Analysis Of Vague Language In English News Texts

This paper is an analysis of vague language in English news texts. It is a descriptive and interpretative study based on the conceptual framework of some linguists, particularly of Joanna Channell (1994), Zhang Qiao (1998) and He Ziran (2006). The thesis uses selected English news texts as samples to illustrate that language is vague in nature and vague language is widely used by language speakers consciously or unconsciously.After presenting the fundamental views about vague language and its classifications, the paper discusses the major factors that cause vagueness in language, and then concludes that the vague nature of language is inevitable. The factors that cause vagueness in language are diverse; however the current investigation concentrates on the relationship between language,the world and human cognition. In fact, the three elements interact, because, firstly, vagueness in relation with language and the situations it relates to is prevalent. In comparison with the complex world, language seems to be limited. Word-finding difficulty and lexical lack in the language have been identified as two situations where vague expression might be used. Secondly, vagueness in language sometimes arises from indeterminacy in the world. In our lives, many things seem to be vague in themselves, or be perceived by us as vague, which is another factor that leads to vagueness in language. Lastly, human cognition is another potential for language vagueness. Human brain responding to the objective world is not like a mirror; instead, the process of reflection is dynamic and full of subjective elements. Thus the cognition of the world is a complex process,which is still one of the causes of language vagueness.News is generally believed to be accurate, brief and clear. In spite of this particular feature, news reports are found to possess the nature of being vague as well, which seems to show that news reports are not exceptions of natural language. The current research analyzes nine pieces of news reports statistically and found that news reports not only allow the existence of the phenomenon of vague language but also take advantage of it in presenting ideas. Careful study of the data suggests that the most salient feature of being vague in news texts is at the syntactic level, especially the use of attribution shields. The result indicates a distinctive contrast among the three subgenres of news, hard news, soft news and feature articles, among which hard news, by all appearances, uses shields most frequently. It seems that using vague language properly can make news achieve the effect of being accurate in content and brief in language. In addition, appropriate use of vague language can act as tact strategies when reporters are lacking in specific information or wanting to withhold information deliberately. What is more, vague language can play the functions of self-protection, objectivity and increasing credibility. So the study is not only feasible but also significant.