1．Introduction
Death is the most terrible thing to most human beings, which means the end of existence. As a consequence，it is a forbidden area in almost every culture. However, people must face it no matter whether they like it or not. To avoid mentioning directly the word“death”, which probably will arouse unhappy feeling and frighten people，lots of euphemisms are created to substitute for it.
Almost all cultures seem to have certain notions or things that people try to avoid mentioning directly，even when there is such a term in this language since words related to some formidable or unpleasant things would likewise make people feel uncomfortable. When such notions or things have to be mentioned，the practice will be to substitute a different term or phrase that sounds better. These terms and phrases are called “euphemism” in English.
Euphemism, for a long time, has been discussed by many scholars in western countries as well as our country because of its prominence in language.
2. Theoretical Background of Euphemism
2.1 Language and Culture
Language and culture, intrinsically dependent on each other, have merged together through history. Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some social scientists consider it the keystone of culture. Without language, the communication of culture would not be possible.
Culture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community [1]. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly people’s behavior, including linguistic behavior [1]. In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs.
A language not only expresses facts, ideas, or events which represent similar world knowledge by its people, but also reflects the people’s attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks etc [1]. In a word, language expresses cultural reality. When a child acquires his mother tongue, he also acquires a language-specific culture and becomes socialized in certain ways.
A language, as a system of signs with their own cultural substances and values, may be viewed as a symbol of social identity. People are identified via their use of language. In this sense, language symbolizes cultural reality.
On the other hand, as people’s language uses express the culture, to be more specific, their community culture represented by its social conventions, norms and appropriateness, the culture both emancipates and constrains people socially, historically and metaphorically[1]. Sharing a same community culture, people have acquired common ways of viewing the world through their speech interactions with other members of the same group.
In addition, culture also affects its people’s imagination or common dreams which are mediated through the language and reflected in their life [1]. They serve for a metaphor for its culture reality.
Although language and culture are inextricably intertwined, this relationship is not analogous to that of structures and processes. Rather, culture is a wider system that completely includes language as a subsystem. Linguistic competence is one variety of social behaviors [1]. The relation of language to culture is that of part to whole.
To sum up, since the knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of the people, it is extremely difficult to separate the two. On the one hand, language as an integral part of human being, permeates his thinking and way of viewing the world, and language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. On the other hand, language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the culture, and the changes in language reflect the cultural changes in return.
Euphemism is a phenomenon within and beyond language. That is to say it is hardly possible to understand euphemism comprehensively merely from the linguistic perspective. Just as Rawson said, “By tracing euphemisms, it is possible to see what has been (and is) going on in our language, our minds, and our culture”[2]:4. The phenomenon of euphemism can also be considered as a cultural phenomenon.
2.2 Language and Society
Sociolinguistics is an attempt to find correlations between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur[3]. A worthwhile sociolinguistics, however, must be something more than just a simple mixing of linguistics and sociology, which takes concepts and findings from the two disciplines and attempts to relate them in simple ways. Hymes has pointed out that a mechanical amalgamation of standard linguistics and standard sociology is not likely to suffice in that adding a speechless sociology to a sociology-free linguistics may miss enti
rely what is important in the relationship between language and society [3]. Specific points of connection between language and society must be discovered, and these must be related within theories that throw light on how linguistic and social structures interact.
The possible relationships between language and society have long intrigued investigators. Indeed, if we look back at the history of linguistics it is rare to find investigations of any language which are entirely cut off from concurrent investigations of the history of that language, or of its regional and/or social distributions, or of its relationship to objects, ideas, events, and actual speakers and listeners in the real world[3].
There are several possible relationships between language and society. One is that social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and/or behavior. Such correlation studies do not exhaust sociolinguistic investigation, nor do they always prove to be as enlightening as one might hope.
