On the Use of Vague Language in English Journalism浅议模糊语言在英语新闻报道中的运用.docx

On the Use of Vague Language in English Journalism浅议模糊语言在英语新闻报道中的运用.docx

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OntheUseofVagueLanguageinEnglishJournalism浅议模糊语言在英语新闻报道中的运用

OntheUseofVagueLanguageinEnglishJournalism

浅议模糊语言在英语新闻报道中的运用

Abstract:

Vaguenessisanessentialfeatureofhumanlanguage,anditisalsoanimportantcharacteristicofhumanpsychology.Asalinguisticconcepttogetherwithalinguisticphenomenon,vaguelanguageembodiestheuncertaintyofthelanguageatitsextension,Newsisgenerallybelievedtobeaccurate,briefandclear,however,suchuncertaintyisoftensetagainsttheauthenticityandaccuracyofthenews.Infact,inspiteofthisparticularfeature,newsreportsarefoundtopossessthenatureofbeingvagueaswell,whichseemstoshowthatnewsreportsarenotexceptionsofnaturallanguage.Applyingdescriptiveandqualitativemethods,thethesisbeingstudiedprobesintothefunctionsofvaguelanguageinnewsreportonthebasisofthetheoreticalframeworkofFairclough’sCriticalDiscourseAnalysis,Theanalysisisconductedbyanumberofnewsmaterialsselectedfromtheofficialandwell-knownnewspaperandnewswebsites,seekingtodemonstratethenecessityandimportanceofvaguelanguageinEnglishnewsanditspragmaticfunctionswithinthetheoreticalframework.Theaimofthispaperistoillustratethattheusageofvaguelanguageinnewsisunavoidableanditsappropriateandaccurateusecanhelptoimprovethequalityofnewsreporting.

Keywords:

vaguelanguage;functions;newsreporting

摘要：

模糊性是人类语言和人类心理的一个重要特征，模糊语言是一种语言概念，同时又是一种语言现象，它反映了客观事物在外延上的一种不确定性。

根据新闻报道的特征，新闻报道应遵循三项原则，即：

内容准确，语言简洁，句子清晰。

在新闻报道中，很多人往往把这种不确定性与新闻的真实性和准确性对立起来。

事实上，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。

本文主要运用定性和描述分析的方法，借助批判性语篇分析对新闻报道中模糊语言的语用功能进行分析和研究。

通过分析收集到的一些众所周知的官方报纸和新闻网站上的英语新闻报道，来说明模糊语言在英语新闻中的必要性和重要性，并阐述模糊语言在理论框架中所体现的语用功能，只有使用得恰当，准确，才有助于提高新闻报道的质量。

关键词：

模糊语言；功能；新闻报道。

Introduction

Vaguenessandprecisionarethetwobasicelementsinlanguage.However,manypeopleattachmuchimportancetoprecision,whileignoringthevaguenessforalongtime,fortheybelievedthatvaguenessandimprecisionaretobeavoidedinhumanlanguage.Itdidnotarousemuchinterestuntilthebeginningof20thcentury.ThefamousEnglishscholarB.RussellpointedoutthevaguenessphenomenoninapaperentitledVagueness,indicatingthatlanguageismoreorlessvague.Later,itwastheAmericanwell-knownmathematicianL.A.Zadeh,aprofessoroftheDepartmentofElectricalEngineeringandElectronicsResearchLaboratory,UniversityofCalifornia,whopublishedthepaper“Fuzzysets”in1965onInformationandControlthatlaidthefundamentalgroundofthefuzzinessstudy.Fromthenon,peoplebegantolaymuchemphasisonthefuzzinessstudyandthereforefuzzylinguisticsdevelopsveryrapidly.Itcombineswithmanyotherdisciplines,suchasmathematics,linguistics,psychology,logic,etc,thusresultinginanumberofnewsubjectsaboutfuzziness.

Itappearstohavetwocontradictoryviewsaboutvagueness:

oneholdsthatlanguageisabadthingduetothepossibilityofleadingtomisunderstanding;theotherholdsthatitisagoodthingbecauseofitsflexibilitybroughttocommunication.WeagreewithChannellthat“Vaguenessinlanguageisneitherall‘bad’norall‘good’.Whatmatteristhatvaguelanguageisusedappropriately.”（Channel,2000:

3）

Infact,vaguenesshasbecomeaninterestingareaofresearchformanyscholarsandresearchers,whohaveexploreditdifferentperspectives,suchasphilosophy,semantics,psychologyandpragmatics.However,littleattentionhasbeenpaidtothevaguenessinnews.Basedonthetheoryoflinguisticadaptation（Verschueren,2000）,thepresentstudyattemptstodescribevaguelanguageinnewsfromapragmaticperspective.

Thisresearchattemptstoexploretheemploymentofvaguelanguageinnewsanditspragmaticfunctions.Tobespecific,thispresentstudyseekstoanswerthefollowingquestions:

1）Whatarethemainlexicallinguisticrealizationdevicesofvaguenessinnews?

2）Whydoreportersusevaguelanguageinnews?

Thisthesisisenrichedbythefollowingmethodstomanifestthedetailedanalyzingofvaguelanguage,especiallyhedges,inEnglishnews.ThepresentstudyusesqualitativemethodstoresearchtheapplicationandfunctionsofvaguelanguageinEnglishnews,suchasdescription,deduction,induction,enumeratingandexemplifying.

