In daily communication, people are often bound by "conversational norms" and "politeness principles". According to the "conversational norms", people should tell the truth directly, while according to the "politeness principle", people often use indirect verbal means. Among them, euphemism is the most typical. The emergence and development of this phenomenon is closely related to the social and cultural psychology of language. Limited by people's understanding level, people have taboo psychology about some phenomena in nature; Influenced by sexual psychology, people use euphemism in many behaviors in sex, marriage and family life. Euphemism can also help people improve their tolerance for things. At the same time, the development of society enhances people's awareness of respecting others' psychology, and entertainment psychology helps to create a good verbal communication environment.
In daily communication, people often find that communicative language is bound by both "conversational norms" and "non-conversational norms" For example, a person meets an acquaintance in the street and just bought a new dress, which he thinks is not good-looking or suitable for his friends to wear. When the acquaintance asked him what he thought of the new clothes, according to the principle of conversation, he had to tell the truth, that is, he was not "ideal", but out of politeness, he didn't want to spoil his acquaintance's fun and said, "Ah, not bad." In this way, he is in a double constraint.
The theory of "conversational norms" was put forward by linguist H.P.Gice in the article 1975 Logic and Conversation. It includes four communication principles:
Guidelines:
Principle of quantity-say as much as possible, but don't exceed the necessary quantity.
Rule of quality-only say what you think is true.
Relevance criterion-what you say should be closely related to the topic.
Style rules-express clearly and avoid ambiguity.
Grice calls "non-dialogue norms" social norms. It actually refers to "PoutenessMaxim", which is aesthetic, social and moral in nature. Later, scholars upgraded the politeness principle to the politeness principle juxtaposed with the cooperative principle, and further introduced the principles of propriety and modesty. 198 1 Neal R.Norriek, an American professor, put forward the theory of "double constraints" in his article Indirect Speech Acts and Double Constraints. He believes that there is maximum consistency between "conversational norms" and "politeness principle". As the following wisdom says, there is
Listen twice and say it again. (Lisrentwice，speakonee。 )
Don't talk unless someone talks to you. ) Don't talk. )
Don't talk to strangers. (Don't talk to strangers)
Words are silver. silence is golden. Speech is silver, silk1is gold. )
These gold-lettered signboards that conform to "social norms" obviously conflict with "quantitative norms"; However, educated civilized people have to abide by this principle in verbal communication.
For another example, at the dinner table, if I say "I'm going to the toilet", although the content is true and conforms to the "quality principle", it is better to say "I'll be back after going out for a while", which is more in line with "social norms". In addition, westerners don't like to tell their age, income, beliefs and so on. China people adhere to the human attitude of "harmony is the most important" and "keeping things quiet", which also runs counter to the conversational norms. In fact, in all cultures, people may violate conversational norms or social norms at any time. And "social norms" always overwhelm "conversational norms", which is a universal law in the process of people following. Because when the two conflict, "social norms" bear greater social pressure than "conversational norms"; Violation of "social norms" will lead to moral criticism and lead to communication failure.
When a person speaks when the above two standards conflict, he will find himself in a double constraint. Either speak hesitatingly or even be tongue-tied; Or say something you will regret immediately. Violating the "Conversation Norms" will make listeners scoff or stay away from it. Pay attention to what happens in our daily life, and it is not difficult to find the above phenomenon. For example, a person who has performed well in all aspects of the selection of advanced activities will be more respected by everyone if he is modest when others choose him. On the contrary, he can't wait for everyone to speak, and he can't wait to recommend himself, thinking that he is good or bad. Even if he is telling the truth, it will disgust everyone and cause his prestige to drop greatly.
The existence of "double constraints" in language communication leads to the occurrence of indirect speech acts, including intentional ambiguity, subjunctive mood in requests, euphemism of taboo words, metaphor and ridicule in figurative speech acts, and even silence or helpless gestures and compliments in body language.
Euphemism is the most typical language means in indirect speech. Euphemism is the product of language taboo and an effective means to get rid of the double constraints of language. It replaces blunt, harsh and rude words with gentle, polite, vague and pleasant words, that is, it refers to unpleasant content in a pleasant way. Its emergence and development are closely related to social culture and psychology.
