从关联顺应理论看CNN新闻中的政治委婉语A Study of Political Euphemism of CNN News from the Perspective of Relevance—Adaptation Theory
Euphemism is a kind of rhetorical device to express the speaker's willingness in an indirect way. It aims to avoid sensitive topics and contributes to a smooth communication. In certain contexts, people's choice of language varies, and it has become a social-cultural phenomenon. As the society becomes more civilized and the need of interpersonal communication in the era of peace becomes greater, both the quantity and the frequency of euphemism are on the increase. In cross-cultural communication, there are inevitably sensitive topics such as age, injuries, and sex. In order to convey the initial point to others instead of leaving the communication in a wretched position, what kind of ways to be chosen to articulate merit careful consideration.
People of different nationalities and countries share different natural and social environment, life style, politics and values. As a result, each language has its own characteristic, which clear reveals the cultural heritage deep inside of each nation. So far, researchers focus on the history and evolution of euphemisms; definition of euphemism; composition of euphemisms; research from a sociolinguistic perspective of euphemisms; research from the perspective of pragmatics theory, conversational cooperative principle and politeness principle. Various theories have their own focus and make a joint contribution to the understanding of euphemism. Borrowing relevance-adaptation theory from pragmatic researchers, this paper studies six pieces of CNN news reports. Relevance-Adaptation theory believes that human beings could cognize the external world, and could represent it in the unique form of human language. Main points of Relevance-Adaptation theory are as follows: Verbal communication aims at seeking optimal relevance; speaker's assumptions determine the choice of discourse; presumption of relevance is the result of speaker’s contextual adaptability to the principle of relevance. Relevance-Adaptation is a dynamic process of mutual adaptation of context composition and language structure. Relevance-Adaptation is the process of strategy choosing. The discourse production combines human cognitive, social, cultural and other aspects together. It is not only a dynamic process of finding the best relevance and selecting language policy, but also the mutual adaptation of the speaker and hearer. To sum up, we have reason to believe that through the in-depth study of euphemism can we effectively understand language differences. With the help of recent researches of domestic and foreign scholars and problems in the study of euphemism, I start this essay on euphemisms applied in CNN news reports.
The essence of euphemism lies in fitting in with the topic, meanwhile, eliminating listeners’ negative feelings. Thus, to promote understanding in both sides and make a comfortable and pleasant conversation, it is a must to seek appropriate expression. And that is strategy choosing. That is consistent in the concrete application of the Relevance-Adaptation theory. This paper helps the public understand the connotation of news euphemism better. Further, the public could understand exactly the truth in journalism.
Nowadays, euphemism has not only widely applied in politics, but also plays an important role in the process of cross cultural communication. This paper will study the application of euphemism in CNN’s reports, and carry on the intensive analysis based on the Relevance-Adaptation theory.
目录
1. Introduction 2
1.1 Study Background 2
1.2 Data Collection and Research Methodology 3
1.3 Structure of the thesis 4
2. Literature Review 4
2.1 Previous Studies on English Euphemism 4
2.1.1 Overseas Researches on Euphemism 4
2.1.2 Domestic Research on Euphemism 5
2.2 Previous Studies on Political Euphemism 6
2.2.1 Studies on Political Euphemism Abroad 6
2.2.2 Studies on Political Euphemism in China 7
2.3 Problems in Previous Studies of Political Euphemism 8
3.Theoretical Framework 9
3.1 The Relevance Theory 9
3.2 The Adaptation Theory 9
3.3 The Relevance-Adaptation Theory 10
4. Political Euphemism in CNN News Reports from the perspective of Relevance--Adaptation Theory 11
4.1 The Use of Euphemism in CNN News Reports is Relevance-Oriented 11
4.2 The Use of Euphemism in CNN News Reports is a Process of Inter-Adaption 13
4.3 The Use of Euphemism in CNN News Reports is determined by The Presumption of Relevance 14
4.4 The Strategy-Choosing in CNN News Reports 16
2.4.1 Abstraction 16
4.4.2 Irony 16
5. Conclusion 17
5.1 Major Findings 17
5.2 Limitations of the Study 17
5.3 Suggestions for Future Study 18
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