The purpose of this study was to explore the political euphemisms that are used in the English newspapers of the 21st century and analyse their semantic and structural features. First of all, different views on euphemisms were presented to demonstrate attitudes of various scholars towards the same phenomenon. Euphemisms were approached from semantic, structural, and pragmatic points of view. The research question was to be answered in the study was as follows: what are typical political euphemisms used in the current English newspapers and what are their underlying semantic and structural features? The material for the analysis was taken from the online English newspaper The Guardian. This newspaper was selected on the basis of its popularity and accessibility to the readers. The methods used in this study were descriptive method and content analysis. The research emerged from the qualitative perspective as the analysis focused on the meaning found in certain situations. In the study political euphemisms were divided into nine semantic groups depending on the semantic topics of articles they appeared in and examined from semantic and structural points of view. The former approach dealt with semantic transformations while the latter focused on types of word-building presented in Warren‘s model. The research proved that the usage of euphemisms was characteristic of political texts but their number was relatively limited. One and the same political euphemism were found in... [to full text] / Šio darbo tikslas yra ištirti politinius eufemizmus, kurie yra naudojami 21-ojo amžiaus angliškuose laikraščiuose ir išanalizuoti jų semantinius bei struktūrinius bruožus. Tikslui pasiekti iškelti šie uždaviniai: ištirti teorijas ir mokslinius darbus, aprašančius eufemizmo sąvoką ir bruožus, identifikuoti politinius eufemizmus naudojamus šiandienos angliškuose laikraščiuose, sugrupuoti juos į klases pagal semantines temas bei išanalizuoti politinių eufemizmų struktūrinius ir semantinius bruožus. Atliekant tyrimą buvo naudojami aprašomasis metodas bei turinio analizė. Tyrimo metu nagrinėti 70 politinių eufemizmų, kurie buvo rasti paskutinių trijų metų internetiniame laikraštyje The Guardian. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad: • politinų eufemizmų naudojimas yra būdingas politiniams tekstams, o tai reiškia, kad politikai slepia tikrąją politinių įvykių esmę ir klaidina visuomenę vartodami gražiai skambančius žodžius. Visgi eufemizų skaičius buvo santykinai mažas. Vienas ir tas pats eufemizmas buvo rastas skirtingų semantinių temų straipsniuose. • Daugiausia politinių eufemizmų buvo rasta straipsniuose apie politines partijas, o mažiausiai- straipsniuose apie civilinių ir viešųjų paslaugų politiką. Tai rodo, kad politikai yra linkę vartoti eufemistinę kalbą diskutuodami įvairiomis temomis politinėse partijose ir sakydami kalbas, o kalbėdami apie civilines ir viešąsias paslaugas politikai eufemizuoja rečiau. • Eufemizmai atlieka penkias pragmatines funkcijas: mandagumo, tabu... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

There has seemingly never been a study conducted on Swedish euphemisms in comparison to Englisheuphemisms. This study seeks to contribute to the insights regarding euphemisms in everydaysituations. After reviewing existing literature and relevant theoretical texts on this issue, research wasundertaken to garner primary data on this topic. This was effected by distributing a self-administeredquestionnaire in Swedish to fifteen Swedish-speakers and one in English to fifteen English-speakers. Inboth samples, eight individuals were female and seven were male while age and education variedgreatly. They were posed questions featuring different terms for which they were asked to assigneuphemisms in their mother tongue. A number of findings were made which distinguished between theusage of euphemisms by speakers in terms of their respective languages, i.e. English and Swedish, butalso within these language communities in terms of gender and age differences. The study seeminglyaccorded with the general view that males are more direct and do not tend to utilize euphemisms asmuch as females. A further conclusion was that native English speakers are more comfortablediscussing alcohol, in terms of the drinking-cultures, as compared to native Swedish speakers and apossible explanation for this difference was the state alcohol monopoly in Sweden. It may also beconcluded that, while many euphemisms appeared that were particular to the language, it was possibleto identify many cases in which there are closely corresponding euphemisms in both languages.