Euphemism as Doublespeak in Jhonny Depp-Amber Heard Defamation Trial

Abstract

Euphemism means a word or phrase that is used to safeguard the feelings of other people. However, this is not the only function of euphemism; nowadays people use it for persuasive, misleading, and/or deceptive intentions instead of being simply polite. The present paper addresses euphemism as a tool of doublespeak used in the famous defamation hearing between Jhonny Deep and Amber Heard; it took place in 2022 in Virginia, and the jury ruled that Depp had been defamed by Heard. It is hypothesized that Amber Heard, while she is cross-examined by Depp's lawyer Camille Vasquez, tries to defend herself by the use of euphemism as a doublespeak function. In this paper Warren's model (1992) is adopted for analyzing the selected texts. The model categorizes euphemism formation, namely, semantic innovation, i.e., a novel sense for some established word or word combination is created.