Function Of Vagueness In Everyday Conversation: A Pragmatic Approach

Communication has become more and more frequent with the development of human society. As a communicative activity, everyday conversation not only can transmit information, but also can convey feelings and therefore has great influence on communicators' philosophy of life, their communicative strategies as well as their relations with others. Hence the study of everyday conversation is of great importance.It is generally believed that a good use of language should be brief, clear and precise, and vagueness, imprecision and ambiguity should be avoided. However, vagueness and imprecision are very common in everyday conversation because of the lack of conscious planning, which is embodied in the high frequency of hesitations, repetitions and pauses. Despite its vagueness everyday communication is not prevented, so the good use of language involves not only precision but also vagueness.Interest in the vagueness of language use has arisen in a number of disciplines. Much of it suggests that vagueness is present in a great deal of language use. In a broad sense, precision is comparative and vagueness is ubiquitous. Studies on linguisticvagueness from different angles have developed very quickly in recent years; however, few of them have focused on vagueness in everyday conversation. So this thesis is to apply pragmatic principles and theories to interpret the occurrence of vague language and reveal its functions in everyday conversation. By the analysis the author holds that linguistic vagueness is neither "bad" nor "good": what really counts is to use vague language appropriately in the context, which will benefit us to communicate effectively in cross-cultural communication. The author gives a detail explanation and illustration in the following chapters:The very beginning is a brief introduction to the universality of linguistic vagueness. Vagueness exists in written language, but more often than not in spoken language, especially in everyday conversation. But most speakers are not aware of this, and therefore it is worth studies.Chapter One introduces the cognition of the nature of vagueness and kinds of historic arguments on the definition of vagueness, which helps readers to form a clear picture of this linguistic attribute.Chapter Two is the theoretical basis of this thesis, which gives certain explanation of pragmatic vagueness and analyzes the uses of vague language in everyday conversation by three pragmatic principles and theories—Co-operative Principle(CP), Politeness Principle(PP) and Relevance Theory(RT). There are four maxims in Grice's CP. Generally speaking, communicators in everyday conversation adhere to these maxims, and sometimes they adhere toone or more but violate another or violate them deliberately for certain purposes. There are six maxims in Leech's PP. Communicators in everyday conversation follow these maxims by recommending the polite expressions rather than impolite ones to save face of others. In addition, euphemisms can be considered as another aspect of politeness in everyday conversation. Euphemisms can be used to disguise unpleasant subjects or replace some taboos. RT is the basis for the understanding of vagueness under a certain context in everyday conversation. With RT, vague language appears concise, precise and easy to understand.Chapter Three analyzes the pragmatic functions of vagueness in everyday conversation. Although with vague meaning, vague expressions can provide adequate information, thus making the utterance credible. When there are linguistic gaps, communicators can turn to vague expressions to get them over. In addition, vague expressions can perform some other important functions such as producing aesthetic effects, changing the degree of one's commitment to show the communicator's uncertainty, to reduce one's responsibility, and enhancing the flexibility for the purpose of emphasis, euphemism, politeness and so on.However, vagueness also has negative effects if used inappropriately: leading the communicators into trouble by deliberately withholding information or offering superfluous information; producing insult or irony by expressing meaning in a very indirect way and etc.Chapter Four introduces the importance of studying vagueness in everyday conversation—it has an application in cross-cultural communication. Communicators should be aware that the English language and the Chinese language are dominated by different cultures. In different cultures, communicators may abide by the same pragmatic rules and vagueness exists in both English and Chinese languages, but different languages have different realization for it and vagueness in one language is not necessarily expressed in another. Therefore, in cross-cultural communication,communicators should put emphasis on the appropriate use of linguistic vagueness in a particular context so that pragmatic failure can be avoided.The conclusion stresses that vagueness has its positive and negative effects, so the use of vagueness is neither 'good' nor 'bad'; what really matters is that it must be used appropriately. By being 'appropriate', the author means the use of vagueness must be fit for the societal context and linguistic context, and this is especially true for cross-cultural communication.