Vagueness Of Numerals

Long in the past, in the theory of bivalence logic (absolutely true or absolutely false), things were thought to be in a certain category completely or out of it completely. Lines between categories were sharp without any borderline cases. With the development of cognitive science, the evidence that is in conflict with traditional view of categories has accumulated. But the cognitive model approach to categorizing has not arisen all at once. It has developed through a number of intermediate stages. One of the important steps is the development of the theory of vagueness. Zadeh's paper fuzzy sets in 1965 is considered a milestone in the development of vagueness study. In Zadeh's view, lines between categories are vague. Some elements may locate in the fuzzy boundary area with the membership between 0 and 1 .On a scale of heights there appears to be no sharp boundary between the tall people and the rest. Bivalence logic or the law of excluded middle can not account for this.Vagueness is a common feature of natural languages which is presented in phonetics, grammar, semantics and other aspects. Since the introduction of vagueness into the field of linguistics, many scholars home and abroad have done a lot to it. On the basis of their work, the writer makes a tender study of vagueness of numerals.Numerals are often thought to be precise, "one" is "one'", and "two" is "two'', where does the vagueness come from? But actually, they are employed with vague meanings in many cases except functioning as exact counting.After introducing the concept of vagueness, vague numerals are classified under five types in Chapter 2 of this thesis. (1) Numerals standing for round numbers are susceptible to be interpreted vaguely. (2) Plural numerals express vague meanings instead of precise quantities. (3) Two precise numerals, when they are used consecutively or connected by "or", will become vague. (4) Numerals with approximators always express vague meanings. (5) Most numerals involved in idioms have lost their function ofcounting and become vague.There are both similarities and differences between the vague meanings of English and Chinese numerals for which the influence of culture on language can account. Both in English and Chinese cultures, "one" "two" "three" are all small numbers, so the numerals of them are often used to express small quantities. And things are counted from "one", so the numeral "one" has transferred meanings of "beginning", "unity" or "same''. Compared to "one" "two" and "three", the numbers from "four" to "ten" are big numbers as well as "hundred" "thousand" and "million" etc, so these numerals can be used to express large quantities. Both in English and in Chinese, "three" is a dividing line, it can express small quantities or large quantities in different contexts.The differences between English culture and Chinese culture influence the vague meanings of their numerals. First, because of different counting units of each culture, in English, "million" is often used with vague meanings to express large quantities while in Chinese "7f (ten thousand)" is employed to achieve the same goal. Secondly, influenced by different religions, in English, "seven" is often used to express large quantities while in Chinese, "nine" is used in the same way. In addition, the historical episodes in different cultures assign vague meanings to different numerals. These are discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis.Vague numerals play special roles in language use. In chapter 4, the following functions of vague numerals are discussed: (1) Least effort, (2) Providing just the right amount of information, (3) Providing rough information when precise information is not available, (4) Self-protection. (5)Withholding information deliberately. (6)Emphasizing and contrasting. (7)Media of rhetoric.In brief, both the structures of numerals and cultural factors have an important bearing on their vague meanings. In turn, the vagueness performs particular functions for which preciseness can't substitute.