Investigating ‘the thing’, ‘this thing’, and ‘that thing’: euphemisms in medical interactions in Nigeria
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[1] Adekunle Ajasin University
Adekunle Ajasin University
Nigeria
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- Localización: Translation and Discourse as (Non)Discrimination / coord. por Catalina Iliescu Gheorghiu, 2025, ISBN 978-3-631-91169-3
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
The Nigerian culture largely reflects a preference for implicitness over explicitness with respect to expressions that are considered taboos. This orientation is imported into the medical context,especially in dialogues involving sexually transmitted infections where participants must refer to private organs of the body. Using data that reflects at least three different languages: Yoruba,Nigerian English, and Pidgin, a common practice found in the medical contexts in Nigeria is the euphemizing of the so-called taboo expressions as ‘the thing’, ‘this thing’, and ‘that thing’. Thefindings reveal that the referents connoted by these expressions compulsorily rely on the participants’ common ground, substantially premised on shared cultural knowledge, physical copresence as well as their cooperation with the face orientations of the patients with regards to their condition. The Nigerian medical settings are reflective of the social values and socio-cultural beliefs of the largersociety illustrated in the participants’ understanding of the restriction on taboo expressions and the cultural stigmatization that is associated with sexually transmitted infection. This understanding is displayed in the discriminatory preference of indirectness over directness and in the use of euphemisms instead of the enunciations of taboo expressions involving sexual organs and unpleasant medical conditions. By adopting euphemism and indirect expressions in STI medical contexts in Nigeria, participants display not only their common ground on acceptable norms in the society, but also their commitment to maintaining and enhancing each other’s face