Language use is a kind of social act. The use of euphemism, which is certainly a part of language, is also a kind of social act. Euphemism, a special language phenomenon, is constantly improving itself based on the development of society. The social function of euphemism is to be a tool for communication, exchanging thought and serving society, helping people to adjust the interpersonal relationship.
We assume that the sociolinguistic theories of culture and society are indispensable to the study of euphemisms. The major topic of this thesis is euphemism should be examined in its socio-cultural context.
ief Introduction of Euphemism
3.1 Definition, Origin and Classification of Euphemism
Euphemism is a universal linguistic and cultural phenomenon, which appears in different eras and different cultures. The term “euphemism” comes from the Greek “eu”，meaning “well” or “sounding good”，and “pheme”，meaning “speech” or “saying”[4]，thus the literal meaning of “euphemism” is speaking with good words or in a pleasant manner. It has been defined differently in different books, dictionaries by different scholars. Some of the definitions are listed below:
(1) “an indirect word or phrase that people use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, something to make it seem more acceptable than it really is”[5].
(2) “word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming” [6].
(3) “a euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or through giving offences, that of the audience, or of some third party” [7].
(4) “mild，agreeable，or roundabout words used in a place of coarse，painful or offensive ones”[2].
Many linguists think that the definition of euphemism needs to be framed in a broader sense. In a word, however, euphemisms are used mainly because the things are too blunt. Euphemism originally appears as the substitution of taboos and then its connotation is widened and it becomes more of a rhetorical device.
Euphemism has been used and developing ever since ancient times. Neaman pointed out that the original subject of euphemism is undoubtedly religious [8]. The Anglo-Saxon era is the golden age of linguistic freedom and the source of non-euphemistic four-letter words, but great care was taken not to offend political or religious leaders or gods, because people believed that there was a mysterious but indissoluble connection between the thing and the word. After Norman Conquest in 1066, euphemisms began to thrive. Considering Anglo-Saxon words were vulgar and obscene，Normans and the native upper circles borrowed “elegant” Latin words in place of Anglo-Saxon ones, and gradually these Latin words became part of English. By the 19th century, middle and lower class influence had expanded. They enriched the vocabulary and formation of euphemism. Euphemism reached their peak in Victorian period, and a great many of stand
ard English euphemisms for sex, death, reproduction, and other physical functions were popularized.
In short, euphemism originates from taboo. Using euphemism makes people feel that they are distant from something they fear.
Now let’s look at the classification of euphemism. There are so many euphemisms，which can be classified by different standards. The following is a brief introduction to some representative classifications of euphemism.
Hugh Rawson divides euphemism into two general types—the positive and the negative from the angle of semantics. The positive euphemism can also be called stylistic one，which “inflate and magnify the word meaning, making the euphemized items seem altogether grander and more important than they really are.”.
According to Hugh Rawson，euphemism can also be classified as unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms[2]. Unconscious euphemism refers to those words that developed so long ago that anyone is hardly conscious of how they were originally motivated. Conscious euphemism is different. When people communicate with each other, speakers are conscious to say tactfully, and the listeners understand not only their original meanings, but also their implied meanings.
On the basis of their contents and the ranges they involve，euphemism can be divided as euphemism of death，euphemism of disease，euphemism of sex, euphemism of occupation，and euphemism of politics and so on.
These classifications provide us a way to distinguish euphemism easily and exactly and help understand and use the expressions in a more effective way.
3.2 An Overview of Study of Euphemisms at Home and Abroad
The study of euphemism has attracted the attention of many scholars, ancient and modern. In the early 1580’s, the British writer George Blunt first used the word “euphemism” and defined it as “a good or a favorable interpretation of a bad word”. Such a lot of great works came into being during the study of euphemism, which lays a foundation for further research.
