Cover not available
Part of
Handbook of Pragmatics: 24th Annual Installment
Edited by Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren
[Handbook of Pragmatics 24] 2022
► pp. 124–144

Euphemism

| University of Oregon
Article outline
  • 1.Definitions of euphemism
  • 2.Motivations and functions of euphemism
    • 2.1Motivations
    • 2.2Functions
  • 3.Linguistic devices of euphemism
    • 3.1Lexical devices
      • 3.1.1Metonymy-based lexical devices
      • 3.1.2Metaphor-based lexical devices
    • 3.2Phonological and morphological devices
    • 3.3Other linguistic devices
  • 4.Conclusion and future directions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.24.eup1
References (91)
References
Abijo, J. A. & Akandeo, O. 2018. “The linguistic taboos in Yoruba society and their relevance to teaching-learning in Nigerian secondary schools.” Proceedings of 190th The IIER International Conference, Oxford, UK, 19th-20th September, 2018.Google Scholar
Al-Azzam, Bakri, Mohammad Al-Ahaydib, Norah Alkhowaiter & Husam Al-Momani. 2017. “Social and cultural euphemism in Saudi Arabic: A semantic, a pragmatic and a sociolinguistic analysis.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies 8(2): 64–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Keith. 2015. “When is a slur not a slur? The use of nigger in ‘Pulp Fiction’.” Language Sciences 52: 187–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Keith & Kate Burridge. 1991. Euphemism and Dysphemism: Language Used as Shield and Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Allan, Keith, & Kate Burridge. 2006. Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andrews, K. 2009. “Understanding norms without a theory of mind.” Inquiry 52(5): 433–448. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Apperly, Ian. 2011. Mindreaders: The Cognitive Basis of “Theory of Mind”. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Asaah, Augustine H. 2006. “To speak or not to speak with the whole mouth: Textualization of Taboo Subjects in Europhone African Literature.” Journal of Black Studies 36(4): 497–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Asim, Jabari. 2007. The N Word: Who Can Say it, Who Shouldn’t, and Why. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Bamgbose, Ayo. 1986. “Yoruba: A language in transition.” Lagos: J F Odunjo Memorial Lectures Organising Committee.Google Scholar
Baumeister, Roy F., Ellen Bratslavlavsky, Catrin Finkenauer & Kathleen D. Vohs. 2001. “Bad is stronger than good.” Review of General Psychology 5(4): 323–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blum, Susan. 1997. “Naming practices and the power of words in China.” Language in Society 26(3): 357–379. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Braatz, T. 2004. “Clash of cultures as euphemism: Avoiding history at the Little Bighorn.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 28(4): 107–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brain, James. 1979. The last taboo: Sex and the fear of death. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burchfield, Robert. 1985. “An Outline History of Euphemisms in English”, In Fair of Speech. The Uses of Euphemism, ed. by Dominique Enright, 13–31. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Burridge, Kate. 2012. “Euphemism and language change: The sixth and seventh ages.” Lexis [URL]. DOI logo
Cameron, Deborah. 1995. Verbal Hygiene. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Castiel, Luis David. 2005. “The misuse of euphemisms in public health: The case of ‘food Insecurity’.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59(8): 618.Google Scholar
Chovanec, Jan. 2019. “Euphemisms and non-proximal manipulation of discourse space: The case of blue-on-blue.” Lingua 225; 50–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chwastiak, Michele. 2015. “Torture as normal work: The Bush administration, the Central Intelligence Agency and ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’.” Organization 22(4): 493–511. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
David, Leslie. 1875. Among the Zulus and Amatongas. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas.Google Scholar
Diez-Arroyo, Marisa. 2016. “English words as euphemisms in Spanish fashion.” English Today 32(3): 30–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fairhurst, G. & R. Sarr. 1996. The Art of Framing. San Francisco: Jossey-BassGoogle Scholar
Fandrych, Ingrid. 2012. “Between tradition and the requirements of modern life.” Journal of Language and Culture 3(4): 67–73.Google Scholar
Frazer, Sir James G. 1911. The Golden Bough, Part II: Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gernsbacher, Morton Ann, Raimond, Adam R., Balinghasay, M. Theresa, and Boston, Jilana S. 2016. “’Special needs’ is an ineffective euphemism.” Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 1(1): 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goddard, Cliff. 2005. The Languages of East and Southeast Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books.Google Scholar
. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & RowGoogle Scholar
Grice, Paul. 1957. “Meaning.” The Philosophical Review 66: 377–388. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Griffin, J. 1985. “Euphemisms in Greece and Rome.” In Fair of Speech, ed. by D. J. Enright, 32–43. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gründler, Hartmut. 1982. “Kernenergiewerbung. Die sprachliche Verpackung der Atomenergie – Aus dem Wörterbuch des Zwiedenkens.” In Holzfeuer im hölzernen Ofen, ed. by Hans J. Heringer, 203–215. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Hiroshi. 2005. “Euphemism in English and Japanese: A pragmatic contrastive study.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Tasmania.
