Functions of euphemisms in modern political discourse
The Strategic Functions of Political Discourse Organization. Non-literal Language in Political Discourse. Theoretical approach to euphemisms. Semantic typology of Euphemisms in Political Discourse. Functions of Euphemisms in Barack Obama’s speeches.
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Rawson divides euphemisms into two general types, namely, positive and negative which are distinguished according to the evaluative aspect. Positive euphemisms can also be called stylistic euphemisms or exaggerating euphemisms. The positive ones inflate and magnify, making the euphemized items seem altogether grander and more important than they really are. In order to avoid thrill, to be polite or to achieve cooperation, British and American people, especially contemporary Americans, prefer using the technique of exaggeration to euphemize something unpleasant and embarrassing. The positive euphemisms include the many fancy occupational titles, which save the egos of workers by elevating their job status. The desire to improve one's surroundings also is evident in geographical place names, most prominently in the case of the distinctly nongreen Greenland, but also in the designation of many small burgs as cities. The negative euphemisms deflate and diminish. They are defensive in nature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly. The negative euphemisms can be called traditional euphemisms or narrowing euphemism. They are extremely ancient, and closely connected with the taboos. A euphemism and its corresponding taboo are in fact two faces of the same coin. They refer to the same thing though they have different looks, the euphemism having a much more pleasant face than the taboo [35; 41].
Euphemisms, whether positive or negative, can be also divided into unconscious euphemisms and conscious euphemisms. The criterion for classification is the euphemistic meaning whether correlative with the original meaning or not.
Euphemism is defined in different ways from the perspectives of pragmatics and style: Hongrui Wen once quoted several representative definitions, which have it in common that euphemism is a replacement of ordinary expressions with propitious or exaggerated ones [30; 9]. Political euphemism is created in political life and serves political purposes. Generally speaking, it is a tool for political participants to hide scandals, disguise the truth, guide public thoughts when discussing social issues or events. In spite of some common features political euphemism shares with others, it has three typical features - greater degree of deviation from its signified, more vague meanings and strong characteristic of times [37; 120]
From the point of view of their semantics euphemisms may be subdivided into several groups, the most important and prominent of which in political discourse are: euphemisms connected to military affairs, economic euphemisms, euphemisms related to diplomacy.
3.1 Military Euphemisms
As horrible as wars are, they nevertheless seem to be fruitful times when it comes to language and the creation of new terms. It seems that even the word war itself is unpleasant; people have come up with different expressions to avoid actually saying the word.
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for torture, i. e. a procedure whereby criminal suspects are sent for interrogation from one country to a second country, where less strict laws governing interrogation apply [35; 103]. The phrase became widely known during 2005 when newspaper articles began drawing attention to the fact the US Government was sending terrorist suspects, previously held in the USA, to countries that have less stringent laws against torture, and interrogating them there.
Humanitarian intervention is a euphemism referring to military invasion or "dropping bombs on poor people” [35; 201].
Armed struggle is a euphemism for terrorism and slaughtering innocent men, women and children [35; 43].
Surgical strike is a euphemism for a precision bombing. In other words, it is a military attack which results in, was intended to result in, or is claimed to have resulted in only damage to the intended legitimate military target [35; 381]. This euphemism makes a precision bombing sound like a beneficial medical procedure, thus, performing a covering up function.
One more euphemism to be discussed in this group is extrajudicial executions. It is a euphemism for murder. More specifically, extrajudicial execution is when the state kills someone without proper due process. Extrajudicial executions are almost universally considered as a human rights violation [35; 98]. However, many states continue the practice, either in secret or else justifying it as necessary. The most common justification is that the state is in a state of emergency, and that the killings are necessary because the judiciary is weak, slow, or corrupt.36 leanings, but the state is not strong enough for the use of formal methods.
