Бердақ атындағы Қарақалпақ Мәмлекетлик университети шет тиллери факультети

e.g.: “Come on”, said Miss Hardforth, “has the cat got your tongue?”=can you speak?

to be snatched up to the skies = to die.

She was still fat; the destroyer of her figure sat at the head of the table. (A. Bennett).

Euphemism is a periphrasis, which is used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one

e.g.: the word “to die” has the following euphemisms:

• 
  to pass away
  
• 
  to expire
  
• 
  to be no more
  
• 
  to depart
  
• 
  to join the majority
  
• 
  to cross the bar.
  

So, euphemisms are words and phrases which aim at producing a deliberately mild effect.

The origin of the term euphemism discloses the aim of the device very clearly, i.e. speaking well (from Greek: Eu - well, Pheme – speaking)

Euphemism sometimes figuratively called “a whitewashing device”

The linguistic peculiarity of euphemism lies in the fact that every euphemism must call up a define synynym in the mind of the reader or listener. So instead of saying “to lie” people usually use such expressions as “to possess a vivid imagination”, or “to tell stories”.The euphemistic synonyms given above are part of a language – as –a –system.They have not been freshly invented. Compare these euphemisms with the following from Dickens’s Pickwick Papers;

“They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner”.

“Have come by this horse in some dishonest manner” call forth the word “steal” have stolen it.

Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of application.

The most recognizable are the following:

Religious

• 
  Moral
  
• 
  Medical
  
• 
  Political
  
• 
  Parliamentary
  

Conventional euphemisms are employed in conformity to social usages are best illustrated by the parliamentary codes of expression.In an article headed “In Commons,a Lie is Inexactitude” written by James Feron in the New York Times, we may find a number of words that are not to be used in Parliamentary Debate.”When Sir Winston Churchill, some years ago, writes Feron, “termed a parliamentary opponent a “purveyor of terminological inexactitudes”, every one in the chamber knew he meant “liar”.Sir Winston had been ordered by the Speaker to withdraw a stronger epithet. So he used the euphemism, which become famous and is still used in the Commons. It conveyed the insult without sounding offensive, and is satisfied the Speaker.The changes in designating objects disclose the true nature of the relations between words and their referents. We must admit that there is a positive magic in words and, as Prof.Randolph Quirk has it, “… we are liable to be dangerously misled through mistaking a word for its referent.”

This becomes particularly noticeable in connection with what are called political euphemisms. Thes are really understatements , the aim of which is to mislead public opinion and to express what is unpleasant in a more delicate manner.Thus the headline in one of the British newspapers “Tension in Kashmir” was to hide the fact that there was a real uprisihg in that area; “Undernourishment of children in India” stood for “starvation”.

One and same word may be periphrased by different euphemisms in different speech situations. Eg: the word liar in private conversation may have the following euphemisms: untruther, story – teller, fabulist; in press: dissimilator, misleader, falsier, fabricator.

One of the stylistic function of euphemisms is to produce a humorous effect or to distort the truth, to make the statement milder.
Another SD which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object is hyperbole. It is deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of some quantity, quality, size, ets, the aim of which is to intensify one of the features of the object to such degree that from practical point of view fulfillment of which is impossible. Both the writer and the reader are fully aware of the deliberateness of the exaggeration.

“He was so tall that I was not sure that he had a face”.

Hyperbole may be expressed in a periphrastic descriptive way. E.g.:

“What isuffer no tongue can tell”.(J.K.Jerome)

“No tongue can tell” means “it is very difficult to express by means of the language”.In this case hyperbole is based on metonymy.

Very often hyperbole is used to create humorous or satirical effect and so to express the author’s attitude towards the described.

We constantly use expressions containing hyperbole in our everyday speech. Such exaggerations are distinguished from a hyperbole as a stylistic device:

e.g.: I haven’t seen you for ages,

I asked him on my bended knees,

You promised it one thousand times,

A thousand pardons, scared to death,

I’d give the world to see him.

Such hyperboles are used in literature in direct speech to show the emotional state of the personage at the moment of his uttering the remark.

Hyperbole may be used in combination with other stylistic devices – hyperbolic similes.

“His mind began to move like lightning”.

Hyperbole may be found in repetition:

“I’d have been out there days ago, days ago”.

Hyperbole is a device which sharpens the readers ability to make a logical assessment of the utterance.

Stylistic functions of Hyperbole is to create humorous effect and to express the author’s attitude towards the described; to show the emotional state of the personages at the moment of his uttering the remark.

1. 
   Questions and Tasks
   

1. 
   What is the difference between simile and comparison?Give examples.
   
2. 
   What are the formal elements of simile?
   
3. 
   Give the difference between simile and metaphor?
   
4. 
   Differentiate traditional and original similes?
   
5. 
   Comment on logical and figurative periphrasis?
   
6. 
   What is the nature of euphemistic periphrasis?
   
7. 
   Distribute periphrasis into original an traditional.
   
8. 
   What effect do euphemisms produce?
   
9. 
   What is th stylistic functions of euphemisms?
   
10. 
    Characterise the stylistic device of hyperbole.
    
11. 
    Compate hyperole with understatement?