英语委婉语的概念隐喻研究本科毕设论文.doc

A Conceptual Metaphor Study of English Euphemisms

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上海海事大学
SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY
硕士学位论文
MASTER DISSERTATION

论文题目： 英语委婉语的概念隐喻研究
学科专业： 英语语言文学（语言学）

A Conceptual Metaphor Study of
English Euphemisms

By Li Peng
Under the Supervision of
Professor Zheng Lixin

A Thesis Submitted to the College of Foreign Languages of
Shanghai Maritime University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the MA Degree

Shanghai Maritime University
June, 2009

ii

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements i
摘要 ii
ABSTRACT iv
Chapter One Introduction 1
Chapter Two A General Review of Studies on Euphemism 4
2.1 Understanding of Euphemism 4
2.1.1 Definitions of Euphemism 4
2.1.2 History of Euphemism 6
2.1.3 Features of Euphemism 8
2.1.3.2 Vagueness 8
2.1.3.3 Variability 9
2.1.3.4 Indirectness 9
2.1.4 Formation of Euphemism 10
2.1.4.1Phonetic Approach 10
2.1.4.2Lexical Approach 11
2.1.4.3 Grammatical Approach 12
2.1.5 Classifications of Euphemism 13
2.1.5.1 Euphemistic Expressions in a Narrow Sense 14
2.1.5.2 Euphemistic Expressions in a Broad Sense 15
2.2 Previous Studies of Euphemism from Different Perspectives 16
2.2.1Rhetoric and Fuzzy Linguistics 16
2.2.2 Semantics and Pragmatics 17
2.2.3Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics 18
2.2.4Limitations of the Previous Studies 19
Chapter Three Theoretical Framework of This Study: Conceptual Metaphor 20
3.1 General Description of Cognitive Linguistics 20
3.1.1 Cognitive Linguistics’ Divergence from Generative Linguistics in Metaphor 21
3.1.2 Three Approaches within Cognitive Linguistics 21
3.1.3 Experiential Realism: Philosophy of Cognitive Linguistics 22
3.2 A General Review of the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor 22
3.2.1 Traditional Approaches to Metaphor 23
3.2.2 Cognitive Approach to Metaphor: the Conceptual Metaphor 24
3.2.2.1 The Three Main Characteristics of Metaphor 25
3.2.2.2 Metaphor as a Mapping across Domains 26
3.2.2.3 The Experiential Basis of Metaphor 28
3.2.3 Classification of Metaphor 29
Chapter Four Conceptual Metaphor Mechanism of the Understanding of English Semantic Euphemisms 30
4.1 The Application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in English Euphemisms 30
4.1.1The Systematicity Character of Metaphorical Concepts 31
4.1.2 Highlighting and Hiding Effect of Mapping 32
4.1.3 The Application of Systematicity and Its Highlighting and Hiding Effect in English Euphemisms 33
4.2The Internal Semantic Construction of English Euphemisms 35
4.2.1. Semantic Conflicts 36
4.2.2 Similarity 38
4.2.3 Exchanging of Images 40
Chapter Five Metaphorical Mechanism of the Understanding of English Grammatical Euphemisms 42
5.1 Pragmatic Interpretation of the Euphemisms Formed by Grammatical Approaches 43
5.1.1 Politeness Theory 43
5.1.1.1 Brown & Levinson’s Politeness Theory 44
5.1.1.2 Politeness Strategies 45
5.1.2 Pragmatic Interpretation of Grammatical Euphemisms 45
5.2 Spatial Metaphor Interpretation of the Euphemisms Formed by Grammatical Approaches 47
5.2.1 TIME-AS-SPACE Metaphor 48
5.2.1.1 Time Passing Is Motion along Horizontal Axis 49
5.2.1.2 Time Passing Is Motion along Vertical Axis 51
5.2.2 The Application of TIME-AS-SPACE Metaphor to Euphemisms 51
Chapter Six Conclusion 54
6.1 Significance 54
6.2Limitations 56
Bibliography 57

Acknowledgements

My 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 accomplishments 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 Yongliang, 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 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

委婉语是一种迂回的表达方式，它以间接、含蓄、愉悦的说法代替直截了当、令人不悦的说法，它是调节人际关系、使社会沟通顺畅的手段。正如Rawson (1981)所说，委婉语“渗透到我们的语言深处，没有哪个人－包括那些自诩言谈最为直截了当的人－没有一天不使用委婉语。”
作为一种如此普遍的语言现象，委婉语一直是国内外学者研究的热点。关于委婉语的研究在修辞学、语义学、社会语言学、心理语言学、模糊语言学、语用学等诸多方面均取得很大的进展，然而，在新兴的认知语言学领域，尤其是在概念隐喻理论的框架下，对委婉语的研究却相对较少。
从委婉语的构成手段来看，语义构成手段比较典型，而且由此类手段构成的委婉语的数量较多；而语音手段和语法手段所构成的委婉语在数量上相对较少，在整个委婉语的范畴中处于边缘地位, 相应的对其研究也寥寥无几。基于以上所提到的委婉语研究方面的问题，本文作者运用认知语言学中的概念隐喻理论对英语中语义和语法两类委婉语进行研究，试图总结出英语委婉语内在意义构建的方法及其认知理据。
隐喻本质上是一种认知现象。认知语言学者提出概念隐喻这一说法并认为人们常以一个概念去认知、理解和构建另一概念。同时，隐喻又是一种间接性的语言现象，这就为阐释同样以间接性为根本特点的委婉语现象提供了依据。
本论文分为六章：第一章将简明地阐述论文的写作动机、研究方法及论文主要构成；第二章概述英语委婉语的定义、历史，特点，构成方式及分类问题，回顾委婉语在国内外的研究历史及应用于委婉语研究的主要理论；第三章重点介绍本文的理论框架，即概念隐喻的发展、主要特点及分类。
第四、五章是全文的重点章节也是本研究的新意所在。作者将会以认知语言学的概念隐喻为理论基础，分别对语义类委婉语和语法类委婉语的内在意义构建进行认知阐述。第四章在对语义类委婉语的分析中，笔者主要将从隐喻理论在英语委婉语的应用中总结出潜在于委婉语下的认知理据；第五章对于对语法类委婉语的分析，笔者将运用空间隐喻对其如何达到委婉效果加以阐释。第六章总结全文并说明本研究的意义及其存在的局限性。

关键词：概念隐喻，英语委婉语，映射，空间隐喻

ABSTRACT

Euphemisms are roundabout expressions, 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, 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, sociolinguistics, 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 euphemisms 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 approaches 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 metaphor 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 forward 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 well.
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 characteristics and classification are introduced.
As the keystones of this thesis, chapter four and chapter five also carry the author’s original ideas. Under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, the author explores the cognitive motivation underlying the semantic and grammatical euphemisms respectively. 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 in 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 metaphor

A Conceptual Metaphor Study of English Euphemisms

Chapter One Introduction

Euphemisms, 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 being’s understanding of the universe as 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, pragmatics, 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.
So 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 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 more 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 conceptualizes 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 language 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 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 euphemisms formed by the semantic approaches is mainly collected from Liu Chunbao’s 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 approaches, we choose to explain pairs of euphemistic expressions which are generally acknowledged