Yuxin Tao

Northeastern University

Abstract：

Effective communication is the cornerstone of harmonious human relationships. In his Logic and Conversation (1975), Grice proposed the Cooperative Principle as an ideal model for dialogue, emphasizing speakers should provide adequate, truthful, relevant, and clear information. However, this model overlooks social complexities: people often violate maxims to achieve pragmatic goals, such as maintaining face or avoiding conflict. Euphemisms, as "alternatives to dispreferred expressions" (Allan & Burridge, 1991), exemplify this strategic violation by replacing direct terms with indirect ones. Euphemism is also used to replace offensive and unfriendly expressions to regulate interpersonal relationships, so studying euphemisms has social value and practical significance. This article categorizes the lines containing euphemisms in the first seasons of All Creatures Great and Small into four different pragmatic functions, thus providing examples for the study of the violation to Grace's cooperative principle in euphemism.From the perspective of violating Grice's cooperative principle, this thesis uses analytical and descriptive methods to study the purpose and conversational implicature of euphemism in examples. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the impact of euphemisms on the violation of cooperative principles on interpersonal relationships . Finally, this article draws conclusions from the study of the violation of cooperative principles and provides suggestions for establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relationships.

Key Words：

Grice's principle of cooperation; violation; euphemism; “All Creatures Great and Small”