img_o7

img_o7

Euphemisms can avoid mentioning the unmentionable. But in the process of
using them people violate the maxims of manner and quality because they
are ambigious and do not say what they really mean. The speaker wishes to be
modest, to avoid any kind of insulting and therefore does not say what he actually
thinks. This situation mostly occurred where the participants had to describe
an image which was provocating. (f.e. IMG_07, IMG_15) As for one female test person
tried to avoid saying that the man shown on IMG_07 is fat. Instead she said that
the man 'seems to feel uncomfortable with his situation and not very happy
according to his facial expression.' Feeling commiseration for the situation of the
man she tries to be polite by avoiding the fact that he has too much weight and
therefore feels uncomfortable. In fact, the female participant offends against the
maxim of relevance as well because she does not mention the most important
characteristic of the man. Another male participant described the man
as 'relatively corpulent' which can also be seen as an kind of euphemism because
it dilutes the obvious fact that the man is corpulent. This utterance does not
correlate with the maxim of manner because it can be considered as unclear.
The image of the 'corpulent man' turned out to be the best example for people using
an euphemism in order to remain polite and thus avoid any kind of abuse.
Almost all participants used terms to relativise the man's weight:

[…] "one can disguise unpleasant subjects by referring to them by means of apparently inoffensive expressions."

It seems that they are rules of politeness existing within society which
'force' people to regulate and soften their opinion concerning others in order
to maintain their own reputation. Speaking in negative terms of people who
are somehow handicapped throws a bad light on oneself of being arrogant and
impolite. This implies that always acting properly according to the norms
of the Gricean maxims is not possible if you want to be accepted by society.