英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)的概念隱喻研究

1、學(xué)校代碼：10254密 級(jí)：論文編號(hào)：0上海海事大學(xué)SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY碩士學(xué)位論文MASTER DISSERTATION論文題目： 英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)的概念隱喻研究 學(xué)科專業(yè)： 英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)（語(yǔ)言學(xué)） 作者姓名： 李 鵬 指導(dǎo)教師： 鄭立信 教授 完成日期： 二九年六月 A Conceptual Metaphor Study of English EuphemismsBy Li Peng Under the Supervision of Professor Zheng LixinA Thesis Submitted to the College of Foreig

2、n Languages of Shanghai Maritime Universityin Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the MA Degree Shanghai Maritime UniversityJune, 2009Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsi摘要iiABSTRACTivChapter One Introduction1Chapter Two A General Review of Studies on Euphemism42.1 Understanding of Euphemism42.

3、1.1 Definitions of Euphemism42.1.2 History of Euphemism62.1.3 Features of Euphemism82.1.3.2 Vagueness82.1.3.3 Variability92.1.3.4 Indirectness92.1.4 Formation of Euphemism102.1.4.1Phonetic Approach102.1.4.2Lexical Approach112.1.4.3 Grammatical Approach122.1.5 Classifications of Euphemism132.1.5.1 Eu

4、phemistic Expressions in a Narrow Sense142.1.5.2 Euphemistic Expressions in a Broad Sense152.2 Previous Studies of Euphemism from Different Perspectives162.2.1Rhetoric and Fuzzy Linguistics162.2.2 Semantics and Pragmatics172.2.3Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics182.2.4Limitations of the Previous

5、 Studies19Chapter Three Theoretical Framework of This Study: Conceptual Metaphor203.1 General Description of Cognitive Linguistics203.1.1 Cognitive Linguistics Divergence from Generative Linguistics in Metaphor213.1.2 Three Approaches within Cognitive Linguistics213.1.3 Experiential Realism: Philoso

6、phy of Cognitive Linguistics223.2 A General Review of the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor223.2.1 Traditional Approaches to Metaphor233.2.2 Cognitive Approach to Metaphor: the Conceptual Metaphor243.2.2.1 The Three Main Characteristics of Metaphor253.2.2.2 Metaphor as a Mapping across Domains263.2.2.3

7、The Experiential Basis of Metaphor283.2.3 Classification of Metaphor29Chapter Four Conceptual Metaphor Mechanism of the Understanding of English Semantic Euphemisms304.1 The Application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in English Euphemisms304.1.1The Systematicity Character of Metaphorical Concepts314.

8、1.2 Highlighting and Hiding Effect of Mapping324.1.3 The Application of Systematicity and Its Highlighting and Hiding Effect in English Euphemisms334.2The Internal Semantic Construction of English Euphemisms354.2.1. Semantic Conflicts364.2.2 Similarity384.2.3 Exchanging of Images40Chapter Five Metap

9、horical Mechanism of the Understanding of English Grammatical Euphemisms425.1 Pragmatic Interpretation of the Euphemisms Formed by Grammatical Approaches435.1.1 Politeness Theory435.1.1.1 Brown & Levinsons Politeness Theory445.1.1.2 Politeness Strategies455.1.2 Pragmatic Interpretation of Grammatica

10、l Euphemisms455.2 Spatial Metaphor Interpretation of the Euphemisms Formed by Grammatical Approaches475.2.1 TIME-AS-SPACE Metaphor485.2.1.1 Time Passing Is Motion along Horizontal Axis495.2.1.2 Time Passing Is Motion along Vertical Axis515.2.2 The Application of TIME-AS-SPACE Metaphor to Euphemisms5

11、1Chapter Six Conclusion546.1 Significance546.2Limitations56Bibliography57AcknowledgementsMy sincere thanks, first of all, go to my supervisor, Professor Zheng Lixin. The insightful suggestions, careful comments and serious criticisms he gave me during the process of writing have made the accomplishm

12、ents of this thesis possible. I am as well deeply indebted to Professor Zheng Lixin for his continuous encouragement and guidance, which are conductive to the completion of my thesis. My thanks for his patience and kindness can never be fully expressed. My deep thanks also go to Professor Cai Yongli

13、ang, from whom I have learned a lot not only knowledge but also his academic attitude. I also give my gratitude to Professor Shang Xin from whom I draw the inspiration of this thesis and Professor Zhang Yan for her leading me into the realm of cognitive linguistics. My warm thanks go to friends and

14、classmates of mine as well for their valuable materials, ideas and encouragements. I would also like to avail myself of this opportunity to give my sincere gratitude to my parents. Their love and understanding enable me to make the desirable achievements in the past years.摘要委婉語(yǔ)是一種迂回的表達(dá)方式，它以間接、含蓄、愉悅的