One of the reasons for using different military and war-related euphemisms is to keep the public from thinking too much about the horrible things happening in places where wars are being fought. It is in the best interest of the government or the military not to talk about the true nature of war and their plans and actions directly, especially if something has not gone according to plan or there is a risk that a plan might fail. Failure might result in the loss of public support and criticism towards the actions of the government or the military.
3.2 Economic Euphemisms
Euphemistic language pervades the workplace and almost all business dealings: involuntary separation, letting go, downsizing, re-engineering, restructuring and streamlining are preferred to "layoff. ” The word challenge is used to actually refer to "a problem." Recession is used to mean a "depression. ” When one is given the pink slip, he or she is "fired”. And a company disinvests when it fact it "closes a retail outlet in a community”. It is quite acceptable in some situations if euphemisms in business are used to identify a chain of command such as in the use of chief executive officer instead of "boss” [35; 78].
Market Cannibalization is used when a company's new product negatively affects sales of its existing, related products, i. e., it eats its own market [32; 146].
Cookie Jar Accounting is an accounting practice where a company uses reserves from good years against losses that might be incurred in bad years. For example, "Microsoft has an interesting, if dubious, cookie jar accounting scheme where profits from successful quarters aren't reported so that less successful quarters can be padded” [35; 32].
Pockets of Resistance is another borrowed military term that describes a person or group that attempts to stall, block or kill a project [35; 181].
Euphemisms are common in job titles; some jobs have complicated titles that make them sound more impressive than the common names would imply, such as CPA in place of car parking attendant. Many of these euphemisms may include words such as engineer, although in fact the people who do the job are not accredited in engineering. Extreme cases, such as sanitation engineer for janitor, or transparent-wall maintenance officer for window cleaner, are cited humorously more often than they are used seriously. Less extreme cases, such as custodian for janitor or administrative assistant for secretary, are considered more terms of respect than euphemisms. Where the work itself is seen as distasteful, a euphemism may be used, for example rodent officer for a rat-catcher, or cemetery operative for a gravedigger [35; 301].
3.3 Diplomatic Euphemisms
It is notorious that politicians who live by the vote also live by the euphemism and that the more difficult the position in which they find themselves is, the more inventive in this regard they become. This is rarely an edifying spectacle. In diplomacy however, the use of euphemisms is more defensible. Indeed, in the description of concessions, the use of words or expressions more palatable to the party that has made them is another face-saving feature of almost all politically sensitive international agreements, though at some price in terms of accuracy.
A good example of the use of euphemisms is to be found in the Geneva Accords on Afghanistan in which Soviet sensitivities on the issue of the withdrawal of their troops were so solicitously addressed by confining the relevant provisions to the small print. The risk of humiliating the Kremlin was reduced further by the complete absence of any reference whatever to the withdrawal of "Soviet” troops. What were to be withdrawn instead were "foreign" troops. It might be added, too, that troops withdrawals was headed by a little which was itself a masterpiece of euphemistic obscurantism "Agreement on the Interrelationship for the Settlement of the Situation relating to Afghanistan. ” [18; 132]
As a language tool favoured by politicians, euphemism is a mix of abstract terms, metaphors, slang, and understatement that offers a safeguard while delivering potentially difficult news. In 1945, for instance, with perhaps the greatest euphemism of all time, Emperor Hirohito informed his subjects that, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage" [19; 54]. This was following two atomic bombs, the loss of 3 million people, and a looming invasion.
