the relation maxim. manner maximbe perspicuous.1. avoid obscurity of expression. 2. avoid ambiguity. 3. be

54、brief (avoid prolixity). 4. be orderly.from the definitions and features of euphemism, we can find that “the pragmatic function of concealing reflects the violation of the cooperative principle, including the four maxims” (hu 2005). in actual situation people do not always obey the rules of the cp b

55、ecause sometimes they need to express their ideas in an implied way. based on the analysis, the author can draw the conclusion that english euphemism violates the cp, as can be seen in its formation and pragmatic functions. 2.4.2 the politeness principlein daily communication people sometimes cannot

56、 help violating the cp because they want to avoid hurting others. so we are supposed to find out the importance of the politeness principle or pp for short, which was pointed out by leech in 1983. in general there are two aspects:1. to minimize the expression of impolite beliefs2. to maximize the ex

57、pression of polite beliefsthis principle agrees with the communicative function of english euphemism. leech points out six maxims listed as follows. sympathy maxim1. minimize antipathy between self and other2. maximize sympathy between self and otherhere comes a paragraph of an article from new york times on june 24, 1974.