A Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In English Humor

Vagueness as a fundamental and integral component of natural language has aroused great attention of philosophers, psychologists, mathematicians and linguists etc. since ancient Greek. However, the pragmatic study of vagueness has been regarded as the most promising and persuasive by some researchers. Pragmatic vagueness has been applied to practical discourse analysis, such as advertising, diplomatic language and political issues etc. in which it is able to provide a perfect theoretical framework. And so far few researchers have conducted research on pragmatic vagueness in humor, although some have focused their attention either on pragmatics or vagueness. In the author's point of view, pragmatic vagueness prevailingly exists in humor, and the pragmatic analysis of English humor is a process in which vagueness is highly involved. Therefore, why and how pragmatic vagueness is realized in humor is studied in this present thesis.In this thesis, qualitative analysis is mainly employed to interpret and analyze humorous conversations. In the author's point of view, pragmatic vagueness refers to all kinds of "disharmonies", that is, indirectness, uncertainties and impreciseness appearing in the dynamic process of making and interpreting utterances in a specific context. And the essence of pragmatic vagueness is inherently related to the congruity theory of humor. In fact, pragmatic vagueness provides the possibility for the production of humor and humor is a perfect carrier of pragmatic vagueness. That is the reason why pragmatic vagueness can be analyzed in humor. What's more, pragmatic vagueness can be well realized in humor in the form of using indefinite deixis, indirect speech act, tactfully changing presuppositions, violating cooperative principles and observing politeness principles. In addition, it is concluded that some specific functions can be achieved by pragmatic vagueness:improving the forcefulness of humorous effect; avoiding quarrels with others; shaking off embarrassment; expressing humane sympathy; creating humorous atmosphere.