Metaphorical Euphemisms of relationship and death in Kavalan, Paiwan, and Seediq

This paper investigates metaphorical euphemisms underlying the categories of relationship and death in three Formosan languages: Kavalan, Paiwan, and Seediq, within the framework of Lakoff and Johnson’s Cognitive Metaphor Theory. The term “metaphorical euphemism” is proposed to represent both linguistic and cognitive relations of euphemism and metaphor. A metaphorical euphemism refers to a euphemism that adopts metaphorical mapping of both source and target domains to express the notion of a forbidden domain as a result of conscious choices from pragmatic competence. Given the domains of relationship and death being interconnected socially and culturally, near-universal and specific metaphorical euphemisms of the two domains in the three languages are analyzed from the approach of descriptive sociolinguistics. A cross-linguistic comparison of the three Formosan languages with English and Mandarin Chinese is provided and discussed from the perspectives of cognition and culture.