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1、2011届毕业论文外交事务中委婉语的语用功能A Pragmatic Approach to Diplomatic Euphemisms院 部 外 国 语 学 院 专 业 英 语 专 业 班 级 姓 名 学 号 指 导 教 师 完成时间：2011年6月A Pragmatic Approach to Diplomatic Euphemisms by Under the Supervision of School of Foreign LanguagesJiangsu University of Science and Technology June, 2011AcknowledgementsMy
2、first genuine thanks must be given to my supervisor, Li Yulian for her encouragement, supervision, illuminating guidance and constructive suggestions at various stages of the development of the thesis. First of all, she introduced me into the field of pragmatics; the courses she offered and the acad
3、emic experience she imparted have enlarged my horizon and have imbued me with initiative and creativity. Moreover, she made language corrections, gave precious suggestions and refined some ideas in my paper. Without her supervising and urging, this thesis would never have come to the present form. I
4、 would also like to express my gratitude to all my respectable teachers in the School of Foreign Language, to whom I owe much of my knowledge in the English language, linguistics, literature and translation theories during four-year graduate study. Their earnest teaching and enlightening have benefi
5、ted me a lot. Without their invaluable lectures during the past four years, the completion of this thesis would have been unimaginable.ContentsAbstract(English)IAbstract(Chinese)III. Introduction1II. Brief introduction of diplomatic euphemism22.1. Euphemism22.2. Diplomatic euphemism3III. Cooperative
6、 principle53.1. The maxim of quantity63.2. The maxim of quality73.3. The maxim of relation73.4. The maxim of manner7IV. Pragmatic functions of diplomatic euphemisms84.1. The function of showing politeness144.2. The function of creating a harmonious environment144.3. The function of being self-explan
7、atory and self-protection154.4. The function of leaving room15. Conclusion18Bibliography20A Pragmatic Approach to Diplomatic Euphemisms AbstractEuphemism plays an indispensable part in our social life, which aids to achieve successful social interchange and create harmonious human rapport. It is esp
8、ecially true in the case of diplomatic euphemism. However, although a large number of studies have been done on euphemism, diplomatic euphemism, as an important branch of euphemism, still has much room to explore. Considering the abundance of diplomatic euphemism and its importance in foreign affair
9、s, it is highly necessary to carry out such a research. As a result, this paper, entitled “A Pragmatic Approach to Diplomatic Euphemisms”, discusses the pragmatic functions of euphemisms in diplomacy, especially from the angle of the Cooperative Principle. It may help us to learn more about diplomat
10、ic euphemism and may also prevent pragmatic failures in international affairs.Keywords: diplomatic euphemisms; pragmatic function; cooperative principle外交事务中委婉语的语用功能摘 要对于处理主权国家之间事务的活动我们称之为外交，而语言是外交工作的重要载体，其显著特征就是讲究策略和礼貌。外交是否成功在一定程度上决定了国与国之间的关系。 委婉语是语言使用中人们用来协调人际关系的润滑剂，也是外交时使用的重要手段之一。因此对外交事务中委婉语的研究有着
11、极其重大的意义。本文从语用学的视角分析委婉语在外交语境下的合理运用，具体是从合作原则的角度分析外交事务中应用委婉语的语用功能，使人们对外交委婉语这一语言现象有更进一步的了解。关键词：外交委婉语；语用功能；合作原则 A pragmatic approach to diplomatic euphemismsI. IntroductionDuring the study of theory of pragmatics in Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, the writer wonders whether Grices Cooperati
12、ve Principle could be employed to account for diplomatic language or not. So, the writer has consulted both materials available at home and abroad. It is very disappointing that few articles are found discussing pragmatic functions of the diplomatic language abroad. Comparatively, the domestic mater
13、ials are more encouraging. When entering “外交语言” or “外交辞令”，the writer finds about 15 related articles in the “Chinese Journal Net Data Base”, and most articles are discussing “diplomatic language” from the angle of conventional rhetoric, i.e. ambiguity, pun or logic etc., and only a few of them discu
14、ss the diplomatic language from the pragmatic aspect, specifically from the aspect of Cooperative Principle. They think that the need of being polite results in the violation of the maxims under the Cooperative Principle. And the Cooperative Principle accounts for the characteristics of the diplomat
15、ic language. It can be seen from the above survey that though quite a few articles discuss the features of diplomatic language, there are hardly any studies from abroad analyzing diplomatic language strategy with reference to pragmatics; few domestic articles relate the discussion of diplomatic lang
16、uage to pragmatics; much less researches are on diplomatic euphemism from the perspective of Cooperative Principle. Thats why the writer chooses to analyze the pragmatic functions of diplomatic euphemism through the Cooperative Principle. The paper consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces a g
