摘 要

委婉语是一种普遍存在的文化现象，其在不同的时代和文化背景下有着不同的表达方式。委婉语是指用婉转，温和的说法取代原本会使人感到尴尬或不悦的言语，使用委婉语可以避免激化矛盾冲突，同时有效地传递信息，也可以美化一些事实，保护为自己或他的面子人。在国际交流更加密切，信息传播更加快捷的现代社会，委婉语也经常出现在政治，新闻等领域。

本文从面子理论视域出发 ，以纽约时报和中国日报上刊登的有关中美贸易战的报道作为研究素材，通过实例， 对其中的委婉语使用的含义和目的进行对比分析， 总结英文委婉语的用法以及中美双方政府和民众对待贸易冲突的态度， 本研究有助于受贸易战影响的各方更好地理解对方的意图，以加强沟通，更好地解决贸易争端，同时促进跨文化交流。

关键词：面子理论，委婉语，贸易战，新闻报道

Abstract

Euphemism is a commonly existing cultural phenomenon, which has different expressions in different times and under cultural backgrounds. Euphemism refers to the use of indirect words and mildness to replace embarrassing or unpleasant words. Using euphemisms can avoid intensifying conflicts and effectively convey information. In a modern society that international exchanges are more frequent and information is spread faster, euphemism often appears in politics, journalism and other fields. At present, many scholars have achieved many important results in the study of euphemism, but there are few studies on news and political euphemisms. This paper, taking the reports on the Sino-US trade released in the New York Times and China Daily as the research object, makes a comparative study of the use of euphemism in meanings and purposes from the perspective of face theory. The disparity of the usage between Chinese and English is summarized with the hope for both sides in the trade war to better understand each other’s intentions in order to strengthen communication and promote cross-cultural communication.

Keywords: Face Theory；Euphemism; Trade war news

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Study Background 1

1.2 Study Significance 3

2 Euphemism 4

2.1 Definition of Euphemism 4

2.2 Function of Euphemism 5

3 Face Theory 7

3.1 Definition of Face Theory 7

3.2 Face-Threatening Act 7

3.3 Politeness strategy 8

4 Analysis of Euphemism in News Reports on the Sino-US Trade War 10

4.1 Saving the Speaker’s Face 10

4.2 Saving the Listener’s Face 11

4.3 Saving the Third Party’s Face 13

5 Conclusion 16

Reference 17

Acknowledgements 19

Study of Euphemism in News Reports on the Sino-US Trade War Based on Face Theory —— Take China Daily and The New York Times as Examples

1 Introduction

Euphemism is a special kind of rhetoric, which refers to using polite, indirect and ambiguous words instead of unpleasant words. By using appropriate euphemisms, people can use euphemisms to save the “face” of all parties in the communication process, so that communication can proceed smoothly.

Brown amp; Levinson introduced Face Theory in the book “Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena” which was published in 1978. Face Theory consists of three parts: face, face-threatening act and politeness strategy.

This thesis tries to study euphemism from the angle of Brown amp; Levinson’s Face Theory.

1.1 Study Background

As a cultural phenomenon, euphemism not only appears in daily life, but also in politics and news. Many political speeches and news reports use euphemisms to achieve some purpose. As a public platform, the news media can more easily obtain the information and cause repercussions. Therefore, the wording of news reports should be more careful, so the use of euphemisms in the news has become more frequent and diversified.

Brown and Levinson believe that if people want to cooperate, they must cooperate to preserve each other's face when speaking (Brown amp; Levinson, 1978). The best way to preserve the face of both parties in communication is to use the right language. In English news, euphemism is usually used to cover up or downplay content that may threaten face. This is a polite and pragmatic strategy.

Since China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the development of economic and trade relations between China and the US becomes more and more frequent. With time passing by, the Sino-US trade relations have developed in friction and zigzag.

At present, China is already the second-largest economy in the world, meanwhile the unprecedented foreign exchange reserves worldwide. With the continuous expansion of China's foreign trade, China's trade surplus with the United States in 2017 was 1.87 trillion, an increase of 13% over 2016.

From February to May 2018, the Trump administration began to impose high tariffs on a variety of Chinese imports, and at the same time launched anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on many goods from China. Of course, China has subsequently started to take countermeasures.

Trump's provocation of the Sino-U.S. Trade war is directly aimed at: First, to reduce imports from China, enhance the U.S. manufacturing capacity, protect the domestic market, which will increase employment. Second, expand US product exports and open up a wider market in China. At the same time, its deep purpose is to try to repeat the 1980-US trade war with Japan to curb China's renaissance.

 In the past few years, the US economy has not been very prosperous. Since Trump took office, the United States has been focusing on economic recovery. However, the United States adopted trade protectionism and launched a trade war, which had a great impact on the normal international trade order, thus, hindering the development of the two countries and even the world economy. During the friction, the major media in both countries reported on this issue continuously. Some of these reports were more objective, while others were to achieve a certain purpose or to protect the interests of a party. In order to achieve skillful communication purposes, many euphemisms appeared in these reports. Therefore, this thesis selects some articles from the New York Times and China Daily newspapers as the basis for the study of euphemisms.

1.2 Study Significance