Function Of Vague Language

Functions of Vague Language and distinguishing it from Ambiguity and Generality

Vague language is a linguistic phenomenon in communication, which means a speaker discuss something without identifying what the certain fact it is. There is also a saying that “a representation is vague when the relation of the representing system to the represented system is not one-one, but many.” (Russell, B. 1928) In fact, vague language enjoys the popularity in all fields of both written and spoken language. Vagueness is an important characteristic of natural communication. This report impliments vague language through semantic and pragmatic aspects and categories of vagueness, as well as clarifys vagueness, generality and ambiguity.

Generally, the use of

The first kind is vague words. Vague words refer to words with several meanings and words of which most people commonly accept the meaning, but there is no clear boundary for the degree or scale of the concept. For instance, words like “cool” “cold” that describe the temperature are quite vague. Since people are used to make judgments depend on their own feelings, there is no certain boundary and limitation to name how cold is called “cool” and how cool can be called “cold”. Similarly, there is a well-known Chinese phrase “三思而后行”. The number “三” here does not mean three in the majority of cases. As a matter of fact, “三” is a vague word in Chinese that refers to “more than one times”. It is impossible to interpret it exactly in an exact way. The second kind is hedges, which refer to the expressions that are placed in front of the certain facts to make it unclear. One group of hedges is adaptors, such as sort of, a bit, almost. As is stated in a research made by Mao, adaptors can fix the true degree of the original discourse, weaken the tone of the sentence and make it closer to the reality (2014). Another group is rounder. Words like about and around sets a limitation for the expression and narrows down the original meanings. The third kind of vague language is vagueness by implicates, which means the concept itself is understandable but the speaker will not explain the contained vague factors. For example, in the sentence “He worked two days long”, the time “two days” is more likely to be “two day-time” rather than exact 48 hours. Here, the speaker assumes that the audience already has the knowledge of what he implicates in the sentence. In addition, when be asked, “how long your hair is”, people may answer it using rhetorical devices or describe the general look with reference, such as “ it’s near my ears”, “it’s like a bunch of grass”. Although the description is vague and inaccurate,