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1.3 Organization of the Thesis
The whole thesis has been divided into six parts. The first part gives the generalintroductimi including the research background and the study purpose. The second partexplores the major studies from China and abroad and summarizes the main problemsreflected from the present studies. The third part provides the theoretical framework whichcontains some important ccmcepts and theories，such as definition, classification，andformation of euphemisms, politeness theories, pragmatic parameters, politeness redressivestrategies, etc. The fourth part brings up the research questions, subjects，instruments,design of the task and data coHection. The fifth part explores the results and has a profoundand all-sided analysis of the research. The last part summarizes the major findings of thewhole study，provides the implications on teaching English euphemisms, limitations of thethesis and suggestions for further studies,

Chapter Two Literature Review

Wikipedia defines euphemism as “the substitution of a mild，inoffensive, relativelyuncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwisesuggest something unpleasant to the audience." We can see from the above definition thateuphemism is not merely an academic term which appears in the textbooks. It is living inour communication and never can be ignored. Euphemism is not only a linguistic but asocial-cultural phenomenon which plays an indispensable role in our life. Researches, atthe very beginning, concentrated on the rough and superficial studies on rhetoric andlexicology. Not until recent years，did studies from the perspectives of linguistics,sociolinguistics，psychology and pragmatics have become widely popular. Scholars fromwestern countries and China have developed comprehensive and profound investigationson euphemism, which did leave a tremendous gem for the followers.

2.1 Major Studies in Western Countries
Euphemism can be originally traced backed to 1580's when the British writer GeorgeBhint employed the term "euphemism" and defined it as a “good or favorableinterj^etation of a bad word” (Neaman et al, 1983:4). That is merely a rough and vagueexplanation. H.L.Mencken, in his book The American Language，combined with thehistorical and socio-cultxiral elements of America，gave us a more detailed elaboration ofthe production of several hundred euphemisms and the reason why they could be prevalentat that time, which was considered as a precious legacy for the subsequent studies. In 1981，the book A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Double-talk，written by the Britishlinguist，Hugh Ravvson, covered up more comprehensive fields such as definition,historical background, classifications and characteristics of euphemisms which werecategorized into positive and negative, and conscious and unconscious ones. He alsodescribed the meaning，etymology of each category thoroughly and the relation betweeneuphemism and other terms in his book. Linguists in China take high regard of thismasterpiece, especially of the spectacular preface. In 1983, J.S. Neaman and C.G Silverpublished their work Kind Words: A Thesaurus of Euphemisms in which the history，formation and motives of euphemisms are ela本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。