本科毕业设计商务信函中的模糊语.docx

1、本科毕业设计商务信函中的模糊语Table of ContentsAbstract i中文摘要 ii1. Introduction 11.1 Research background 11.2 Aims and objectives 11.3 Data collection and research method 11.4 Organization 22. Literature Review 22.1 Introduction 22.2 Previous related studies 22.3 Definition of vague language 22.3.1 The classical d

2、efinition 22.3.2 The working definition 32.4 Summary 33. Classifications of Vague Language in Business Letters 43.1 Introduction 43.2 Business letters in foreign trade 43.2.1 Definition, function of business letters in foreign trade 43.2.2 The business letters writing principles 43.3 Classifications

3、 of vague language in business letters 43.3.1 Lexical vagueness 53.3.2 Syntactical vagueness 63.3.3 Hedges 63.4 Summary 64. Situations and Pragmatic Functions of Vague Language in Business Letters 64.1 Introduction 64.2 The situations of vague language in business letters 74.2.1 Conveying the bad ne

4、ws 74.2.2 Promoting further negotiation 84.2.3 Lacking specific information 84.2.4 Clarifying the objective situation 94.2.5 Withholding information 94.2.6 Requesting the other side to complete obligations 94.3 The pragmatic function of vague language in business letters 94.3.1 Giving more space in

5、further negotiation 94.3.2 Realizing courtesy in communication 104.3.3 Enhancing the flexibility 104.3.4 Strengthening self-protection 104.3.5 Minimizing the threat to the other side 104.3.6 Strengthening the persuasiveness 114.4 Summary 115. Conclusion 11References 13Acknowledgements 14AbstractBusi

6、ness letters play an important role in business communication. Its effective use has a close bearing on the whole transaction. Though “correctness” and “clearness” are the principles of writing business letters, under some circumstances the addresser may employ the vague language to convey the infor

7、mation to the addressee, so that it can finally reach to the specific communicative intentions. Based on various relevant theories, especially Joanna Channell s (1994) research results, twenty pieces of business letters are chosen to analyze the situations and pragmatic functions of vague language i

8、n business communication. The dissertation primary explores the six situations and six pragmatic functions from the positive aspect of vagueness.Key Words: vague language; business letters; situations; pragmatic functions中文摘要商务信函在商务交际中发挥着重要的作用，它的有效运用密切关系到整个交易的顺利完成。虽然“准确”和“清楚”为商务信函写作的基本准则，然而在某些情形下，写信

9、者需要运用模糊语言向收信者传达信息，以达到特定的交际目的。 本篇论文在相关模糊理论的基础上，尤其Joanna Channell（1994）的研究成果，结合20则商务信函来分析商务信函交际的运用情景以及语用功能。从模糊语言的积极方面出发，本篇论文主要探索了模糊语言在商务信函运用中的6种情景及所产生的6种语用功能。关键词：模糊语；商务信函；情景；语用功能1. Introduction1.1 Research background The attention of vague phenomenon can be traced back to the ancient Grecian philosoph

10、ers. At that time vagueness has aroused philosophers attention though it did not come out the scientific conception-“fuzziness”. After that, scholars have studied the vagueness on different subjects. Vague language appears almost in every corner of our life such as political discourse, literary work

11、s, and daily conversation, and so on. Previous researches show that vague language applying to communication results to two consequences. Firstly, as for the bad side, people cant get the definite and exact information, which causes confusing; secondly, as for the good side, vague language can benef

12、it the speaker and writer to satisfy different purposes as long as it is used appropriately.Recently with the boom of foreign trade, business letters have become an indispensable step to fulfill a transaction. Apart form the 7Cs principles of writing business letters-completeness, clearness, concret

13、eness, conciseness, correctness, courtesy and consideration, in many cases, the two sides of foreign trade may use vague language when falling into the tight corner such as conveying the bad news to the other side, urge the other side to complete obligations, so on and so forth. The appropriate use

14、of vague language in business letters can promote the further negotiation, realize courtesy, enhance the flexibility, and finally, successfully complete the whole transaction. 1.2 Aims and objectivesSystematic research has been carried out on the vague linguistics, while vague language in business l

