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shock as well. It has 3 [+] features falling under [EXCLAMATION] [SURPRISE] [ANGER]. Meanwhile, ‘God’ has 5 [+] features comprising
[CREATOR] [RULER] [POWERFUL] [SOUL] [BEING WORSHIPPED]. The meaning of ‘gosh’ turns into broader because the previous meaning has
no exact meaning but the new meaning refers to the creator over the world. In consideration of all the power, He is the ruler worshipped by all human
creatures.
4. Circumlocution
Data example: 4
a Ryan: I haven’t had this much fun making out since ...p.14
The sentence is uttered by Ryan. The conversation takes place between Ryan and his colleague, Darcy. One night, Darcy called him up and they planed a
date in a club. After sharing their personal live, they get closed, begin kissing and so on. Therefore, Ryan says so to Darcy.
The euphemism for that context is the word ‘making out’. This word doesn’t refer to the activity of completing a list, managing to see a thing, or
understanding what is being said. Its different from all above references, the word ‘making out’ is a roundabout way to mention ‘flirtation’. ‘Flirtation’ is
absolutely taboo because of the reasons as follow: a Flirtation is sexual activity evoking somebody to have great pleasure.
b Flirtation is an act to show affection in getting amusement c Flirtation comprises hugging, kissing, necking and petting.
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d Flirtation stimulates partner’s genitals According to those reasons, people avoid saying ‘flirtation’ explicitly.
They then conceal the truth in consideration of guarding against unpleasant term in public, keeping the sex partner’s sensibility, preventing people or
involved partner from losing face. ‘Making out’ is a kind of sexual euphemism since it deals with all about
sex. The euphemistic term obscures the real intention so that it is surely more polite and pleasant to mention.
The word ‘making out’ also gets through euphemistic Circumlocution. It is an indirect way of talking used commonly in the form of compound or
idiom. Thus, the term ‘making out’ is an idiom for ‘flirtation’. Supporting the above explanation, the writer shall show the semantic
components of ‘making out’ like below: Making out: [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOPLE] [COMMON] This term has no sensitive
feature. It is therefore regarded as euphemism in which the lexical meaning is dropped. To make clear, the writer will replace ‘making out’ with the intended
meaning:
b Ryan: I haven’t had this much fun flirtation since ...
The sentence b is acceptable, yet it is not euphemism expression. It is because ‘flirtation’ is vulgar to say and comprise the components like:
Flirtation: [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOLPLE] [SEX] The feature [SEX] Jets ‘making out’ differentiate from ‘flirtation’. The feature also
motivate ’fl irtation’ to be taboo term.
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To get more information about the meaning relation and semantic change, the writer then identifies the component of these words:
Making out Flirtation
+ Physical
+ +
Activity +
+ Done by people
+ +
Common -
- Sex
+ From those semantic components, ‘making out’ and ‘flirtation’ share
several components. These are [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOPLE].
Therefore, they may make up for each other especially in sentence: I haven’t had this much fun making out since .... ‘Making out’ not only replaces
but also refines the taboo term ‘flirtation’. The euphemistic term does so to obscure the dispreferred term. It is even supported by the component itself. As
mentioned above, ‘making out’ has general and neutral feature, while flirtation comprises one sensitive feature such as [SEX].
In the area of meaning relation, the word ‘making out’ are incompatible because they share semantic components but has one feature contrasting with
a feature in the other. Based on semantic components, ‘making out’ and ‘flirtation’ have similar features like [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY
PEOPLE]. Yet, they also clash in the feature [± SEX]. ‘Making out’ refers to physical activity done by people in general area and ‘flirtation’ means
physical activity done by people in sex area.
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‘Making out’ involves many people and contains general issues. It is evoked by the existence of [PEOPLE] and [COMMON] features. Meanwhile,
‘flirtation’ with [SEX] feature usually involves only 2 people usually a couple and lover. They surely do something specifically in sex area. These words
therefore have Semantic change in Semantic narrowing process in which the new meaning is considered less general than the earlier one.
5. Clippings
