修辞学,大学英语小论文.docVIP

Rhetorical Functions of Accuracy and Vagueness Vagueness, clearly, is a matter of degree, depending upon the extent of the possible differences between different systems represented by the same representation. Accuracy, on the contrary, is an ideal limit. Bertrand Russell, Vagueness, /~crshalizi/Russell/vagueness/, Oct.21 2007 Bertrand Russell, Vagueness, /~crshalizi/Russell/vagueness/, Oct.21 2007 First of all, accuracy enables a speaker or writer to express ideas exactly and to the point while vagueness allows him or her to carry on the communication smoothly. Speech and writing are always man’s important methods of communication, which requires people to convey information and ideas in the exact degree. In other words, accuracy ensures exact expression in communicative function. Hereafter is an example about the British General Churchill, who highly stressed accuracy. During the WWII, an officer working in Department of Chief of General Staff of the British Army once reported that his troop had been fighting with the Germans at a small village in Italy. Back came Churchill’s copy that “We do not fight with Germans. We fight either for or against them.” In this example, the officer had expected to convey the information of fighting against enemies but failed to express it exactly, which aroused ambiguity in meaning. Thought it’s of great importance to adhere to accuracy, when one finds it impossible to be accurate or suddenly is at a loss about expressing something in a exact way, he or she may resort to a vague term to carry on the communication smoothly. e.g. “Oh… in the trade somewhere round fifteen thousand dollars. But if it was bought on Fifth Avenue, I shouldn’t be surprised to hear that anything up to thirty thousand was paid it.” (W. Somerset Maugham, Mr. Know-All) In the example above, the expressions like “somewhere round” are vague reference because the speaker can hardly tell how much and where. By doing so, he was able to let th