Special relationship was a term used to describe post-Second World War Anglo-American relations, characterized by amiable diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural ties. The existence of shared history, language, cultural heritage, and close commercial relations in the pre-twentieth century significantly facilitated the formation of this relationship. For Britain, friendly relations with the United States were essential to counter aggressive Soviet policies in East Europe. For the United States, the relationship was important for the implementation of its policy of containment throughout the Cold War. Nowadays the special relationship between Britain and the US is a political euphemism because the dynamics of the relationship has changed and Britain would never be anything more than a junior partner of America. British politicians and the military chiefs are beginning to realise that the UK needs to be more a part of Europe than a distant friend of the USA because the special relationship between the two Western powers is now "strained” [1; 41]
These examples illustrate the fact that euphemistic language can help state to sign agreements providing for the withdrawal of their military forces from situations where their prestige is at stake. Others can be found to demonstrate usefulness where they are being bought off, that is, induced to surrender some principled position by cash or payment in kind. It is, for example, perfectly obvious that rich states negotiating with poorer once often find it possible to smooth to an agreement by discreetly handing over extremely large amounts of money. Since, however, it would be humiliating to the poorer state if this were to be too obvious, and not present the richer one in an especially flattering light either, these large amounts of money are never called "large amounts of money”. Instead, they are usually called reconstruction aid. This is what the Americans called the large amount of money repeatedly offered to the North Vietnam, from as early as April 1965, to encourage them to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War. [18; 82-83].
3.4 The Notion of "Political Correctness”
The question of the relationships and changing relationships among society, culture and language is a highly complex question. According to Juan Williams, culture is a `signifying system' constituted as an articulation of representations, values and identities. Social analysis is concerned with the dialectical interrelations between signifying systems and other analytically separable systems (economic systems, political systems, kinship and family systems, etc.) Because human beings are reflexive, there is always a dialectical interconnection between what they do and how they represent, value and identify themselves and what they do [23; 21]. Seeing cultures as signifying systems also helps to clarify the relationship between culture and language: cultures exist as languages, or rather discourses (and in their enactment as `cultural forms' and inculcation as identities, as genres and styles). But cultures are not only discourses, they are also systems and forms of consciousness, and they may be ideologies - again, neither excludes discourses, neither is discrete, but they are analytically different. Let us say that a particular form of social life is a particular networking of social practices (the `systems' referred to in J. Williams' terminology above) including particular articulations among culture, language (discourse) and other elements of social practices; and let us say that social change is a change in the networking of social practices and the articulation of elements [25; 47].
Political correctness is the concept of shaping one's statements, if not opinions, according to a certain political dogma. The phrase refers to language, ideas, policies, and behaviour. It involves the suppression of particular attitudes and terms in the belief that they are offensive or controversial. James Valentine reveals that, "Political correctness is the desiccated remnant of old knowledge and opinion, and it has the power to divide, classify and allocated. Thus, this expression is associated with abuse" [23; 24].
Euphemisms are necessary when politeness demands that the distasteful is noted or referred to in an indirect fashion. Namely, euphemisms are encouraged in a society where politeness is highly valued, where indirect reference is considered a sign of good taste, and where direct reference can be embarrassing. In politics, it is vital to maintain a respectable image and one`s leadership trustworthy. How could positive change be encouraged at a time when there is so much emphasis on propaganda and the power of words?
The expression "politically correct" came about in the 1970's and was intended to mean "inclusive". It referred to the use of language that would not cause an individual of any demographic (social or cultural) group to feel excluded, offended, or diminished [20; 339].
It now seems to have been redefined by those who prefer an exclusive culture and dominance for themselves or their group. The distortions were made popular by comedians who observed the change in U. S. culture toward more inclusiveness and the struggle many people had in breaking exclusionary habits 39; 126].
If the politics of culture and language are to work as part of a political strategy with some prospect of success, they have to be integrated within a politics of structures and habituses - a hegemonic politics, in Hall's terms, which brings together interventions at various levels of the social [33; 234].
For example, not focusing on sexist or racist language use in an organization through non-sexist/non-racist guidelines in isolation from other potentially discriminatory aspects of the social relations of the organization, such as salary differentials or procedures for promotion [39; 140].
Strategically, critics of globalization, neo-liberalism and more specific aspects of them such as policies on migration lack, as M. Hall points out, a hegemonic strategy. There is a widespread understanding that the emerging socio-economic order is deeply problematic, that, for instance, large business corporations have too much power and elected governments have too little power, that the advocacy of `liberalization' in the free movement of money and goods stands in stark contrast to the harsh restrictions on the movement of people. Yet, so far, there is no coherent alternative vision of a social order which can attract the support and conviction that might lead to a hegemonic strategy. Whether and when such a strategy will emerge we cannot know. But one of its pre-conditions is better theory and analysis.
