A Pragmatic Interpretation Of The Functions Of The English Vague Language

The present study was undertaken to investigate vague language in terms of its pragmatic functions.The pragmatic study of vague language has great significance for foreign language teaching and learning because an adequate knowledge of the functions of vague language will facilitate learners'communicative competence. Successful learners should learn not only how to express themselves accurately, but also know how to articulate things appropriately. Therefore, in our syllabuses, great importance should be attached to the proper use of vague language so as to further improve our foreign language learners'communicative competence. Vague language, if used appropriately, can help to achieve our communicative goal more effectively. Therefore, how to communicate things appropriately to people of a different culture is not just a matter of saying it accurately, but also a matter of transmitting it in a proper way that may be called'the art of speaking', in which vague language plays an important role.The data analyzed in the study are collected from daily conversations by native speakers, the internet and literary works. The theoretical framework for the present study is Grice'(1975) Cooperative Principle and Leech's(1983) Politeness Principle. It is acknowledged that sometimes our thoughts are vague, so the natural languages, which are known as the material shell of our thoughts, are inevitably vague. Vagueness is an intrinsic feature of our natural languages. It is unbelievable for us to communicate with others in our everyday life without vague language. Scanning the history of linguistics it is found that vague language has suffered injustice and has been despised by traditional linguists, who firmly believe that vague language is bad language.In 1960s, with the appearance of"fuzzy sets"theory posed by L.A.Zadeh, an American scientist, more and more researchers in different disciplines began to reflect on the significance of vagueness afresh, and applied fuzzy theory to various fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, natural science and social sciences. It was Professor Wu Tieping who first introduced fuzzy theory into China. However, a closer look at the previous studies reveals that both Mr. Wu and other relevant language researchers mainly investigate vague language from the perspective of semantics. Thanks to the development of pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, a firm theory base has been set up to reexamine the vague language. In contrast to the traditional views, the present study of vague language is not just meant for theorization but for application.In the present study, vague language was analyzed from pragmatic perspective in terms of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. The aesthetic value was also discussed based upon the analysis of some literary works. The major findings are as follows:1. By skillfully violating the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle, vague language can perform various pragmatic functions, such as enhancing brevity, achieving satirical, euphemistic, or emphatic effect, and provoking imagination.2.Vague language, if used appropriately, can play the roles of self-protection and conflict-avoiding in terms of the Politeness Principle.3. Pragmatically speaking, proper use of vague language could also have aesthetic values in literary works, such as the aesthetic values of creating the beauty of haziness, the beauty of images, and the beauty of deformation, all of which would lose attractions if changed into precise language.