In the process of communication, it is not difficult to find many kinds of taboo behaviors. American linguist Bloom 1d once divided them into "etiquette taboo", "bad omen taboo" and "indecent taboo". Some scholars divide it into: (l) taboo words based on sociology, such as taboo words for people with high official positions, taboo words in economic activities and skills, etc. (2) Taboo words about individual parts of the body and special physical conditions, such as sexual organ palace, disease and death. (3) religious taboos, and so on.
People use euphemism because of taboos in social life, which is first and foremost a feature of the old times. Especially when people don't know something clearly, these things take on a lot of mysterious colors. Ignorance of nature leads to fear and superstition. Supernatural power. What is manifested in the outside world is water, fire, wind and thunder, and what is manifested in life is life, old age, illness and death, which is extended to taboo objects related to these behaviors. For example, some things are hard to say directly. It seems that the mention of it will make people daydream and even think of immoral behavior. Therefore, in social occasions in ancient England, legs were often represented as limbs, which was more vulgar than uy and was often represented as stomach. "Toilet" is not "elegant" enough to disdain to say it, so its euphemism is; Toilet (washcloset), gentleman's/lady's (male/female), or just the letter M/W. As a result, there are many euphemisms for going to the toilet, such as:
I have to go to the bathroom.
I want to wash my hands.
I'll be back in a minute.
I want to go somewhere.
I go to the bathroom.
It can be found that people's use of euphemism in communication activities is more restricted by certain social factors, which are related to the following social psychology:
First, taboo psychology
Since the history of human society, taboos and euphemisms have appeared like twin brothers. For example, in order to maintain their position, rulers of all dynasties advocated "avoiding the upper and the lower" For example, Qin Shihuang's name was "Ying Zheng", and from his time, "the first month" (without sound) was changed to "the first month" (level tone). Examples of this kind are too numerous to mention. With the development of feudal society and its hierarchical system, the requirement of "avoiding officials and taboos" has been developing continuously, and even "avoiding officials and taboos" has appeared. Nowadays, people always like to address people who are a little bureaucratic, such as "Li Accountant", "Director Wang" and "Director Zhang", which means they follow the escape route of taboo address and think it is disrespectful to call them by their first names.
The more backward the society, the more superstitious people are, and the more superstitious people are about mysterious supernatural forces, lest offending them will bring disaster to themselves. For example, boatmen should avoid saying "sink" and "turn over"; Troupe should avoid saying "parting" and "leaving". In order to get lucky, people don't buy shoes in the first month. They are afraid of attracting evil spirits. Don't eat pears, afraid to share "Jane" with relatives and friends. In today's highly developed human society, people still avoid reasoning when choosing numbers, which is a reflection of feudal cultural psychology.
Second, sexual psychology.
In people's daily life, taboos are first manifested in sexual behavior. The traditional culture of our country determines that people are cautious and calm about sexual behavior. Sexual psychology is reserved and shy. Therefore, there is little direct and clear language expression; Instead, use subtle and elegant euphemisms, such as "sharing a room", "sharing a bed" and "intimacy". In recent years, the English word "make clap ve" has also been quoted, giving people a close and friendly feeling, which embodies the love between men and women in normal sexual life and conforms to people's aesthetic psychology. Another example is the behavior of "Wandering", which has always been considered not by a gentleman, but people often use gorgeous euphemisms for such nasty things. For example, brothels in the old days were called "brothels" and "fireworks alleys"; Prostitutes are "fireworks women", and those who are keen on it will naturally become "sluts".
People tend to avoid sexual phenomena, especially those related to women. This is in line with the psychological characteristics of female shyness. For example, menstruation is a "holiday", pregnancy is "happy" and you are going to be a mother. Another example is "family planning", which is a euphemism in itself, but we often use familyptanning in propaganda. Love and marriage are the most important things in life.
The most beautiful and touching thing, however, influenced by traditional cultural psychology, people still talk about it euphemistically. For example, solving the marriage problem is a "personal problem"; Finding the right person is "finding friends"; Young men and women in love are "boyfriends" and "girlfriends", which almost replace the saying of fiance and fiancee.
Third, bear the psychology.
