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【摘要】委婉语广泛地存在于人们的日常对话中，并且在社会交际中发挥着重要的作用，在一定程度上反映了社会价值观和道德观。哈利波特系列是世界著名的科幻小说，带领读者进入一个神奇的令人神往的魔法世界。而大量的委婉语见于哈利波特系列中的人物对话中，帮助塑造了人物的性格和推动情节的发展。本文旨在以合作原则的理论来分析探究哈利波特系列中的委婉语，从而使我们对委婉语的语用功能有个更深层次的理解，帮助我们更好地运用委婉语来推动日常的交流对话。
【关键词】合作原则 委婉语 语用学 哈利波特
1. Introduction
The application of euphemisms is a common language phenomenon in modern society. In a conversation， people use euphemisms to replace straightforward and offending words to avoid hurting others’ feeling. Euphemisms and cooperative principles are two closely interrelated research fields. For one thing， it’s inevitable to cause a violation of cooperative principles while people use euphemisms to express an unpleasant or embarrassing fact. For another， this kind of violation， which aims to achieve better communication effect， is done deliberately and understood by two parties of communications. Euphemisms can be understood and appreciated from the perspective of cooperative principles. Therefore， the interdependent relationship between euphemisms and cooperative principles justifies the felicities of the mutual study of the two fields. The paper collects euphemism data from Harry Potter， the world’s well-known science fiction， and tries to analyze them on the theory of Cooperative Principle.
2. Euphemisms； cooperative principles
2.1 Euphemisms
Euphemisms comes from euphemismsos in Greek， prefix eu- means “well， pleasant， good”； Stem - pheme means speech. Therefore， euphemisms refer to the “lip service” or “pleasant words”. People have a tendency to use mild， agreeable language when speaking of an unpleasant or embarrassing fact because direct accounts of the fact could make the listener or speaker have negative psychological emotion （邵軍航 2008：14）.
2.2 Cooperative principles
“Cooperative principles” are put forward by Grice， a famous American linguist and philosopher， because he believes that in the process of communications， the participants observe some principles consciously or unconsciously so as to complete communicative tasks. More specifically， the general principle includes four maxims which are the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner respectively. Each maxim is accompanied by some sub-maxims. To observe the maxim of quantity， the speaker needs to give required and not redundant information. To follow the maxim of quality， one should not give information that is false and not supported by evidence. The maxim of relation requires the relevance. The four sub-maxims of manner are clearness， preciseness， conciseness and orderliness （Yule 2000）. 2.3 Euphemisms —— the violation of cooperative principles
People are required to abide by four maxims in communications but it’s impossible for people to act totally in accordance with these maxims in real life. Euphemisms make the conversational meaning that the speaker tries to express indirect. The production of euphemisms inevitably leads to the violation of four maxims in cooperative principles （張晶， 景莹 2012：94）.
3. The application of euphemisms in Harry Potter and cooperative principles
In the Harry Potter series， euphemisms can be seen in many examples from different characters. To different extent， these examples have justified the violation of the four maxims of Grice’s Cooperative principle. The paper will select some examples to analyze.
3.1 The violation of quantity maxim
The violation of quantity maxim is produced when the speaker give the information that is unexpected， insufficient or unnecessary. The application of euphemisms is concerned with the use of obscure words and the decrease of information that is required. For example，
（1） Hagrid said darkly：“There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in slytherin. You-know-who was the one.” （Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone）
You-Know-Who is a euphemism Hagrid uses to indicate the dark wizard. He doesn’t provide the full name and violates the maxim of quantity for he doesn’t offer sufficient information. Actually， it’s generally accepted to use “You-Know-Who” to refer to Voldemort， which is a taboo word， because Voldemort brings death to wizards and witches. Nobody is not afraid of him and dares to speak out his name. Though this euphemism violates the maxim of quantity， the hearer still understands the conversational implicature because the hearer is aware of the violation and the speaker’s intention （Capone
【关键词】合作原则 委婉语 语用学 哈利波特
1. Introduction
The application of euphemisms is a common language phenomenon in modern society. In a conversation， people use euphemisms to replace straightforward and offending words to avoid hurting others’ feeling. Euphemisms and cooperative principles are two closely interrelated research fields. For one thing， it’s inevitable to cause a violation of cooperative principles while people use euphemisms to express an unpleasant or embarrassing fact. For another， this kind of violation， which aims to achieve better communication effect， is done deliberately and understood by two parties of communications. Euphemisms can be understood and appreciated from the perspective of cooperative principles. Therefore， the interdependent relationship between euphemisms and cooperative principles justifies the felicities of the mutual study of the two fields. The paper collects euphemism data from Harry Potter， the world’s well-known science fiction， and tries to analyze them on the theory of Cooperative Principle.
2. Euphemisms； cooperative principles
2.1 Euphemisms
Euphemisms comes from euphemismsos in Greek， prefix eu- means “well， pleasant， good”； Stem - pheme means speech. Therefore， euphemisms refer to the “lip service” or “pleasant words”. People have a tendency to use mild， agreeable language when speaking of an unpleasant or embarrassing fact because direct accounts of the fact could make the listener or speaker have negative psychological emotion （邵軍航 2008：14）.
2.2 Cooperative principles
“Cooperative principles” are put forward by Grice， a famous American linguist and philosopher， because he believes that in the process of communications， the participants observe some principles consciously or unconsciously so as to complete communicative tasks. More specifically， the general principle includes four maxims which are the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner respectively. Each maxim is accompanied by some sub-maxims. To observe the maxim of quantity， the speaker needs to give required and not redundant information. To follow the maxim of quality， one should not give information that is false and not supported by evidence. The maxim of relation requires the relevance. The four sub-maxims of manner are clearness， preciseness， conciseness and orderliness （Yule 2000）. 2.3 Euphemisms —— the violation of cooperative principles
People are required to abide by four maxims in communications but it’s impossible for people to act totally in accordance with these maxims in real life. Euphemisms make the conversational meaning that the speaker tries to express indirect. The production of euphemisms inevitably leads to the violation of four maxims in cooperative principles （張晶， 景莹 2012：94）.
3. The application of euphemisms in Harry Potter and cooperative principles
In the Harry Potter series， euphemisms can be seen in many examples from different characters. To different extent， these examples have justified the violation of the four maxims of Grice’s Cooperative principle. The paper will select some examples to analyze.
3.1 The violation of quantity maxim
The violation of quantity maxim is produced when the speaker give the information that is unexpected， insufficient or unnecessary. The application of euphemisms is concerned with the use of obscure words and the decrease of information that is required. For example，
（1） Hagrid said darkly：“There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in slytherin. You-know-who was the one.” （Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone）
You-Know-Who is a euphemism Hagrid uses to indicate the dark wizard. He doesn’t provide the full name and violates the maxim of quantity for he doesn’t offer sufficient information. Actually， it’s generally accepted to use “You-Know-Who” to refer to Voldemort， which is a taboo word， because Voldemort brings death to wizards and witches. Nobody is not afraid of him and dares to speak out his name. Though this euphemism violates the maxim of quantity， the hearer still understands the conversational implicature because the hearer is aware of the violation and the speaker’s intention （Capone