英语毕业论文模糊语的语用研究.doc

河 北 师 范 大 学成人教育本科毕业论文题目:模糊语的语用研究专 业: 英 语考生姓名: 考生所在单位:邢台市冀南医学中等专业学校准考证号: 092010107150导师姓名:联系电话： 完成日期： 2012 年 5 月 8 日The Pragmatic Study on Vague TermsBy YangWeiFangProf. YangLiHua，tutor Submitted to the B.A. Committee in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the English Department of Hebei Teachers University May 8, 2012摘 要：模糊性是自然语言的基本属性。现在，愈来愈多的学者对语言的模糊性进行了深入的探讨，但大多数研究成果是从语义学角度出发，而从语用学角度出发进行的研究却并不是很多，且大多局限于对模糊限制语的语用分析，缺乏全面，系统的对模糊语与语用之间的关系的研究。本文通过分析、归纳、补充、论述了语言的模糊性，通过模糊语在各个领域中的运用，分析其所起的重要作用及其存在的必然性，以最终达到了解模糊语对全面理解语言的模糊性和灵活应用语言所具有的意义和目的。本文分四章进行讨论，主要内容如下：第一章 对模糊语言进行了定义，同时概述了造成模糊语言的原因。使读者对语言属性有较为清晰的认识。第二章 本文的理论基础，介绍了“合作原则”和“礼貌原则”，分析其在日常会话中的重要作用。第三章 运用语用学原理-“合作原则” 和“礼貌原则”， 辅以英汉例句的分析，解释模糊语与语用原则的结合，对日常会话中的模糊语进行了具体的语用分析。第四章 在前三章的基础上，讨论了模糊语的语用功能，通过不同领域中模糊语的应用，分析模糊语的重要性和意义。关键词：模糊性;语用模糊;合作原则; 礼貌原则; 日常会话Abstract：Vagueness is the nature character of language. Now, more and more scholars have probed vague language. However, the majority of findings research it from the perspective of words meaning, the study from the pragmatic perspective is very few, and most of which limits in the pragmatic analysis of hedge, lacking of all-round and systematic study on the relationship between vague language and pragmatics. This thesis enhances readers understanding of vague terms from the angle of pragmatics by means of analysis, induce and supplement. And through analyzing the pragmatic functions of vague terms, it reveals the importance and feasibility of the existence of vague terms. In addition, it exposes the important roles that vague terms might play in communication and the necessity of understanding and using terms in different fields. The thesis consists of five chapters .The first chapter gives the definition of vague language and explores its causes. Which helps readers to form a clear picture of this linguistic attribute.Chapter Two is the theoretical basic of this thesis, introduce Co-operative Principle and Politeness Principle, and explain their important effect in daily communication. Chapter Three gives certain explanation of pragmatic vagueness and analyzes the uses of vague language in everyday conversation by two pragmatic principles and theories- Co-operative Principle and Politeness Principle. With the assistance of illustrative analyses both in English and in Chinese, this thesis gives pragmatic analysis of vague terms in daily communication. Chapter Four is about the necessity of understanding vagueness by expounding the practical values of understanding and using vague terms in different fields such as daily communication, literary works, and advertisement. Key Word : Vagueness;Linguistic vagueness;Co-operative Principle; Politeness Principle; Daily communication35ContentsIntroduction.2ChapterOne Definition and causes of vagueness .31.1 Definition of vagueness.41.2 Causes of vagueness.5ChapterTwo Co-operative Principle and Politeness Principle.92.1 Co-operative Principle.92.2 Politeness Principle.11ChapterThree Analyzing Vague Terms with Pragmatic Theories.143.1 Vague Terms and Co-operative Principle.143.2 Vague Terms and Politeness Principle.16ChapterFour The Pragmatic functions and Application of Vague terms.214.1 Pragmatic functions of Vague terms in daily Communication.224.1.1 Giving exact information.224.1.2 Deliberately with holding information.234.1.3 Reducing the commitment to a certain degree.254.1.4 Generating humorous effect.264.2 The Application of Vague terms.274.2.1 Vague terms in literary works.274.2.2 Vague terms in advertisement.28Conclusion.30Notes.32Bibliograpghy.33IntroductionVagueness is a native property of language. It is an important phenonen in daily communication.The thesis presents the elementary concept of vague terms, analyzes the cause vagueness, and discusses the importance of vague terms in daily communication between Co-operative and Politeness principle. Through analyzing daily examples using the two principles to discuss the application of vague terms in different field such as daily communication, literary works, and advertisement. Announce the concerment and meaning.The purposes of the thesis: exposes the important roles that vague terms might play in communication and the necessity of understanding and using terms in different fields.Chapter One Definition and causes of vagueness Many people put emphasis ongoodlanguage usage which involves such virtues as clarity 、precision, Hence, it is believed that vagueness、ambiguity、imprecision and general woolliness are to be avoided. As the result, some scholars have taken exactness as the principle and pointed out some models in analyzing language. However, many phenomena can not be explained in this way. for example, Componential Analysis can not give clear distinction of words woman and girl, which is due to the ignorance of the attribute of language , to which many researchers have paid much attention. The study on vagueness is meaningful for one to get a full understanding of language just as Channell (2005: 5) states:“Interest in vagueness in language use and meaning has arisen in a number of disciplines: literature criticism, linguistics, psychology and philosophy. Much of it suggest that vagueness is present in a great deal of language use , and that therefore a complete theory of language must have vagueness as intergral component ”Ordinary language leaves room for people to be vague to avoid precision and the communication associated with it. The art of being vague is a neglected concern for the linguist, and yet an important part of the protection