Herrero-Ruiz, Javier. 2018. “Exaggerating and mitigating through metonymy: The case of situational and cause for effect/effect for cause metonymies.” Language and Communication 62: 51–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Geoffrey. 2006. An encyclopedia of swearing: The social history of oaths, profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs in the English-speaking world. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Isaacs, David, Stephen Isaacs & Dominic Fitzgerald. 2015. “MEMEs: Modern evolutionary medical euphemisms.” British Medical Journal 351: H6107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Isenberg, Nancy. 2021. “Left behind: The trouble with euphemism.” The Hedgehog Review 23(1): 46.Google Scholar
Jing-Schmidt, Z. 2007. “Negativity bias in language: A cognitive-affective model of emotive intensifiers.” Cognitive Linguistics 18(3): 417–443. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019. “Cursing, taboo, and euphemism.” In The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics, ed. by C. R. Huang, Z. Jing-Schmidt & B. Meisterernst, 391–406. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jing-Schmidt, Z. & Vsevolod Kapatsinski. 2012. “The apprehensive: Fear as endophoric evidence and its pragmatics in English, Mandarin, and Russian.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 346–373. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jing-Schmidt, Z., Z. Zhang & J.-Y. Chen. 2016. “Identity development in the ancestral homeland: A Chinese heritage perspective.” The Modern Language Journal 100(4): 797–812. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keller, Rudi. 1990. Sprachwandel : Von Der Unsichtbaren Hand in Der Sprache. Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Randall L. 2002. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Kripke, Gawain. 2015. “The politics of poverty.” [URL]
Kvalnes, Øyvind. 2019. Moral Reasoning at Work. Cham: Palgrave Pivot. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwon, Jihyun. 2004. “Expressing refusals in Korean and in American English.” Multilingua 23(4): 339–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
La Cour, Anders & Joakim Kromann. 2011. “Euphemisms and hypocrisy in corporate philanthropy.” Business Ethics (Oxford, England) 20(3): 267–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Liszka, James J. 1990. “Euphemism as transvaluation.” Language and Style 23: 409–424.Google Scholar
Littlemore, Jeanette. 2015. Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lutz, William. 1988. “Fourteen years of doublespeak.” The English Journal 77(3), 40–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1992. “The first casualty.” English Today 8(1): 48–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2000. “Nothing in life is certain except negative patient care outcome and revenue enhancement.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44(3): 230–233.Google Scholar
Majeed, Suhayla H., & Fakhir Omar Mohammed. 2018. “A content analysis of euphemistic functions In Evro Bahdini Daily Newspaper.” IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) 23(2): 87–99.Google Scholar
Mangum, Douglas. 2020. “Euphemism in Biblical Hebrew and the euphemistic ‘bless’ in the Septuagint of Job.” HTS Theological Studies 76(4): a6140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGlone, M. S. & J. A. Batchelor. 2003. “Looking out for number one: Euphemism and face.” Journal of Communication 53(2): 251–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGlone, Matthew S., Gary Beck & Abigail Pfiester. 2006. “Contamination and camouflage in euphemisms.” Communication Monographs 73(3): 261–282. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mchunu, Mxolisi. 2005. Zulu Fathers and Their Sons: Sexual Taboos, Respect, and their Relationship to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. [URL]
McWhorter, John. 2021. Nine Nasty Words in English. New York: Avery Publishing.Google Scholar
Meng, Bingchun. 2011. “From steamed bun to grass mud horse: E gao as alternative political discourse on Chinese internet.” Global Media and Communication 7: 33–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nübling, Damaris. 2006. Historische Sprachwissenschaft des Deutschen. Eine Einführung in die Prinzipien des Sprachwandels. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Olúránkinse, Olánipekun. 1992. “Euphemism as a Yorùbà folkway.” African Languages and Cultures 5(2): 189–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orwell, George. 1946. “Politics and the English language.” In Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. London: Secker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Penn, D. C. & D. J. Povinelli. 2007. “On the lack of evidence that non-human animals possess anything remotely resembling a ‘theory of mind’.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 362(1480): 731–744. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
