Abstract

The American cybernetics expert named L.A. Zadeh proposed Fuzzy Sets Theory in 1965, which marked a new generation of fuzzy theory. After that, scholars have made a great number of researches on vague language at home and abroad. In recent years, more and more scholars have come to realize that vague language is also a useful way to exchange ideas, sometimes even more effective than precise language and helps to achieve better communication effects. In other words, it plays a more and more important role in human language communication.
As USA's first black president, Obama has unusual talent of speech. His inaugural speech has been widely researched. So this thesis will have a study of vagueness based on his weekly radio address. The whole thesis is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the conception of vagueness and the related notions. Channell's conception of vagueness made in her Vague Language is adopted. Then studies of vagueness at home and abroad will be introduced. The theory used in the thesis is cooperative principle and conversational implicature. According to Channell's categorization and the vague expressions mostly used in the materials, the author makes her own categorization of vagueness. In the third part, the author analyses the vague expressions appeared. In the last part, pragmatic functions of vagueness are discussed. It can help to give the right amount of information, withhold information deliberately, use language persuasively and prevent from speaking in an absolute way.

Key words: vague language; category; function; Co-operative Principle; political speeches

摘要

美国控制论专家查德于1965年创立了模糊集合论，这标志着模糊理论的诞生。随着模糊理论研究的发展，模糊语言学也应运而生。模糊语言是指语言表达式所呈现出的不精确现象或指带有模糊性的自然语言。随着模糊语言的发展，越来越多的语言学家对模糊语展开了更深更广的研究。他们也认识到，在某些特定情况下，模糊语言是一种比精确语言更有效的表达手段，在语言交际中有着非常重要的作用。
奥巴马作为美国历史上第一位黑人总统，有着卓越的演讲才能。他的就职报告已被广泛研究，所以本文换个思路，以奥巴马总统的每周演讲为语料，进行了关于模糊语言的研究，一共分为三个部分。第一部分主要介绍了模糊语言的含义以及相关概念的定义，本文采用的是肖奈尔在《模糊语言》中对模糊语言的定义。另外简单介绍了中外学者对模糊语言的研究成果和本文采用的理论框架-合作原则,并对模糊语言进行了分类。这个分类以肖奈尔的分类为依据，结合语料中相关模糊语言出现的频率，对模糊语言进行了更符合语料的分类。第三部分对语料中出现的模糊语进行了简单分析，从而得出了第四部分，这部分论述了模糊语言在语言表达中的实际功能，它为听众提供了适量的信息，帮助演讲者掩盖信息，使演讲更有说服力以及避免演讲过于绝对化，这些都更加论证了模糊语言作为一种交际手段在语际环境中所发挥的效用。

关键词：模糊语言；分类；功能；合作原则；政治演讲