of the every speaker and writer. If people did not have access to it, their range of communication would be reversly restricted, that is to say, the abundant semantic properties of vague language have rendered it various pragmatic functions, which can not be replaced by other forms of language.1.1 Definition of vagueness Peirce (1902) is considered as the originator of the notion of vagueness of language; his definition is as follows which is admirably clear: “A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether , had they been contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them as excluded or allowed by the proposition. By intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of any ignorance of the interpreter, but because the speakers habits of language were indeterminate , so that one day he would regard the proposition as including , another as admitting , those states of things . Yet this must be understood to have reference to what might be deduced from a prefect knowledge of his state of mind , for it is precisely because those question never did , or did not frequently ,present themselves that his habit remained indeterminate.”(Channell, 2000:7)In the remainder of the passage Peirce explains that “by an indeterminacy of habits” he means the hypothetical variation by the speaker, in the application of the proposition, “so that one day he would regard the proposition as excluding, another as admitting, those states of a perfect knowledge of his state of mind; for it is precisely because these questions never did, or did not frequently, present themselves, that his habit remained indeterminate”. For example, whether “a 1.62-meter-high girl” is excluded or allowed by the proposition “she is a tall girl” is difficult to judge, because there are many different states of things. Comparing with a 5-year-old girl, she is certainly tall, while among the female basketball player she is too short. This is caused by the vague upper and bottom limitation of the word.William Alston notes in his book Philosophy of Language, “A term is said to be vague if there are cases in which there is no definite answer as to whether the term applies” (1964:84) which is similar with pierceopinion stated above.Burns L C (1991) defined vagueness from its opposition side: a non-vague term is one which is sharply defined in the sense that it nearly divides objects into those contained in the terms extension and those contained in the extensions of its negation. A vague term is one whose correct definition permits the possibility of borderline cases.In China, the first one to study vagueness is Professor WuTieping (1999) who defines that, in fact, in human language, many expressions have no clear-cut boundaries, that is, they are vague concepts. He points that those words denoting time, color and temperature do not have an explicit boundary between them.From above definitions of vagueness, it can be found that vagueness is relatively a very abstract notion. I think there is no superiority or inferiority in all these definitions. The only differences among them lie in their respective emphasis and way of expressing, and the common point is that three main characteristics of vagueness that are embodied in all of them: indeterminacy, determinacy and variation. In everyday conversation, communicators usually feel uncertain about that whether a term applied to an object or referent or not, they always feel difficult to understand what does the speaker want to intend if an utterance have more than one possible interpretation. So, in this respect, indeterminacy is a principal feature of vagueness. Thus how to understand an utterance is directly related to whether communication is successful or not, and vagueness should be studied from the angle of pragmatics.1.2 Causes of vagueness Peirce is often considered as the originator of the notion of vagueness in language, although, as we will see, Ullmann dates it rather earlier. Ullmann (1962) in a section entitledwords with blurred edgestraced from Plato to Byron using the inadequacy of language to express thought , particular because of its lack of precision. He noted that such vagueness is in fact an advantage. Ullmann goes on to point out another important aspect of vagueness. He notes that:“If one looks more closely at this vagueness one soon discovers that the term is itself rather vague and ambiguous: the condition it refers to is not a uniform feature but has many aspects and many results from a variety of causes. Some of these are inherent in the very nature of language, whereas others come into play only in special circum stances.” (1962:118). He attributes vagueness to four factors: (Wu Tieping, 1999)a. Generic character of wordsThat is to saynot single item but classes of things and events bound together by some common element . For example, there is a class of things refers to in English by the term bird, but if we look at it in more detail, we see that some birds are very typically birdly, such as robin; while other birds, such as ostrich, penguin, do not feel like typically birds and lack some of the central characteristics of birdiness(flying , perching in trees ). This inevitably leads to vagueness which isin some ways regrettable, but it is the price we have to pay for having a means of social communication flexible enough to cope with the infinite variety of our experience. b. Meaning is never homogeneous Which means interpretation of meaning is context-bound. Indisputably so, but Ullmanns implication is that context will permit an exact interpretation to be put on any word: only context will specify which aspect of a person, which phase in his development, which side of his activities we have in mind.