模糊语言在商务英语中的应用╲tThe Use of Fuzzy Language in Business English 英语专业毕业论文开题报告模板.doc

毕业论文开题报告论 文 题 目: 模糊语言在商务英语中的应用 The Use of Fuzzy Language in Business English 院 系 名 称: 外语系 专 业 班 级: 英语 班 学 生 姓 名: 导 师 姓 名: 开 题 时 间: 2011年3月7日 1. Thesis Statement The thesis tends to analyze and discuss the use of fuzzy language in business English while people are engaged in specific business activities from the perspectives of its pragmatic functions.2. Outline . IntroductionA. Background of the paperB. Purpose and Significance of the paper. An introduction to fuzzy language A. Definition of fuzzy languageB. Sources of fuzzy language C. Practical significance of fuzzy language . Linguistic realization of fuzzinessA. Semantics and fuzzinessB. Hedges. The use of fuzzy language in business communication A. Non-deliberate use B. Deliberate use . Conclusion3. Purpose and Significance With the analysis and discussion about the use of fuzzy language in business English, we may better understand the importance of vague language in business English. It helps us enhance the flexibility of business language and improve the appropriateness of business language. It is also helpful for us to better attend in business activities.4. Literature review As we might be aware, people have many beliefs about language. An important one is that good usage must be of concreteness and clarity. Therefore, people firmly believed that fuzziness, ambiguity, imprecision, and general woolliness should be absolutely avoided. Fuzzy language is uncertain, inaccurate and indeterminate, but it is umpteen in textbooks and even indispensable our daily communications. Most speakers of English are not particularly aware of the frequency of fuzzy language use until it is pointed out to them. Since the Zadeh first proposed the concept and theory of fuzziness in mid-1960s, there have been much systematic descriptive study on fuzzy language. Now let me summarize the course of researches on fuzzy language and its relations with business communication.I. Previous study abroadIn 1902, C.S. Peirce gave us a definition of vagueness (1902): “A proposition is vague when 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 excluding, another as admitting, those states of things.” Fuzziness can thus be defined as an indeterminacy or uncertainty of the borderline of the subject in question while fuzzy linguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies the intrinsic uncertainty or vagueness of the borderline of the linguistic units in a language. In 1965, Lofti A. Zadeh proposed the fuzzy logic and the fuzzy sets theory in which he suggest that fuzziness can be formally handled in terms of a fuzzy set, a class of entities with a continuum of grades of membership. In the early days when fuzziness was first put forward, vagueness and fuzziness had been used interchangeably by many scholars. While referring to the fuzzy language, we have to mention another rather important linguist, George Lackoff, who had also done a great contribution to this subject. This American linguist in his propose of “ fuzzy semantics” suggested that “some of the most interesting questions are raised by the study of words whose meaning implicitly involves fuzziness, words whose job it is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy ”(1972). These words are called “hedges” by Lackoff. Panthers (1981) opinion toward the use of hedges from the perspective of speech act theory lets us know that hedges can also be used as a kind of mitigation. Prince, Frader and Bosk (1982) thought it necessary to distinguish between two types of hedges: approximators, which affect the truth-conditions of propositions and shields, which do not affect the truth-conditions but reflect the degree of the speakers commitment to the truth-value of the whole proposition. Hbler (1983) suggests that the reason for using hedges is to make sentences more acceptable to the hearer and thus increase their chances of ratification, which in turn is made necessary by the inherent negatability of sentences. According to Hbler, the function of hedges is to reduce the risk of negation. In accordance with Lackoffs main concern, the term hedge has later been defined by Brown and Levinson (1987) as “a particle, word or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or a noun phrase in a set; it says of that membership that it is partial or true only in certain respects, or that it is more true and complete and perhaps might be expected”. Later, Biber (1988) gave a widening concept of hedges that “Hedges are informal, less specific markers of probability or uncertainty. Downtoners gave some indication of the degree of uncertainty; hedges simply mark a proposition as uncertain.” As Channell (2000) argues that “vagueness in language is neither all bad nor all good. What matters is that vague language is used appropriately.” It is concluded that the use of fuzzy language in business communication can be divided into two types (1) non-deliberate use when people are unable to be more precise; and (2) deliberate use when people are reluctant to be more precise. With previous studies of linguists at home and abroad, we know that various business occasions where fuzzy language is widely used are mainly as follows: a. Business Contract. As a legal document, business contracts should be more concise and exact. However, under conciseness there is vagueness, and conciseness depends on vagueness. Both constructs completeness and preciseness of a business contract.b. Business Advertisement. An advertisement transmits large amounts of information efficiently, so it may unavoidably include much fuzziness or uncertainties. However, the unavoidable fuzziness wont hinder the development of excellent advertising language.c. Business Negotiations. While conducting business negotiations, people tend to apply the fuzzy policy to avoid direct or explicit or impolite expressions. As Channell (2000) argues, vague language may be used as a safeguard against being later shown to be wrong in this regard. d. Business Correspondence. According to Lee Jones, politeness is one of the golden principles in writing business correspondence. Holt and Sampson also have the same attitude as Lee Jones. In this regard, it is very necessary to apply fuzzy language. Pilegaard (1997) points out that in business correspondence, politeness strategies are used to prepare the ground for the formulation of the letters main request, redress the face-threatening act of requesting, and round off the letter. Channel (2000) holds that “vague is used as one way of adhering to the politeness rule for a particular culture and of not threatening face”. Fuzzy language in business can save both the addressers and the addressees face. II. Previous study in ChinaIn 1979, Professor Wu Tieping published his famous article A Tentative Exploration of Fuzzy Language, which was the first article about fuzzy linguistics in China. This article also marks the beginning of study of fuzzy linguistics in China. Professor Wu Tieping(1999) mainly focuses on the semantics of vague language in his monograph, Fuzzy Linguistics. He accepted Zadehs classification of hedges into two types and added that the first type cannot modify words that are not fuzzy.However, until now there has been no generally agreed upon definition of the term fuzzy language. Different researchers have different understandings of fuzzy language. But the delimitation difference in the study of fuzzy language does not really show the contradiction among researchers but reflects their research focuses. A working definition of vague language in the present study based on the definition given by Channell (2000) is as follows: An expression or a word is vague, if: a. It cannot generate any definite meaning even by context (communicative or linguistic);b. It is deliberately vague to be used to achieve certain communicative intentions.Since the time when fuzzy theory was proposed in 1986, it has been applied to a variety of disciplines such as mathematics, philosophy, psychology, politics, sociology, religion, linguistics, etc. Fuzzy linguistics then comes into being as a newly established discipline focusing on the uncertainty of language that has been employed in communication on various occasions including business world. Business usually uses language briefly and concisely and often with a prominent theme in order to avoid misunderstanding or even great economic losses. However, with the rapid development of globalization, competitions are becoming more and more fierce and compelling. Business, with its increasingly important role in todays economic has become an indispensable vehicle for all countries to raise their status. Thus, to meet the increasingly changing demand of international business, people sometimes will adopt fuzzy language so as to avoid unnecessary disputes or to facilitate business deal. Business manifests large scale of application of fuzziness in its language. With previous studies of linguists at home and abroad, we know that various business occasions where fuzzy language is widely used are mainly as follows: In all, fuzzy language is fairly universally used in all circles of life despite its abstract and complex concepts. For example, advertisements, business correspondence, business contracts etc. The researches covering fuzzy language as we briefly introduce above help us better understand its mysterious application in our daily business life. Particularly in business communication, we have known that the use of fuzziness is so common that people in this line even cant work without it. However, little interpretive study on the use