从合作原则看英语委婉语的使用

　　2.3.4 UnderstatementUnderstatement displays people’s desire to make theirlanguage less painful and direct. So there is never an uglywoman in this world, she is at least plain. Teachers only tellparents that their child is a bit slow for his age, notretarded. And call senior citizen for old person. "Takeother's things without permission" can be instead of "steal".

　　2.3.5 PeriphrasisPeriphrasis is just beating around the bush. People oftensay euphemisms are weasel words, because people never call aspade a spade when using euphemisms. Fart is not pleasant toear, so people call it wind from the behind. Someone wants youto go away, but he only says he will call your carriage foryou. Someone living at the government expense may make youenvy him, but actually he is in prison. "Many sayings aboutgoing to WC make a good use of periphrasis like wash one’shands, powder one’s nose, spend a penny. So do the 'drop' for'adjustment downward'[13]"2.4. Grammatical waysAccording to Bolinger, "Euphemism is not restricted to thelexicon. There are grammatical ways of toning something down”.

　　Therefore, euphemizing should not be limited to lexical ways;it can also be achieved by grammatical ways.

　　2.4.1 TenseIn English, tense can lend a little euphemistic color tothe expressions for something undesired. Especially whenpeople use want, hope, think and wonder or words like thatthey may also make use of the tense to sound moreeuphemistically. For example, I wondered if you would mindhelping me? or "I wondered if you could help me?"[14]. Askinghelp this way, people won’t feel so embarrassed if they wererefused.

　　2.4.2 Syntactical negationThis method can lesson the painful impact of the languagethat is not welcomed. We say she is not pretty (Actually sheis very ugly), but that is acceptable, because not pretty doesnot equal to “ugly”, it could be “plain” too. Not pretty has awider range of meaning than ugly. Similar usages are as thefollowing: I don’t think, I am afraid, I am not sure, I don'tlike,etc.