Protective Euphemisms in Discourse and Interaction: A Naming Classification Perspective on Aged Care Facilities

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to provide an insight into morphosyntactic and lexical strategies employed to name aged care facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also necessary to compare their translation equivalents into English in order to reach general conclusions about the naming classification strategies employed and availability of the information in the English language on the internet. Furthermore, as protective euphemisms are frequently related to taboo words and concepts that vary across cultures, the paper also discusses how protective euphemisms may be related to politically correct language and linguistic policy creation. The paper proposes that the varying use of euphemistic strategies employed could be due to the lexical strategies available, cultural differences and differing levels of understanding regarding sensitive language use. The theoretical framework is grounded in research conducted by Burridge (2012), Benczes and Burridge (2015), Felton (1969), Halmari (2011), and Candrian (2015) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of euphemisms and their role in shaping contemporary language use.