A Study Of The Pragmatic Function And Cognition Of Fuzziness In Context

Fuzziness,as one of the intrinsic and indispensable features that natural languages have, exists prevailingly in the inner of the language system and all aspects of language use. It is a newly arisen discipline and has a history of 40 years. This thesis is an attempt to be of some help for one to get further understanding of fuzziness. By introducing some basic notions relative to fuzzy language and its theoretical basis, analyzing fuzzy language from different perspectives, and expounding its pragmatic functions in different fields, this thesis tries to fulfill its purpose of depicting the significance of understanding and manipulating fuzzy language. It should be mentioned that because of the author's limited research and the diverse existing opinions on what fuzzy language is really about, this thesis is to mainly deal with fuzzy language caused by fuzzy terms and its pragmatic functions and its cognitive function.The first part is a brief introduction to the presence of fuzziness in language by describing the reflection of fuzziness in various aspects of language, and also concerns our approaches in this thesis and the structure of the thesis.Chapterâ… introduces some basic notions relative to fuzzy language. In other words, it is a review of researches made on fuzziness. The definition of context is also given here. In this part, we will recall the development of scholars'studies of the topic. Chapterâ…¡Understanding fuzzy language is closely related to the pragmatic matter, and language is the product of a society and used as a bridge for people's communication, fuzzy language should inevitably be studied from the pragmatic angle. In this connection it is necessary for one to know about some famous communicative principles, of which are Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle proposed by Grice and Leech respectively. So this section shows that adopting fuzzy language in communication is a conventional and efficient way to adhere to these principles owing to their special characteristics in meaning and the communicative functions they might play.Chapterâ…¢is a further analysis of certain aspects of the cognition of fuzzy language. Cognitive semanticists hold that categorization theories establish an original basis for analyzing hedges from a cognitive point of view. So this section mainly deals with the typical fuzziness, hedge, and its categorization.Chapterâ…£points out that context has some kinds of effects on fuzziness not only on its pragmatic function but also on its cognition. So how context influence fuzziness, and what function it has are focused on in this part. And it'll make sure whether the use of fuzzy language in daily conversation is an obstacle for a successful communication.In the conclusion, the author points out the limitations of this thesis, and further research possibilities for the future research.