This exhaustive and detailed analysis penetrates an extremely complex and multidimensional phenomenon, euphemism, in the two tongues of Arabic and English, in a cultural-pragmatic rigorous in-depth contrastive manner. Euphemisms can be considered as an important linguistic weapon, which is often used in order to decrease the face-threatening force of many speech acts, express the morally sensitive or the forbidden, and remain socially harmless during an individual's conversation. Based on an in-depth examination of a number of euphemistic expressions in the domains of dead, ill, sex and status, interesting differences raise their heads as to the construction, pragmatic usages and socio-cultural motivations of the euphemisms in the two languages. For example, Arabic euphemistic strategies are dominated by relayed religious doctrines, the extended tradition of shame-and-honor system, and a widespread culture of indirection as well, which all play a crucial role in shaping how speakers opt to address sensitive or sensitive topics and how to communicate distressing matters overall. In contrast, English euphemisms manifest values with a more secular character, a greater emphasis on individualism, and an increased psychological sensitiveness that rules social relationship. The work is competently informed by authentic and current language data from all relevant sources, such as media discourse, political speeches, and literature, and constantly using frameworks such as politeness theory and the cultural dimensions theory. The important and meaningful results reported by this large-scale study have obvious implications for long-term development of cross-cultural communication, professionalisation of translation, and even for the development of theories of second-language acquisition.
Lect. Bahaa A. Muslim Al-Zobaidy (Wed,) studied this question.