The Chinese nation is one of the oldest. In the past, the people of China suffered the cruel oppression of feudal rule for thousands of years. In recent centuries, they have also suffered aggression and discrimination from the Xi team. Although this kind of psychology has a numb side, it also embodies the virtue of loyalty and kindness of the Chinese nation in some ways. The use of euphemism can help people improve their tolerance for many unbearable things in their daily work and life.
For example, in the tide of reform, many new things have emerged, some of which can't be fully understood and accepted at the moment, so people will naturally resent the statement of these things. Using euphemism can increase people's psychological endurance to a certain extent. In response to the economic crisis, euphemisms such as "weak market", "out of control economy" and "landslide" are used to avoid inflation. Young people without jobs are called "unemployed youth", and "price liberalization" is almost equal to price increase; People also call the price increase "price adjustment" and so on. The use of these words really enhances people's psychological endurance.
Fourth, respect the psychology of others.
Respect for others is the virtue of the Chinese nation. Especially in today's highly developed material civilization and spiritual civilization, people inherit the essence of national culture, carry forward the virtues of spreading words and ideas, and pursue the beauty of language, which makes many euphemisms reflecting people's respect for others widely adopted. For example, in modern cities, "sanitation workers" and "cleaners" are essential, but in the past, they were called "dung diggers" and "road cleaners". For another example, people's names for people with physical defects have also changed a lot. Those who are rotten, blind and deaf are no longer called "disabled" but "disabled", avoiding the word "waste". In this way, in a sense, they integrated the concept of disability, did not waste, and still had something to do. People used to call people with mental retardation "idiots", "fools" and "idiots". In recent years, the relevant departments have organized human resources to develop intelligence, and the word "mental retardation" has entered the society. Subsequently, there was a "school for the mentally retarded". The appearance of this euphemism reflects the society's concern for people with mental retardation, changes people's discriminatory mentality towards these people to a certain extent, and is also a kind of spiritual comfort to them. Similar examples can be found everywhere in English. If someone is deaf, it means "she is hard of hearing" (she is hard of hearing); The cleaner is a health engineer; Prisons are called reformatories, and old people are called elders.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) entertainment psychology
In daily verbal communication, people want to keep a kind of entertainment psychology and create a good verbal communication environment, so people attach great importance to the use of euphemism. If they drink too much, people don't say "drunk", but often say "drunk", so that people won't immediately think of the mess after being drunk. Talking about someone's body shape is not fat, but "plump"; Not thin, but "slim". For another example, with the passage of time, people move from youth to middle age and finally to old age, which is a natural law. However, in countries with different cultures, people will react differently to the word "old". In our country, when we address the elderly, we often add the word "Lao" after their surnames to show respect, such as "Zhang Lao, after you." But this kind of honorific title doesn't work in Britain and America, because in their consciousness, it is always synonymous with "useless". Very young is more acceptable than old age.
Young (not so young) than. Ld is more acceptable. Euphemisms are also called "harmless lies" because they will not bring obvious harm, but will make people feel good. For example, in English, the wrinkles on a woman's face are not called wrinkles, but called "agoline" or "laushinslines". For another example, in people's love and marriage life, if a woman asks a man to break up or break up, the man is said to have received Dear:Johnletter. Use "dear" here. It is a humorous expression, which seems to express the woman's embarrassed mood. Euphemism has a meaningful multi-directional psychological effect. Euphemism means caution, friendliness and tolerance. It acts as a sedative and can avoid possible unpleasant reactions. It tries to weaken or "beautify" news, opinions and descriptions, without hurting the feelings of listeners, allowing the recipients to be flexible and gradually consider and digest unpleasant or painful news. It can also be said that the use of euphemism is often caused or led by respect, piety, flattery, humility, superstition and even a sense of humor.
Through the above analysis, we can see the relationship between euphemism and social psychology. Social psychology is an important basis for the change of euphemism, and euphemism is an important embodiment of social psychology. Implicit elegance is the characteristic of euphemism. It can help people solve the problem of double constraints in communication, that is, language should not only conform to the conversational norms-speaking realistically, but also follow the social norms-the principle of politeness and civilization. Because it is inseparable from social psychology, as a product of society, it will inevitably be constantly updated and changed with the development of society.