课堂提问有效性研究.doc

三 江 学 院

本科生毕业设计（论文）

题 目 浅谈《老友记》中的模糊语现象 英语 系 英语 专业

学生姓名 吴廷凤 学号 32007011035 指导教师 徐莉 职称 讲师 起讫日期 2010.12-2011.5 设计地点 第二教学楼

Acknowledgements

I want to express my appreciation to many who supported me in writing this paper during the past few months.

First I want to show my thanks to Ms. Xu, my supervisor, for her patient supports and advices. Thanks for her instruction, I completed my thesis. Also I would like to thank all the other people who give me help during my writing, especially my team partners. Without their help, I could not have finished the thesis smoothly.

When writing this thesis, apart from specialized knowledge, I also learnt how to cooperate with others and how to get information efficiently. Here I want to express my thanks to all the people who helped me again.

I Abstract

Vague language is an indispensable part of natural language, which is widely used in varieties of linguistic fields. Now more and more scholars are becoming interested in the pragmatic function of vague language used in such areas as cross-cultural or business communication. Few of them concern everyday oral communication, which is in fact the most pervasive and natural form of natural language. Thus in this thesis the author will focus on the oral communicative function of vague language in order to explore more application of vague language.

In order to explore how to make our oral communication more effective by using vague language, the author takes abundant typical examples to analyze and illustrate it, that is, to speak by facts. And to make the examples livelier, more familiar and representative, the author chooses the American sitcom Friends as the database, in which there are numerous classical oral communicating dialogues that involve vague language using. To make the analysis in order and structural, the author classifies the various examples into several mainly aspects. Then the author will not forget to talk something about the negative function of vague language in oral communicating from two aspects to make up for the full thesis. In conclusion, the thesis studies the proper and incorrect situation where vague language is used.

Keywords: vague language; the Friends; oral communication; pragmatic function

II 摘 要

模糊语是自然语言中不可或缺的一个部分，它广泛应用于各种语言学领域中。现在越来越多的学者开始关注模糊语在诸如跨文化交流或商务交流中的语用功能。很少有人关注其在日常口语交流中的应用，而事实上日常口语交流是自然语言中最普遍最自然地形式。所以笔者着重关注模糊语在日常口语交流中的语用功能以探索模糊语的更多应用。

为了探索使用模糊语时怎样才能让交流更有效，笔者引用大量例证来分析阐述。为了让例证更加生动有代表性，笔者选择了老友记作为该文的语料库。所以文章的另一个目的是加深读者对这部经典剧作的理解。文中将例证按不同功能分成五大块:幽默，礼貌，委婉，精确和隐含信息进行分析。然后补充说明模糊语在日常口语交流中的一些负面影响。从而探讨模糊语的适用情境。 关键词：模糊语；老友记；口语交际；语用功能

III

Table of Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 2 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 1 2.1 A Brief Introduction to the Friends ......................................................................... 2 2.2 A Review of Vague Language ................................................................................. 2 2.3 Relevant Studies at Home and Abroad .................................................................... 4 2.4 The significance and the layout of the thesis .......................................................... 5 3 Analysis of Vague Language in the Friends ............................................................... 5 3.1 Positive Function of Vague Language in the Friends ............................................. 6

3.1.1 Being Humorous .......................................................................................... 6 3.1.2 Being Polite ................................................................................................. 7 3.1.3 Being Euphemistic ....................................................................................... 9 3.1.4 Being Accurate .......................................................................................... 10 3.1.5 Hiding Information .................................................................................... 11 3.2 Negative Function of Vague Language in Oral Communicating .......................... 13

3.2.1 Not Conveying the Needed Information ................................................... 13 3.2.2 Leading to Misunderstanding .................................................................... 14

4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 15 References ........................................................................................................................ 17

IV 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 A Study on the Vague Language in the Friends

1 Introduction

It is commonly believed that language ideally should be precise and vagueness should be avoided whenever and wherever possible. However, several linguists began to criticize this conception since Zadeh Published the paper Fuzzy Sets which marked the birth of a new branch of linguistics: fuzziology (Zadeh, 1965). It is from then on that vague language is getting more and more attention.