15、說(shuō)法代替直截了當(dāng)、令人不悅的說(shuō)法，它是調(diào)節(jié)人際關(guān)系、使社會(huì)溝通順暢的手段。正如Rawson (1981)所說(shuō)，委婉語(yǔ)“滲透到我們的語(yǔ)言深處，沒(méi)有哪個(gè)人包括那些自詡言談最為直截了當(dāng)?shù)娜藳](méi)有一天不使用委婉語(yǔ)?！弊鳛橐环N如此普遍的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象，委婉語(yǔ)一直是國(guó)內(nèi)外學(xué)者研究的熱點(diǎn)。關(guān)于委婉語(yǔ)的研究在修辭學(xué)、語(yǔ)義學(xué)、社會(huì)語(yǔ)言學(xué)、心理語(yǔ)言學(xué)、模糊語(yǔ)言學(xué)、語(yǔ)用學(xué)等諸多方面均取得很大的進(jìn)展，然而，在新興的認(rèn)知語(yǔ)言學(xué)領(lǐng)域，尤其是在概念隱喻理論的框架下，對(duì)委婉語(yǔ)的研究卻相對(duì)較少。從委婉語(yǔ)的構(gòu)成手段來(lái)看，語(yǔ)義構(gòu)成手段比較典型，而且由此類手段構(gòu)成的委婉語(yǔ)的數(shù)量較多；而語(yǔ)音手段和語(yǔ)法手段所構(gòu)成的委婉語(yǔ)在數(shù)量上相對(duì)較少，在整個(gè)

16、委婉語(yǔ)的范疇中處于邊緣地位, 相應(yīng)的對(duì)其研究也寥寥無(wú)幾?；谝陨纤岬降奈裾Z(yǔ)研究方面的問(wèn)題，本文作者運(yùn)用認(rèn)知語(yǔ)言學(xué)中的概念隱喻理論對(duì)英語(yǔ)中語(yǔ)義和語(yǔ)法兩類委婉語(yǔ)進(jìn)行研究，試圖總結(jié)出英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)內(nèi)在意義構(gòu)建的方法及其認(rèn)知理?yè)?jù)。隱喻本質(zhì)上是一種認(rèn)知現(xiàn)象。認(rèn)知語(yǔ)言學(xué)者提出概念隱喻這一說(shuō)法并認(rèn)為人們常以一個(gè)概念去認(rèn)知、理解和構(gòu)建另一概念。同時(shí)，隱喻又是一種間接性的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象，這就為闡釋同樣以間接性為根本特點(diǎn)的委婉語(yǔ)現(xiàn)象提供了依據(jù)。本論文分為六章：第一章將簡(jiǎn)明地闡述論文的寫作動(dòng)機(jī)、研究方法及論文主要構(gòu)成；第二章概述英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)的定義、歷史，特點(diǎn)，構(gòu)成方式及分類問(wèn)題，回顧委婉語(yǔ)在國(guó)內(nèi)外的研究歷史及應(yīng)用于委婉語(yǔ)研

17、究的主要理論；第三章重點(diǎn)介紹本文的理論框架，即概念隱喻的發(fā)展、主要特點(diǎn)及分類。第四、五章是全文的重點(diǎn)章節(jié)也是本研究的新意所在。作者將會(huì)以認(rèn)知語(yǔ)言學(xué)的概念隱喻為理論基礎(chǔ)，分別對(duì)語(yǔ)義類委婉語(yǔ)和語(yǔ)法類委婉語(yǔ)的內(nèi)在意義構(gòu)建進(jìn)行認(rèn)知闡述。第四章在對(duì)語(yǔ)義類委婉語(yǔ)的分析中，筆者主要將從隱喻理論在英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)的應(yīng)用中總結(jié)出潛在于委婉語(yǔ)下的認(rèn)知理?yè)?jù)；第五章對(duì)于對(duì)語(yǔ)法類委婉語(yǔ)的分析，筆者將運(yùn)用空間隱喻對(duì)其如何達(dá)到委婉效果加以闡釋。第六章總結(jié)全文并說(shuō)明本研究的意義及其存在的局限性。關(guān)鍵詞：概念隱喻，英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)，映射，空間隱喻ABSTRACT Euphemisms are roundabout expressions,

18、 substituting indirect, vague, pleasant and mild words for more explicit and offensive ones. Using of euphemisms is the strategy of harmonizing interpersonal relationship and smoothing social communication. As Rawson (1981) puts it, euphemisms “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us,