Political euphemism is not just a simple rhetoric replacement of the former zero-degree signifier. Instead, it has some special characteristics which distinguish it with euphemistic expressions in other fields. Its production reflects political leaders' motivation to hide the truth and shift public attention off it. By using such expression, they attempt to control people's learning about the world as well as information transmission. Therefore, when reading political discourse, we should be alert to some potential political purposes hidden in euphemism.
Part 4. Functions of Euphemisms in Barack Obama's speeches
In modern political discourse a lot of American politicians with the help of their speechwriters and political image makers use various linguistic technologies to reach their political goals through the process of persuasion or bargaining. Producing various texts of speeches, they include into them not only deep knowledge of the natural and social worlds (values, beliefs, assumptions) but also their knowledge of language whose power of influence is evident and very strong. Such technologies as the simplicity of speech (direct appeal to ordinary people), effective image-making strategies by visual and verbal language means, the creation of effective visual products of persuasion (political advertisements and cartoons) allow them to introduce socially important and culturally oriented concepts for the purpose of keeping their power and reinforcing their influence on public opinion [16; 37].
Most politicians indulge in uttering euphemisms in their campaign speeches. In the past they promised "a chicken in every pot" (meaning affordable food prices), "a car in every garage” (at-will transportation), "a television for every household" and the like to get elected. Demands change, which leads to the change of euphemisms and in such way one of its three characteristic features (strong characteristics of time) is shown. George Orwell said, "Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible…. thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness" [30; 15]. So using euphemisms is not without its advantages. It is a tool used by politicians and bureaucrats to direct how an issue is defined and discussed.
Political speeches in terms of content can be as clichйd as they are dynamic. For an activity, which, in theory, is supposed to be spontaneous, it is incredibly repetitive and formulaic. The speeches are prepared after many roundtable discussions and debates [28; 129].
The material for the analysis was taken from the speeches delivered by the president Barack Obama within the period from 2008 to 2012. The transcripts of the speeches were taken from the White House online source. Twenty four speeches have been carefully analysed. We tried to cover the most significant topics - international relationships, economic and military issues. These speeches were selected as they are popular and accessible to the readers. Despite a careful search, this list of euphemisms presented in the paper should make no claim to being exhaustive due to the possibility of human error. Thus, 203 political euphemisms were subjected to analysis. However, it is not the purpose here to list every euphemism but to investigate their functions and the purpose of use. Some entries may also be disputed because individual readers interpret euphemism differently. This is unavoidable.
Our task was to explore whether there are euphemisms in Obama's speeches, the purpose of their usage and their main functions. Since there exists an abundance of theories concerning functions of the euphemisms we decided to stick to Velykoroda's classification, namely taking into consideration the seven functions (concealing, cooperative, preventive, rhetorical, elevative, conspiratorial and distortive) [3; 26]. In the context speakers use one or more of the motivational factors that are directly related to the functions of euphemisms. Depending on the scope of use of the euphemism, the characteristics of the communicative situation, the purpose of the speaker and other factors euphemism can perform one or often several functions simultaneously. In our analysis we tried to detect its core function, though in some cases the second function was unavoidable since it exposed the complete meaning of the situation. For example:
…NATO is fully united about the way forward and committing to addressing the full range of security challenges of this century. [Remarks by the President on the NATO Summit and the New START Treaty, November 19, 2010]
By security challenges the president actually means "military action plan” which would sound extremely unsuitable here. But security with its primary meaning "protection” and challenge (important task) create the picture of peacefulness and necessity, thus concealing the truth, distorting the aim and elevating the task.
