2.2.5. Understatement
That is to state some serious things in a temperate way in order to avoid being awkward and strident[9] . For example, “She was neither quite pretty nor quiet plain.” “Plain” is used instead of “ugly”; “My cousin Jimmy was a bit soft in the head.” “Soft in the head” means “mad”; “The boy used to take things without permission and has just been out of the rehabilitation home in the country.” (steal, detention home); the period of economic depression→a period of economic adjustment; money for bribery→kickback, commission; poor families→low income families; falling behind→less advanced; retarded children→less able children; an ugly girl→a plain or homely girl; disabled→physically handicapped; to be ill→to look off color, to feel unwell or uncomfortable; treatment→health care; old age→advanced in age.
2.3. The variety of pronunciation and spelling form
English is an alphabetic writing. The variation of phonetic form can avoid the original conception in a certain degree and achieve the purpose of euphemism. 1) Compounding: gezunda (goes under). 2) Acronym: DA (drug addict), KG (know gambler), B.O.T (balance of time), J.D (juvenile delinquent), P and Q (peace and quiet). 3) Back-formation: burgle (burgler) 4) chipping: vamp (vampire), homo (homosexual), gents (Gentlemen’s Room), and ladies (Ladies Room)[10].
There is an interesting example: “laboratory”, the original stress was on the first syllable. But it sounded similarly to “lavatory”. In order to avoid the unpleasant connection, the stress was moved to the second syllable. Such phenomenon is called Assonance. That is to make use of or to create words, which have the same or similar pronunciations with euphemistic words in order to achieve the purpose of euphemism. Therefore, in English there is a way of personification to express “catamenia”: The captain is at home. It is because “captain” is assonant with the medical science term “catamenia”. In oral English, “pee” is used to refer to “piss”, which has the same reason.
2.4. Grammar
That is to use past tense, negative sentence to express euphemism. For example, I can see by your face that you don’t think that was wise. The negative form means “thinking that was foolish”; “How do we feel today?” Using “we” instead of “you” shows the moderation and geniality. “I wanted to…” “I wondered…” often take the place of “I want to…” “I wonder…” Such expression is often used in oral English.[11]
3 The Social Influences of Euphemism
Euphemism is widely used in America and Britain. It has a long history. New euphemisms emerge in an endless stream. According to its applied functions, I’d like to divide it into three parts: Avoidance, Courtesy and Disguise. Through studying the three functions, we can understand the western society’s view on value and morality.
3.1. Avoidance
The earliest subject of Euphemism is religious[12]. The conception of taboo is deep-rooted in people’s mind, and it is not easy to remove. The appearance of taboo could date back to ancient Greek and ancient Roman. In human’s eyes God owns a super power that could control everything. Because fearing of the secret power, People use euphemism to avoid mentioning the guilty, unpleasant, rude or offensive words, which plays a role of purifying languages. For example, European Americans avoid speaking “Friday” and “13”. When the two things appear in the same day, it is an ill omen. And there is an example: there appeared an episode in 1972 when President Nicoson visited China. Chinese Premier Zhou went to Shanghai to receive American visitors. He found that Mr. and Mrs. Nicoson were arranged to live in Room15, Kissinger in Room14, but some state councilors in Room13? The Western people often take Number 13 as a taboo. After entering their apartments, Premier Zhou was aware that these Western visitors seemed unhappy. So he explained:” it is a pity that we have made a serious mistake. We ignored the special Western culture.” He continued,” There was an old Chinese fable that when a man was afraid of ghost, the more he thought, the more he felt terrified. At the time he felt no fear, he began to look for the ghost, but the ghost disappeared…Number 13 in Western culture looked like the Chinese ghost.” Hearing his story, the American visitors laughed heartily. At last they cooled down. From this example, we can realize the necessity of the cultural infiltration in language communication. So we must pay attention to the social influence of euphemism. This avoidance function is the first communication function of euphemisms[13]. Such function is often used in the following situations:
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