The Masking Effects of Euphemisms and their Dysfunctional Potential in News Writing

According to Harold Pinter, quoted in Crystal (2002), one way of looking at speech/writing is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness. Accordingly, the declared meaning of a spoken/written sentence is only its overcoat, and the real meaning lies underneath its scarves and buttons. Euphemisms throw a veil over ideas about people, adding a softness and refinement on them. Therefore, they distort and disfigure meaning. They obstruct and obscure understanding. Andfor the journalist, this goes contrary to the golden rule of news writing: be clear and precise for you are trying to reach a diverse public that possesses different interests and varied educational abilities. A figure of rhetoric by which an unpleasant thing is described or referred to by a milder term, Euphemism substitutes a word or phrase, considered hurtful, for an inoffensive one. Many of such words or phrases are concerned with death, sex or excreta, e.g. departed substitutes for dead: sleep with takes the place of have sexual intercourse with, and relieve oneself replaces urinate. As the following discussion reveals however, cryptic or hard to understand expressions have no place in Journalism, a discipline that seeks to explain the society in a clear and concise language to help people get along very well with their lives in an increasingly complex society. Furthermore, the paper shows that inoffensiveness is no virtue in Journalism.