Compared with those flourishing studies of euphemism in the western countries, Chinese scholars’ theories on euphemism seem rare. Although people have used euphemistic expressions consciously and unconsciously since long years ago in China, comprehensive and systematic researches did not appear until the recent century. Chen Wangdao studied euphemism in a rhetoric perspective in his book Introduction to Rhetoric(《修辞学发凡》). His contribution is that he proposed that euphemism be found not only in lexical words but also in sentences or even in discourse .
Though great achievements have been made in the study of euphemisms, but most of these studies did not deal with eu
phemism in some concrete concepts. Take death euphemism for example, it is an important component of euphemism, and it is estimated there are more than 400 death euphemisms in English while there are no specialized works on this specific field so far, but essays on some journals or some theses.
4. Origin of Death Euphemism
According to Neaman and Silver, “The motives for generating euphemisms are as diverse as the range of human emotions [8]:13.” This section will focus on the analysis of the cultural origin of death euphemism from the following aspects.
4.1 Psychological Factor
The first reason for euphemism is thus of a psychological or expressive nature, and goes back to the inherent negativity of certain items and of the words used to name them. The individual speaker looks for a way of dealing with the discomfort they provoke, and euphemism emerges in this context as a means of dealing both with the subjects and with the emotions they cause.
For example, the terms “die” and “decease” denote the same fact, then why is the former tabooed, while the latter is acceptable for use. There is another important factor at work which inspires people’s mind. Geoffrey Leech distinguishes seven types of meanings for a word. Among them，the affective meaning of word refers to “what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer [18].” So words have emotional associations in a given period. Generally，taboo words call up explicit，undesirable association, whereas euphemisms evoke indirect, mild，pleasant associations. The unfavorable emotions and attitudes attached to them are often shaped during the long period of cultural development.
Throughout history，death has been described in terms of every new belief, technology and pastime. Americans are even linguistically proud of their vast terms about death. “At no other time in history has a culture created a more elaborate system of words and customs to disguise death so pleasantly that it seems a consummation devoutly to be wished” [8]:176. People of different nations all deploy a vast battery of terminology to avoid the words “die” and “death” which most probably would arouse terror and disgust. The most audacious of the death-denying strategies is to pretend that death is life. That is why there are death euphemisms as “fall asleep” “go to heaven”. The affective meanings of these words cover the brutal fact and leave people only a peaceful atmosphere.
Thus, euphemism is a psychological product as well as a social and cultural product.
4.2 Social Convention
Social convention, which is defined as the accumulated agreed ways of thinking and behaving that are believed to be socially normal and accepted by the majority of a specific society[19], plays an important role in both verbal and non-verbal communication. No matter what we are doing or what we are speaking, there exist some invisible rules that guide the manner of our performance.
Convention is the generally accepted practice，especially with regard to social behavior. It is the custom or certain behavior that is formed after longtime practice and accepted by most of the people. People behave according to the social convention and longtime practice makes social convention penetrate into people’s mind，which might even be shown through their characteristics[19]. Different groups play by different rules，and conventions vary considerably between individuals even within the same community. There are cultural differences to the use of death euphemisms，but essentially，the same parameter recurs in every culture to elicit death euphemism.
There are times when more or less every one would agree that people should not mention the word death directly. For example, as to a couple whose child has just been killed in an accident，or a young man learning for the first time that he has only a few weeks to live, it would be peculiarly brutal to talk about death directly instead of doing one’s best to soften the blow. A set of euphemism，at such moments，would defeat its own purpose. What are needed at that very time are words that would make the dreadful finality of the fact blur，if only for an instant. So people fall back on the most effective forms of euphemistic talk.
4.3 Religion
Most people in English-speaking nations believe in Christianity. This belief has a great influence on their behaviors and their language. Christian culture penetrates into the English language. In the ancient times，people are forbidden to call God directly because God is treated with respect amounting to terror. To speak a name of the sacred seeks to calm the deity or avert its wrath. It says in Holy Bible，“You shall not misuse the name of LORD your god，for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name[7]:44.” Since attitude towards religious taboo is st
rong，the usual way is to employ euphemisms to avoid them.
