Adaptation-theoretic Exploration On Pragmatic Vagueness In Verbal Communication

Pragmatic vagueness is a prevalent phenomenon of language use in verbal communication. It is a positive conversational strategy consciously adopted by the interlocutors in order to achieve specific communicative goals. In spite of its prevalence, there are a few descriptive frameworks for pragmatic vagueness as a whole based on the analysis of adequate corpus. Furthermore, there is few study of the dynamic generation of pragmatic vagueness in verbal communication with English data. Thus, as a partial response to such limitations, based on Verschueren's adaptation theory, this thesis aims to carry out an integrative study of pragmatic vagueness in verbal communication with the data collected from American TV series Desperate Housewives, in the hope of gaining a further understanding of how and why people adopt pragmatic vagueness as a communicative strategy in verbal communication.Desperate Housewives is a hit TV series aired by American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It has enjoyed a worldwide popularity after its presentation and thus has broadcasted seven seasons since. The show, which mirrors the vivid, daily trifles of four housewives, is the reflection of modern American life. The tone and style of the series are a mixture of comedy, mystery, farce, soap opera and satire. For a language case study, the conversations of the ordinary people are very suitable to be used as the linguistic research data.Based on Verschueren's adaptation theory of linguistic adaptation, this study aims to answer the following three questions:(1) What variables are involved in the choice of pragmatic vagueness? (2) What are the mechanisms and motivations behind pragmatic vagueness selection? (3) What are the functions of pragmatic vagueness in verbal communication? To answer these questions,1000 examples of pragmatic vagueness are collected from Desperate Housewives, largely from the first and second season. It mainly belongs to a qualitative study based on the data.Through careful analysis of the selected examples, the author draws the following conclusions:Firstly, pragmatic vagueness is adopted as a communicative strategy by the interlocutors in verbal communication, the choice of which could be made from a wide range of variables so as to adapt to constantly changing contextual correlates. Total eight tokens of pragmatic vagueness are found in the data in question. Among them, hedge is most frequently employed, next are the ways of generating conversational implicature, the generality and the employment of indefinite deictic expressions. Then are aposiopesis and clauses lead by interrogative words "what, how or why", replacing taboo words with vague expressions and understatement, metaphor and hyperbole. Aposiopesis, metaphor and hyperbole can be classified to figure of speech, which will be discussed in the paper as a type.Secondly, the use of pragmatic vagueness is interadaptable with various contextual correlates, including the mental world such as psychological motivations and emotions, the social world such as cultural norms, the level of education and social settings and institutions, the physical world such as the temporal reference and the spatial reference. What's more, the adaptation is always a dynamic process with different degrees of consciousness.Thirdly, the functions of pragmatic vagueness can be grouped into three aspects: making the expressions appropriate, making the expressions flexible, and generating sense of humor. The appropriateness is realized through minimizing the possibility of face-threatening, mitigating unpleasant atmosphere and being euphemistic. The flexibility achieved by pragmatic vagueness is explored through withholding information and changing the degree of one's commitment.