An Analysis Of Pragmatic Vagueness In Verbal Communication

Combined with the existing achievements, the thesis attempts to analyze thephenomenon of pragmatic vagueness and its pragmatic functions in verbalcommunication from the perspectives of cognitive pragmatics andsociolinguistics, in English examples, in order to prove the necessity ofpragmatic vagueness as a communicative strategy. That is, for its pragmaticfunctions, the communicators make widely use of pragmatic vagueness in orderto realize their communicative intentions and achieve successfulcommunication.There are six chapters in the thesis. The first part of the thesis is theintroduction, in which the status quo at home and abroad, research aims andsignificances of pragmatic vagueness are mainly presented. In Chapter Two,different definitions and its related studies of vagueness from different scholarsare presented from the diachronic perspective. Simultaneously, it also points outthe relationship between vagueness and verbal communication.Vagueness is mainly analyzed in Chapter Three from the perspective ofpragmatics, i.e. pragmatic vagueness. The definitions, representations andclassifications, esp. pragmatic functions are presented.Pragmatic vagueness is mainly analyzed in Chapter Four from theperspective of cognitive pragmatics, aiming to present that relevance theory canaccount for pragmatic vagueness. It mainly employs the presumption ofrelevance and optimal relevance in the framework of relevance theory in order to account for pragmatic vagueness in verbal communication.The next part is the innovative part of the thesis. That is, pragmaticvagueness is analyzed from the perspective of sociolinguistics in the aspect ofwomen's language. Language difference based on gender difference as a socialfactor is firstly put forward, followed by the social root and women'spsychological elements which influence to form the features of women'slanguage. And then it presents the features in details from different levels oflinguistic structures, which match the representative forms of pragmaticvagueness. Finally, combined with English examples, it aims to prove thatactually women make use of pragmatic vagueness in verbal communicationmore often than men in order to achieve successful communication.Conclusion is in the Chapter Five. Based on the descriptions of itsdefinitions, representations, classifications, pragmatic functions of pragmaticvagueness, the thesis succeeds in presenting that relevance theory can accountfor pragmatic vagueness and it also concludes that women more often employpragmatic vagueness in verbal communication to achieve their communicativeintentions.