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Tshivenda)) --University of Limpopo, 2016 / This study examined Tshivenḓa euphemisms from a socio-pragmatic perspective within a framework of Politeness and Indirectness Communicative theories. According to Brown and Levinson (1987), Politeness Theory describes politeness as showing concern for people’s ‘face’ needs where ‘face’ means one’s public self-image. In terms of the Indirectness Communicative Theory, euphemism is a face saving mechanism which emphasizes mutual cooperation in a conversation. Euphemisms are described as substitutions of agreeable or inoffensive expressions for ones that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. They are words with meanings or sounds that are thought, somehow, to be nicer, cleaner or more elevated and they are used as substitutes for words deemed unpleasant, crude or ugly in sound or sense. The study adopted a descriptive and exploratory design within a qualitative research approach, based on the view that qualitative research aims at explaining complex phenomena by means of verbal description rather than testing hypotheses with numerical values. Furthermore, primary data were elicited from 25 participants of different ages, genders, educational levels, social status and occupations who are native speakers of the Tshivenḓa language by means of semi-structured interviews. Since this study involved working with humans, all ethical aspects were ensured. The study, which investigated the use of Tshivenḓa euphemisms, was conducted in seven social domains in Venḓa in the Vhembe District: local courts, churches, homes, hospitals, girls in seclusion, schools and electronic media. The study’s findings show evidence of the use of Tshivenḓa euphemisms in these various domains. However, the court domain seems not to use many euphemisms due to the fact that clear communication is required there; for two parties in a case to understand what is being said during the proceedings the use of roundabout indirect language is avoided – the courts believe in calling ‘a spade, a spade.’ Through the careful analysis of euphemisms, the study’s findings revealed that euphemisms have both positive and negative effects on language, including Tshivenḓa. Some of the positive effects of euphemisms revealed by this study include the ability to avoid directly naming what is deemed unpleasant; they make the language sound more v literary; and they allow people to discuss touchy or taboo subjects with ease. However, the findings also suggested that euphemisms may be disrespectful; they could hinder clear communication; they are deceptive; and they may lead to miscommunication and general confusion. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that the use of euphemisms in Tshivenḓa language should be reinforced in all social domains in order to enhance politeness; preserve the public self-image of the participants in communicative exchanges; and facilitate harmonious interpersonal relationships. It is also recommended that further study be undertaken to identify other factors that may affect the use of euphemisms in Tshivenḓa from other perspectives. Key concepts: Politeness; Euphemisms; Treadmill; Taboo; Face work

This thesis describes the issue of the use of euphemisms in contemporary Russian language. It is aims to determine thematic areas in which euphemisms are used in contemporary Russian and compare it with conclusions of previous research. Another purpose of the research is determine function of euphemisms for particular thematic areas and compare frequency of incidence of euphemisms in lifestyle magazines for woman and newspaper with extensive target group. Material for the research was derived from the Russian press. Collected examples have not been used in previous studies. Based on theoretical findings thematic areas of using euphemisms and their functions were determined. Collected examples were explored from several perspectives - function, thematic areas they were used for, connection between context and perception of particular name as euphemism, description in the literature etc. One of the conclusions of this thesis is finding that there are thematic areas where euphemisms are used in contemporary Russian that have not been described in the literature. It has been determined that thematic areas of euphemisms incidence and frequency of their use were differed according to sort of periodicals they were found in. In case of frequent occurrence of particular euphemism can be regarded as its...

