A Tentative Study on the Functions and Applications of English Euphemism

Euphemism is not only a social phenomenon, but also a lingual phenomenon. In social interaction, people have to use different words to convey their thoughts and ideas. In order to avoid the embarrassment or ease the sting of harsh words, man has created euphemism. In western cultures, people have been using euphemism widely in many different fields. The originality of this paper lies in the study of English euphemism from the perspective of pragmatics. This paper introduces the features, functions and the applications of English euphemism, intending to help people better understand euphemism and make good use of them in real communication.