Interpretation Of Vague Information

Vagueness is an inherent feature of language, which is conducive and indispensable to human communication. Ever since the notion of vagueness was introduced into linguistic field, continuous researches have been conducted from various perspectives, among which insights from dimensions other than fussy linguistics right represents the trend.Although research of language vagueness has been flourishing since 1970s, due to the vague nature of vagueness, considerable confusion still exists among concepts of vagueness and other vague linguistic phenomenon: generality, homonym and ambiguity. Therefore, in this thesis, the author groups all these scenarios together as vague information and takes it as the finalized target pool for discussion and analysis Based on the framework of Interpretive Theory of Translation, setting about from the communication function of vague information, this thesis is oriented to convey an all-round exploration of the vague information interpretation, which is an extensive discussion involving semantics, lexicology, syntax and pragmatics.This thesis consists of five parts:In the first chapter, the thesis starts with a preparatory sketch of current studies of interpretation and a review to the development of researches into vagueness, aiming at clarifying the contributions and inadequacies of previous study and presenting out the oriented target of this thesis– the interpretation of vague information.In the second chapter, a specific definition of vague information is given. By referencing to the works of Peirce (1902), Channell(1991) and Wu Tieping(1999), differences and resemblances among vagueness, generality, polysemy, homonym and ambiguity are crystallized, followed by a pragmatic study of the five scenarios within the theoretical framework of Relevance Theory and Grice's Co-operative Maxims. By listing the pragmatic functions, the significance of vague information in human communication is presented, which shows the feasibility and necessity of the vague information interpretation study.The third chapter is a review to the Interpretive Theory of Translation. By analyzing the function of knowledge base and context in vague information interpretation, the author figures out that the accumulation of both language proficiency and cognitive knowledge are the prerequisite and the ability of utilizing context is the key to success.In the forth chapter, a further classification of vague information is conducted first, based on their intrinsic and pragmatic features. After that, two strategies towards vague information interpretation are suggested, namely,"from vague to vague"and"from vague to clear". The purpose and applied situations of these two rules are elaborated in detail in this part.The fifth chapter, serving as the conclusive part of this thesis, gives lead to the future search directions in the perspective of interpretation training and customer expectation fulfillment, which can be worthy topics for further exploration in the cross-realm of interpretation and vague linguistics.