A Study On Pragmatic Vagueness In Chinese Netspeak Based On Cooperative Principle

With the popularity of personal computer and the Internet, netspeak, thelanguage used by Internet users, is developing vigorously thereupon, which hasexerted strong and profound influences on every aspects of social life and culture.Netspeak also comes into the language researchers’ perspective and becomes oneimportant field in linguistic study. Among these studies, more emphasis is put ongeneral discussion on the property, lexicon, and syntax of netspeak, while studies onthe pragmatic vagueness of netspeak are scarce. Based on Cooperative Principle ofGrice, the present thesis studies the pragmatic vagueness in Chinese netspeak.This study aims to find out answers to the following two questions:(1) what isthe classification of pragmatic vagueness in netspeak based on Cooperative Principle；(2) what functions does pragmatic vagueness perform in netspeak. The data used inthis study is transcribed and collected on Sina Weibo and QQ groups. Based on thedefinition of pragmatic vagueness provided by Wu Yaxin, the thesis presents threedefining features of pragmatic vagueness, which are also the criteria when analyzingthe corpus collected on the Internet. Adopting Cooperative Principle as theoreticalframework, with reference to previous research results, the thesis attempts to providea classification of pragmatic vagueness in netspeak. The classification is made alongtwo dimensions, that is, the locus of vagueness and the way of generation. Pragmaticvagueness in netspeak occurs on four levels: quality, quantity, relation, and manner.On every level, pragmatic vagueness may be engendered by observance ornon-observance of the maxims of Grice’s Cooperative Principle. Concerning thefunctions of pragmatic vagueness in netspeak, the thesis summarizes five functions:(1)function of avoiding taboos, including vulgarity-avoidance and self-protection;(2)function of effort-saving, which fulfills the needs of language economy;(3) functionof meeting the needs for esteem;(4) function of creating humor;(5) function ofvividness.The thesis is a multi-dimensional research on the pragmatic vagueness ofnetspeak, which is conducted with the purposes of enriching the research perspectivesof netspeak. At present, the development of netspeak is still in flourishing stage, andthe application of pragmatic vagueness in netspeak is also in a dynamic changingprocess. The problems related to pragmatic vagueness in netspeak are worth further attention and study for linguistic researchers.