Vague language and its pragmatic functions of English Teaching.docVIP

 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 60 Vague language and its pragmatic functions of English Teaching 【Abstract】 Vagueness is one of the essential properties of language. Linguists consider vagueness to be of crucial importance for its efficient usage in everyday communication. This paper includes a widely existing phenomenon in human communication vague language and its pragmatic function. It is composed of six parts, with Chapter Five as its core which apply the use of vague language in English teaching. In the hope of having a clear definition of vagueness, the author first tries to tell the difference between three confusing concepts vagueness , ambiguity, and generality. Before the author’s version of the definition is given, he shows different opinions of different linguists about the definition so as to have a better understanding of the definition of vagueness. Then the paper studies vague language from the pragmatic perspective, observing the two main pragmatic principles: “Cooperative Principle” and “Politeness Principle” and see how the two principles explain the adoptation of vague language in people’s daily life. In the next part of this paper, it centers on its communicative functions: giving right amount of information, deliberately withholding information, etc. This paper holds that vague language, just like precise language, is also a useful means of exchanging ideas. The appropriate use of vague language does not hinder any effective language communication. Instead, it can, in many cases, make linguistic expressions more natural and graceful; conveys human feeling and thoughts more effectively. Then comes the most important and enlightening part, the practical use of vague language in English teaching. That is to say, a conscious and meaningful use of vague language would greatly help the teacher to accomplish the goal of effective teaching. From the point of view of pragmatics, a comprehensive, systematic study of vague language will be of vital imp