People’s Daily. 人民网评：为香港市民安居乐业撑起“保护伞” [Put up a protective umbrella for Hong Kong residents to live and work peacefully]. May 28, 2020. [URL]
Pinker, S. 1997. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 2007. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Pulley, Jerry L. 1994. “Doublespeak and euphemisms in education”. The Clearing House 67(5), 271–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pyers, Jennie. 2006. “Indicating the body: Expression of body part terminology in American Sign Language.” Language Sciences 28: 280–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rawson, H. 1995. Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk (Rev. ed.). New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Rozin, Paul & Edward B. Royzman. 2001. “Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5(4): 296–320. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rudwick, Stephanie & Magcino Shange. 2009. “Hlonipha and the rural Zulu woman.” Agenda 23(82): 66–75, DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, Francisco J. 2005. “Linguistic interpretation and cognition.” In Cultural Matrix Reloaded: Romanian Society for English and American Studies Seventh International Conference, ed. by E. Croitoru, D. Tuchel & M. Praisler, 36–64. Bucarest: Didactica Si Pedagogica.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1959/2011. Course in General Linguistics. Eds. Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye. Trans. Wade Baskin, subsequently edited by Perry Meisel & Haun Saussy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Škifić, Sanja & Anita Pavić Pintarić. 2019. “Tracing the space between euphemisms and dysphemisms: The case of obesity in English and German.” ELOPE (Tiskana zd.) 16(2): 93–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sze, Felix, Monica Wei and Aaron Wong. 2017. “Taboos and euphemisms in sex-related signs in Asian sign languages.” Linguistics 55(1): 153–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, Toshiyuki. 2002. Japan’s Comfort Women, Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tang, Lijun & Peidong Yang. 2011. “Symbolic power and the internet: The power of a ‘horse’.” Media, Culture and Society 33(5): 675–691. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tayler, J. 2005. “Doctors’ use of euphemisms and their impact on patients: Beliefs about health; An experimental study of heart failure.” Patient Education and Counseling 57(3): 321–326. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, John R. 2003. “Category extension by metonymy and metaphor.” In René Dirven and Ralf Pörings, ed. Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast, 323–348. Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Terri L. Rittenburg, George Albert Gladney & Teresa Stephenson. 2016. “The effects of euphemism usage in business contexts.” Journal of Business Ethics 137(2): 315–320. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toomey, C. 2001. “Waiting in pain.” The Australian Magazine, February 24–25: 29–31.Google Scholar
Walker, Alexander C., Martin Harry Turpin, Ethan A. Meyers, Jennifer A. Stolz, Jonathan A. Fugelsang and Derek J. Koehler. 2021. “Controlling the narrative: euphemistic language affects judgments of actions while avoiding perceptions of dishonesty.” Cognition 211: 104633. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Warren, Beatrice. 1992. “What euphemisms tell us about the interpretation of words.” Studia Linguistica 46(2): 128–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Werner, A. 1905. “The custom of hlonipa in its influence on language.” Journal of the Royal African Society 4 (15): 346–356. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winter-Froemel, Esme. 2017. “The pragmatic necessity of borrowing: Euphemism, dysphemism, playfulness and naming.” Taal en Tongval: Variation in the Low Countries 69(1): 17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Mudau, Mmbulaheni Lawrence
2024. Death euphemisms on tombstones: A case of the Vhavenḓa’s metaphorical conceptualisation of death. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.