EUPHEMISTIC/EUPHEMISM LANGUAGE

during our lesson in Critical Literacy Subject,

Mr Mark had taught us about the using of

EUPHEMISTIC/EUPHEMISM LANGUAGE

what is the meaning of 

Euphemistic/Euphemism Language???

 

1. The use of a word or phrase to replace another and that is considered less offensive or less vulgar than the word or phrase it replaces.
2. A word or phrase that is used to replace another in this way.

The hidden meaning of word UNIQUE is UGLY/HIDEOUS

A euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker. It also may be a substitution of a description of something or someone rather than the name, to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to be funny.

It is also a kind of linguistic dishonesty. Many euphemisms are so common, that we don’t even recognize them as such. Perhaps the best way to learn about euphemisms and their growth is to investigate some example like the toilet room (the word toilet was itself originally a euphemism).

Toilet room ?
bath room?

powder room ?
wash room ?
rest room?

There are dozens of euphemistic expressions with the implication of “die”, such as the words pass away, pass out, close one’s days, full sleep, join the great majority, pay the debt of nature, depart to god and so on. The place for the dead to sleep forever can be referred to with the common words like “mortuary” and “cemetery”. But most people do not like to use them, for it sounds too grieving and indifferent to discard the body of their beloved in such cold and damp place. Recently, more and more people began to use such euphemisms as “funeral home” and “memorial park” since the words “home” and “park” are more humane with some warm and tranquil implications.

This example depicts the rate of vocabulary change in English. Words grow out of fashion like any other consumer products. It is rather strange that euphemism is that part of English which is largely untaught but still very popular.

TYPES

Euphemism is classified into five types:

1. Shortening

When encountering words we dare not mention, we replace them with a shortened word. There are a number of different processes:

a. Abbreviation
Rawson (1983) states that words which may create dismay if used in public are acceptable when shortened to their initial letters e.g. B.S. (bullshit) and T.S. (transsexual). A shortened word such as Ladies (Ladies’ room) is also included in this type.

b. Apocopation
This process can be defined as the way to shorten or omit the last syllable of a word e.g. Vamp for Vampire (Shipley, 1977).

c. Backformation
According to Neaman and Silver (1983), to backform words refers to the substitution of one part of speech with a shortened form for another. The word burgle, which is derived from burglar, is a euphemism for rob.

d. Diminutive
This procedure is the formation of a new term by shortening a name and adding a suffix to indicate affection or smallness. For example, the word buttocks is euphemized by heinie which is the diminutive of hind end
(Williams, 1975).

e. Omission
This involves leaving out the letters of taboo words after the initial, such as f--- for having sex, or s--- instead of shit (Allan & Burridge, 1991).

f. Clipping
According to Shipley (1977), clipping is the deletion of some part of a longer word to give a shorter word with the same meaning e.g. nation (damnation), bra (brassiere), jeeze (Jesus Christ).

2. Circumlocution

Allan and Burridge (1991) call using longer expressions circumlocution. Euphemisms which have more letters and syllables are deployed in place of a single one. For instance, Middle Eastern dancing sounds better than belly dance. A little girl’s room means a toilet. Postconsumer secondary material is used instead of garbage.
Excrementitiously human kidney means urine, or solid human waste is a euphemism of feces.

3. Remodelling

The sound of words can be altered to conceal something that is offensive. This can involve a variety of processes of largely verbal play (Allan & Burridge, 1991, p. 3).

a. Phonological Distortion
Euphemism can be created when the speakers intentionally distort the pronunciation of words. For instance, expressions for Christ are pronounced cripes, crust, crumbs, and crockery. Also, hell is euphemized by heck or shit by shite or shoot.

b. Blending
Blending is formed by squeezing together two or more words both orthographically and phonetically, as in gezunda (a chamber pot), which is derived from the fact that this object goes under the bed (Williams, 1975). Alan and Burridge (1991) propose that most blendings involve portmanteau words, such as strewth (God’s truth), zounds (God’s wounds), and drat (God’s rot).

c. Reduplication
Reduplication, a repetition of a syllable or letter of a word, is particularly present in children’s bathroom vocabulary such as jeepers creeper (Jesus Christ), pee-pee (piss), twiddle-diddles (testicles), tuzzy muzzy (vagina), and rantum-scantum (copulate).

