Pragmatic Analysis Of Vagueness And Its Effects

The study of vagueness in language has had a long history and has attracted more and more linguists in recent years. Previous studies on vagueness have been made mainly from the philosophical perspective, psychological perspective, semantic perspective, etc. Through this thesis, the author intends to make a pragmatic study of vagueness. Vagueness in this thesis is used in its broadest sense. It refers to uncertainty in language use and understanding in general. However, the thesis does not intend to be all-inclusive. The study object is vagueness that people use for fulfilling specific communicative needs. First Adaptation Theory.is introduced as the theoretical basis of vagueness. After classifying vagueness in daily communication into four types according to the language levels on which it occurs, i.e. phonological level, semantic level, syntactic level and discourse level, the thesis tries to interpret each of them under the framework of Adaptation Theory by providing examples. It turns out that the use of such vague language is a process of adaptation to three contexts: mental world, physical world and social world, which could create positive pragmatic effects. The thesis concludes that appropriate use of vague language can create at least four specific effects: showing politeness, self-protection, creating humorous atmosphere and deliberately withholding information. Through this thesis, the author hopes to give some implications for language users, especially foreign language learners.