With the increasing concern about vague language, people get to study the definition, the character and the pragmatic function of vague language as well as the relationship between vague language and culture, gender etc. People also become to study vague language in different kinds of texts, literature works, movie works and so on.

As for the language study in the Friends, people have already studied the humor of the oral language, which is exactly one typical character of words and dialogues in Friends. There are also some scholars interested in the sexual difference of language communicating, body language and the culture in Friends. But study about vague language is not as much.

We can see from the above introduction that the study of pragmatic function of vague language is becoming more and more prevalent both in China and abroad and people come to realize and recognize the vital function of vague language.

2 Literature Review

In this chapter we will make a review about the elementary topics, related study, significance and research design of this thesis.

1 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 2.1 A Brief Introduction to the Friends

The American sitcom Friends is a very popular TV plot comedy, which tells the story of six young men who live together in an American department about their friendship and love happening among them. The main characteristics are: Rachael, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe. Their great performance and the brilliant lines make Friends a household name.

The dialogues in the sitcom are very classical, vivid, active and casual. Many of them have rich implying meanings and are worth further studying. We can find plenty of vague languages such as “something’’ or “maybe’’ used in Friends. There may be some people who feel that the conversation in Friends is carefully crafted and planed. Though it is very informal, it isn’t as informal as in everyday oral communication, so it would be not proper to act as language sources. In fact, apart from expressing the characters or amusing the audiences, it also illustrates or reflects how people use spoken language in the actual daily life. And the television characters’ using of language generally reflects the informal language in the real oral communication. We can also feel that when watching the Friends, we are not reading a certain written poetry or essay, we are getting along with our friends, that is, the characters just act or perform what is happening in the real daily life. Thus it will be of critical importance to analyze the sitcom, because it is equal to analyze conversations in our really life. 2.2 A Review of Vague Language

As has been mentioned above, vague language plays an important role in natural language, then, what is vague language? Now we will talk about the definition of vague language. As to the definition, different linguists have different ideas, but no one can give a unanimous one.

Charles S. Pierce, who may be considered as the originator of the term: vagueness in language, gives a definition of vagueness. He proposes:

“A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether had they been contemplated by the speaker, he

2 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 would have regarded them as excluded or allowed by the proposition By intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of any ignorance of the interpreter, but because the speaker’s habits of language were indeterminate” (Pierce, 1902).

His definition focuses on the uncertainty of vague language, which is the fundamental character of vague language. The following examples could embody it.

After him in 1923 Bertrand Russell argues that any language is to some extent vague, that is, preciseness is relative and vagueness is absolute. He then holds that generality is vagueness. Also Wu Tieping, a famous Chinese professor, argues that many expressions have no clear boundaries and in this term they are all vague language (Wu Tieping, 1999). Clearly, here Bertrand Russell and Wu Tieping put polysemy and ambiguity into the study of vague language, which is a great success. They hold that vague language is not only point to a certain group of language, but all the language. The view of vague language is broadened largely. That is why some examples taken in the following analysis in the thesis are not vague language on surface. Those showing the character of vagueness are all worth studying.

Then Alston also gives the definition of vagueness as “a term is said to be vague, if there are cases in which there is no definite answer as to whether the term applies” (Alston, 19). Joanna Channell says that “vagueness is on a scale related to the formality of the occasion, and that speakers can, if they choose to be more precise” (Channell, 2000). The two scholars both emphasize the importance of situation and occasion to vague language. From their ideas, I feel that we should analyze any kind of language in corresponding situations. No dialogue, no specific condition, vague language is empty talk.

From the above definition, we can find there is no one exact definition of vagueness and vague language, but in general vagueness refers to indeterminacy or uncertainty. Just as Collins Dictionary of the English language says: “vague language” refers to “imprecision of statements, meanings, etc. or indistinction of ideas shapes, etc. or demonstration lacking in precision or clear thinking, etc.” (2009), that is, all kinds of things which are uncertain, unclear or indefinicated can be called vague language. Then

3 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 in this study of vague language we should take the inner meaning and character of vague language into more consideration rather than its vocal meaning.

