【正文】 an important ponent of cognitive linguistics, the general knowledge of cognitive linguistics will be introduced first. When ing to the conceptual metaphor, some wellknown observations are integrated here and we prefer Lakoff amp。 that metaphorical thinking is part of the cognitive processes through which the human mind conceptualizes the world。 mapping。關(guān)鍵詞：概念隱喻，英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)，映射，空間隱喻ABSTRACT Euphemisms are roundabout expressions, substituting indirect, vague, pleasant and mild words for more explicit and offensive ones. Using of euphemisms is the strategy of harmonizing interpersonal relationship and smoothing social munication. As Rawson (1981) puts it, euphemisms “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken, ever go through a day without them”. As such a pervasive phenomenon, euphemism has always been the focus of scholars home and abroad. And considerable achievements have been made in the scopes of rhetoric, semantics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and fuzzy linguistics, etc. However, relatively fewer studies on euphemism have been conducted with the newlydeveloped cognitive linguistics, especially under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory. Furthermore, the previous studies on euphemism are mainly on the semantic euphemisms rather than that formed through grammatical approaches.According to the formation of English euphemism, the semantic forming approaches are typical and the number of the euphemisms formed by such approaches is big. Whereas the number of euphemisms formed by phonetic and grammatical approaches is small and such kind of euphemisms are in marginal position. Based on the above defects of euphemism researches, the author studies the two kinds of euphemisms, . euphemisms formed with semantic approaches and euphemisms formed with grammatical approaches under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory and attempts to single out the cognitive motivation underlying them. As for motivation in this thesis, we define it as the most fundamental factor for the existing and developing of language symbols.Metaphor is a kind of cognitive phenomenon in nature. The cognitive linguists put forward the term conceptual metaphor and consider that people always cognize, understand and construe a concept by use of another one. Meanwhile, metaphor is an indirect language phenomenon, which provides the basis to its interpretation of euphemism, the essential feature of which is indirectness as well. This thesis consists of six parts. The first chapter is the introduction and the second chapter reviews the development and the previous studies of euphemism. Chapter three sets up the theoretical framework of the present study, namely, conceptual metaphor theory. Its development, main characteristics and classification are introduced.As the keystones of this thesis, chapter four and chapter five also carry the author’s original ideas. Under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, the author explores the cognitive motivation underlying the semantic and grammatical euphemisms respectively. In chapter four while analyzing the euphemisms formed by semantic approaches, the author tries to single out the ways of the internal semantic construction underlying them through exploring the theoretical application of conceptual metaphor to euphemism. When it es to grammatical euphemisms in chapter five, the spatial metaphor TIME AS SPACE is applied here to interpret how the expressions achieve a euphemistic effect. The last chapter sums up the whole thesis and discusses the contributions and limitations of the study.KEYWORDS: conceptual metaphor。第四章在對(duì)語(yǔ)義類(lèi)委婉語(yǔ)的分析中，筆者主要將從隱喻理論在英語(yǔ)委婉語(yǔ)的應(yīng)用中總結(jié)出潛在于委婉語(yǔ)下的認(rèn)知理?yè)?jù)；第五章對(duì)于對(duì)語(yǔ)法類(lèi)委婉語(yǔ)的分析，筆者將運(yùn)用空間隱喻對(duì)其如何達(dá)到委婉效果加以闡釋。第四、五章是全文的重點(diǎn)章節(jié)也是本研究的新意所在。同時(shí)，隱喻又是一種間接性的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象，這就為闡釋同樣以間接性為根本特點(diǎn)的委婉語(yǔ)現(xiàn)象提供了依據(jù)。隱喻本質(zhì)上是一種認(rèn)知現(xiàn)象。從委婉語(yǔ)的構(gòu)成手段來(lái)看，語(yǔ)義構(gòu)成手段比較典型，而且由此類(lèi)手段構(gòu)成的委婉語(yǔ)的數(shù)量較多；而語(yǔ)音手段和語(yǔ)法手段所構(gòu)成的委婉語(yǔ)在數(shù)量上相對(duì)較少，在整個(gè)委婉語(yǔ)的范疇中處于邊緣地位, 相應(yīng)的對(duì)其研究也寥寥無(wú)幾?！弊鳛橐环N如此普遍的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)象，委婉語(yǔ)一直是國(guó)內(nèi)外學(xué)者研究的熱點(diǎn)。 Levinson’s Politeness Theory 44 Politeness Strategies 45 Pragmatic Interpretation of Grammatical Euphemisms 45 Spatial Metaphor Interpretation of the Euphemisms Formed by Grammatical Approaches 47 TIMEASSPACE Metaphor 48 Time Passing Is Motion along Horizontal Axis 49 Time Passing Is Motion along Vertical Axis 51 The Application of TIMEASSPACE Metaphor to Euphemisms 51Chapter Six Conclusion 54 Significance 54 56Bibliography 57AcknowledgementsMy sincere thanks, first of all, go to my supervisor, Professor Zheng Lixin. The insightful suggestions, careful ments and serious criticisms he gave me during the process of writing have made the acplishments of this thesis possible. I am as well deeply indebted to Professor Zheng Lixin for his continuous encouragement and guidance, which are conductive to the pletion of my thesis. My thanks for his patience and kindness can never be fully expressed. My deep thanks also go to Professor Cai Yongliang, from whom I have learned a lot not only knowledge but also his academic attitude. I also give my gratitude to Professor Shang Xin from whom I draw the inspiration of this thesis and Professor Zhang Yan for her leading me into the realm of cognitive linguistics. My warm thanks go to friends and classmates of mine as well for their valuable materials, ideas and encouragements. I would also like to avail myself of this opportunity to give my sincere gratitude to my parents. Their love and understanding enable me to make the desirable achievements in the past years.摘要委婉語(yǔ)是一種迂回的表達(dá)方式，它以間接、含蓄、愉悅的說(shuō)法代替直截了當(dāng)、令人不悅的說(shuō)法，它是調(diào)節(jié)人際關(guān)系、使社會(huì)溝通順暢的手段。涉密論文按學(xué)校規(guī)定處理。作者簽名： 日期： 年 月 日學(xué)位論文版權(quán)使用授權(quán)書(shū)本學(xué)位論文作者完全了解學(xué)校有關(guān)保留、使用學(xué)位論文的規(guī)定，同意學(xué)校保留并向國(guó)家有關(guān)部門(mén)或機(jī)構(gòu)送交論文的復(fù)印件和電子版，允許論文被查閱和借閱。對(duì)本文的研究做出重要貢獻(xiàn)的個(gè)人和集體，均已在文中以明確方式標(biāo)明。作者簽名：　　 　 　　 日　 期：　　 　 　　 學(xué)位論文原創(chuàng)性聲明本人鄭重聲明：所呈交的論文是本人在導(dǎo)師的指導(dǎo)下獨(dú)立進(jìn)行研究所取得的