Christianity holds the opinion that people’s lives are favored by God. People must experience three stages―evil, degeneration and atonement during their living[19]. English euphemisms for death are mostly derived from Holy Bible or Christian legends and allegories. Some euphemisms for death represent Christian’s value of life and Christian’s religious interpretation of “death”. Some of these are borrowed into daily life and gradually lose their religious meaning. For example, just because God created men with clay and men are created equal, “to die” is called “to return to dust/earth” or “to be called to God” or “to answer the final summons”.
4.4 Taboo
When talking about euphemism, we can not neglect taboo. Taboo is the original motivation of euphemism.
In ancient times productivity was in a very low level, and the primitive men were often confronted with baffling and threatening situations, such as death, and they failed to understand the essence of them. To find a way out, they became superstitious about supernatural power, or the existence of devils and gods. In their mind, every thing was alive with spirit, capable of bringing down blessings and misfortunes, and thus language took upon a kind of supernatural sense [20]. This led to the forbidden use of certain language that gradually became taboo. When people are unwilling to or dare not speak out something regarded as taboo, they have to shun them by using mild substitutes, to imply those things which people are reluctant to mention and to prompt something both speaker and listener know but refuse to say out by direct expressions.
Taboo means the prohibition of mentioning or talking about something either by religion and custom or by the general agreement of a society, out of certain reasons. It has generally included the idea that the forbidden object, action, name or word has some ritual or religious overtone. The taboos compromise both things that are considered holy and sacred and things that are dirty, dangerous and unpleasant. Some supernatural force is always invoked as authority for the sanction.
Death is an inevitable stage at the end of life’s journey. It is a common experience of human beings, but it has been the source of fear—fear of the loss of loved ones, fear of the end of one’s life, fear of what follows death, fear of the actual process of dying. Therefore，all these fears，worries，and unpleasant feelings combined lead to verbal taboo of death.
5. Classification and Cultural Meanings of Death Euphemism
Death euphemism, which abounds in English, can be classified into many types from different angles, and different expressions of death euphemism have different cultural meanings. Here，some representative classifications of death euphemism will be introduced.
5.1 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Religious Belief
Just as discussed in the above chapter, Christian culture penetrates into the English language. Christianity holds the opinion that people’s lives are favored by God. English euphemisms for death are mostly derived from Holy Bible or Christian legends and allegories. Some euphemisms for death represent Christian’s value of life and Christian’s religious interpretation of “death”.
Death is a long journey to an altered world，which is often heaven in the Christian tradition，so the dead will find themselves “in heaven”, “with Jesus” or “with one’s Maker”, “the last sent – off”, “to have gone out”, “to go the way of all flesh / all the living/ all the earth”, “to hop the rattler”, “to take a one - way ride”, “to buy a one - way ticket”, “the last voyage”, “to launch into eternity”, “to cut adrift”[21] and so on. Traditional Christians view heaven as the soul’s true home and the world as a place of temporary exile，so the dead may be said to “be called home” or “to be taken home”.
In Bible，there are lots of death euphemisms that Christians use to show their respect and honor of God and the dead alike, some of these are borrowed into daily life and gradually lose their religious sense. For example, just because God created men with clay and men are created equal, “to die” is called “to return to dust/earth” or “to be called to God” or “to answer the final summons”, or “to hand in one’s accounts/to be sent to one’s account” [21]. The dead people should report to the God his whole life and wait for the “Last Judgement”. Therefore human beings should do good deeds to “pay Charon” who will boat him “across the River Styx” and then they can &ldquo
;pay Saint Peter a visit” and “go to Heaven/Paradise”, “be promoted to glory”, “be with God” and “to join the angles” [20].
A more peremptory attitude on the part of God and his agents are expressed by “take” and “gather”, both of which are widely used with a variety of euphemistic prepositional phrases, as in “God took her to himself”，or “He was gathered to his fathers or ancestors” [20].
