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CONCEPTUAL FEATURES AND TRANSLATION PROBLEMS OF EUPHEMISM
No‘monova Zebinso Usmonjon qizi
Andijon davlat chet tillari instituti
Ingliz tili nazariy aspektlari kafedrasi o’qituvchisi
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15362465
Annotation.
The article studies the problems of euphemisms in Modern English and
Uzbek. It gives information about translating challenges of euphemisms.
Keywords:
euphemisms, language, communication, conversation, culture.
Euphemism is not only a common strategy in people’s language using, but also a kind of
cultural phenomenon. Having a great effect on people’s daily communication, it can make a harsh
topic softer and an embarrassed conversation agreeable while adhering to social communicative
conventions. In other words, it saves the faces of both sides and enable people to communicate
successfully. From the moment of its emergence, euphemism plays the part of avoiding
embarrassment and taboos, showing politeness and concealing feelings. People use euphemism
because they fear something and tend to avoid talking about something. With the development
of modern society, euphemism has become an indispensable element in people’s interactions.
Scholars have an intensive interest in euphemism and have made outstanding contributions to
the study of euphemistic expressions.
Many researches on euphemism have already been done in different fields, such as daily
conversations, intercultural communication, science, literature, business affairs and even media
language like newspaper and advertisement. Although many of these studies has referred to the
euphemistic strategies in English teaching, but few has been carried out with its using in English
textbook. So it is very significant and necessary to conduct a research in this filed. The word
“euphemism” was first used in early 1580s by British writer George Blunt in his Glossographia
(1656), where he defined it as “a good or favorable interpretation of a bad word”. H. L. Menken
carried out a rather detailed analysis of how and why so many euphemisms came into being and
became voguish in his book. In 1981, British linguist Hugh Rawson compiled A Dictionary of
Euphemisms and Other Double-talk, where he divided euphemisms into positive and negative
euphemisms, and conscious and unconscious euphemisms, in addition to a thorough description
of the meaning, etymology of each euphemism and its relation to other terms in his dictionary.
We use euphemism for making our writing sound and majestic. In expository writing and
in life immoderate politeness suggests insincerity. For instance:
1. Early retirement-fired
2. In the family way-pregnant.
3. Economically disadvantaged-poor.
4. Special child-disabled.
5. Big-boned-fat.
Euphemism helps writers convey those ideas that have become a social taboo, and are too
embarrasing to mention directly.
According to Rawson, euphemisms are powerful linguistic tools that ‘’are embedded so
deeply in our language that few of us, even those plainspoken, ever get through a day without
using them’’ [1].
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Fromkin and Rodman define a euphemism as ‘’a word or phrase that replaces a taboo word
or serves to avoid frightening or unpleasant subjects’’ [2].
Sanderson also states that euphemism ‘’can be used as a way of being vague and unclear, or
to cover up to the truth or reality of a situation’’.
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye. (In this excerpt, Lady Macbeth is speaking.
She’s telling her husband, Macbeth, to kill Duncan, the king. Murder is surely a surreptitious
topic, so Shakespeare makes use of a euphemism here. Hamlet understands her meaning and
knows Duncan must be provided for (KILLED)that evening. (MACBETH,SHAKESPEARE) ‘’You are
a manipulator’’. “I like to think of myself more as an outcome engineer’’ (LOVER ETERNAL,
J.R.WARD), (outcome engineer means very clever).
In Uzbek literature Abdulla Kadiriy, Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy use euphemism widely in
their creations. F.e ‘’Rano‘ni egasiga topshirmagunimizcha quyilmaydiganga o‘xshaydi’’ In this
extract egasiga topshirmoq means that to get married.(A.Qodiriy.Mehrobdan chayon)..
H.H.Niyoziy use tarnov-parnovini ho‘llamoq instead of ‘’bribe’’.
We use from euphemisms for not only colourful meaning but also to express daily
necessity,family speech(rafiqa,otasi,onasi),death(instead of die you can use pass away,put to
sleep).
Up to scratch-it wasn’t good enough.
It left a lot to be desired-it was pretty bad and unsatisfying.
A questionable idea.-There are problems with this idea.
Armed intervention-military attack.
In conclusion, in this article we try give some information about the euphemism and some
examples for it.
References:
Используемая литература:
Foydalanilgan adabiyotlar:
1.
Rawson H. 1981. A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk. Crown Publishers,
New York.
2.
Fromkin V., Rodam R. 1993. An Introduction to Language. Harcourt Brace College
Publishers.
