CONCEPTUAL FEATURES AND TRANSLATION PROBLEMS OF EUPHEMISM

Аннотация

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]. 24 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.