Euphemism in Laxative TV Commercials: At the Crossroads between Politeness and Persuasion
Despite the stigma attached to human defecation and people’s reluctance to talk about it openly, there are certain communicative situations in which one cannot evade referring to the elimination of body wastes. This is the case of laxative TV commercials, a type of discourse focused on the infrequen...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/32915 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2018-0047 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/pr-2018-0047/html https://hdl.handle.net/10578/32915 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Defecation taboo Euphemism Persuasion Politeness TV commercials |
| Sumario: | Despite the stigma attached to human defecation and people’s reluctance to talk about it openly, there are certain communicative situations in which one cannot evade referring to the elimination of body wastes. This is the case of laxative TV commercials, a type of discourse focused on the infrequent or difficult evacuation of the bowels that constitutes a breeding ground for euphemism. In this regard, following a socially-oriented approach to discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003), politeness theory (Brown and Levinson 1987), and cognitive linguistics (Lakoff 1993; Radden and Kövecses 1999; Steen 2011), the purpose of this paper is to gain an insight into the way euphemism works in a sample of contemporary American TV commercials advertising laxatives. The analysis reveals that euphemism – mostly in the form of metonymy and understatement – and non-euphemistic metaphors and similes serve as face-saving mechanisms for the company’s self-presentational purposes and are ultimately used as part of a sales strategy aiming to attract the interest of viewers. |
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