(1962:124). He holds that ultimately there is exact interpretation. I shall suggest that there exist at least some expressions which are always vague and for which a precise interpretation or analysis is not possible.c. Lack of clear-cut boundaries in the non-linguistic world Which means the non-linguistic world is vague. A typical example here would be: to ask oneself when a hill becomes large enough to the degree that can be called as a mountain, or at what precise age a girl starts to be correctly called as a woman. Since the non-linguistic world is vague, it is very difficult for us to draw a clear-cut boundary.d. Lack of familiarity with what the words stand for Which means that during the conversation where people seen to be not quite sure of what they are talking about, or they can not find a proper word to express their meaning, so they have to give uncertain information, so linguistic vagueness is not gratuitous -it is caused by the world in which language is used.Vagueness is referred to in a very different context by Crystal and Davy (1975), in an applied linguistic textbook which contains a series of recordings of natural conversations. They put forward the view that vagueness is on a scale related to the formality of the occasion, and that if the speaker chooses, they can be more precise. They give four reasons for vagueness: (a) memory -loss-the speaker forgets the correct word; (b) the language has no suitable exact word, or the speaker does not know it; (c) the subject of the conversation is not such that it requires precision, and an approximation or characterization will do; and (d) the choice of a vague item is deliberate to main the atmosphere.Chapter two Co-operative Principle and Politeness Principle2.1 Co-operative PrincipleIn 1976, the philosopher H. P. Grice proposed that in conversing, human beings follow a behavioral dictum, which he calls Cooperative Principle:Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk change in which you are engaged (Grice: 45-46)Quantity:1. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the Exchange) 2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required Quality : Try to make your contribution one that is true 1. Do not say what you believe to be false 2. Do not say that for which you lake adequate evidenceRelation: Be relevantManner : Be perspicuous1. Avoid obscurity of expression 2. Avoid ambiguity 3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)4. Be orderlyPeople are supposed to obey these maxims to converse in a maximally efficient, rational and cooperative way. They should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information (Levinson, 1983:102). If all the maxims are observed, the conversation will generate no implicature. A speaker says directly what he means and the force is the same as the sense. But actually people often fail to abide by these maxims and implication occurs. For example, X made a mass in his work. A is his boss: He says, （2-1）Youve done a good job. As it is interpreted by Grice, it is perfectly obvious to A and X that what A has said is something he does not believe, and A knows that this is obvious to X. So, unless As utterance is entirely pointless, A must be trying to get across the underlied meaning that he seems to be putting forward. (2-2) A and B are university roommates. A: Are you going shopping with me this afternoon?B: I am going shopping with C. B doesnt answer the question directly, giving less information than A requires. However A has no difficulty in interpreting what B really means: B isnt going shopping with A. However, the real reason whether B doesnt like going shopping with A or B has made a prior agreement with C remains unclear.(2-3) A: My pen is gone. I cant find it in the classroom. B: Someone has stolen it.Instead of identifying who the thief is clearly, B gives a very obscure answer. The implicature he has generated might be that it is no use looking for it or he knows who has stolen it but he cant tell. The most possible interpretation should be derived from the certain context. (2-4) Husband: The telephone is ringing.Wife : Im in bathroom. In this example, The husbands intention is obvious and his wife knows this, but she violates the relevant maxim on purpose and deliberately distorts his intention by giving him an unexpected response, The reply may not be a statement but a request ( Im in bathroom, so will you please answer it ?); an order ( Im in bathroom, you should answer it ); a refuse ( Im sorry, Im in bathroom ); or a complain( Im in bathroom, why dont you answer it yourself?). It is very easy for the hearer to infer different kinds of implicatures. 2.2 Politeness PrincipleApart from Cooperative Principle, Politeness is another principle, which is usually abided by in conversation. Leech, the famous linguist regards politeness as crucial in explaining why sometimes people are indirect in conveying what they mean, and he thinks that Politeness Principle is the basic principle of language usage, it requires communicators to consider others face in communicative process, make utterance properly and respect the hearer, so that the speaker can gain favorable impression and respect from the hearer, which is for the purpose of making communicative activity go on successfully. Leech proposes the Politeness Principle which consists of six maxims