President Barack Obama inherited two major public diplomacy problems. The first was the obvious crisis in America's communication with the world and the decline in America's global standing. The second was the identification of the process of public diplomacy with the administration of George W. Bush [28; 120].
Analysis of the content reveals the emergence of three broad themes, which can be identified as `positivity', `influence and power' and `evasion', illustrating specific strategies that clearly distinguish the speech as a unique genre, with its own very typical communicative objectives and rhetorical strategies to achieve them.
The functional distribution of the euphemisms detected in 24 speeches made by Barack Obama was not equal. As it has been already mentioned, 203 euphemisms were detected. 41 of them performed two functions, the rest 162 had only one function. The most prolific were conspiratorial (25%) and rhetoric (21%) functions. Surprisingly small amount of euphemisms were of concealing (7%) and preventive (4%) type. The following diagram shows the exact distribution of the found euphemisms.
Now we are going to analyse each function of euphemisms (starting with the most frequent) in detail and with proper examples.
Conspiratorial function expresses the deliberate euphemisation of unacceptable aspects of reality by the members of particular social, professional or age group for complicated perception of information by the persons not belonging to the group. The special feature of such euphemisms is that the group of people who use them, understand these statements and identify those who take them as "the one belonging to them” [3; 29].
And the third reason is that with the Cold War over, it is in everybody's interests to work on reducing our nuclear arsenals, which are hugely expensive and contain the possibilities of great damage, if not in terms of direct nuclear war, then in terms of issues of nuclear proliferation. [Press Conference of the President after NATO Summit, November 20, 2010]
Proliferation usually means "the sudden increase in the number or amount of something”. Its much more popular derivative "prolific” is widely known and has a positive meaning (prolific harvest, prolific writer). So being long and complicated the word is not generally known but associated with its positive derivative. The shorter word nuclear loses its threat near it.
I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. [The American Promise Acceptance Speech at the Democratic Convention Mile High Stadium, Denver Colorado, August 28, 2008]
It is worth mentioning that the speech was delivered during the election campaign. First of all tax reduction is too sophisticated, the majority of his listeners would not have enough economic education to understand it. And the striking effect of the word break has the impact of strength - here comes the leader that is able to deal with the companies which are not eager to supply the Americans with jobs. The word is colloquial enough for Obama to be taken by the audience as one of them, as one of the kind.
More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. [Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech, August 28, 2008]
The word plummet (dictionary meaning "to fall suddenly and quickly from a high level or position”) is used to gain more trust, sympathy and understanding from common people. Especially from people who during the crisis suddenly lost their homes, the very symbol of the American dream.
Rhetorical function is aimed at trying to somehow influence the recipient's value settings, to change his/her attitude to the released, induce him/her to certain actions (buy a product, select a specific organization for services, etc.) [3; 28]:
And perhaps most significantly, we agreed to cooperate on missile defense, which turns a source of past tension into a source of potential cooperation against a shared threat. [Press Conference of the President after NATO Summit, November 20, 2010]
If the president just said common enemy that would be too plain, although shared threat is not a complicated expression too. Both expressions are of simple and short kind. But if we take the connotation of each meaning, there will be significant difference. The word common first of all means "ordinary or simple”. So if the enemy or threat is simple why should there be so much effort made to deal with it? And shared does not have that simplicity in its meaning. Besides, the listener immediately associates it with something like "shared joys and sorrows" which creates almost a family atmosphere. Now, what concerns the word threat. Unlike the word enemy it, though meaning danger, excludes human factor. In general the usage of two tactics are visible here - connectedness with the listener and the speaker's withdrawal from the situation.
I promised to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that have outlived their usefulness, and in each of the budgets I've put forward so far, we've proposed approximately $20 billion in savings through shrinking or ending more than 120 such programs. [Remarks by the President on the Federal Employee Pay Freeze, November 29, 2010]
Negation and negative suffixes create bad image in the speech so instead of become useless it is much safer to claim outlive one's usefulness.