<p>This essay is a corpus based study, aimed at determining which euphemisms for death American and British English have in common as well as which might be more specific for either of these two varieties of the English language. The study also shows the frequency in use for all of the chosen euphemisms and briefly mentions when they first were used. Six euphemisms concerning death and dying were selected out of numerous available expressions: deceased, pass away, perish, demise, the departed and fade away. In addition, the word die was also included in the investigation with the purpose of determining if euphemisms are more common.</p><p>Cobuild Direct Corpus serves as the main source of the investigation and comparisons are made between the National Public Radio broadcasts and US books corpora for the American variety of the English language and the BBC World Service radio broadcasts and the UK books corpora for the British counterpart. In addition, the British English transcribed informal speech corpus was included to display the frequency in use in British spoken English.</p><p>The analysis concludes that the use of euphemisms for death is not very common, which implies that people in our day of age are not as afraid of death as what is claimed to have been the case during earlier years.</p>

This essay is a corpus based study, aimed at determining which euphemisms for death American and British English have in common as well as which might be more specific for either of these two varieties of the English language. The study also shows the frequency in use for all of the chosen euphemisms and briefly mentions when they first were used. Six euphemisms concerning death and dying were selected out of numerous available expressions: deceased, pass away, perish, demise, the departed and fade away. In addition, the word die was also included in the investigation with the purpose of determining if euphemisms are more common. Cobuild Direct Corpus serves as the main source of the investigation and comparisons are made between the National Public Radio broadcasts and US books corpora for the American variety of the English language and the BBC World Service radio broadcasts and the UK books corpora for the British counterpart. In addition, the British English transcribed informal speech corpus was included to display the frequency in use in British spoken English. The analysis concludes that the use of euphemisms for death is not very common, which implies that people in our day of age are not as afraid of death as what is claimed to have been the case during earlier years.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use and frequency of euphemisms for die, dying or dead in the American English-language using the Corpus of Contemporary American English. To fulfill the purpose, three research questions were answered. I wanted to know in which genres, of Spoken, Fiction, Magazines, Newspapers, Academic texts, TV/Movies, Blogs and web-gnl, the euphemisms occurred the most. I also wanted to investigate which euphemism, in terms of frequency, of pass away, demise, decease and last breath was the most common one, and how frequent they are compared to the “standard” die, dying or dead. How the frequency of the euphemisms developed over the time span 1990-2019, was also something the study wanted to answer. To answer these questions, studies which defined and discussed taboo, euphemisms, and metonymy were used. The conclusion was that even the least occurring genre in the standard has got a higher frequency than all the euphemisms together. However, demise was the most frequent euphemism and Fiction, TV/Movies and Academic were the genres in which the euphemisms occur the most in. Moreover, although demise was the most frequent euphemism, it was also the one that decreased the most over the period of 30 years. pass away, however, increased the most over time.

The Chinese euphemisms have aroused much interest of many researches due to its distinctive function and diversity. The choice and use of Chinese euphemisms are affected by many factors such as the Chinese traditional culture, social customs, people’s self-cultivation, the situation context and linguistic context of a conversation, etc. Hence, the progress of society, the development of technology and the renewing of the concept make up the dynamic characteristic of the Chinese euphemisms. However, most studies focus mainly on the vocabulary people use and their expressing habits and patterns, there are few studies focus on how Chinese euphemisms develop along with the times. Studies that shed light on how modern people use broad euphemisms and narrow euphemisms are even less. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to collect linguistic materials and design a questionnaire to make a survey on the current situation of using euphemisms by respondents of different age groups. The result of this survey shows that modern people are not only becoming less and less indirect in terms of the scope of using euphemisms, but also less and less tactful in terms of the vocabulary that they use. This phenomenon can be observed when people talk about topics such as death, disease, appearance, unemployment, marriage and privacy. Modern people tend to be relatively low decoratively worded. In other words, people are to some extent becoming less indirect and less tactful. This paper verifies the adaptability as well as the updating and upgrading of Chinese euphemisms. It also discusses the linguistic diversity of modern people in terms of using broad and narrow euphemisms under different contexts. This paper will not only help us to understand how Chinese language adapts to the change with the times, but also digs deeper into the great role that social culture plays in language development. / 汉语委婉语的功能鲜明、灵活多变，引起了很多研究的兴趣。汉语委婉语的选择和使用 受到中国的传统文化、社会风俗，人自身的修养内涵、情景和语境等多方面因素的影响，并伴 随着社会的发展、科技的进步、观念的转变而处于一个动态的变化过程。然而，目前的研究对 委婉语的词汇、表达方式及表达规律探讨的比较多，但是对汉语委婉语基于时代变化的研究则 较少，特别是对于在现代社会的日常交谈中，人们具体如何使用狭义和广义委婉语，以及探讨 他们在委婉语使用方面出现了哪些变化的研究则更少了。 因此，本论文旨在搜集语言素材并设计问卷，对不同年龄段的人委婉语的使用现状做一 个问卷调查。调查数据的结果表明，在现代社会的日常交谈中，不同年龄段的人使用汉语委婉 语的范围不仅缩小了，并且委婉程度也有一定的降低。具体体现为在死、病、相貌、 失业、 婚姻、隐私等话题下，人们现在倾向于使用修饰性较低，或者说委婉程度较低的委婉语。 本论文验证了委婉语的顺应性和更新替代性，并具体阐述了在现代社会的日常交谈中， 不同年龄段的人在不同语境下对广义和狭义委婉语选择的多样性。因此，本论文不仅有助于理 解汉语随时代变迁发展变化的趋势，也有助于更深入的理解社会文化在语言发展中发挥的巨大 作用。

The overall vagueness of words and sentences can show differences in meaning and perceptions. Applying this to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives can end up being misleading, especially in an online setting such as social media, which has shown as a preferable medium for these kinds of messages. This awoke a curiosity within us as we ourselves have a critical way of thinking because of our studies within media communication and our own experiences with social media messages being somewhat misleading and shady in their nature. With theories and previous research from several authors revolving around complex concepts such as trust, transparency and authenticity. A definition of trustworthiness has been established to be used for this particular bachelor thesis for the basis of our variables and analysis of the results. This study aims to measure if trustworthiness in CSR posts on Instagram change depending on different levels of transparency. Research is conducted with a quantitative experiment with three web-based surveys containing each a different stimuli taking inspiration from real-life companies posts on Instagram. The results showed that the perceived trustworthiness changes depending on the levels of transparency, with a high trustworthiness towards message and action in an Instagram post of high transparency. Instagram posts with mid-range and low levels of transparency showed similarities but the post with low affinity of transparency showed the least amount of perceived trustworthiness. / En överskridande vaghet av ord och meningar kan visa på skiftningar inom mening och uppfattning. När detta appliceras till Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiativ så kan resultat bli missledande, särskilt online på sociala medier, som har visat sig vara ett förmånligt medium för dessa typer av meddelanden. Detta väckte en nyfikenhet inom oss eftersom vi har en kritisk syn att se på saker i och med att vi studerar inom medier och kommunikation. Även våra egna erfarenheter av meddelanden på sociala medier säger oss att de kan vara missledande och lömska i sin natur. Vi har studerat teorier och tidigare forskning från flera författare kring komplexa koncept som tillit, transparens och äkthet. Utifrån detta så har vi etablerat en definition av trovärdighet som vi använder för denna kandidatuppsats, som blir till grunden för våra variabler och analys av resultat. Studien ämnar att mäta om trovärdighet i CSR-inlägg på Instagram förändras beroende på nivån av transparens. Forskningen är gjord med ett kvantitativt experiment som är baserat på tre webbenkäter som alla har ett annorlunda stimuli. Vi har tagit inspiration från riktiga företags inlägg på Instagram. Resultatet visar att den upplevda trovärdigheten ändras beroende på de olika nivåerna av transparens, med hög trovärdighet mot meddelande och handling i ett Instagraminlägg med hög transparens. Instagram-inlägg med medel och låg transparens visade likheter men inlägget med låg transparens visade på den lägsta nivån av trovärdighet.