2.3 Relevant Studies at Home and Abroad

The following are some typical examples of the study of vague language abroad and in China in the 20th century.

In 1923 British philosopher Russell states in his paper Vagueness that “all language is more or less vague and every proposition has a certain degree of vagueness” (Russell, 1923), which means that there is no one conception that is absolutely precise. It shows that vagueness is becoming accepted gradually. In 1949 Black assumes that vagueness should be shown by the degree (Black, 1949), which reveals the nature of language. This method fits with Zadeh, who describes vague language with degree of membership. And Stubbs holds that precise language is not necessarily more efficient than vague language (Stubbs, 1986). Andreas H. Jucker, Sara W. Smith, and Tanja Ludge even argue that vague language may be more efficient than precise language in conveying the intended meaning of an utterance (Andreas H. Jucker, Sara W. Smith, & Tanja Ludge, 2003). More generally, Channel proposes that vagueness in language is neither all bad nor all good, what matters is that vague language is used appropriately (Channel, 1994). It is obvious that the western scholars are becoming more and more affirmative of the value of vague language.

It is not until 1979 that scholars in China began to show interest in vagueness and start to express their ideas in variety of essays. The first Chinese scholar who started to explore vague language systematically is Wu Tieping. He claims that natural language is vague by nature, similar to the theory of Russell. In 1980 the publishing of “Further Research of Fuzzy Language” marked the beginning of fuzzy language study in China. Later, another book named Fuzzy Linguistics written by Wu Tie Ping which was published in 1999 advances the development of vagueness study in China. Zhang Qiao is also a great scholar who distinguishes some conceptions such as “fuzziness”, “vagueness” “generality” and “ambiguity” and discusses features of fuzzy semantics and its quantitative research of vague semantics (Zhang Qiao, 1997). He Ziran, another 4 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 outstanding scholar, holds that vagueness is more a pragmatic phenomenon than a semantic one, then he advocates conducting a dynamic investigation from the pragmatic perspective (He Ziran, 2000).

2.4 The significance and the layout of the thesis

From the above review of relevant theories and studies, it is easy to find that there are more and more researchers focusing on the study of vague language in such fields as literature works, news, advertisement and business letters. However, few of them concern studying vague language in a sitcom, which in fact consists of a great number of dialogues where there are tremendous classical examples of vague language used. Through this study, we can further understand the pragmatic function of vague language not only in literature works or business letters but also in everyday oral communication. As everyday oral communication is the most frequent used and spoken in natural language, better understanding of the use of vague language in this field can help to improve oral communication affection and efficiency, which is very practical and necessary. So in the following passages the author will focus on plenty of dialogues and passages from the Friends to analyze the function of vague language.

In order to make the analysis in order, the author will apart the positive function into five mainly functions. For each part, the author will firstly talk about what a certain function means and then take examples from the Friends to analyze it further. Then there will be some negative functions of incorrect vague language using to make up for the whole thesis. Also they will be classified into two parts.

3 Analysis of Vague Language in the Friends

As no language is definitely good or bad, which depends on specific situations and contexts, and vague language is no exception. If used properly, it may contribute to effective communication. If not, it can serve a negative pragmatic function. In the following two parts we will analyze vague language in detail respectively.

5 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 3.1 Positive Function of Vague Language in the Friends

What kind of positive function can vague language supply in our daily oral communication? In the following paragraphs, we will talk something about the positive function of vague language. In order to make the analysis organized, Li Qianjun’s classification would be referred to (Li Qianjun, 2007). According to their different expressing effects, he classifies the positive function into several parts, which is rather complete.

Before starting the analysis, Grice’s cooperative principle which will help the following three analyses would be introduced. In order to make the communication smooth, easy and successful, he proposes four basic principles that should be obeyed during our communication. First the Quantity maxim; Second the Quality maxim; Third the Relation maxim；Fourth Manner maxim. 3.1.1 Being Humorous

Being humorous may be the commonest function of vague language that could be found in variety of dialogues, especially in the Friends. A reporter once asked Premier Zhou why he looked so healthy and in high sprit and if he often took exercise or had special diet. Premier Zhou answered briefly that: “I live as how the eastern people live”(Li Qianjun, 2007). Here “how the eastern people live’’ is a vague phrase, because it does not tell us the detailed information about eastern people’ lifestyle, which remains to be thought, but the answer itself is somewhat funny and interesting. From the example we can feel the humorous effect vague language can serve. Let’s see more examples in the Friends:

Monica: Okay, everybody relax. This is not even a date. It's just two people going out to dinner and not having sex.

