CONCEPTUAL METONYMY IN THE BASIS OF EUPHEMISMS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of euphemisms in the English language American political discourse based on conceptual metonymy. Though the phenomenon of euphemisation has been widely studied, the linguo-cognitive characteristics of euphemisms in the English language American political discourse and their influence on the recipients have not been established yet. The aim of the article is to analyze euphemisms in the English language American political discourse based on the conceptual metonymy. Some political euphemisms are not immediately recognized in the political discourse by the recipients, whereas the euphemistic potential remains quite strong. The author claims that the conceptual metonymy can be one of the cognitive mechanisms of creating hidden senses of the euphemisms and make these euphemisms unnoticeable in the discourse. The author provides lexical-semantic components from the addressee’s spheres of knowledge that contribute to ameliorated, positive perception of the nominations, and applies the theory of conceptual metonymy to the euphemisms under study. The study of linguo-cognitive characteristics of euphemisms in the English language American political discourse applying the conceptual metonymy theory allows tracing the conceptual metonymy WHOLE as PART in the basis of such euphemisms: alternative, strategic, affordable, progressive, radical, rational, informal, adjustment, procedure, action. The euphemisms under study were selected from the political texts of “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times” 2000-2020. It was established that the conceptual metonymy may serve as a cognitive basis for the euphemisms under study. As a result of such metonymic conceptualization, negative facts are represented by some much wider but positive or neutral concepts. The author also describes the associative perception of the euphemisms under study. The analysis shows that euphemisms based on the conceptual metonymy WHOLE as PART make the recipients skip negative facts by not focusing on them. The euphemisms listed above are able to influence the recipient’s cognition due to the inclusion of the negative fact to a wider more positive or neutral concept. The result is a positive or neutral recipient’s reaction.