15、etters has not been paid such enough attention as other fields like political discourse, literary works, and so on.The dissertation is going to analyze the vague language in business letters from the positive affection of vagueness. The dissertation primary aims to answer the following two questions

16、:What are the situations to use vague language in business letters?What are the pragmatic functions of using vague language in business letters?By answering the two questions above, the dissertation hopes to give the learners of foreign trade and English a better understanding of vague language in b

17、usiness letters and then write effective business letters in the foreign trade.1.3 Data collection and research methodThe dissertation is data-based, which “employs a non-experimental method, yields qualitative data, and provides an interpretive analysis of that data” (Huang & Ghadessy, 2008: 20). T

18、wenty pieces of business letters are collected from the course book of foreign trade and electronic version from the Internet and trade companies. Because of the length limitation of the dissertation, some of the collected sample letters are not listed.The dissertation analyses the collected data, w

19、hich combines the vagueness theory with the principles of writing business letters.1.4 OrganizationThe dissertation includes five chapters. The first one is a brief introduction which is about the research background, the aims and method, and the organization. The second one moves to the literature

20、review which includes the previous related studies, the classical and the working definition of vague language. The third one is primarily about the business letters characteristics and classifications of vague language in business letters. Then it moves to the important section-the forth chapter, w

21、hich is the situations and pragmatic functions of using vague language in business letters, will be the specific and detailed section, with six points respectively. The last chapter will make a summary and discusses the limitation of the dissertation and suggests the further research.2. Literature R

22、eview2.1 IntroductionThis chapter states the previous related studies, presenting the influential research results by the scholar from different times. And then it outlines the classical definitions put forward by different scholars. The last part is the working definition of the dissertation. 2.2 P

23、revious related studies In the early time of ancient Greece, the vague phenomenon has aroused the philosophers attention. Eubulidies, the Greece philosopher born in the forth century BC, was the outstanding representative. Another impressive British philosopher Russell wrote a famous paper in 1923 e

24、ntitled “Vagueness”, pointing out that “a language is more or less vague”. According to his statement, we can not call a color is green because the green color can be deep or light; it is not because we do not know the meaning of “green” but the indefinite essence of the suitable scale.In addition,

25、Australia philosopher Wittgenstein in 1953 suggests that “words are like blurred photographs and ads”, he put forward and made a great contribution to the study of the vagueness. American Cybernetic expert L.A Zadeh (1972: 4) wrote a paper “A Fuzzy-set-theoretic Interpretation of Linguistic Hedges”.

26、 After that, “vague logic” and “vague linguistics” have been developed.In China, scholars show interests in vague language after 1979. Wu Tieping (1999) is the first linguist to study vague language and introduce the theory of Zadah.2.3 Definition of vague language2.3.1 The classical definitionThere

27、 were different points of view on the definition of vague language, so it can not reach into a consensus agreement. Some thought that vagueness in language was bad; while the others: good. Some previous scholars said that using vague language was because of lack of the precision, is kind of inadequa

28、cy to express the thought. While others thought that is a good thing when used in the suitable situations. For instance, if people want to withhold information to benefit him, he may use “maybe”, “about”, “sometimes”. Ullmann (1962: 118) points out that “words with blurred edges”. He notes that “If

29、one looks more closely at this vagueness one soon discovers that the term is itself rather vague and ambiguous: the condition it refers to not a uniform feature but has many aspects and may result form a variety of causes. Some of these are inherent in the very nature of language, whereas others com

30、e into play only special circumstances.” He attributes vagueness to four factors:() generic character of words;() meaning is never homogeneous (i.e. it is context-bound);() lack of clear-cut boundaries in the non-linguistic word;() lack of familiarity with what the words stand for.Another approach t

31、o vagueness by Crystal and Davy (1975: 111) refers to vagueness as imprecision. “Lack of imprecision is one of the most important features of the vocabulary of informal conversation,” they state, and give four reasons for vagueness:() memory loss-the speaker forgets the correct word;() the language

32、has not suitable exact word, or the speaker does not know it;() the subject of the conversation is not such that it requires precision, and an approximation or characterization will do; and() the choice of vague item is deliberate to maintain the atmosphere.2.3.2 The working definitionVague language exists in many fields of our life; it is widely used in language. Some investigators even want to insist that all language is vague in some way. But most of us do not realize the frequency