POLITICAL CORRECTION AS ONE OF THE FACTORS FOR USAGE OF EUPHEMISMS IN MODERN ENGLISH

Abstract

Political correct discourse in the modern world is impossible without memorizing a list of euphemisms. The present article focuses on political correctness as a source of euphemisms, along with short notes on the history of this linguistic and cultural tendency and the way society treats it. The author examines the process of euphemisms forming, their classification and singles out the most popular spheres of use of politically correct euphemisms at the present time. Euphemization is a phenomenon not purely of the lexical order, but a certain speech strategy, stylistic technique, which can be realized at different levels of language – graphic, phonetic, morphological, syntax and lexico-semantic. The fact of cultural, social and political conditionality of politically correct vocabulary seems to be immutable. Many euphemistic renamings, barely formed, quickly squander euphemistic potential, replenishing the ranks of synonyms and antonyms.