Many euphemisms for death can be found from the literary quotation. Moses, the ancient Jewish leader, was punished by God not to go over the Jordan before him. And Moses spent his last time by the Jordan. So “the Jordan before Moses” connotes the impassable gulf in human’s life, that is, the end of life. “Pass over Jordan” means the person reach the end of his life [20].
The notion of being at rest, of being laid to rest, or to have found rest has connotations of calmness and serenity, of relief from the struggles of life, which may ease the pain for the bereaved. Other similar expressions are “at peace”, “peace at last”, etc.
Not only do people who have religious beliefs use them, but also non-religious ones. The commonest are the religious euphemisms—“gone to Heaven”, “gone to Jesus”, and the like—used by people with no real religious convictions and no belief in an afterlife.
5.2 Death Euphemisms Related to Occupation
Lots of death euphemisms are related to the occupation.
Hospitals are places where patients get cured or otherwise，unfortunately die of their diseases，so death is a common scene there. But to the relatives and friends of the dead，it is still inhumane to talk about death directly，so doctors created lots of death euphemisms out of their occupation. An extremely current and common hospital death euphemism is “check out”. In American hospitals, patients who are out of pain or have breathed their last are described as having checked out，whose literal meaning is to leave the hospital. “be no longer with us”, “be not doing well”, “ breathe one’s last”, “he/she is not coming home”, “permit the water of life to run out”, “put sb. out of his misery”, “routine nursing care only to be provided” [22]are also frequently used by doctors.
Soldiers must serve their country，which means they may have to sacrifice their lives in pursuing of such a goal. If so，they have done their bit. This phrase was first used in World War I to mean to serve one’s country，implying making one’s contribution or doing one’s share. A later expression was “to make the ultimate sacrifice” or “the supreme sacrifice” since the last thing a soldier can contribute to his country is his life. Similarly，if one is present at the last roll call，that means he will never come back from the war field，or if one has fired his last shot，that indicated he would have to fight against the enemies with his life. Other similar expressions are “it’s taps”, “die martyr”, “fall in battle”, “lay down with one’s shovel and hoe” [23] and the like.
Great Britain and many other English-speaking nations are noted for their well-developed navigation，so there are many euphemisms about sailors. Sailors call the God of the Sea Davy Jones humorously，and Davy Jones’ locker is the nick name given to the sea. If a sailor unfortunately dies in the sea，he will just go to Davy Jones’ locker. The phrases “coil up one’s ropes”, “slip one’s ropes” also mean death .
Besides, there are some death euphemisms about accountants, for example, “cancel one’s account”, “be sent to one’s long account”, “hand in one’s account”, “pay the debt to nature”, and “settle all one’s account” all indicate death [22].
5.3 Death Euphemisms Concerned with Age
The number of the expressions about “untimely death” (death at the young age) in English is less than that in Chinese. People usually use “to come to an untimely end” to replace “untimely death”.
As for the death at the old age, let me take two sentences for example here.
“At 82, he slipped away peacefully on a bright morning” [24].
“The old man paid his debt of nature four years ago” [24].
From the above examples, we can see that “to slip by/away” and “to pay on
e’s last debt” are euphemisms for death. There are also some other common phrases used to express the idea of death of the old, for instance, “to close/end one’s days”, “shut one’s light off”, “to cross the bar”, “to pay the debt of nature”, “to run one’s race”[24], and so forth.
5.4 Death Euphemisms Related to Sporting and Gambling
Watching and attending sports events is an important part of the lives of many western people. Professional sports are entertainment. In leisure time，many people choose to relax with various sports matches. Gambling in many western nations is a legal enjoyment. Many people like to watch horse racing，car racing，or simply gambling and most often make a bet. Because of these，it is no wonder lots of sports terms are adopted by most people.
