The role of Euphemisms in Modern Political Discourse

Abstract

The present article is devoted to the analysis of euphemistic substitutions used in political discourse and having a particular place in mass media texts. Such studies are quite urgent because of the constant changes in the current political situation and the importance of reflecting these transformations in modern language. The purpose of this article is to study euphemisms in terms of their functioning in American political discourse. To achieve the goal, the following objectives were set: to study the concept of political discourse from different points of view, to demonstrate the veiled meaning of statements used in political texts of the media and American politicians’ speeches, and to consider methods of influencing the mass consciousness of native speakers. The study is based on the ability of euphemisms not only to neutralize negative values according to generally accepted political correctness but also to change the meaning of the statement in order to achieve the necessary communicative effect. It is taken into account the phenomenon of euphemia having been studied in sufficient detail from different angles. With the aim of finding out how to use implicit influence through political euphemisms it was provided an overview of the mass media such as USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN International. It was revealed that euphemisms are able to hide true meaning and thereby have an impact on the opinion of society, so they can be used as manipulative language means directing the audience’s attitude towards certain things in the desired way.