Analysis and Application of Vague Language in English News.docx

Analysis and Application of Vague Language in English News.docx

《Analysis and Application of Vague Language in English News.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Analysis and Application of Vague Language in English News.docx（11页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

AnalysisandApplicationofVagueLanguageinEnglishNews

AnalysisandApplicationofVagueLanguageinEnglishNews

Abstract：

Thispaperfirstintroducethefundamentalknowledgeofvaguelanguage.Vaguenessoeccursfrequentlyinlanguagecommunication.Theexplorationsofvaguenessreceiveattentionsfromphilosophy，semantiecsandpragmaties.Newsisgenerallybelievedtobeaccurate,briefandclear.Inspiteofthisparticularfeature,newsreportsarefoundtopossessthenatureofbe:

ingvagueasweILwhichseemstoshowthatnewsreportsarenotexceptionsofnaturallanguage.Thecurrentresearchanalyzesnewsreportsstatisticallyandfoundthatnewsreportsnotonlyallowtheexistenceofthephenomenonofvaguelanguagebutalsotakeadvantageofitinpresentingideas.ThepaperwillcontinuetodiscusstheadaptationofvaguelanguageinEnglishnews.

KeyWords:

vaguelanguage；news；application

模糊语言在英语新闻中的应用

摘要：

文章首先阐释了模糊语言的基本知识。

模糊语言是语言交际中的普遍现象。

许多学者在哲学，语义学及语用学等领域对这一现象进行了研究和探讨。

根据新闻报道的特征，新闻报道应遵守三项原则，即：

内容准确、语言简洁、句子清晰，而这一切有都要依赖于精确的语言来实现，这似乎与本文论点相悖。

然而，英语新闻语篇作为一种特殊文体虽有其自身特点，但作为自然语言，无疑要遵循自然语言的规律，不会与其相悖的。

这一点数据中得以证实：

新闻报道不仅允许模糊语言存在，而且记者们会充分利用了这一优势。

文章接下来会关于模糊语言在英语新闻中的应用进行探讨。

关键词：

模糊语言；新闻；应用

1.Introduction

Vagueianguageisacommonphenomenoninlanguageuse.Vaguenessinlanguagehasbeenstudiedforyearsbymanyscholarswhoaregraduallyconsaousoftheimportanceofthestudy.Itisusedinmanydomainssuchasmagazines,newspapers,politicalstatements,lawdocuments,andevenadvertisements.Vaguenessinlanguagehasbeenstudiedforyearsbymanyscholarswhohavebeengraduallyawareoftheimportanceofthisstudy.

Itappearstohavetwocontradictoryviewsaboutvagueness:

oneholdsthatlanguageisabadthingduetothepossibilityofleadingtomisunderstanding;theotherholdsthatitisagoodthingbecauseofitsflexibilitybroughttocommunication.WeagreewithChannellthat"Vaguenessinlanguageisneitherall`bad'norall`good'.Whatmattersisthatvaguelanguageisusedappropriately."（Channell,2000:

3）

Infact,vaguenesshasbecomeaninterestingareaofresearchformanyscholars

andresearchers,whohaveexploreditfromdifferentperspectives,suchasphilosophy,semantics,psychologyandpragmatics.However,littleattentionhasbeenpaidtothevaguenessinnews.

Carefulstudyofthedatasuggeststhatthemostsalientfeatureofbeingvagueinnewstextsisatthesyntacticlevel,especiallytheuseofattributionshields.Theresultindicatesadistinctivecontrastamongthethreesubgenresofnews,hardnews,softnewsandfeaturearticles,amongwhichhardnews,byallappearances,usesshieldsmostfrequently.Itseemsthatusingvaguelanguageproperlycanmakenewsachievetheeffectofbeingaccurateincontentandbriefinlanguage.Inaddition,appropnateuseofvaguelanguagecanactastactstrategieswhenreportersarelackinginspecificinformationorwantingtowithholdinformationdeliberately.Whatismore,vaguelanguagecanplaythefunctionsofself-protectionobjectivityandincreasingcredibility.Sothestudyisnotonlyfeasiblebutalsosignificant.

2.Thefundamentalknowledgeofvaguelanguage

2.1Thedevelopmentofvaguelanguage

Infact,theresearchonvaguenessisoriginatedinphilosophywhichcanbetracedbacktoAristotleperiod.Itdidnotarousemuchinterestuntil1902whenPeircetriedtoformulatethenotionofvaguenessinlanguageinarigorousway.Later,itwastheAmericanwell-knownprofessorL.A.Zadeh,whopublishedthepaper"FuzzySets"in1965.Fromthenon,peoplebegantolaymuchemphasisonthefuzzinessstudyandthereforefuzzylinguisticsdevelopedveryrapidly.Theupsurgeofstudyingvaguelanguagecamein1970s,andmanylinguists,suchasG.Lakoff,Ross,Crystal,Davy,etc.,begantostudyvaguenessfromdifferentaspectsoflanguage.Theymadeeffortsinthefieldsofvaguesemantics,grammarvagueness,pragmaticvagueness,etc.

Notuntiltheendof1970sthatChinesescholarsbegantoshowinterestinvaguenessinlanguage.WuTiepingperhapsisthefirstlinguistinChinatostudyvaguenesssystematicallyandisthefirstpersontointroducethetheoryoffuzzyset.Duringthetwodecadesfrom1979to1998,nearly800articlesaboutvaguelinguisticswerepublishedinChina.SuchlikeZhangQiao,inherbook,introducesandstudiestheacademictrendsofvaguelanguageoutsideChina.HeZiran（1985）discusseselaboratelythepragmaticfunctionsofvaguenessincommunication.Inrecentyears,manyscholarsattempttobroadentheirviews.SuchscholarsasChenYide（2001）,YuJiancun（2000）,XiaYun（2001）,etc.,havetriedtostudyvaguenessfromastylisticpointofview,Thoseachievementsmentionedabovenotonlyenrichthestudyoflinguisticsbutalsocontributetothedevelopmentofsocialscience.

