Euphemism and metaphor

[zmaalej]

Dear Dina,
The word euphemism comes from Greek _eu_ (good) and _pheme_ (speech or
saying). Euphemising has come to mean substituting a pleasant, inoffesive,
indirect term for an offensive, distasteful, and more explicit term.
Linguistic communication being governed by the Politeness Principle (Leech,
1983), euphemising and metaphorising meet owing to indirectness to mediate
between the taboo and the tasteful. For instance, in the news exterminating
a race by massive killing may be euphemistically termed as cleansing (as in
what has been going on in Kosovo). Note that here metaphorically killing
becomes cleansing.

For a short introduction to euphemism, see _A Dictionary of Stylistics_
(Katie Wales, 1989). For a more thorough study of euphemism, see _The
Wordsworth Book of Euphemism_ (Judith S. Neaman & Carole G. Silver, 1990).

Zouhair Maalej, Assistant Professor,
Department of English Chair,
Faculty of Letters, Manouba, 2010,
University of Tunis I, TUNISIA.
Office Phone: (+216) 1 600 700 Ext. 174
Home Tel/Fax: (+216) 1 362 871
Email: zmaalej at gnet.tn

There are four kinds of people: a man who knows and knows that he does; such
a man is a man of knowledge, so follow his steps. A man who knows but
doesn't know that he does; such a man is unmindful, so wake him up.  A man
who doesn't know but knows that he doesn't; such a man is ignorant, so
educate him. And a man who doesn't know and doesn't know that he doesn't;
such a man is definitely a fool, so avoid his company. (Ancient Arabic
saying)
-----Original Message-----
From: Dina Koschorreck <kath2 at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE>
To: DISCOURS at linguist.ldc.upenn.edu <DISCOURS at linguist.ldc.upenn.edu>
Date: Friday, June 25, 1999 11:46 AM


>Hello!
>
>Could anyone be so kind and explain to me how 'metaphor' and 'euphemism'
>are related?  In which way are they similar and in which ways do they
>differ? Is euphemism a kind of metaphor? Is euphemism part of pragmatics
>and metaphor not? Somehow I could not find any literature which gave a
>satisfactory answer (most don#t touch on this at all). Thank you very much
>for your help!
>Dina
>kath2 at zedat.fu-berlin.de
>