DIRE L’INDICIBLE : TRADUIRE L’EUPHÉMISME FRANÇAIS
SAYING THE UNSAYABLE: TRANSLATING FRENCH EUPHEMISMS

Summary/Abstract: The paper emphasizes the challenges related to the translation of several categories of French euphemisms into Romanian. The author defines the euphemism and examines its relationship with the stereotyped language (“la langue de bois”) and the politically correctness (“le politiquement correct” or “la rectitude politique”). If the stereotyped language and the politically correct discourse have rather a stylistic nature, euphemisms are figures of speech that aim to avoid what is unpleasant, embarrassing, harsh or even blunt. They are frequently encountered in the stereotyped language and in the politically correct discourse. The various reasons that lead to the use of euphemisms in the French discourse are then analyzed. Euphemisms are formed through various morphological and lexical techniques and are used in specific fields: employment, immigration, war. It seems that the French language is more prone to the use of specific euphemisms that are also culture-bound terms (such as “quartiers populaires” or “gens du voyage”). Ideally, a euphemism in the source language should find a euphemistic equivalent in the target language, but some French euphemisms are difficult to translate due to their cultural nature.

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