A Study On Fuzziness Of English Grammar

Influenced by the law of the excluded middle in classical logic, people always have a belief that there exists clear demarcation between categories. There are no ambiguous cases, no degrees of membership within a category. This classical approach to categories has a great influence on modern linguistics, particularly on phonology, semantics and syntax. For instance, binary features are often employed to analyze phonemes in phonology, or to analyze semantic category. However, this traditional model appears to be improper when applied to solve some linguistic problems, for not all categories can be definitely separated from each other, and even within a category, there exist indeterminate cases. Fuzzy theory is a new approach which can help linguists to tackle this puzzling issue to a degree. Fuzzy set theory was put forward by Zadeh in 1965, and was introduced into China in 1979 by Wu Tieping. However, for a long time, the study of fuzziness can only be found on the level of semantics and rhetoric. To the best of the knowledge of the author of this thesis knows, relatively fewer linguists have conducted researches into fuzziness of grammar in depth. This thesis attempts to provide further elaboration on fuzzy grammar so as to throw some new light on this point, the aim of which is to demonstrate that fuzzy theory does play a very important role in the study of English grammar. The thesis is divided into fourchapters besides introduction and conclusion.The introduction briefs the theme and structure of the thesis.Chapter one reviews some basic ideas about fuzzy theory, and analyzes the reasons for fuzziness.Chapter two defines the concept "grammar". Among different definitions of grammar, a definition embracing morphology and syntax but excluding phonology is favored. It is proposed that with regard to fuzzy grammar, the demarcation between grammatical categories should be cloudy.Chapter three deals with fuzzy morphology, emphasizing on fuzzy boundaries between word classes. The purpose is to demonstrate that word classes are fuzzy continuum.Chapter four discusses fuzzy syntax from the two aspects— grammaticality and acceptability, and fuzzy theory is applied to analyze grammatical ambiguity. The aim is to show that the main cause of grammatical ambiguity lies in the fact that the grammatical function of some constituent in a sentence is indeterminate, which is the incarnation of fuzziness.The concluding chapter sums up what has been discussed. It emphasizes that fuzziness does exist in English grammar system, both in morphology and syntax, the latter of which is more obvious. Fuzzy theory can be applied to the study of English grammar, which can help us to explain those in-between phenomena that can not be explained in the light of the classical theoretical framework.