2.2Definitionofvagueness

SincetheappearanceofZadeh'sFuzzySetTheory,moreandmorescholarshavebeendiscussingthevaguenessinlanguageforseveraldecades.Oneofthebasicquestionswhichlinguistsmustansweris:

Whatisvagueness?

Thoughtherehavebeenmanypublicationsrelatedtothevagueness,aunifiedtermaddressingthispropertyoflanguageisstilllacking.Inaddition,peoplearealsodividedonthedefinitionofit.Thispartistopresentsomedefinitionsproposedbyseveralfamousscholars.

In1923，RussellwroteafamouspaperVagueness,hedefines"vagueness"asa"one--manyrelation",somewhatconfusing"vagueness"and"generality".Besideshim,Kempsonalsoregards"generality"asoneformof"vagueness",thoughsomelinguistsdisagreeonthispointofview.

LaterH.P.Gricealsooffersadefinitionforvagueness:

Tosaythatanexpressionisvague（inabroadsenseofvagueness）ispresumably,roughlyspeaking,tosaythattherearecases（actualorpossible）inwhichonejustdoesnotknowwhethertoapplytheexpressionortowithholditandone'snotknowingisnotduetoignoranceofthefacts.（H.P.Grice,1975）

Grice’sdefinitionisabroaderone:

itappliestowhatwecallpragmaticvaguenessaswellassemanticvagueness.Notknowing‘whethertoapplytheexpression’canmean（a）notknowingwhetherapplyingastatementwouldbetrue,or（b）notknowingwhetheritwouldbeappropriateinthecircumstancestomakesuchastatement.IfthereisonlyalittlemilkinaglassandAasksBwhetheritisempty,itwouldbeclearlytrue,inasense,forBtoreply,‘it’snotempty’,butitmaybeunclearwhetheritisappropriate,forifthereisonlyonedropofmilkinit,itwillbeclearlyinappropriate.Hencetheformercasecanbecalledsemanticvagueness,andthelatter,pragmaticvagueness.Afterlistingsomehistoricalviewsonthedefinitionofvagueness,let’sseeChannell’sdefinition:

Anexpressionorwordisvagueif

a.itcanbecontrastedwithanotherwordorexpressionwhichappearstorenderthesameproposition;

b.itis‘purposelyandunabashedlyvague’;

c.itsmeaningarisesfromthe‘intrinsicuncertainty’referredtobyPeirce.（Channell,2000:

20）

Channell’sdefinitionisinfactinlinewithGrice’sanditappliestopragmaticvaguenessaswellassemanticvagueness.Thatistosay,thelanguagesystempermitsspeakerstoproduceutteranceswithouthavingdecidedwhethercertainfactsare“excludedorallowedby”them.

2.3Theplaceofvaguenessinthestudyoflanguage

Vaguelanguageisaninterestingandcomplexareaofstudy.Alongsideitsintrinsicinterest,thestudyofvaguelanguageisequallyimportantinitsconsequencesfortheoryandpracticeinlanguagestudies.Thelinguistsgivefourreasonsforvagueness:

1）memoryloss－thespeakersforgetsthecorrectword;2）thelanguagehasnosuitableexactword,orthespeakerdoesnotknowit;3）thesubjectoftheconversationisnotsuchthatitrequiresprecision,andanapproximationorcharacterizationwilldo,and,4）thechoiceofavagueitemisdeliteratetomaintaintheatmosphere.Turningnowtopracticalconsequences,anunderstandingofvaguelanguageuseinEnglishwouldappeartobevaluableinanyfieldwhichteaches,analyses,orusesEnglishlanguage.OneobviousexampleisEnglishlanguageteachingwherethecompetentL2userofEnglishmustacquireanawarenessofhowtounderstandvagueexpression,andhow,when,andwhytousethem.AnotherapplicationisintheteachingofpresentationskillstoL1speakersofEnglish,inparticularinfurtherandhigereducation.Here,studentsarerequiredtomasterthelanguageofformalspokenpresentations,onedimensionofwhichisappropriateuseofprecisionandvagueness.

3.AnalysisandApplicationofVagueLanguageinNews

3.1Thefactorscausinglanguagevague

Manyfactorsarenoticedasthecausesofvaguenessinlanguage,butgenerally,itisbelievedthattherearethreemaintypesofviewswithregardtothereasonsofexistenceofvaguelanguage.

Firstthelinguisticview,accordinglyvaguenessinlanguageisessentiallyamatterofthewayLanguagerelatestotheworld.Second,thereistheworldjyview,accordingtowhichvaguenessoflanguageisadirectreflectionofsomekindofvaguenessorindeterminacythatresidesintheworlditself.Third,therejstheepistemicviewofvagueness,accordingtowhichvaguenessisprimarilyamatterofourknowledge.

Vaguenessisanessentialcharacteristicofourlanguage,andtheexistenceofit,infact,isaquestionofrelationshipbetweenlanguage,humanandworld.infact,theworld,whichImeanboththenaturalworldandhumanworld,ismuchmorecomplexthanwhatwecanimagine,thereforethefactorscausingvaguelanguagearediverseandthereasonsmentionedhereareonlygeneralones,notcomplete.

3.2Vaguewords

Thenotionofvaguewordsisvagueitselfandgenerally,theyareinreferencetothewordswithmeaningsofimpreciseoruncertainorind