Is Euphemism a Kind of Incongruity or Deflection？

摘 要：委婉語在特地场合被广泛用于代替禁忌语。从文体学的角度，委婉语是失协的一种表现形式，但在某些情况下，委婉语也是失衡的表现。

关键词：委婉语；禁忌语；失协；失衡

Euphemism refers to those words，discourse or topics that are used to replace some unpleasant words or ominous matters.People are less likely to mention them during a conversation，especially during some public conversation because they do not want to express some unsatisfactory and indecent matters in public occasion.For example，“death” is a taboo in most cases，and people prefer use some euphemisms，like “go on a journey”，“pass away”，“go to sleep”，“the final sleep”，and “the fight to glory”，to replace it（Zhang Delu，2005）.From the perspective of stylistic，Hillary thinks that euphemism is a kind of prominence.

Prominence is a general term of protruding language，in which some language features standing out in a way within a text.Incongruity and deflection are two features of prominence.Incongruity is negative and violates and goes against the conventions society have accepted；deflection is positive，aiming at establishing or strengthening conventions.These two features are different.Incongruity is a deviation of quality，while deflection is a deviation of quantity.In terms of incongruity，some languages deviate their conventional usage and create many atypical languages，or some language are used illogically or are transferred to other fields.Taboos are replaced by euphemism which is close to the same sematic sets of taboos or just in the same sematic set，but in other cases，some euphemism are from different sematic sets.This replacement of taboos by euphemism is a kind of sematic incongruity，and it also means that these unpleasant words or phrases which are regarded as taboos are conventional，but the replacement of taboos by euphemism breaks the conventions.

However，euphemism is not absolutely a kind of incongruity，and in some cases，it is a kind of deflection.

Prominence can be interpreted from two aspects：quality and quantity（Zhang Delu，2005）.A kind of convention is set up because of high proportion of quantity.Therefore，the deviation of quality can be regard as a lower proportion of quantity，and the high proportion of quantity is also a convention and reinforce of quality.In other words，this means that the incongruity can be changed into deflection if a high proportion appearance of some irregular usages，but deflection cannot change into incongruity.Usually，in some formal occasions，people prefer to use euphemism.

Mr.Smith is invited to attend a formal dinner party.During the party，he said to others，“Excuse me，but Ill go to the rest room for a while.”

This party is a formal occasion，and Mr.Smith use “rest room” to replace “excretion room”.In formal occasion，people often use pleasant and decent words.Therefore，the taboos become more visible.This context determines the necessity of using euphemism.The higher proportion use of euphemism than taboos is a reinforcement or establishment of convention.This also reflects the relativity feature of stylistic which is manifested in the aspect of the hierarchy of a text.It means that some characteristics of a text are common in certain aspects，but unique in other aspects.Therefore，the use of euphemism is special in daily life，but it is a more common in formal occasion.

Some linguists think euphemism can be classified into permanent and temporal euphemism.The permanent euphemism refers to these euphemism that have become a convention，which can reflect political，social，economic or religion meanings among the language community.Permanent euphemism has its norm that is a standard way people universally acknowledged in spoken and written language.For example，the word “death” is usually a taboo and people always use some euphemism to replace it.In ancient China，the word “死” was not allowed to describe the death of an emperor，rather than，the government ordered people to use “駕崩” to replace “死”.It also reflects the synchronicity feature of stylistic.Some euphemism may be salient in one time，but it is common in another time.In Victoria era，the word “leg” was also a taboo，especially was prohibited to refer to womens legs，therefore，they used “limbs” to replace “leg”.As a result，“limbs” in Victoria era was not salient because the frequency people use was more than the word “leg”.Perhaps it is a deviation in the original meaning of “leg”，but owing to its frequent usage，it is appropriate to view this word “leg” as deflection，a deviation in quantity.

The classification of incongruity and deflection is not fixed because of the different scope when people make a comparison.Some are conventional in a small scope but may be deviated in a larger group.The euphemism may be deviated from its original meaning，but it is normal in some formal occasion or specific times.Besides，the frequent uses of deviations are the establishment or reinforce of the convention.

参考文献

[1]张德禄.语言的功能与变体.高等教育出版社.2005

作者简介

李丽梅（1993.01-今），女，汉，四川成都，硕士研究生，研究方向：商务英语.

（作者单位：西南财经大学经贸外语学院）