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<<ШУШетиМ~^(ЩУ©Ма1>>#Щ67)),2©2© / PHILOLOGICAL sciences
УДК: 811.111 : 81& 27
Пайонкевич Х. П
Львовский национальный университет имени Ивана Франко DOI: 10.24411/2520-6990-2020-11947 ЕВФЕМИЗМЫ НАЛОГОВ И НАЛОГООБЛОЖЕНИЯ В ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ТЕКСТАХ XXI ВЕКА
Paionkevych Kh. P.
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
EUPHEMISMS FOR TAXES AND TAXATION IN POLITICAL TEXTS OF THE 21st CENTURY
Аннотация
Целью данной статьи является изучение концепции эвфемизма и выявление различных политических эвфемизмов по теме налогов и налогообложения, широко используемых в прессе. Тексты из газет и журналов представляют очень интересный материал для различных лингвистических исследований. Использование эвфемизмов в современной прессе можно определить как яркий пример такого явления. Методы, использованные для изучения предмета данной статьи, были следующие: теоретическое изучение литературы в рамках данной темы, описательный метод, а затем метод отбора эвфемизмов из печатных СМИ. Основным результатом настоящего исследования, по-видимому, является демонстрация того, что определенные слова специально выбраны, чтобы аннулировать те слова, которые считаются неприятными и неприемлемыми.
Abstract
The aim of given article is to examine the concept of euphemism and to reveal various political euphemisms on the topic of taxes and taxation widely used in press. Texts from newspapers and magazines present a highly interesting material for various linguistic studies. Euphemisms usage in the contemporary press can be determined as a vivid example of such phenomenon. Methods used to study the subject of the given paper were as follows: theoretical literature study within the given theme, a descriptive method, followed by the method of sampling euphemisms from print media. The main result of the present study appears to be the demonstration that certain words are deliberately chosen to nullify those words that are considered unpleasant and unaccepted.
Language is a vital element in the daily life of politicians. To find the right kind of language and the right choice of words to address particular audiences is key not only to give a positive image of themselves but also of the parties they represent.
Political language - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind [8]. Politicians tend to avoid words or expressions that may have unpleasant associations in order not to give a negative impression to their audiences. Euphemisms are elaborate verbal disguises for ideas that opponents might find unpalatable. They can conceal a political agenda behind soft-focus phrases and misty idealism.
Euphemisms represent a flight to comfort, a way to reduce tension when conversing. They are comfort words. Euphemistic discourse softens the harsh, smoothes the rough, makes what is negative sound positive. Brown and Levinson explain that all interacting individuals have interest in maintaining either &positive face& or &negative face&. These refer to the positive and consistent image people have of another and the basic claim to territories, personal preserves and rights respectively [1]. It is akin to diplomatic language in which "We had a frank exchange of views" might mean, "We hurled insults at each other for a full hour" [3, p. 7].
Euphemisms are powerful linguistic tools that "are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us,
even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken, ever get through a day without using them" [6, p. 1]. The need for euphemism is both social and emotional, as it allows discussion of &touchy& or taboo subjects (such as sex, personal appearances or religion) without enraging, outraging, or upsetting other people, and acts as a pressure valve whilst maintaining the appearance of civility.
Euphemism is "a lexical substitution strategy for representationally displacing topics that evoke negative affect", its aim being to reduce "the communicative discomfort associated with a distasteful topic" [5, p. 26163]. Warren pointed out, "what is a euphemism &is in the eye/ear of the beholder& and cannot strictly speaking be objectively verified, although normally of course there is consensus among language users as to what words are euphemistic" [7, p. 135].
Euphemism plays a great role in softening that which is harsh between people. McGlone, Beck and Pfiester claim that in order to succeed in this task a euphemism must "not call undue attention to itself", that is, it must act as a kind of "camouflage" [5, p. 263].
The problem with euphemisms is, of course, their fundamental dishonesty. Before you know it, the government will start referring to unprovoked wars as exercises in "spreading freedom." As stated in a publication called the New Moderate: Politics and Civilization for the Passionate Centrist, by using euphemisms instead of hot-potato terminology, ideologues are apt to
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attempt to camouflage their controversial ideas or code them so they can have both an innocuous meaning if confronted, or a coded meaning to those "in the know" [9]. Euphemisms are expressions that soften blunt truths by replacing them with indirect alternatives. You might think of them as linguistic baby oil on the skin of a culture, allowing us to discuss, using circumlocutions and inferential reference, matters that are too upsetting or shaming to be spoken of directly. Often euphemistic tip-toeing allows a negative concept to be colored with a positive overtones.
Alternative expressions that are intended to present unpleasant facts under a nicer disguise. More specifically, the focus will be the language of politics talking about taxation. Many of the examples from English language print media, though not clearly euphemistic in some cases, can be regarded as alternative &softer expression& to avoid mentioning an &ugly& word (tax, tax increase, tax cut and tax evasion).
Taxes have such a bad reputation nowadays that new variations arise to refer to this unpleasant civic duty. It is therefore not surprising that there is a large array of terms for taxation.
