Euphemism and the Politeness Principle
In linguistic communication, euphemism is a lubricant, whereas the politeness principle is a norm of moderating linguistic behavior. This paper analyzes euphemism with the basic theory of pragmatics, showing the relationship between euphemism and the politeness principle. In order to achieve a better communicative effectiveness, euphemism is used to deliberately violate the cooperative principle due to the consideration of politeness in specific context. Euphemism is closely related to politeness, and euphemism observes the politeness principle.