Chandler: Sounds like a date to me.

(All the lines are from http://download.csdn.net/source/1139832/).

In this dialogue the friends hear that Monica has been out with a man, they feel it unexpected, and Monica explains what really happens. Chandler responses “Sounds like

6 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 a date to me”, which is really humorous and funny. What is date like to Chandler? He does not express it clearly; instead here he uses a vague phrase, which is very laughable and provoke-thinking. Another example:

Joey: Ross, let me ask you a question. She got the furniture, the stereo, the good TV- what did you get?

Ross: You guys. Chandler: Oh, God.

Here Ross has been divorced with his ex-wife. He gives everything to her and leaves nothing with himself. Thus he says “You guys”, although he does not answer clearly, the vague way contributes to the funny and humorous atmosphere.

Let’s enjoy a third example:

Rachel: I mean, you know, Ross and I haven't dated in like...six years... Joey: Six years? Wow...It's almost as long as high school...

Here “as long as high school” is a vague phrase. How long it is on earth? Why as long as high school? We do not know. But the phrase here is very perfect, which brings a strong humorous effect. From it we can infer that for Joey high school is very long and hard to go over. When hearing this line, almost all audience can not help to laugh.

If precise language is more formal and serious, then vague language is more inform and humorous. During our daily communication, we can use vague language to give birth to a kind of easy-going humorous feeling, which can in turn adjust to the serious atmosphere and what’s more it can express ourselves better and more briefly. If you take proper use of vague language, it may help increase the glamour of your speech as well as lead the listeners to further thinking. Just as the above examples illustrate, sometimes those more general can win unexpected humorous effects. 3.1.2 Being Polite

Professor Leech (1983) once proposed a communicating principle: the Politeness Principle, which explains why people choose to employ the politeness to show concern

7 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 of another person’s face, or one’s own face. In most of the conversation, we need to maintain face, so we choose to imply rather than assert an idea. Then vague language is then used to take care of the friendly relationship between speakers. Here are some examples in the Friends:

The Doctor: Hi Rachel Rachel: Hey!

The Doctor: I’m Dr. Miller. Monica told me you were a little nervous, but don't worry everything’s goanna be just fine.

Rachel: So were done then!

Here Rachel is seeing a doctor. The doctor says “you were a little nervous” instead that “you were very much nervous”, because Rachel is a patient, and he can not speak too much blunt words that may hit Rachel. Then he uses a relatively soft phrase to make Rachel comfortable. The following is another example： Ross: Hey, what’s behind your back?

Monica: Nothing. Just something I want to get Phoebe’s opinion on for Valentine’s Day.

Ross: You don’t want my opinion? Monica: Not really.

Here Ross wants to offer some advice, but Monica thinks it is inconvenient. So she refuses him with “Not really”. “Not really” here is a vague phrase, by which Monica succeeded to refuse Ross politely.

Being polite is also a very humanity function of vague language. In our everyday communications in order to take the listener into consideration, we often need to use some vague language, especially when the situation is not very optimistic, to make the speaker or listener or both comfortable. For that purpose we choose to use vague language to weaken the actual seriousness that may affect the speakers’ feelings. It doesn’t matter if the vague language precisely expresses what the speaker actually feels,

8 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 what really matters is whether the dialogue creates a comfortable atmosphere or not. 3.1.3 Being Euphemistic

