SOFT-BOILED SPEECH: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF EUPHEMISMS IN ALGERIAN AND JORDANIAN ARABIC
The present contrastive study is geared mainly towards probing into the euphemistic language that Algerian and Jordanian Arabic speakers resort to when certain tabooed topics and concepts are brought to the fore. Intriguingly, such an analysis was done in the light of Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory. To this end, the data were elicited by dint of two questionnaires which were prepared by first collecting the needed euphemisms from the native speakers of the two dialects under scrutiny. The first one was handed to a randomly chosen sample of 100 Algerian BA students of English at the University of Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel. The second one, however, was given to a randomly chosen sample of 100 Jordanian BA students of English at the University of Jordan. The findings indicate that euphemism is both a linguistic as well as a cultural phenomenon. Accordingly, despite highlighting some similarities between the two cultures under scrutiny in the use of euphemistic terms and expressions, one to one correspondence does not exist. Therefore, taking cognizance of euphemisms in different cultures is a sine qua non for facilitating intercultural communication.
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