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Good evening, my name is Alexandra and today I’m going to show my presentation
about the euphemisms.
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Nowadays, the concept of "euphemism" is an international linguistic term, which is
understood and interpreted in completely different ways. There are many
definitions of this concept.
The term "euphemism" for a long time had the meaning of a stylistic trope that
serves to soften an unpleasant or crude concept or phenomenon. Although the
study of euphemisms by linguists began around the nineteenth century, they
deserved special attention in the study in the last decades of the twentieth century.
According the definition given by American linguist Hugh Rawson who is also the author
of the “Rawson’s Dictionary of Euphemisms”, euphemisms are agreeable, roundabout
and mild words used instead of painful, or offensive ones.

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The topic of euphemisms is closely related to the topic of taboo.
Euphemisms are often used to replace taboo, archaic words. Euphemisms are
believed to have originated from taboos. The Soviet linguist A.A. Reformatsky
defined taboo as a prohibition that arose in the sphere of public life at different
stages of the development of society. This prohibition could also apply to various
facts of the language.
People were superstitious, afraid of spirits, and it was this fear of the magical
effect of words that gave rise to the prohibitions on the use of certain words. For
example, in order not to anger God, many words have been invented to replace the
word
“God” with the words such as “gosh”, “golly”, “oh my”, “my goodness” and
“doggone”. Taboo as a phenomenon is closely related to the magical function of
speech, with the belief in the possible impact on the environment with the help of
language.
Over time, society changed, and the nature of the prohibition also changed.
Religious and mystical fear in the use of the first euphemisms was replaced by
social and psychological reasons, which were a consequence of the negative
attitude of society towards the indicated phenomena. Since that time, a euphemism
in the traditional sense has arisen. In modern society, the reason for the prohibition
may be a censorship prohibition concerning military or diplomatic secrets.

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As euphemisms are a noteworthy part of any language lexicon, there have been numerous
attempts to categorize them.
These attempts have resulted in various semantic classifications based on their meaning,
the areas and motive of their usage and so forth. 
The presented classification suggested by Hugh Rawson shows the division of
euphemisms according their functions and consciousness of their usage.
The linguist divided euphemisms into positive and negative ones. 
The group of positive euphemisms improves the properties of the happening events and
make them more meaningful. The group includes the names of jobs with the aim of
increasing their status. The author also says that American people use this group of
euphemisms in order to veil something unpleasant.
The Negative euphemisms, on the contrary, often minimize the significance of the event
or the subject. What is more, this group of euphemisms comes from the ancient times.
Negative euphemisms include the names of God and Satan and hunted animals.

All euphemisms, whether positive or negative, may be used either unconsciously or

consciously. 
Unconscious euphemisms consist mainly of words that were developed as euphemisms,
but so long ago that hardly anyone remembers the original motivation. 

Conscious euphemisms comes from a much more complex category because of the
ingenuity and deviousness of the human mind.

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There were also distinguished following functions of the usage of euphemisms according
to the Russian linguist G.N. Mukhamedyanova who studied the usage of euphemisms in
the media.
She distinguished 3 functions. 

There are 3 main function of euphemisms

1. Normalizing that means softening the statement and that arises when it is
necessary to soften the negative essence of the phenomenon, which deviates from
the generally accepted norms of morality and ethics.
2. Masking or Veiling function that is used to create ambiguity of the happening
event. This function is very popular in the media, as it can expose a certain
situation in a more favorable light.
3. The aesthetic function implies the use of more graceful and elegant designations
for those phenomena of reality that cause negative feelings.
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There several areas where euphemisms are widely used. I have made the analysis of
euphemisms in the media and have found out that the spheres with the most frequent use
of euphemisms are Politics, Economics, Crimes and Sports.
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Most classifications of the methods of euphemisms’ creation provided by Russian and
foreign linguists are very similar to each other and suggest more or less the same ways of
explanation of how euphemisms are created in a language. 
One of the most complete and broad typologies created by the Swedish linguist
B. Warren divides the methods of the creation of euphemisms into two major groups:
Morphological and Semantic.
Here are presented the examples of the first group that includes acronyms and
abbreviations, compounding, derivation, phonetic replacement, back slang and rhyming 
slang.
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The second group includes such means as particularization, implications, metaphors,
litotes, ellipsis and reversals.
It should be also noted that some of the abovementioned methods may be more common
for a certain language and be less popular in the others due to their morphological or
phonological peculiarities.
For example, in the UK rhyming slang is spread more widely than anywhere else.
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In conclusion, it should be noted that euphemisms are one of the most flexible part of the
language as they depend on the contest. They also don’t live long and gradually fade until
they stop to be considered as such – and therefore it will have to be replaced by other
euphemisms resulting in constantly refreshing the studying material. This also means that
the study of euphemisms as a linguistic phenomenon is far from being complete. 
Achievements of the linguists throughout the study of euphemisms have formed a reliable
foundation for further research defining the nature of euphemism and drawing a clear line
of demarcation between euphemism and other concepts.