EUPHEMISMS AND DYSPHEMISMS IN THE LINGUISTIC PLAY OF BERNARD WERBER’S SHORT STORIES

Abstract

This article explores the peculiarities of how euphemistic and dysphemistic expressions function as tools in the author’s strategy of linguistic play within the narrative space of contemporary French writer Bernard Werber’s short prose. The research is based on the collection “L’Arbre des possibles et autres histoires”, where each story unfolds as a speculative scenario set in an alternative spatiotemporal dimension. Linguistic play is understood as a deliberate deviation from linguistic norms, a playful manipulation of linguistic resources to achieve a particular pragmatic resonance. In Bernard Werber’s works, euphemistic and dysphemistic substitutes manifest as linguistic entities drawn from diverse discursive domains – media, administrative, juridical, and scientific domains, particularly medical, biological, psychological, and philosophical, as well as lexemes and expressions from diverse linguistic registers interacting within a single context. Such stylistic heterogeneity, coupled with the contamination of usual media euphemisms with substitutes forged through alternative stylistic figures, generates not merely humorous, ironic, and satirical effects, but also cultivates an atmosphere of absurdity and, occasionally, cognitive dissonance within the reader’s consciousness. The synthesis of euphemisms and dysphemisms within unified contextual boundaries precipitates an effect of semantic and stylistic flickering – a peculiar oscillation between the veiling and illumination of an object’s negative attributes in a 'veil–spotlight' mode (in line with D. Jamet’s metaphors). This phenomenon induces cognitive tension in the reader, thereby activating their interpretative engagement. Through this mechanism, the author not only constructs possible worlds but also engages the reader in an active game of meaning decipherment – a manifestation that simultaneously embodies postmodernist literary practice and reflects the distinctive features of the writer’s individual stylistic signature.