Research On Pragmatic Functions Of Vague Language Between The Superior And Subordinate

There has been a great amount of research in the history of vague language study. In fact, the research can be traced back to Aristotle’s times. It did not arouse much of the scholars’ interest until Peirce attempted to define the notion of vagueness of language in a strict way in1902. Later, Zadeh in1965gave rise to the exploration into fuzziness of language, whose research marked the birth of a new branch of linguistics-fuzzy linguistics. In1972, Lakoff introduced the concept of hedge and hedging to describe "words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy". Channell has enriched this research area with his continuous effort. Many other scholars have all coped with vague language from the perspective of pragmatics. The meaning and function of vague language are dealt with on discourse and textual analyses. Besides, forms of vague language have been expounded at the syntactic level. Scholars in China had not shown much interest in vagueness of language until the end of1970s. The research of vague language has received much attention recently, especially since the past two decades.Vague language is a flexible language, which is characteristic of uncertainty of denotation and of no fixed connotation. Compared with accurate language, it possesses much more generality and flexibility in denotation. The use of vague language is a common phenomenon in verbal communication in career circle. Combined with the existing achievements, the thesis attempts to analyze the pragmatic functions of vague language between the superior and subordinate. This research firstly compares vague language used in governmental offices, public enterprises (institutions, schools) and private enterprises. Secondly, this thesis explores the characteristics of the language used by the superior and subordinate. Thirdly, this thesis tries to explain its reasons and functions from the perspective of pragmatics. Finally, it arrives at the conclusion that power is the determinate factor in affecting the use of vague language. The superior and the subordinate take vague language as a strategy in verbal communication. They make widely use of vague language in order to realize their communicative intentions and achieve successful communication in certain contexts.