PC vs. euphemism

[John Dunn]

To take up Will Ryan's point, in the days when the principle 'aut bonum, aut nihil' still applied, British (and, perhaps, other anglophone) newspapers developed a system of code words and phrases to use in obituaries: 'a confirmed bachelor' [gay], 'convivial' [always drunk], 'not one to suffer fools gladly' [in the habit of throwing paperweights at his  colleagues] and so on.  I don't recall seeing euphemisms of this kind in Russian/Soviet obituaries, perhaps because personal characteristics tended not be mentioned, perhaps because I'm not very good at reading between the lines.  Sometimes, however, euphemisms of a different kind were required: an obituary of Marshal Zhukov, in describing the vicissitudes of his post-1945 career, used the phrase: 'в сложный послевоенный период [v slozhnyj poslevoennyj period]', which is, I suppose, as good an example of the euphemistic use of сложный [slozhnyj] as one could wish to see.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: Alina Israeli <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:26:58 -0400
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] PC vs. euphemism

Speaking of euphemisms, it is a long standing tradition in Russian to  
avoid naming the cause of death in case of a natural death: dolgaja  
prodolzhitel'naja bolezn' is usually cancer. Neozhidanno or  
skoropostizhno skonchalsja usually a heart attack, and so on.  
Although in recent years the information seeps through, unlike let's  
say even twenty years ago when the word "rak" was not to be uttered  
(although even then on occasion deducable).


Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
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Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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