The Pragmatic Studying of English Euphemism

Euphemism, an important part of English, is one of the figures of speech often used in our daily life. It has been so far defined semantically. Considering the fact that euphemism in one context may not be the same in another and it changes with the lapse of time, euphemism should be redefined from the pragmatic perspective. In some situation, the use of euphemism disobey the cooperative Principle put forward by Grice but conform to the polite principle by L eech. There are two principles governing the use of euphemisms: appropriateness principle and self-defensive principle.