An Analysis Of Fuzziness Of Literary Language

This thesis has discussed the issue of fuzziness of literary language which scholars of the literature and the linguistics are exploring. Fuzziness of literary language has been an especially heated topic for a long time. In the early stage of the discussion of fuzziness, many people classified it as the characteristic of poetry. In fact, fuzzy language not only exists in poetry, but also exists in other literary works. Generally speaking, fuzziness is one of the important features of literary language.The current researches of fuzziness of literary language mainly can be classified into fuzzy rhetoric, fuzzy semantics and fuzzy aesthetics. However, it is quite weak on the study of the relationship between fuzzy language and stylistic functions, the essence of fuzzy language and other aspects. Therefore, this thesis has made an analysis of fuzziness of literary language in details and has strived for doing some exploratory attempts of it.This thesis mainly discusses fuzziness of literary language from two aspects. On the one hand, it has made the related academic theory research and discussion about fuzziness of literary language. On the other hand, it has specifically analyzed the phenomenon of fuzzy language, combining the English novel The Old Man and the Sea, from the aspects of the manifestations, the origin of formation, stylistic functions and so on.On the origin of formation, the essence, and the definition of concepts of fuzziness of literary language, many domestic and foreign scholars have made controversial studies. As for fuzzy language, this thesis argues that it is regarded as language symbols that its connotative meaning is explicit, but its denotative meaning is fuzzy and its form of formulation is also uncertain. It originates from four major factors that are the writers’fuzzy thoughts of creation, readers’fuzzy understanding, the limit of linguistic signs and the writing styles. Its fuzziness is an inherent nature, originating from the objective things that possess either-or feature, in the appropriate place, also possess indistinguishable feature, and exist each other, while the intermediary transfer is indefinite. From the perspective of semantic functions, the fuzziness can be divided into three characteristics, namely continuity, relativity and inaccuracy.Fuzziness is the essential characteristic of language. However, because different languages have different adaptive contexts and pragmatic functions, there are different in degree of fuzzy features which different languages show. Therefore, the thesis compares fuzzy features between literary language and common language, and draws a conclusion that fuzzy feature of common language is less obvious than fuzzy feature of literary language. Since the meaning of fuzzy language is vague, why can readers obtain accurate information from the fuzzy language in the literature? This thesis makes e a detailed analysis for solving the question, and then finds that literary context and central semantic content provide the direction and limitation for readers to understand the fuzzy language, so that semantic connotations of fuzzy language become clearer and clearer.In this thesis, the manifestations of fuzzy language are classified into four major types "fuzzy words and expressions, fuzzy sentences, fuzzy paragraphs, and fuzzy rhetorical devices", and stylistic functions of fuzzy language are also summarized as three aspects. First, the semantic fuzziness generated by the manifestation of fuzzy words and expressions can bring readers fuzzy mood or fuzzy concepts, and then to improve the expressive effect. Second, the semantic fuzziness generated by fuzzy sentences and paragraphs which are deliberately pursued for the arrangement of discourse, can initiate readers’imagination and thinking based on linguistic contexts, and then to achieve the special utility or to form the unique writing style. Third, the semantic fuzziness generated by fuzzy rhetoric can make connotation richer, description more lifelike, and then to express meanings more accurately.Finally, this thesis makes a case study of fuzzy language of The Old Man and the Sea. The reasons to choose the English novel The Old Man and the Sea mainly take the following factors into consideration. First, a novel as a literary genre has expressive force in language performance, and so it has high academic value to study fuzzy language in a novel. Second, the novel has a strong symbolic significance and unique style of writing. Third, at present it is still very little to study fuzzy language appearing in English novel and almost a blank to discuss fuzzy language in The Old Man and the Sea. Through the analysis of the phenomenon of fuzzy language in The Old Man and the Sea, it is found that the manifestations of fuzzy language are more powerful than that of the precise language. The use of fuzzy language can greatly improve the appreciation and interest of the literature. As a result, it proves that fuzzy language is a kind of inevitable artistic form shown in the literature and fuzzy language exists objectively.The structure of this thesis can be divided into five parts. The first part is Introduction, the second part is Literary Review, the third part is the Discussion of Fuzziness of Literary Language, the fourth part is the Stylistic Functions of Fuzzy Language in The Old Man and the Sea, and the final part is Conclusion.