A Pragmatic Study of Euphemism in English Political News

摘要

This paper mainly centers on the pragmatic analysis of English euphemism and its usages in the mainstream English political news. It begins with a brief introduction of English euphemism, followed by a relatively concrete description of the common formations of English euphemism and its pragmatic functions of achieving positively satisfactory communication consequences, together with the two important pragmatic principles that must be observed in practical applications in concrete contexts if certain pragmatic functions are to be effectively fulfilled. And the last part mainly concentrates on elaborating on the practical usages of English euphemisms in political news items, in which some examples are provided to illustrate the way English euphemisms are employed based on those pragmatic principles to fulfill certain functions and some methods of applications are offered to help the readers getting the hang of basic euphemistic theories and put them into practice in English political news concerning domestic and international affairs.