17、eneral survey of studies on diplomatic language. Chapter 2 is the brief introduction of diplomatic euphemisms that discusses euphemisms and diplomatic euphemisms. Chapter 3 introduces the main theories, the Cooperative Principle. Chapter 4 analyses the pragmatic functions of diplomatic euphemism fro
18、m the angle of Cooperative Principle with supporting examples. Chapter 5 is a brief summary of the above writings. II. Brief introduction of diplomatic euphemism2.1. EuphemismEuphemism is a common phenomenon in all languages. It is widely used in almost every era and in almost every culture. With th
19、e exception of the period before the Norman Conquest, when there was too sparse evidence to reach any reasonable conclusions, all periods of English have been characterized by the presence of explicit or neutral vocabulary side by side with synonyms or near synonyms of varying degrees of inexplicitn
20、ess. The synonyms that are “good-sounding” are often euphemisms. The word “euphemism” comes from Greek, “eu”，means “good” or “well”, the root “pheme” means “saying” or “speech” and “ism” is a noun suffix. Therefore, it means literally “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner.”There are diff
21、erent definitions about euphemism; different books give different meanings. Today, there is still not a specific definition that is agreed by all. The following are some influential definitions:1) A mild or vague expression substituted for one thought to be too harsh or direct. (Concise Oxford Dicti
22、onary, 9th edition, 1995)2) A mild or vague expression substituted for a harsher or more direct one. (Pocket Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary, 1996)3) A polite, tactful or less explicit term used to avoid the direct naming of an unpleasant, painful or frightening reality. (Websters Third New Intern
23、ational Dictionary, 1961)4) Use of pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases in place of more accurate or direct ones. (Oxford Advances Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, 1997)Although there are many different definitions about euphemism, they share some common views: euphemism is a mild, vague
24、and polite mode of expression that is used to mean something unpleasant.For example:A: Can we go to the cinema together?B: I feel tired. What B utters is a sentence, which is a euphemistic refusal to As proposal. In this context, the sentence “I feel tired” can be counted as euphemism. In addition t
25、o words, phrases and sentences, discourses sometimes can be used to express a euphemistic idea.Euphemism can be classified into different types according to different standards. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of euphemisms: one is the traditional euphemism, which is connected with the taboo
26、 words, such as four-letter words, death, and illness. The other is the stylistic euphemism, which is not connected with the taboo words. It is the “diplomatic” way of using a less offensive or less direct word or phrase or saying to replace something unpleasant or harsh. It is a kind of tactful exp
27、ression. This is primarily used in occupation, the poor, the old, etc. We can find such words in some airline companies: “deluxe class” or “premium class” (the first class), but “the first class”(the second class), “business/economic/tourist class”（the third class）. 2.2. Diplomatic euphemismInternat
28、ionally, south-north dialogue and south-south dialogue have proved satisfactory achievements. Domestically, since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the Chinese people in diplomacy has scored great achievements, from the restoring the lawful rights in the United Nations, establishing dip
29、lomatic relations to the United States of America, formulating the five principles of peaceful co-existence, resuming the resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, Macao, hosting APEX in Shanghai, and holding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, just to name a few. China shows to the w
30、hole world how successful it is in dealing with foreign affairs. To be sure, parts of these accomplishments should be attributed to the use of diplomatic euphemism strategies.Communication is important for human beings, especially to those diplomats or statesmen because they deal with the relationsh
31、ips between countries or regions etc., so the words that they use are more sensitive than others. Otherwise, their communication may become difficult or break down and sometimes it can even affect the relations between countries. Since the purpose of using euphemisms is using good words to reduce th
32、e unpleasantness of a term or notion, it is natural and reasonable that diplomats or statesmen will often use them. They can use euphemisms to soften harsh reality and pretend governmental inability to social problems, etc. In reality we can also find that euphemisms are often used in press conferen