19、even those who pride themselves on being plain-spoken, ever go through a day without them”. As such a pervasive phenomenon, euphemism has always been the focus of scholars home and abroad. And considerable achievements have been made in the scopes of rhetoric, semantics, psycholinguistics, socioling

20、uistics, pragmatics and fuzzy linguistics, etc. However, relatively fewer studies on euphemism have been conducted with the newly-developed cognitive linguistics, especially under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory. Furthermore, the previous studies on euphemism are mainly on the semantic e

21、uphemisms rather than that formed through grammatical approaches.According to the formation of English euphemism, the semantic forming approaches are typical and the number of the euphemisms formed by such approaches is big. Whereas the number of euphemisms formed by phonetic and grammatical approac

22、hes is small and such kind of euphemisms are in marginal position. Based on the above defects of euphemism researches, the author studies the two kinds of euphemisms, i.e. euphemisms formed with semantic approaches and euphemisms formed with grammatical approaches under the framework of conceptual m

23、etaphor theory and attempts to single out the cognitive motivation underlying them. As for motivation in this thesis, we define it as the most fundamental factor for the existing and developing of language symbols.Metaphor is a kind of cognitive phenomenon in nature. The cognitive linguists put forw

24、ard the term conceptual metaphor and consider that people always cognize, understand and construe a concept by use of another one. Meanwhile, metaphor is an indirect language phenomenon, which provides the basis to its interpretation of euphemism, the essential feature of which is indirectness as we

25、ll. This thesis consists of six parts. The first chapter is the introduction and the second chapter reviews the development and the previous studies of euphemism. Chapter three sets up the theoretical framework of the present study, namely, conceptual metaphor theory. Its development, main character

26、istics and classification are introduced.As the keystones of this thesis, chapter four and chapter five also carry the authors original ideas. Under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, the author explores the cognitive motivation underlying the semantic and grammatical euphemisms respective

27、ly. In chapter four while analyzing the euphemisms formed by semantic approaches, the author tries to single out the ways of the internal semantic construction underlying them through exploring the theoretical application of conceptual metaphor to euphemism. When it comes to grammatical euphemisms i

28、n chapter five, the spatial metaphor TIME AS SPACE is applied here to interpret how the expressions achieve a euphemistic effect. The last chapter sums up the whole thesis and discusses the contributions and limitations of the study.KEYWORDS: conceptual metaphor; English euphemism; mapping; spatial

29、metaphor Chapter One IntroductionEuphemisms, which originate from language taboos, are motivated by the desire to appease the mysterious forces that rule the universe and the strong motive to compliment or avoid offending others. With the development of human beings understanding of the universe as

30、well as the development of human society, euphemism has witnessed the changes of language use and has been widely used in different ways. Moreover, it has been studied from different perspectives as a common language phenomenon. For instance, the theories of rhetoric, semantics, psychology, pragmati

31、cs, and sociolinguistics, etc. have all been applied to the study of euphemism. However, the theories of cognitive linguistics have relatively been less used in our interpretation of euphemism. Therefore, this study of euphemism will be developed in a more detailed way from a cognitive perspective.S

32、o far, some cognitive theories like categorization, conceptual integration have been applied to the understanding of euphemism. However, conceptual metaphor theory has not been meticulously used as they have been studied. In this thesis, based on the previous studies, further study of euphemism will

33、 be conducted with a conceptual metaphor approach. We will attempt to employ the previous and current theories of conceptual metaphor to illustrate the cognitive motivation underlying the formation and working process of euphemisms so as to make the conceptual metaphor interpretation of euphemisms m

34、ore comprehensive. By taking the conceptual metaphor theory as the theoretical framework, the present thesis approves of the view that metaphor is essentially a mapping across conceptual domains; that metaphorical thinking is part of the cognitive processes through which the human mind conceptualize

35、s the world; that underlying the numerous linguistic expressions of the metaphor, there is a huge coherent system of conceptual metaphors operating without our consciousness and organizing our thinking. (Lan Chun, 2003:1) Since space enjoys an important position as a foundational category both in la

36、nguage and philosophy, and since the human conception of space seems to structure other parts of the conceptual system through metaphorical mappings, this study chooses to use spatial metaphors as well, which can give a non-spatial concept a spatial orientation, to interpret the distance constructed

37、 by time, i.e. the past time, which is one of the grammatical approaches to form euphemisms and gives the hearer the sense of remoteness thus achieve the euphemistic effect.For studying cognitive motivation underlying the formation and the internal semantic construction of euphemisms, the data of eu

38、phemisms formed by the semantic approaches is mainly collected from Liu Chunbaos A Dictionary of English Euphemism (2001), which contains over 8000 carefully chosen items, most of which are attached with items accounting for the source and usage. As for the euphemisms formed by the grammatical appro