From Grice’s cooperative principle, we can conclude that what we say should be clear and understandable at first glance, however, sometimes in our dialogue we do not often express ourselves directly or clearly, instead, we choose to use equivocal words or phrases to express our inner meaning for the purpose of avoiding embarrassment or face-losing, which is more frequent used in opposite sex communication. And vague language is the No.1 choice to be euphemistic. For example, a boy wants to make an appointment with a girl that he secretly loves. He may say: “will you have time this evening”? The girl may answer: “Oh, I think I may have other things to do this evening. Sorry”. In the dialogue, both the two speakers use vague language like “will” “think” “may” instead of directly saying “Do you have time” “I have no time”. What’s more, the boy asks “will you have time” instead of “I want to make an appointment with you”. Also the girl refuses “I think I may have other things to do” instead that “ I do not like to go out with you”. These words and sentences are vague language, which do not convey completely direct meanings but can make a dialogue easy-going and avoid refusing or being refusing directly or face to face. For example:

Rachel: Terry, I know I haven’t worked here long, but I was wondering, would you think it would be possible if I got a $ 100 advance on my salary?

Boss: An advance?

Here Rachel is asking her boss to make a salary advance, which is a somewhat embarrassing thing. Saying like that, if her propose was rejected, the situation would not be too awkward, if succeeded, it would be better. Thus when you are faced with an embarrassing condition, use vague language to make your language not too absolute or directly, which can maintain speakers’ respect.

Also using vague language can show one’s uncertainty of their own statement, which is not used not to fall into embarrassment by purpose but just to protect themselves from being watched out. For example:

9 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 Phoebe: Okay, umm, it’s this tragic love story between Cathy and Heath cliff and umm. It takes place on like these really creepy mores in England. Which I think represents the wildness of Heath cliff ’s character. I totally get symbolism.

Rachel: Oh-oh-oh, symbolism! And uh, the-the- uh, wildness of the mores, which I think is mirrored in the wildness of Heath cliff’s character.

In these two dialogues, both Phoebe and Rachel know little about the work Jane Eye in fact. Thus when stating their ideas, they use “I think” or “maybe” here and there a lot because they are not so confident and they are afraid of being seen through and laughed by others, so they choose to use these euphemistic words. The examples are very common seen in Friends such as “I assume’’ “I believe” “I guess” and “I’m afraid”.

Conclusively during our oral communication in order to make the conversation atmosphere more elegant and less blunt, we can use vague language to express our idea from a side aspect or indirectly, then both the two speakers will understand each other correctly without falling into any embarrassment or conflict, which is determined by its natural feature imprecision and indefiniteness. 3.1.4 Being Accurate

Also according to Grice’s cooperative principle, when we communicate with other people, we should try our best to ensure the quality of what we say. And often we need to supply accurate and exact information rather than speak inaccurately and unclearly, which can help the listener understand the meaning better and gets what he really wants. But never hold the idea that only accurate words can convey accurate meaning. To be accurate during the conversation, what is the most important is that the listener gets clearly the accurate information. For example, “tall” and “short” are both vague words individually, but under some circumstances they can make great distinction. For instance, “which boy is your brother” “the tall one”. In this dialogue, although the speaker does not describe how high his brother is, the listener can also know who he is referring to. Here the vague language makes the communication more accurate. Let’s take another example from the Friends:

10 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 Ross: Dude, you are sick.

Joey: Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot you had that whole Rachel thing.

Here “that whole Rachel thing” is a vague phrase, which does not convey any precise meaning. But it is very perfectly used here. Maybe nothing else can express the precise and complex meaning under the vague appearance. That is to say, though “that whole Rachel thing” is a vague phrase here, it has rich meaning and completely implies what the speaker really wants to say and what he really thinks. A word “Rachel” is enough to express Joey himself.

In fact, not every conversation requires accuracy, but as long as it is needed, we should use either accurate or vague language to make the dialogue effective. And in many cases vague language can express something accurately, due to its function of distinguishing two creatures different in color, age, size, thickness and its unique ability to imply things completely. And sometimes it is easier, efficient and more convenient for us to use vague language to distinguish different things rather than supplying all the detailed information about them, which is sometimes unnecessary. Just as the above examples show, we do not have to offer everything. We only need to offer the necessary and distinguishable information. 3.1.5 Hiding Information

Hiding Information means that in some dialogues you use vague language in order to continue the communication and hold in what you don’t want to make public. Although Grice’s principle tells us that we should give what the listener wants to know, but in real communication there often appears such situations where in fact we don’t like to tell everything required for the reason to protect ourselves or something else. And vague language plays a great role in hiding information, especially for those pronouns and nouns, such as “everything” “man”. When asked who you are in love with, if a girl answers “A man”, she is apparently hiding information that she doesn’t like to share. The following is an example in the Friends:

Ross: Yeah. Wait a minute. What, what are you going here? (Joey shrugs) Joey , without a date on Valentine’s Day. What’s going on? Girl trouble?