4. Semantic Change

A number of semantic processes can be tools to create new euphemisms:

a. Semantic shift
Semantic shift, with reference to Rawson (1983), is the substitution of the whole, or a similar generality, for the specific part we do not choose to discuss. For example, rear end becomes bottom, or to sleep with somebody is transformed into to go to bed with somebody. Additionally, Allan and Burridge (1991) propose the same strategy in euphemizing expressions into two categories: general-for-specific and part for-whole euphemisms. The general-for-specific strategy is a one-to-one substitution, such as the use of go to bed instead of having sex. The part-for whole euphemism is the reference to specific ideas such as when we need to go to the lavatory, we spend a penny. This derives from the payment for a public toilet of a penny.

b. Metaphorical transfer
 This procedure is a comparison of things of one order to things of another such as a comparison of one flower to another variety. Therefore, the word pimple is euphemized as blossom (Williams, 1975). Allan and Burridge (1991) exemplify metaphorical euphemism with Barber’s Cockney’s Lament (1979) where The cavalry’s come means I’ve got my period, and go to the happy hunting grounds is a euphemism for die. The hyperbole such as flight to glory can signify death.

c. Widening
When becoming too painful or vivid, a specific term is moved up in the ladder of abstraction. According to Williams (1975), widening minimizes the impact of semantic features of a word by moving up one level of generality to name a superordinate set, usually omitting the specific features that would unequivocally identify the referent e.g. growth (cancer), foundation (girdle), solid human waste (feces).

d. Liotes
This type of euphemism is created by replacing a word with the negative expression of its opposite. Thus, we may say untidy or unclean instead of dirty, not bad for fair, untruthful for lying, unwise for foolish (Brook, 1981).

e. Understatement
Understatement reduces the risk in showing an apparent meaning. For example, a nuclear reactor that is said to be above critical is actually out of control, and an active defense means an attack (Rawson, 1983). To exemplify further, Allan and Burridge (1991) provide the words sleep for die, and not bright for fool.

f. Indirection
Too touchy topics and terms may be alluded to in various ways by mentioning one aspect of the subject, a circumstance involving it, a related subject, or even by saying what it is not. An assembly center is an indirect euphemism for prison. Soldiers stop fighting when they break off contact with the enemy which means they retreat (Rawson, 1983 p. 12).

g. Abstraction
Some words (it, problem, situation, and thing) help cast ideas in the widest possible terms and make ideal cover-up words. For instance, an economic thing might refer to the state of slump, recession, or depression
(Rawson, 1983).

5. Borrowing

Using words borrowed from foreign languages to function as euphemisms is a common characteristic of many languages.

a. External Borrowing
According to Rawson (1983), most taboo words are usually rendered in French or Latin. For example, affaire, amour, and liaison are euphemisms for love; personnel, sortie, and triage for war, and brassiere, chemise; and lingerie for women’s underwear. In this case, Williams (1975) also suggests the idea of borrowing words from other languages which are less frighten with negative associations, e.g. halitosis from the Latin halitus meaning breath for bad breath and dead for /tai/ in Thai.

b. Internal Borrowing
Euphemisms can also be from different sublanguages such as jargons or technical terms. For instance, a disease such as syphilis can be made less offensive by using technical jargon as trepenemal disease, luetic disease, or spirachoetal disease (Allan & Burridge, 1991).

In summary, euphemism can be created through several linguistic methods. The most effective one is based on semantic procedures which affect the meaning of taboo words. Their meaning may be less direct, understated, or distorted.

USAGE

When a phrase is used as a euphemism, it often becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is dropped. Euphemisms may be used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas, even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive. This type of euphemism is used in public relations and politics, where it is sometimes called doublespeak. Sometimes, using euphemisms is equated to politeness

urmm but for my opinion using euphemism language somehow sound so cynical and hide the truth behind it even though we can please other and avoid to hurt someone feeling.

Lets watch this video by George Carlin to know more about the 

EUPHEMISM/EUPHEMISTIC LANGUAGE

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