Expressions coming from the steeplechase, “to jump the last hurdle”, the football “the final kick off” or simply “kick off”, the rugby “to be thrown for a loss” and the table-tennis “to drop the cue”, all mean “the end of the game” and metaphorically the end of life .
In gambling，when people play dice，some will “shoot the works” or “throw sixes” that lead them to failure. When people play poker in which there is only one winner，some of them are shuffled, some threw up the cards，still some are trumped. All of them are cleaned out of the deck or out of game ，a metaphor derived from the exchange of counters for money when leaving the game. All of them are later death euphemisms because of their close relationship with the end.
5.5 Other Classifications
Besides these death euphemisms from almost all trades，there are still some phrases that are commonly used.
Sometimes people just use common expressions to describe death, such as “decease”, “end one’s days”, “cease to exist”, “depart from life”, “leave the land of living”, “be no more”, “has gone” , “one’s life ended peacefully”, “come to naught”, “pass away / pass on”, “to expire”, “go to sleep” [23] and so on.
Shakespeare compared life to a stage. Everyone is an actor. Thus it is natural that words from the stage gradually appear in daily life, and people consider death as “to bow off”, “to take a final bow”, “to drop the final curtain”, “to fade out”, “to make one’s final exit”, “to pass out of the picture”, “to quit the scene”, “to switch out the lights”，“the curtain call” [21].
Sometimes people express the concept of death by describing the situation of the dying people, such as “heart failure”, “end one’s breath / cease to breathe/ cease respiration”, “close one’s eyes”, “emit the last breath/ breathe one’s last”, “have throat trouble/ cut the throat”, “to be on one’s last legs”, “go belly up” [23], etc.
Sometimes people use vivid metaphors to describe death, such as “answer the last call / be present at the last roll call”, “return to dust/ return to earth”, “bite the dust/ kiss the dust”, “shut the shop”, “fade away”, “hand in one’s chips”, “go to sleep forever”, “at rest”, “go to one’s last home”, “join the great majority”, “go the way of all flesh” [23]and the like.
Some are derogatory expressions for the dead people, such as “kick the bucket”, “come to a violent death”, “give up the ghost”, “kick up one’s heels”, “to be done for”, “to drop off the hooks” [23]and so on.
Meanwhile, with the development of society, some new death euphemisms are appearing, like “mercy killing”, “stroke”, “to pull the plug”, “to pass out of the picture”, “to be grounded for good”, “to run one’s race”, “to be cut off” [22], etc. Still more and more death euphemisms are coming up and are popularized. The above listed death euphemisms are only some of them. There a
re still a lot worth people’s attention.
6. Social Functions of Death Euphemism
D.J. Enright says that “without euphemisms the world would grind，unoiled，to a halt，universal animosity covering all” [11]:3. Though it is criticized by many people as “weasel words”, “gilded words”， “double speak”, or even “language of deceit”, the important role of euphemisms in communication is irreplaceable.
Thanks to euphemisms，it is easy for people to accept the things that are 1ikely to make others feel embarrassed or unhappy. It is people’s general character to express their ideas as mildly and tactfully as possible.
Euphemism exists everywhere and it mainly has four functions in communication:
6.1 Evasiveness
As a common communication in the process of people using language, euphemism is an important way for people to coordinate the social relationships. In the process of communication, the unsuitable or too direct words will make people feel uncomfortable, even angry. Then there is a great need for us to use a tactful way to express emotion, exchange ideas. That is to say, to use a pleasant, mild or indirect words or phrases take the place of tabooed words.
The evasive function of euphemism is to evade using taboos, enabling the speaker to talk about tabooed things freely[25]. These tabooed things are believed to be inauspicious to certain individuals, or to the society as a whole, or to be disgusting and unpleasant, and cause fear. People can use euphemisms to talk about what cannot be talked directly. Like a kind of lubrication, euphemism enables people to express what cannot be uttered directly and ensures communication to be carried out smoothly.
