Functions Of Vague Language: A Perspective Of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics

In real life, it is impossible for us to describe the category boundaries of natural things either with the method of perfectly precise mathematical quantifying analysis or with the principle of bivalence, according to which every statement is either true or false. Language is a way to express mind and vagueness in minds is bound to bring vagueness in language. Actually, vagueness will not stand in the way of successful communication, instead, wide use of vague languages is needed in daily life. To some extent, there is no natural language without vague language.Cross-Cultural Pragmatics mainly concerns about all kinds of pragmatic issues in Cross-Cultural Communication. The construction and interpretation of pragmatic meaning are the most important, which attach importance to the cultural specificity of speech act from the angle of language in use and pragmatic strategy. In Cross-Cultural Communication, the dynamic utterance meaning of vague language can be obtained by examining different cultural traditions, value systems, and patterns of thinking, social psychology, religions and beliefs. With the background of pragmatics, this thesis makes cultural comparisons in language patterns, forms of structure and utterance meanings of vague language in Cross-Cultural Communication. It goes deep into the profound cultural connotations of vague language and pays close attention to cultural differences in dynamic pragmatics, pragmatic strategies and so on. The study of vague language from the perspective of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics concerns mainly about the ways in which language users interact verbally to initiate and organize communication contributions, to sustain Cross-Cultural Communication. It also examines the way in which cultural identities and ideologies permeate Cross-Cultural Communication in order to avoid pragmatic failures and make successful Cross-Cultural Communication.Vague language that forms a considerable part of language use which is studied by many scholars, such as Zaheh (1965), Schaff (1979), Channell (1994), Zhang Qiao(1998), Cheng, W. (2001), etc. They have wide discussed how vague language functions in communication. Since vague language is closely related to Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, studies of it from this perspective which are based on naturally occurring Cross-Cultural Communications are much in need. The present study discusses vague language and Cross-Cultural Communication in pragmatic and cognitive view adopting some cross-pragmatic theories, such as Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP), Sociopragmatic Interactional Principles (SIPs), cultural relative importance, etc. to interpret how vague language realizes in the process of Cross-Cultural Communication and the relative cultural influences on it. Seven functions of vague language in perspective of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics are proposed: interpersonal function, communicative function, cognitive function, interpretative function, self-regulating function, context function and cultural function.