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| Euphemism. There is a variety of periphrasis which shall caleuphemistic.
Euphemism, as is known, is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one, for example, the word ‘to die’ has bred the following euphemisms: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, and the more facetious ones: to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, to go west. So euphemisms are synonyms which aim at producing a deliberately mild effect. The origin of the term euphemism discloses the aim of the device very clearly, i.e. speaking well (from Greek – eu = well + pheme = speaking). In the vocabulary of any language, synonyms can be found that soften an otherwise coarse or unpleasant idea. Euphemism is sometimes figuratively called “a whitewashing device”. The linguistic peculiarity ofeuphemism lies in the fact that every euphemism must call up a definite synonym in the mind of the reader or listener. This synonym, or dominant in a group of synonyms, as it is often called, must follow the euphemism like a shadow, as to possess a vivid imagination, or to tell stories in the proper context will call up the unpleasant verb to lie. The euphemistic synonyms given above are part of the language-as-a-system. They have not been freshly invented. They are expressive means of the language and are to be found in all good dictionaries. They cannot be regarded as stylistic devices because the do not call to mind the key-word or dominant of the group; in other words, they refer the mind to the concept directly, to through the medium of another word. Compare these euphemisms with the following from Dickens’s Pickwick Papers: “They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner.” The italicized parts call forth the word steal (have stolen it). Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of application. The most recognized are the following: 1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical and 4) parliamentary. The life of euphemisms is short. They very soon become closely associated with the referent (the object named) and give way to a newlycoined word or combination of words, which, being the sign of sign, is an interesting excerpt from an article on this subject. “The evolution over the years of a civilized mental health service has been marked by periodic changes in terminology. The madhouse became the lunatic asylum; the asylum made way for the mental hospital – even the building remained the same. Idiots, imbeciles and the feeble- minded became low, medium and high-grade mental defectives. All are now to be lumped together as patients of severely subnormal personality. The insane became persons of unsound mind, and are now to be mentally- ill patients. As each phrase develops the stigmata of popular prejudice, it is abandoned in favour of another, sometimes less precise than the old. Unimportant in themselves, these changes of name are the signposts of progress.” |