It is a language strategy in civilized society for avoiding taboo. It is unimaginable if the communication is without euphemism.
6.2 Politeness
Another function of euphemism is for politeness. We try out best to use some tactful words to avoid the hurt to others and show our respect, politeness, and consideration. In a civilized society, everyone needs to attach importance to politeness.
In modern euphemism，the function of avoiding taboo is included in the function of politeness gradually. People still put death under taboo, but they use death euphemisms due to more politeness than fear .
In a way, the polite function of euphemism may be more important and useful in our daily life. Managing this skill well could make our world full of gentle and fragrant atmosphere.
6.3 Covering
Another reason for using euphemism is that euphemism itself sometimes can be rather tactful or deliberately deceptive because of fuzziness in semantic sense. Then this kind of character becomes a tool of some politicians and profiteers to cheat the society[27]. They use euphemism to cover some evil incidents in our society. Such as scandal, war, crime, drug, racialism and decline. This function of euphemism is also used widely in diplomacy and military.
Media and politicians take advantage of fuzziness to conceal the truth in order to avoid offending the public and maintain the political，economic and military situations steady. They use euphemisms to deliberately cloud an issue or to misdirect attention，and euphemism really does play an important role in concealment and disguise[27].
As early as 14th century, the poets Arthur and Merlin praised a knight because “his life he laid there” . Even if people use these expressions to avoid talking about death directly and try to cover the truth, but people can understand the implication.
Maybe it seems that this function of euphemism plays a less important role in death than in other fields, but there is no denying that the function for covering is also for politeness or respect, which reflects that euphemism in daily life is for politeness or avoidance of taboo.
6.4 Humor and Satire
This communicative function is not so important as the former three.
Generally speaking，humor in euphemism can relieve or even eliminate the influence of the real meaning of euphemism and the semantic sense of euph
emism is mild and implicit，but it does not hinder its satire function[27].
Especially the derogatory expressions for the dead, bad people are full of humor and satire, such as “kick the bucket”, “give up the ghost”, “kick up one’s heels”, “to drop off the hooks” and so on. People use these less serious phrases in that people will not feel regretful for the death of villain.
The four functions of death euphemism usually overlap. When we use “be no longer with us”, “permit the water of life to run out”, we try not to touch taboo and be evasive and polite as well. Then “shut one’s light off”, “to pay the debt of nature” or “to run one’s race” may express one’s covering meaning or one’s humor or satire.
7．Conclusion
Language is a constantly changing semiotic system. Language communication is the most important means with which people maintain their social relationship. During their communication，people will inevitably encounter unpleasant situations. Using direct and definite language to talk about them will undoubtedly displease both sides and possibly affect their relations. Under such conditions, the use of euphemism may be the best way.
This thesis provides detailed category of death euphemisms. Death euphemism has been heavily applied than ever before，and it has great vitality. Extraordinary collections of death euphemisms have formed around the taboo word —death over the years as a consequence of the continual creation of new terms and it seems safer to say that the sizes of these collections reflect the strength of the underlying taboo. People use those refined，veiled death euphemisms frequently. It can help people set up favorable relations with others in communication and keep the verbal exchange going on without a hitch. The analysis in this thesis is not exhaustive since death euphemisms grow as time goes by.
Through analyzing the detailed category and the functions of death euphemism, we can see that death euphemism is a part of a linguistic and particularly, a social cultural phenomenon. Its generation and development are closely connected with social and cultural factors.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Professor Zhu Min. No words can fully express my greatest and deepest gratitude to her for her valuable hard work in the whole process of my writing this thesis. Without her painstaking work, this thesis could not have come up in the present form.
I am also grateful to all the rest of teaching staff in the English Department of the Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, who have spared no efforts to enrich and broaden my knowledge in the past years.
Finally, I wish to extend my thanks to all those who granted their excellent ideas and generous support to me during the completion of this thesis.
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