ИСТИНА

Good command of English presupposes not only the knowledge of a certain number of words and grammatical rules of bringing them together, but also a very thorough background knowledge of culture and society in English-speaking countries. The aim of the talk consists in developing foreign learners’ awareness of the so-called “sensitive language”, which is indispensable for effective and unconstrained cross-cultural communication. The talk presents some interesting (and at times unexpected) observations connected with the use of sensitive language in British and American English, which can be used in the process of teaching the language to advanced students. Besides, the multifaceted nature of English euphemistic expressions is spelled out. It is shown that they are closely connected with such linguistic phenomena as irony, understatement and political correctness. The analysis of actual material proves that what brings them together is a certain contradiction between the literal and implied meanings of words and word-combinations under discussion.