39、aches, we choose to explain pairs of euphemistic expressions which are generally acknowledged.The research methodology adopted in our thesis is one of the cognitive methods- observation and introspection. Observation involves observing subjects in their natural habitats. Researchers pay great attent

40、ion to avoid interfering with the behavior. In other words, researchers study events as they occur naturally, without intervention. In this thesis, the author observes the data mainly in Liu Chunbaos A Dictionary of English Euphemism (2001). Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of con

41、scious inner thoughts, desires and sensations. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining ones own thoughts, feelings. By observing and analyzing the euphemisms in our data, we attempt to find out some rules from them and the cognitive motiva

42、tion underlying them.The present thesis is composed of six parts. Following chapter one of introduction, chapter two reviews the development, history, formation, features and classifications of English euphemisms meanwhile we will also have a general review of the previous and present studies of eup

43、hemisms from the perspectives of rhetoric and fuzzy linguistics, pragmatics, semantics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics in this chapter. Chapter three sets up the theoretical framework for our study by discussing conceptual metaphor theory. Since the cognitive approach to metaphor is an impor

44、tant component of cognitive linguistics, the general knowledge of cognitive linguistics will be introduced first. When coming to the conceptual metaphor, some well-known observations are integrated here and we prefer Lakoff & Johnsons (1980) that cognitive metaphor is basically a two-domain mapping

45、relationship. As a consequence, it is reasonable to study euphemism from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory, which can be concluded from the definitions of euphemism which indicating indirectness, the prominent feature of metaphor. Two kinds of euphemisms, namely euphemisms formed by the

46、semantic approaches and euphemisms formed by the grammatical approaches are analyzed respectively in the following two chapters.Chapter four accounts for the internal semantic constructing process of euphemisms formed by semantic approaches and illustrates how the conceptual metaphorical theory is a

47、pplied to the formation of euphemisms. Several factors of metaphorical mechanism, namely, semantic conflicts, similarity and imagery exchanging are used to the analysis on English euphemisms. Meanwhile, the systematicity of metaphor and its highlighting and hiding effect are applied to explore the c

48、ognitive motivation of euphemisms as well. As for the euphemisms formed by the grammatical approaches examined in Chapter five, spatial metaphor TIME-AS-SPACE is mainly used to represent the conceptualizing process which helps to form the euphemistic expressions. Space, an important notion in philos

49、ophy as well as in language, helps the human beings structure other parts of the conceptual system through metaphorical mappings. Therefore, this study chooses to use the conventional spatial metaphor, which can give a non-spatial concept a spatial orientation, to interpret the distance constructed

50、by time. The past time, as one of the grammatical approaches to form euphemisms, gives the hearer the sense of remoteness thus achieves the euphemistic effect.The last chapter is a general conclusion of our study. In this chapter, the significances and limitations are stated. Definitely, there must

51、be some aspects on the issue that are not completely developed and we look forward to more comprehensive study of euphemism in the future.Chapter Two A General Review of Studies on Euphemism2.1 Understanding of EuphemismIn order to understand euphemism better, we will have a general review of the ba

52、sic information about it, including definition, history, features, formation and classification of euphemism.2.1.1 Definitions of Euphemism The word “euphemism” stems from the Greek eu “good”, and pheme “speech” or “saying”, and thus means literally “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner”

53、. Euphemism is generally defined as the substitution of an inoffensive or pleasant term for a more explicit, offensive one, thereby veneering the truth by using kind words. (Neaman & Silver, 1983). It has to be admitted that the appearance of euphemism cannot be separated from the phenomenon of lang

54、uage taboo from which it originates. As Ronald Wardhough claims, “Certain things are not said, not because they cannot be, but because people do not talk about those things; or, if those things are talked about, they are talked about in very roundabout ways.” (Wardhough, 2000:45) “When people are un

55、willing but have to talk about the tabooed things and activities, they tend to employ the good, beautifully sounding words to replace the tabooed words. These beautifully sounding words are euphemisms.” (Chen Yuan, 2000: 350) In Bolingers eyes, euphemism is a name for something unpleasant producing

56、the same qualms as the unpleasant thing itself, and tends to be avoided. (Bolinger, 1975:256) Therefore, we can put euphemism as a language phenomenon which uses pleasant, mild or indirect expressions to replace the more accurate or direct terms. Besides the above quoted ones, some other definitions

57、 of euphemism in dictionaries are listed below, which can help us to have an in-depth understanding of it.1) The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt. (Websters Dictionary of American English, Random House, Inc. 1997)2) (An example of) the use of a pleasanter, less direct name for something thought to be pleasant. (Longman English-Chinese Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman Group UK Limited, 1988)3) A euphemism is a polite, pleasant, or neutral word