PRAGMATIC AND DISCURSIVE ASPECTS OF THE USE OF EUPHEMISM IN SPANISH PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Euphemism is a semantic phenomenon associated with the translation of meanings, suggesting a different meaning of lexical units used in a given context. For this reason, the researcher understands euphemistic uses and substitutes as material manifestations of a linkage mechanism called substitution based on referential identity, and euphemism as a pragmatic and discursive phenomenon associated with a weakening strategy and with other communicative goals, such as hiding, masking or blurring especially inconvenient information. To analyze this phenomenon, the researcher proposes to proceed from the Critical Discourse Analysis, which allows observing in lexical units and in complex expressions the changes in their semantic meanings and their use as a pragmatic strategy within public communication in order to explore its possibilities, as well as for practical application in the fields of lexicography, or more precisely computational lexicography, and language policy and planning (style books, best practice guides, etc.).