Our two most fundamental challenges are keeping the American people safe and growing our economy. [Remarks by the President on the Federal Employee Pay Freeze, November 29, 2010]
Most fundamental challenges is a typical euphemistic phrase for a speech. Most important task presupposes matter-of-factness and will not be paid due attention by the listener. Apart from being very important fundamental also means serious, thus putting the speaker into a more respectable position. To sound even more impressive the modest word task is substituted by the mighty challenge.
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. [Remarks by the President on the Budget, February 13, 2012]
Possessions is a nice word here. If you must share your property, which is actually meant, subconsciously you oppose immediately. But material possessions are much easier given away since we live and are taught the idea that material is not important.
Cooperative function reflects the desire to preserve speech communicants' cooperation for solving problems of communication (typical of most euphemisms, but especially clearly expressed in euphemisms that are used in order to avoid discrimination) [3; 27]:
On my recent visit to Afghanistan, I visited a medical unit and pinned Purple Hearts on some of our wounded warriors. [Statement by the President on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Annual Review, December 16, 2010]
Purple Hearts is a medal given to a member of the armed forces of the US who has been wounded in battle (OALD). The image of heart appeals to closeness, mentioning of purple colour strengthens the warmth and colloquial pin create home atmosphere of plainness. To award a medal would sound more honorable but lose the desired effect. If you give a medal you show respect, if you give a heart you express much warmer and closer feeling.
After retiring from the Army as a Major, John Gaffaney cared for society's most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. [Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery Memorial Service at Fort Hood, November 10, 2009]
In this case we can observe the use of euphemism instead of euphemism, since mentally challenged is enough politically correct. But the effect of society's most vulnerable has a stronger influence on the audience and shows care and understanding.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America. [Election Night Victory Speech, Grant Park, Illinois, November 4, 2008]
To show that people who have some mental or physical challenges belong to the society and are its inseparable part, double negation is used. In addition, disabled and not disabled is a device on the syntactic level. Using metaphorical expression Obama tries to show the tight connection and unity of all American citizens.
When using elevative function the sender represents aspects of reality in a positive light exaggerating low or average standards. The speaker aims to introduce aspects of reality so that recipient treated them as more perceptible. The sender wants to somehow raise the importance or prestige denoted, encouraging recipients to certain actions, choices. Mostly elevative euphemistic units nominate unpopular professions, products, organizations or institutions that do not otherwise have drawn attention to the recipient [3; 29]:
It has nurtured young democracies and welcomed them into Europe that is whole and free. [Press Conference of the President after NATO Summit, November 20, 2010]
The speech was made at the press conference after the NATO Summit. The abstract concerned NATO. But when one hears nurture young democracies, the first thing that appears in the imagination is, due to the meaning of the word nurture "to take care of somebody or something young and fragile”, something like "children nurtured by loving parents”. Plainly speaking, nurturing young democracies means simply the change of political regimes more suitable for Europe and the USA due to the cultural, religious or political issues.
I expect we'll have a robust debate about this when we return from the holidays - a debate that will have to answer an increasingly urgent question - and that is how do we cut spending that we don't need while making investments that we do need - investments in education, research and development, innovation, and the things that are essential to grow our economy over the long run, create jobs, and compete with every other nation in the world. [News Conference by the President, December 22, 2010]
Clearly, the euphemistic term a robust debate is disarmingly much gentler, than strong disagreement and thus such expression proves to be acceptable. Robust meaning "strong and healthy" and debate meaning "discussion” together make an impression of a friendly talk instead of strong disagreement and stress the speaker's importance in decision making.
Slowly, businesses are recovering. Slowly, families are recovering. And the auto industry is back. [Remarks by the President on the Housing Settlement, February 09, 2012]
Grammar has also been a powerful euphemistic tool. Here grammatical form of plurality helps to create a more mighty image of prosperity. In addition, personified verbs recover and is back usually used with live beings make us think that economy is safe and sound.
