A Pragmatic Analysis On Vagueness Of Chinese SMS Texts

Many systematic and descriptive studies on vague language have been done after the concept and theory of fuzziness was proposed in 1965, especially from semantic perspective. However, scholars have made only a few interpretive studies on the same topic. Short message as a special part of language has always been required to be brief, clear and concrete. Scholars commonly think that the use of vague language in short messages will hinder communication. And the study of vague language in texts of Chinese Short Message Service (SMS) has long been neglected. As a matter of fact, there is vague language in many short messages and the use of it in short message texts plays important roles in successful communication. Therefore, the author tries to make a tentative and qualitative analysis on the application of vague language in Chinese short messages from pragmatic perspective.Based on some pragmatic theories such as Cooperative Principle(CP), Politeness Principle(PP) and Relevance Theory(RT), this thesis first describes the vague forms from several aspects specifically; then it makes a detailed study on how vague language has been tactfully used in short messages from pragmatic perspective; and then it states the pragmatic functions vague language has in short messages. Through the qualitative analysis, we can find that in addition to the usual pragmatic functions vague language originally has, there are other much more particular pragmatic functions in the use of vague language in short messages. It can have both positive and negative functions. However, positive functions take the main place.The thesis consists of six parts.Part One serves as an introduction to the necessity,significance, methodology and objectives of the research as well as organization of the thesis.Part Two presents a literature review. In this part it reviews the definitions, general roles and states of vagueness and pragmatic vagueness, and introduces Chinese SMS on its definitions, classifications, linguistic features and its study from pragmatic perspective.Part Three analyzes the vague forms of Chinese SMS specifically and systematically from phonetics, rhetorical devices,vagueness caused by language structures and vagueness caused by style borrowing.Part Four is the main body of the whole thesis which gives a round of pragmatic analysis of Chinese SMS'vagueness based on three pragmatic theories such as CP, PP and RT. Firstly, it studies the relevant pragmatic principles used in applying vague language in communication. Secondly, it analyzes the pragmatic strategies taken in the use of vague language in writing short messages. And our pragmatic approach to vagueness can be purposeful obedience or violation of the three pragmatic principles to create relaxed, humorous, attractive atmospheres in communication. Part Five states the pragmatic functions on the use of vague language in Chinese SMS from positive and negative aspect. However, positive functions take the main place..Part Six is a conclusion of the thesis. Through step-by-step analysis,two findings are got. On the one hand, vague language has strong pragmatic functions on Chinese SMS language. The systematic analysis of those functions would help us better comprehend the use of vague language in terms of short messages, and then master the communication strategies to communicate efficiently in the society. On the other hand, the use of vague language in Chinese SMS is an explicable phenomenon by pragmatic theories. In the study, we find that the use of vague language in Chinese short messages could be explained the three different pragmatic theories, which provides more persuasive evidence and guidance for us to apply vague language in message writing.