摘　要

模糊语一直被认为是旧的修辞学里的一类错误，许多人尝试去限制它甚至是消除它，但是现在人们越来越深刻的认识到，模糊语往往比精确的语言更有表现力，这是由于模糊语独特的美学功能所决定的。本文将探索作者如何通过选择具体的语言特色，实现和加强作品的主题和艺术效果。本文所探讨的是一位杰出的英国短篇小说家凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德在其最为著名的小说《布里尔小姐》中的模糊语言的运用。本文首先从语言学的角度来定义模糊语言并指出模糊语言的审美作用，接着从风格的角度指出模糊语言的运用会影响作者的独特风格。本文主要对《布里尔小姐》中的模糊语言进行整理和分类，再根据文章顺序选择性地详细分析了模糊语言的运用和产生的效果，进而得出一个重要结论：模糊语言对小说和作家风格有着重大的影响。尽管对于模糊语的研究经历了很长一段时间，但它在文学界并不是一个热门的研究对象。通过我在网络和书本上的研究发现，曼斯菲尔德独特的写作技巧，特别是对模糊语的使用，充分增添了其作品的魅力。

关键词：凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德；布里尔小姐；模糊语；主题；风格

Abstract

Vague language has always been a synonym of errors and mistakes in the conventional rhetoric, and various attempts were made to restrict, even eliminate it. Nowadays people increasingly realize that vague language is often more expressive than “accurate” language, which is determined by the peculiar aesthetic effects borne by vague language. This paper explores how the author, by choosing specific linguistic features, realizes and enhances the theme as well as the artistic effect of the work. In the paper, the author focuses on the use of vague language in one of the outstanding short story writers, Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill. It first defines what vague language is and points out the aesthetic beauty of the use of vague language, then indicates that the use of vague language will affect the author’s unique style. This paper selectively discusses the effects of vagueness in Miss Brill in detail through the use of vague language in Miss Brill, and then draws the conclusion that vague language has a significant impact on a writer’s style and her composition. Although the development of vague language has undergone a long period of time, it has not been a popular object of study in the literary world. Through the research on the Internet and some other books, Mansfield’s unique skills especially the using of vague language lend enchantment to her literary works.

Key words: Katherine Mansfield；Miss Brill；vague language；theme；style

1 Introduction
1.1 About Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield, born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp in 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand, the daughter of a successful banker and born to a middle-class colonial family, she had two older sisters and a younger brother. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, went on to become the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was also knighted. The Mansfield family moved to Karori in 1893, where Mansfield spent her happiest years of her childhood, she later used her memories of this time as an inspiration for the prelude story.