11 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 Joey: Sort of Ross: Really?

Joey: You don’t have to seem so happy about it. Ross: Sorry. Hey, maybe I can help. Joey: I don’t know that –

Ross: Hey, hey, hey, hey, whatever it is, I’m sure it has happened to me. You know, once, once I got dumped during sex. (The women behind him stare and they go behind the couch) So, uh, what is it?

Joey: Forget about it. No big deal. Ross: Joey, what is it? Joey: It’s nothing.

Ross: Hey, hey, it’s me. Why can’t you tell me?

Joey: Oh, ok. Sit down. (they sit at a table) There’s this woman that I like a lot. But, uh, it can’t happen. Sometimes I think maybe she could. But it doesn’t matter because I can’t do anything about it.

Ross: Why not?

Joey: It’s complicated. Uh, she was with this other guy fro a long time. Someone from work too. And, uh, I could never do that to the guy. We’re really good friends.

Ross: So, uh, this, this guy that she used to go out with. Is she still in love with her? Joey: I don’t think so.

The above is a dialogue which tells that Joey is laden with anxiety and Ross comes to help him. To his surprise, the girl trouble is about Rachel. When Ross asks Joey if there is any girl trouble, he says “Sort of”. Here “sort of” is a vague phrase. Joey answers in such a vague and blur way instead of directly saying “Yes, the girl is Rachel” because he is not willing to face the problem or at lest in front of Ross. If he speaks everything out, he may be confined into embarrassment and disordered situation. Thus

12 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 he chooses to hide the important information with vague words. He tries not to let Ross find who the girl is on earth. In the following conversation, we can find several such examples as “It’s nothing” “she was with this other guy” “There’s this woman” are all vague languages from which we can infer the speaker is holding in information on purpose because he is unwilling to tell others. Another one for example:

Monica: (entering with something behind her back) Phoebe, come here. I want to show you something in the bathroom.

Phoebe: Oh, Monica, grow up!

Here Monica doesn’t want to let her brother know what she is doing, so she uses something as reference of what she has carried behind her back. This is also a good example of hiding information in a vague way.

If you don’t want to share something with others you can use vague language such as “sort of” “something” “a little” to help you retain what you want to conceal. From this view, vague language is dramatically useful in acting as the user really needs and likes.

From the above analysis, we can feel that vague language does play a great role in oral communication. If we take advantage of it suitably, we can gain great effect.

3.2 Negative Function of Vague Language in Oral

Communicating

Everything has its two sides, and vague language could never be desirable during our communication. If not used appropriately, it may cause some negative or awkward effects, especially in business and medical communications. In fact, the negative function of vague language is different based on different situations. According to Li Qianjun (Li Qianjun, 2007), this thesis is to analyze the negative function of vague language in the Friends form two aspects. 3.2.1 Not Conveying the Needed Information

For example, you are fixing the meeting time with a friend. “When?’’ “In the

13 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 evening.” Then what’s the accurate time? Five o’clock in the evening or eight o’ clock in the evening? Improper use of vague language may lead to some unnecessary trouble. Here is an example.

Janice: Why are you shopping here? You don't live in this neighborhood. Were you here waiting for me?

Chandler: Yeah, huh .I 'm just uh, you know I'm just picking up some things for a party.(grabs a bag off of the shelf)

Janice: Barley? What kind of party serves barley? Janice: Where is this party? Chandler: Here in Chelsea. Janice: whose party is it? Chandler: A woman's. Janice: What woman?! Chandler: (shyly)Chelsea.