33、ces and we may also find that sometimes communications may be difficult or even break down because of the incorrect use of diplomatic euphemisms or the misunderstanding of diplomatic euphemisms. So the study of diplomatic euphemisms seems to be of great significance and it can help people like diplo
34、mats etc. to avoid misunderstandings or mistranslations in communications and it can also help them to improve their intercultural communication competence and ability etc.In some cases, people especially the diplomats or statesmen do not want to say what they mean directly and hence they would choo
35、se to use diplomatic euphemisms in order to express their meaning in a roundabout way in order to conduct successful and happy interactions in press conferences. Therefore in communications like press conferences, the diplomats, journalists or speakers etc. usually use diplomatic euphemisms in order
36、 to be polite and keep face or for some other reasons under the cooperative circumstances.As a kind of euphemism, diplomatic euphemism shares the general features of euphemism. As it is mentioned before that euphemism is the substitution of mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or blunt o
37、r direct one; a polite, tactful or less explicit term used to avoid the direct naming of an unpleasant, painful or frightening reality. Hence from the definition, it can be found that euphemism is partly created for politeness.Diplomats deliberately vague their words and do not provide information s
38、traightforwardly. Their words often contain meanings different from the literal meanings, for certain political purposes. They never use the word “refuse”, but prefer “consider”, “will take it into account”. Also “agree with” can be replaced with “noticed”, “understanding” and “no objection” instead
39、. What more, they can use “to pay attention” “serious attention” “uneasy” “regret” “condemn” and so on. People use diplomatic euphemism to show politeness, to avoid stimulation and embarrassment, or to fight for cooperation, to obtain a diplomatic breakthrough. It not only expresses the subjective f
40、eelings, or delivers a message, but also has the function of informing, through which we can avoid being rude and causing conflicts. III. Cooperative principleThere are many principles in the field of pragmatics. Different researches resort to different theories to study euphemisms. One of the most
41、influential theories is Cooperative Principle. Therefore, this paper chooses to study diplomatic euphemisms on the basis of this principle.The Cooperative Principle is proposed by Paul Grice, who has concerned himself with philosophical issues in language. It is a principle that guides our conversat
42、ional behaviors. The content is that one is supposed to make his conversational contribution such as is required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or the talk exchange in which one is engaged. He suggests a “general principle” which participants of a conversation are expected t
43、o observe, i.e. the Cooperative Principle. The participants should speak in a sincere, clear, succinct and orderly manner while providing just sufficient and relevant information, and on this basis the conversation partners interpret what others say. Grice distinguishes four categories echoing Kants
44、: Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner. Under these four categories, he further provides Maxims which guide the speaker and hearer in conversations and which they either follow or flout. 3.1. The maxim of quantityMake your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the ex
45、change).Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.Example1A: Is the film interesting?B: not very actually. My sister teaches me to sing on the weekends, and my mother cooks for us. In the above example, the information B offered surpasses what A wants to know, so it violates th
46、e quantity maxim.3.2. The maxim of qualityDo not say what you believe to be false.Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.Example1A: would you like to join us for the party on Saturday?B: Im afraid I have got a class on that day.This is said when it is known to both A and B that B is no
47、t having any class that will prevent him from going for the party. Thus B is saying something that he himself knows to be false and is flouting the maxim of quality. His implied message is “I do not want to join you for the party on Saturday.”3.3. The maxim of relation Be relevant.Example1A: Have yo
48、u seen Mike today?B: I am going to the bus station.What B said has nothing to do with As question. So here B is flouting the maxim of relation.3.4. The maxim of manner Be perspicuousAvoid obscurity of expression.Avoid ambiguity.Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)Be orderly.Example1A: Shall we get something for the kids?B: Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M