Tax relief is a euphemism for tax cut. Controversial tax cuts are more palatable when called tax relief. In this case tax relief performs a covering up function in order to hide the true nature of the issue of cuts. The examples illustrate the usage of these euphemisms:
"Another test of leadership is tax relief. The last time taxes were this high as a percentage of our economy, there was a good reason ... We were fighting World War II. Today, our high taxes fund a surplus. Some say that growing federal surplus means Washington has more money to spend. But they&ve got it backwards" [10].
"We can do this. And that&s what we ought to do. We ought to keep interest rates down and save the future for our children. Let&s not squander the surplus or this moment. Let&s keep our economy strong, provide affordable tax relief, and extend our prosperity into the future. Let&s do it together" [11].
Tax reform denotes more general actions resulting in tax increase, for instance, Barrack Obama states: "Congress must find common ground on a plan that can get support from both parties in the House and in the Senate. And it&s got to be a plan that I can sign by Tuesday. The parties are not that far apart here. We&re in rough agreement on how much spending we need to cut to reduce our deficit. And we agree on a process to tackle tax reform and entitlement reform. There are plenty of ways out of this mess. But there is very little time"[12].
"... we need to change our Tax Code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule. If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes" [13].
A euphemism for punitive taxation is redistribution of wealth. The euphemism in the following example refers to redistribution from the poor to the rich:
"Agenda 21 cites the affluence of Americans as being a major problem which needs to be corrected. It
calls for lowering the standard of living for Americans so that the people in poorer countries will have more, a redistribution of wealth. Although people around the world aspire to achieve the levels of prosperity we have in our country, and will risk their lives to get here, Americans are cast in a very negative light and need to be taken down to a condition closer to average in the world" [14].
"It&s not just about having them pay more in taxes. It has to be about the redistribution of wealth and his view of a new world order, and he will drag down everyone in the process" [15]. In other words, it is a euphemism for the transfer of income, wealth policies, welfare, nationalization, charity or in some cases tort law.
A euphemistic alternative for tax evasion is by Holder, income protection. Which is used as "arranging your affair to avoid tax" [2, p. 225].
A euphemistic sequence money laundering is camouflaging another type of fraud, which refers to the transfer of illegally obtained money to conceal its origin. The following example illustrates the usage of this euphemism:
"Cutting off terrorist funds. We will move decisively to cut off the flow of terrorist funds. We will impose tough financial sanctions against nations or banks that engage in money laundering or fail to act against it" [16].
"We will strengthen some provisions of the Patriot Act, like the restrictions on money laundering. And we will change the portions of the Patriot Act that threaten individual rights, such as the library provisions, while still allowing government to take all needed steps to fight terror " [17].
A further tax-related issue provoking euphemistic creations is tax loophole. A tax loophole is &a provision in the laws governing taxation that allows people to reduce their taxes. The term has the connotation of an unintentional omission or obscurity in the law that allows the reduction of tax liability to a point below that intended by the framers of the law& (dictionary.com).
"There&s a tax loophole right now — if you&re a company in St. Louis working, trying to make jobs here, there&s actually an incentive for you to go away. You get more money — you can keep more of your taxes by going abroad" [18].
"We also ended a tax loophole that encouraged companies to create jobs overseas. Instead, I&m fighting to pass a law to provide tax breaks to the folks who create jobs right here in America. But strengthening our economy means more than that. We&re fighting to build an economy in which middle class families can afford to send their kids to college, buy a home..." [19].
To close loopholes is a euphemism for increasing taxes. In the example the euphemism performs a covering up function as politicians find it very difficult and inconvenient to speak about tax increases because it usually causes people&s dissatisfaction and anger. That is the reason why they prefer the euphemism to close loopholes instead:
"They&d rather ask more from the vast majority of Americans and put our recovery at risk than close even a single tax loophole that benefits the wealthy. Over the
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last few years, we&ve made good progress towards reducing our deficit in a balanced way" [20].
"We certainly can close loophole to give tax breaks for to ask more people to pay for college education tax breaks to companies that send the jobs overseas while we ask seniors to pay for more Medicare, and the list goes on ".
On the whole, euphemism brings about change in our language use as a result of people&s desires to look on the brighter side rather than the gloomy side of life. This motivates them to disguise unpleasant subjects by referring to them by the means of apparently inoffensive expressions. As George Orwell wrote:"...if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought" [10, p. 65]. Euphemism shows how people encode their ideals and beliefs within societal boundaries, but the question of from whom we are concealing our true thoughts, and why, remains.
On the basis of all the above-stated we conclude that euphemism turn up to be rather complicated social, psychological and linguistic phenomenon representing the integral universal component of the communication process. Main reasons of euphemisms employment are aspiration to avoid conflicts in political communication as well as veiling the essence of matter. Political euphemisms on the topic of taxes and taxation appear to be an integral part of any language and play a significant role in the process of informational influence on the human consciousness. In view of this, for further research it seems interesting to compare of the functions of euphemisms in the spheres of political communication.
References
resource] / K. Linfoot-Ham // Journal of language and linguistics. - Vol. 4. - No. 2. - P. 227-263. - Mode of access: http://www. sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijll.