Distortive function causes the distorted information display in the mind of the recipient. Euphemisms that perform this function are used to name the most inappropriate things to sender's aspects of reality. Distortive function has the most negative impact on the effectiveness of communication and prevents the achievement of speech cooperation, that precludes implementation of cooperative functions [3; 30]:
We've gone through 18 hearings; we've answered 1,000 questions. We have met the concerns about modernizing our nuclear stockpile with concrete budget numbers. [Press Conference of the President after NATO Summit, November 20, 2010]
Since NATO is a military alliance, we may conclude that modernizing our nuclear stockpile has nothing to do with power stations and concerns the modernization of nuclear weapon. And to make the puzzle even more complicated the president talks of huge amount of money that is going to be spent on that modernization using euphemistic phrase concrete budget numbers.
Indeed, for the first time in years, we've put in place the strategy and the resources that our efforts in Afghanistan demand. And because we've ended our combat mission in Iraq, and brought home nearly 100,000 of our troops from Iraq, we're in a better position to give our forces in Afghanistan the support and equipment they need to achieve their missions. And our drawdown in Iraq also means that today there are tens of thousands fewer Americans deployed in harm's way than when I took office. [Statement by the President on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Annual Review, December 16, 2010]
Politicians are notorious (and Barack Obama is not an exception) for their employment of words in a disguised fashion through the usage of euphemisms. Consequently, their message becomes a recurrent theme of conspicuous deception. He deliberately engages in grandiloquent expression conscious of its subversive capacity. The deviancy of euphemisms is guided by social norms that politicians are permitted to exercise in order to safeguard their images. When politicians envelop seemingly good intentions with conscious deception, people are harmed in the process. Those in power transgress justice and commit crimes with their overwhelming command of euphemisms. In fact, euphemisms are utilized as masks, hiding truths under the protective tones of a speaker with a genuine, worthwhile goal. Selective vocabulary to put in place the strategy and the resources, our combat mission, the support and equipment, achieve their missions is employed to arouse, rationalize and justify.
And perhaps one of the nicest examples in diplomacy which was criticized all over the world was taken from Obama's speech made during his meeting with the president of Israel. Trying to express his favorable attitude he proclaimed:
When Israel was isolated in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, we supported them. [Remarks by the President on the NATO Summit and the New START Treaty Feria Internacional de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, November 19, 2010]
What Obama called aftermath of the flotilla incident was the Gaza flotilla raid, a military operation by Israel against six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, with the intention of breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip. On 31 May 2010, Israeli Shayetet 13 naval commandos boarded the ships from speedboats and helicopters in order to force the ships to the Israeli port of Ashdod for inspection. On the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, boarding faced resistance from about 40 IHH activists - described in a UN report as a "separate hardcore group" - who were armed with iron bars, dinner plates and knives. During the struggle, nine activists were killed, and many were wounded. All activist casualties were caused by gunshots, some of them in point blank range. Ten of the commandos were also wounded, one of them seriously The five other ships in the flotilla employed passive resistance, which was suppressed without major incident. The ships were towed to Israel, where all passengers were detained and deported. The raid drew widespread condemnation internationally and resulted in a deterioration of Israel-Turkey relations.
Concealing function identifies sender's desire to hide aspects of reality, which he does not want to speak frankly of. Especially clearly this function is observed in euphemisms of politicians and public figures [3; 26]. To hide the political realities that may cause negative reaction of the public, speakers use units such as impediment (difficulty), defense cooperation (military alliance), eliminate (reduce). This function is going to be illustrated by the following examples:
We head into tomorrow's meeting with an alliance that is fully aligned in its vision and approach to collective security for the 21st century. After a year of discussions - and sometimes debate - the new Strategic Concept that we are embracing shows that NATO is fully united about the way forward and committing to addressing the full range of security challenges of this century. [Remarks by the President on the NATO Summit and the New START Treaty, November 19, 2010]
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