Simply to the efficiency of a communication, the above dialogue is not a successful one. The asker does not get what she wants to know so the conversation is not efficient and somewhat tediously long. Sometimes in order to make the dialogue short and clear, vague language should not be abused everywhere. 3.2.2 Leading to Misunderstanding

Improper use of vague language sometimes may be taken advantaged of and may lead to misunderstanding, which may cause awkward results. Here is an example:

A and B once signed a contract that writes: “If there is any economic loss due to the continuous raining weather, B will pay for it.” Then it really happened, but B refused to make any compensation because B did not think the several days’ raining belongs to continuous raining. This is a typical example of incorrect use of vague language. Let’s take an example from the Friends for example:

Ross: Rachel, wait me for a moment, I will come back in a while.

14 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 Rachel: Ok.

This story happens in an airport after Ross speaks out the name of Rachel in his wedding with Emily. And he is intended to go on holiday with Rachel. Suddenly Emily comes to meet Ross and Ross asks Rachel to wait for him in the airplane. But he does not appear even after the airplane takes off and Rachel goes to India separately. This is an unsuccessful dialogue. How long does “in a while” mean? Rachel thinks Ross will come soon. If Ross says precisely and tells Rachel exactly what happens, the tragedy will not have happened.

There are many cases where require accurate words or phrases. Sometimes we should speak things out very precisely in order not to leave any misunderstanding or vague room. If we use vague language everywhere, we can never make ourselves understood clearly. Thus in some conditions especially serious ones, we should be cautious in using vague language in order not to be misunderstood or taken advantage of.

4 Conclusion

Language is the main communicating tool, through which human beings can get the information and understand the world and the people clearly. Vague language, while carrying no certain information itself, plays a great role in communicating. Without vague language language is at least tasteless. The above thesis studies the pragmatic function of vague language in the Friends, emphasizing on the positive aspect. After the analysis we can conclude that vague language can increase expressing effect. From the above study we can find the Friends is exactly a great storehouse that involves so many vivid examples, which is well worth further study.

However, vague language is not capable of expressing everything or is not proper in every situation. If not used suitably, it can cause obstacle in communication. We should use vague language in correct condition. Precise language is also indispensible and irreplaceable.

In fact, we can never vote down any form of language. As long as they can make

15 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 our communication more effective, they should be used and cared. Language is only a tool to help us express myself and make ourselves understood. We should choose different words in different circumstances. That means, even though vague language has its considerable function, we should use it where it should be used and where can show its functions, we should never abuse vague language wherever we like. In a word, language itself has no boundary of “good” or “bad”, what really matters is if they are proper used.

The thesis studies the function of vague language from two aspects, which may help us form a dialectical logic of language using. The main idea lies in that language should be used properly and no kind of language is exactly appropriate in any kind of situation and the thesis tells clearly about when and when not to use vague language in oral communication. But due to limited energy the author has no time to consult all the related books and correct all the related information, so unavoidably there are some ideas or analysis not so complete and satisfactory, which remain to be made up for. And what about the function of vague language in other form of communication, say, in written language? And why vague language can show so many functions regardless of its uncertainty and vagueness? What’s the similarity and difference of vague language and precise language in communication? They are all worth further study.

16 三江学院2011届本科生毕业论文 References

Alston, W.P. (19). Philosophy of Language. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Black, M. (1949). Language and Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Channell, J. (2000). Vague Language. 上海外语教育出版社.

Jucker, Andreas H. and others. (2003). Interactive Aspects in Conversation. Journal of

Pragmatics.

Russell, B. (1923). Vagueness. Australian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy. Stubbs. & Michael. (1986). A Matter of Prolonged Fieldwork: Notes towards a Modal

Grammar of English. Applied Linguistics. Williamson. (1996). Vagueness. London :Longman. Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control. He, Z.R. [何自然], 1988, 语用学概论. 湖南教育出版社. Li, Q. J. [黎千驹], 2007, 模糊语义学导论. 社会科学文献出版社. Wu, T. P. [伍铁平], 1999, 模糊语言学. 上海外语教育出版社. Zhang, Q. [张桥], 1997, 模糊语言学论集. 大连:大连出版社.

17