【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 ugoslavia, killing several Chinese embassy staff。 however, NATO authority claimed that was an inaccurate military information and Bill Clinton also called that a tragic mistake in an attempt to cover up their wrong deeds to pacify indignant Chinese people.( 何善芬,2002 ) By the same token, to pacify people’s panic during economic crisis(經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)), the publicity department of American government used the expressions of economic depression(經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條), economic recession(經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退), economic rolling readjustment(經(jīng)濟(jì)起伏的重新調(diào)整), economic slowdown(經(jīng)濟(jì)減速), economic slump(經(jīng)濟(jì)衰弱) successively. The principles for using euphemismsThe use of euphemisms is in principle a kind of speech act. According to Grice, conversational participants should generally observe some conversational principles so as to ensure the success of conversation. Therefore, as a speech act, the use of euphemism should also be subject to the restriction of some principles in conversation. In this paper, the author mainly explore the cooperative principle ( P. Grice, 1967), politeness principle ( Brown/ Levinson 1978/1987 ) and selfdefending principle (束定芳,1989 ). Cooperative principleAmerican linguist P. Grice put forward the cooperative principle (CP) in conversational munication in 1967. According to his theory, participants of munication should cooperate with each other for the same munication goal. He believed that participants would generally observe the maxim of cooperation, but sometimes would also intentionally break certain principles. The reasons for the intentional violation of these principles is that the speaker or the writer expects the readers or listeners to see through surface meaning for the hidden and true meaning, or the nonnatural meaning. In this angle, euphemisms seem to be in violation of the principle of truthfulness and clearness for munication. However, this seemingly violation doesn’t affect munication, for the deepseated meaning of euphemisms is correct and clear, and is left for the receiver to explore. Therefore, participants of the munication reach agreement and cooperation in a deeper level. 鳳姐兒低了半日頭，說道：“這個(gè)就沒法了！你也該將一應(yīng)的后事給他料理料理。沖一沖也好?！庇仁系溃骸拔乙舶蛋档慕腥祟A(yù)備了；就是那件東西不得好木頭，且慢慢的辦著呢?！?（《紅樓夢(mèng)》：127）Hisfeng lowered her head for a while. “ There seems to be little hope,” she said at last. “ If I were you I’d make ready the things for the funeral. That may break the bad luck.”“I’ve had them secretly prepared. But I can’t get any good wood for you know what , so I’ve let that go for the time being.” (Yang HsienYi:163)In this piece of conversation, “沖一沖也好?！?That may break the bad luck./ 那件東西, for you know what, seem to have break Grice’s maxim of quantity, for the speaker seems to have failed to provide enough clear information. However, based on the context and knowledge, the listener can easily understand why the speaker did not say them in a more direct way and can equally easily understand the real meanings. Both of these two euphemistic utterances have deeper implications rather than face meanings, but participants of the conversation find no difficulties in understanding the deeper meaning because they reach agreement in a deeper level of munication. principleAs is mentioned above, participants of conversation should observe the maxim of cooperative behavior。 then why they sometimes intentionally break this principle? In answering this question, Brown and Levinson advanced the politeness principle (PP) in 1978 and 1987. According to this principle, the inflexion and indirectness of speech stem from the need of acmodating politeness in conversation. Euphemisms are equivalents of those blunt expressions and taboos。 euphemisms are used to avoid embarrassment or vulgarity in order to save the speaker’s face or protect the face of the other participants of conversation ( 何自然, 1997). Therefore, euphemistic expression is one of the effective ways to show politeness of speech because the fundamental feature of euphemism is to substitute those impolite and unpleasant expressions with polite and pleasant ones. Selfdefending principleShu Dingfang put forward the selfdefending principle in 1989, which is in mutual restriction and plementarity with the cooperative principle and politeness principle. When the selfdefending principle is in contradiction with the polite principle, the later will be subordinate to the former. He believed that one of the motivations of using euphemisms is to defend oneself.( 束定芳,1989 ) By using euphemisms, one can establish a positive image in munication and protect and elevate his status in the minds of other conversational participants. In addition, he can also effectively keep the other side of the munication from speaking rudely by the employment of euphemism.2 Pragmatic analysis on the receiver of euphemismAs is discussed above, the use of euphemism is one type of indirect speech ( Levinson, 2001,263 ). It is more inferential in its nonnatural meaning rather than its natural meaning. Then the understanding of the implicature of euphemisms is largely dependent on the reasonable inference and reasoning by the receiver. Pragmatic inference is the inferring activity by the receiver of the speech in search of the nonnatural meaning of a certain speech act. This kind of inference may include inferring the purposes of using euphemisms as already discussed above because inferring why the speaker or writer uses euphemisms in a certain occasion or context helps facilitate the receiver’s understanding of the real implicature of such an euphemism. In translating euphemisms, the translator faces the task of transferring into reality the possibility of the best municating effect of the speaker or writer. So the key to the pragmatic inference lies in how to find out the real implicature of this kind of indirect speech. Pragmatic inference The use of euphemism is in essence the substitution of words and expressions in a paradigmatic relation, which is usually achieved through the employment of thesaurus. This kind of substitution is in fact semantic equivalent, widening, inflating and blurring. The understanding of euphemism is the process whereby all kinds of indirect instruments of speech are broken and the signified identi