Abstract: As a linguistic as well as cultural phenomenon, by using decorative words or phrases euphemism can help us build good interpersonal relationship and create a harmonious communication atmosphere. Political euphemisms are those used in political field in order to achieve particular goals or realize special interests. The thesis analyzes some political euphemisms that appeared in western presidential addresses and news report in the view of critical discourse analysis. Critical discourse analysis is a new text analysis model based on the three-dimensional theory of Fairclough, which focuses on the exploration relationship between language, power, and ideology. When analyzing those euphemisms, it is essential to associate them with social background, digging the connotative meaning behind the literal meaning in order to exposit the assumption and tendentiousness hidden in the language and to read their effects to audiences. Therefore, it can be concluded that as a political tool, political euphemisms are used by government to please the public, to realize the interests, to conceal the truth, and to beautify the ugly reality, which can help us read the ideology hidden by the euphemism better.
Key words: political euphemism; critical discourse analysis; presidential address; news report
摘要: 作为一种语言和文化现象，委婉语通过使用修饰性的单词或短语，帮助人们建立良好的人际关系、营造和谐的交际氛围。政治委婉语则是那些在政治领域中用以达到特定目的和谋求特殊利益而使用的委婉语。本文采用批评性话语分析的视角对西方政治演说和新闻报道中出现的政治委婉语进行分析。批评性话语分析是建立在费氏三维理论基础上，着重探索语言、权力和意识形态之间关系的新型语篇分析模式。在分析时，必须将委婉语与其社会背景相连，挖掘隐含在字面意义之后的涵义，以此揭示语言背后暗含的假定和倾向性以及它们对受众的影响。由此可以得出一个结论：政治委婉语是政府争取民意、谋求利益、掩盖真相、粉饰现实的工具。此结论能够帮助我们更好的解读隐藏在委婉语之下的意识形态问题。
关键词：政治委婉语；批评性话语分析；总统演说；新闻报道
