Abstract

Euphemism is a significant linguistic and sociolinguistic phenomenon and euphemism certainly affects the human language. In order to avoid the embarrassment or ease the hurt brought by harsh words, people often apply euphemisms to their daily communication. However，if we do not pay much attention to the different usage of euphemism based on different cultures and different purposes, we will easily make mistakes and throw ourselves into an embarrassing situation.

With the increase of the trade between China and the western countries, English euphemism plays a more and more important role in cross-cultural communication. This paper, on the basis of the previous studies, discussed the application of English euphemism in politics, military and advertisements from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. In doing so, it aims to provide some strategies to improve people’s ability of using English euphemism.

Keywords: English euphemism, application, cross-cultural communication competence

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction.1

2.Literature review of the study on Euphemism.1

2.1 Studies of euphemism1

2.1.1 Definition of euphemism.2

2.1.2 Classification of euphemism.2

2.1.3 Euphemism in communication.2

2.2 Important notions in cross-cultural communication3

      2.2.1 The face theory3

      2.2.2 Cross-cultural competence.3

3.Application of English euphemism in Cross-cultural Communication.4

3.1 In politics.4

   3.1.1 In domestic administration.4

   3.1.2 In international affairs5

3.2 In military and wars6

3.3 In advertisements 7

4.Cultivation of cross-cultural competence in EFL teaching9

4.1 Teaching cultural connotations of vocabulary10

4.2 Making contrastive analysis of English and Chinese euphemisms10

4.3 Application of euphemism in EFL teaching10

5.Conclusion.11

References.13