Intentional Ambiguity As A Communicative Strategy: A Pragmatic Approach

Ambiguity is a pervasive as well as tricky phenomenon in language. It is traditionally regarded as a kind of language misuse, which, as some scholars presume, will adversely affect our communication if it is not carefully avoided. However, ambiguity is not good for nothing. Instead, when used properly and tactfully, it will play a positive role in helping people accomplish certain communicative need or achieve some special communicative effects. The deliberate use of ambiguity in verbal communication is termed as intentional ambiguity, which is viewed as a communicative strategy.Intentional ambiguity is a commonplace in our daily communication, but the previous research on ambiguity is mostly static and largely done on the linguistic level. The dynamic study is rather sporadic and little attention has been given to the mechanisms and motivations lying behind this language phenomenon. This study, then, is launched to mainly examine how intentional ambiguity is employed in interactional conversations to facilitate the linguistic communication.The present study is primarily based on the qualitative analysis of the data. The conceptual framework is mainly constructed on the basis of Verschueren's (1999) Linguistic Adaptation Theory, supplemented by Brown and Levinson's Face Theory and Grice's Theories of Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature. So it is considered both data-driven and theory-driven. The investigation concentrates on the variability, adaptability, and functionality of intentional ambiguity.As a communicative strategy, intentional ambiguity is obviously a kind of motivation-driven linguistic manipulation. In other words, the deliberate use of ambiguity is a highly conscious and purposeful behavior of making linguistic choices from different linguistic levels. The present study, therefore, will try to scrutinize how intentional ambiguity is manipulated in various ways.It is also found that intentional ambiguity is employed to adapt to various contextual factors. In this study, the adaptation is divided into two types: adaptation directed by"self"and adaptation directed by"others". If the contextual variables are related to the addressor, then the adaptation is viewed as being directed by"self"; if the contextual factors are connected with the hearer, the adaptation is regarded as being directed by"others". The scrutiny of the contextual correlates adapted to by intentional ambiguity enables us to conclude that the choice of intentional ambiguity is, in effect, the result of linguistic adaptation.By carefully observing the data we've collected, the present study aims to make a detailed analysis of the communicative functions intentional ambiguity may perform or is intended to perform in order to fully reveal its dynamic nature as a case of linguistic choice. As is found out, intentional ambiguity can enhance the appropriateness of the utterance, create special communicative effects, and reverse unfavorable situation. In addition, these general functions are further specified by some sub-functions. With these functions, intentional ambiguity can undoubtedly be counted as an effective communicative strategy, which can be employed to meet the language producer's many communicative needs in specific situations.