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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Motivation of the Study
Euphemism is not only a rhetorical device, but rather a way of thinking, animportant form of cognition. Since euphemism jeopardizes our understandingprocess, why shall we adopt euphemistic expressions rather than direct ones in ourcommunication? The obtaining of euphemistic meaning is the result of association.We do not gain the meaning by simply satisfying the truth conditions, but through theparticipation of our mental activities. The failure to achieve this is caused by a lackof experience and cultural knowledge on one hand and inability to understand thefeatures and meaning construction mechanisms on the other.Euphemism has been studied in many fields from various perspectives. However,the study from the integrated pragmatic-cognitive perspective—the CBR model isoften neglected. The previous studies have not fully unfolded the cognitive process inwhich euphemisms are used by means of integration from Conceptual BlendingTheory (CBT) and Relevance Theory (RT).As Fauconnier & Turner (1994, 1998, 2002, 2003) states, conceptual integrationis taken as a pervasive cognitive process in the meaning construction of naturallanguage, which plays a decisive role in many aspects of cognition, including themeaning construction, conceptual changes, metaphor and analogy, scientificdiscovery, grammar, action and design. In this respect, what we attempt to solve inthis thesis is: how is euphemism generated and understood? That is to say, we wantto reveal the meaning construction mechanism for the understanding of euphemism.From the perspective of philosophy and cognition, euphemism is a way of thinking, akind of imagination and creation rather than a mere rhetorical device. The meaningconstruction and understanding is actually a process of conceptual integration. CBT,integrated with RT, holds a very strong explanatory power for euphemisms.As mentioned above, there is an urgent necessity and great importance to buildup an integrated analytical framework to interpret the meaning constructionmechanism of English euphemism.
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1.2 Objectives of the Study
Based on the motivation mentioned above, the meaning construction of Englisheuphemism is actually a process of conceptual integration. The Conceptual BlendingTheory, integrated with Relevance Theory, holds a very strong explanatory power foreuphemisms.Therefore, the present study aims to make up an integrated CBR model toaccount for the meaning construction mechanism of euphemism based on the twotheories of CBT and RT. This thesis adopts the qualitative method as well as case analysis to analyze andexplain some typical examples by means of a new theoretical framework CBR modelon the basis of Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) as well as Relevance Theory(RT). Meanwhile, the analysis is mainly based on the data collected mainly from ADictionary of English Euphemisms (2001) edited by Liu Chunbao. This dictionarycollects over 8000 euphemisms altogether and is widely recognized in the Chineselinguistic circle. Such a professionally recognized dictionary is capable of not onlyhelping us clearly define euphemism, but also providing us with an abundant sourceto study euphemism in a deeper and unprecedented sense. In addition, this thesis isalso going to select some typical examples from authorized newspapers, magazinesand diction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。