Study on the classification of euphemism

The classifications of euphemism are various.The existing classifications only focus on language iftself and have not paid attention to the purposes of the speaker.A new criterion of classification that bases on social function and pragmatic psychology is proposed.According to it,euphemism is classified into beneficial-to-addressee euphemism,beneficial-to-all euphemism and beneficial-to-addresser euphemism.A pragmatic analysis of the beneficial-to-addresser euphemism is given.As a result,the nature of euphemism can be better understood and the contention on whether euphemism is culturedor hypocriticalcan be settled.