The paper titled "An intercultural study of euphemistic strategies used in Saudi Arabic and American English" primarily focuses on exploring the euphemistic strategies employed by speakers of Saudi Arabic and American English when addressing sensitive topics, particularly death, lying, and bodily functions. The study investigates whether these strategies vary across cultures and whether gender influences the choice of strategies.
The purpose of the study is to analyze how cultural and linguistic differences between Saudis and Americans manifest in their use of euphemisms. The study also aims to understand the role of gender in the selection of euphemistic strategies and to provide insights that could facilitate better cross-cultural communication.
The methodology involved a questionnaire administered to 145 college students, with 78 participants from Saudi Arabia and 67 from the United States. The questionnaire, adapted from a previous study, included scenarios related to the taboo topics of death, lying, and bodily functions. The participants' responses were categorized into various euphemistic strategies, such as deletion, synonyms, metaphor, understatement, and taboo words.
Key findings revealed that Saudi participants predominantly used the 'part-for-whole' strategy for death, 'understatement' for lying, and 'general-for-specific' for bodily functions. In contrast, American participants frequently used 'synonyms' for death, 'taboo words' for lying, and 'general-for-specific' for bodily functions. The study also found that gender had minimal impact on the choice of euphemistic strategies, although females tended to employ more euphemisms than males across both cultural groups.
The study concludes that cultural and religious values significantly influence the use of euphemistic strategies. It highlights the importance of understanding these cultural differences to avoid miscommunication in cross-cultural interactions. The findings suggest that incorporating knowledge of euphemism into language education could enhance communicative competence, particularly in intercultural settings.