Research on the Pragmatic Function of Vague Language in English TV Interview

摘要

It is believed that in our daily communication, speakers should use accurate language and avoid unclear and vague expression. However, in practice, because of the objective existence of vague phenomenon and certain communicative purposes, both parties of the communication will use vague language consciously. In the recent years, the wide employment of vague language in communication has evoked increasing interest at home and aboard. The relevant literature reveals that many scholars have studied vague language in different contexts, but fewer have tried to carry through study on vagueness in English TV interview from the pragmatic perspective. Because of this fact, the author tries to be devoted to the systemic analysis of vagueness and its pragmatic functions in English TV interviews. The thesis aims at studying vague language from the perspective of pragmatics under the guidance of H.P. Grice's Cooperative Principle (CP) and Geoffrey Leech's Politeness Principle (PP). The English texts from the recent CCTV-9, VOA, BBC, CNN's TV interviews will be chosen as the research materials, and the key points to be investigated are as follows: 1. Why do the interviewer and interviewee have to use vague language? 2. How do the both parties in English TV Interviews maneuver the CP and PP through vagueness to realize their intended meaning? What are the major devices? 3. What are the pragmatic functions of vague language in English TV interviews? The analysis of vagueness in English TV Interviews attempts to improve our understanding of the language in English TV Interviews and the communicative purposes of participants and help us to interpret English TV Interviews in a better way. In the meanwhile, it is hoped that the present study could offer some inspiration to language teaching, especially foreign language teaching, which advocates the clear and precise expression.