Thedatacollectedinthestudyarevariousnewsreportsselectedfromsomeauthorizednewspapersandnewswebsitesbothathomeandabroad.Thesenewspapersandwebsitesarechosenasrepresentativeones,whicharesowidelyreadandinfluenced.Withaviewtotheserespects,theUnitedStates,theGreatBritainandChinanewsfieldsarerespectivelychosen,thatisTheNewYorkTimes,TheObserverandChinaDaily.Newsinsuchnewspaperisbelievedinternationally,authoritativelyandmainstream.Thedataanalyzedhereareextractedmainlyfromthearticlesaboutpolitics,economics,society,technology,sportsandentertainment.

Thisthesisconsistsofthreechapters,namely,LiteratureReview,thepragmaticanalysisandtheadvantagesanddisadvantagesoffuzziness.

ChapterOneisthestudyofvaguelanguage.Itexplainsvaguelanguage,itsdefinitionandthefactorscausingvaguelanguage;andhedges---thecoreofvaguelanguage.

ChapterTwoisthepragmaticanalysisofvaguenessinEnglishnews.InthispartthethesiscomestoitsfocusthatistheinvestigationofEnglishnewswithvaguelanguage.

ChapterThreeistheanalysisoftheadvantagesanddisadvantagesoffuzzinessuseinnews.

Thenfollowstheconclusionwhichsummarizesthemainpointsaswellastheresults,andpointsoutthelimitationsandsomesuggestionsforfurtherstudy.

Chapter1AnOverviewofVagueLanguage

Itshouldbegenerallyacknowledgedthatvaguenessinlanguageisacommonphenomenonincommunication.However,littleattentionwaspaidtoituntilphilosopherPeirce（1902）,theoriginatorofthenationofvaguenessinlanguage,showedhisinterestinnaturallanguage.Inthischapter,wewilltracebacktothepreviousstudiesrelatedtothevaguenessphenomenon.Firstly,anumberoftermsrelatedtoourresearchwillbeexplainedandclarified,suchasvagueness,ambiguity,fuzzinessandgenerality;secondly,theintroductiontothehedgesandhedgingwillbecarriedout;finally,approachestothestudyofvaguelanguagebothabroadandhomewillbeintroduced.

1.1TheDefinitionofVagueLanguage

Thereisnogenerallyagreeddefinitionforthetermofvaguelanguageanddifferentresearchershavedifferentideasaboutwhatvaguelanguageisconcerned.Onereasonisthatvaguelanguageitselfisvague.However,thepresentstudyneedstodefinetheresearchobjectandhasitsowndefinitionofvaguelanguagesinceitisnotintendingtobeall-inclusive.

H.P.Gricealsooffersadefinitionforvagueness:

tosaythatanexpressioninvague（inabroadsenseofvagueness）ispresumably,roughlyspeaking,tosaythattherearecases（actualorpossible）inwhichonejustdosenotknowwhethertoapplytheexpressionortowithholditandone’snotknowingisnotduetoignoranceofthefacts.（H.P.Grice,1975）Grice’sdefinitionisabroaderone:

itappliestowhatwecallpragmaticvaguenessaswellassemanticvagueness.‘Notknowingwhethertoapplytheexpression’canmean（a）notknowingwhetherapplyingastatementwouldbetrue,or（b）notknowingwhetheritwouldbeappropriateinthecircumstancestomakesuchastatement.Black（1937）bringsforwardamoreconcretedefinitionoffuzziness.Inhisview“fuzziness”isalabelforthephenomenonofborderlinecases.Anexpressionoraconceptisvagueorfuzzyifandonlyifithasborderlinecases.Anexpressionoraconceptisvagueorfuzzyifandonlyifithasborderlinecases,thatis,actualorpotentialcasesinwhichitneitherclearlyappliesnorclearlyfailstoapply.

Itiswidelyacknowledgedthatvaguenessofhumanlanguagesshowsitselfmostprominentinwordsandtheirmeanings.Thenhowdidthesewords,orso-calledvagueitems,comeintobeing?

Infact,therehavebeenkindsofviewsontheoriginofvagueness,andstillnofirmagreementonithasbeenreached.AccordingtoChenWeizhenandWuShixiong（2002）,theseviewscanbesummarizedasfollows;

（1）Thevaguenessoflanguagesymbolisoriginatedfromthevaguenessofthingsandevents;

（2）Vaguenessiscausedbythecognitivelimitationofhumanbeing;（3）Vaguenessisabasicattributeoflanguagesymbol.WuShixiong（1996）assumesthat“thefuzzinessoflanguagearisesfromtheprocessofhuman’scognition”.（Inotherpartsofthisthesis,“vagueness”and“fuzziness”havethesamemeaninganddenotation.）

Thepresentstudytriestoputforwardthedefinitionofvaguelanguageasfollows,basedonthedefinitionofChannell（2000）andZhangQiao（1998）:

Anexpressionorawordisvague,if：

（1）Ithasmorethanonepossibleinterpretationandnodefinitemeaningcanbederived;

（2）Itisintentionallyvaguetobeusedtoachievecertaincommunicativeintention.

Itcanbeseenthattherearenoconsistentopinionsaboutthedefinitionofvaguelanguage,however,suchdefinitionsputforwardbytheinfluentiallinguistsactuallyhavesomethingincommonandmakegreatsense.Vaguenessistypicalofhumanlanguage,andvaguelanguagediversifieshumanbeing’smindandlanguageexpressions.

1.2TheDistinctionbetweenVaguenessandSomeSimilarTerms

Infact,thereisnounifiedopiniononthedifferencesbetweenthefourlinguisticconceptsofvagueness,fuzziness,generalityandambiguity.Thoughmucheffortandresearchhasbeendoneonthematter,itisstillnotclearhowtodistinguishthesefoursimilarconceptsandthereisagreatdiversityamonglinguistsindefiningthem,whichsharethesamecharacteristicofin