商务信函中的模糊语.doc

Table of Contents

Abstract i
中文摘要 ii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Research background 1
1.2 Aims and objectives 1
1.3 Data collection and research method 1
1.4 Organization 2
2. Literature Review 2
2.1 Introduction 2
2.2 Previous related studies 2
2.3 Definition of vague language 2
2.3.1 The classical definition 2
2.3.2 The working definition 3
2.4 Summary 3
3. Classifications of Vague Language in Business Letters 4
3.1 Introduction 4
3.2 Business letters in foreign trade 4
3.2.1 Definition, function of business letters in foreign trade 4
3.2.2 The business letters writing principles 4
3.3 Classifications of vague language in business letters 4
3.3.1 Lexical vagueness 5
3.3.2 Syntactical vagueness 6
3.3.3 Hedges 6
3.4 Summary 6
4. Situations and Pragmatic Functions of Vague Language in Business Letters 6
4.1 Introduction 6
4.2 The situations of vague language in business letters 7
4.2.1 Conveying the bad news 7
4.2.2 Promoting further negotiation 8
4.2.3 Lacking specific information 8
4.2.4 Clarifying the objective situation 9
4.2.5 Withholding information 9
4.2.6 Requesting the other side to complete obligations 9
4.3 The pragmatic function of vague language in business letters 9
4.3.1 Giving more space in further negotiation 9
4.3.2 Realizing courtesy in communication 10
4.3.3 Enhancing the flexibility 10
4.3.4 Strengthening self-protection 10
4.3.5 Minimizing the threat to the other side 10
4.3.6 Strengthening the persuasiveness 11
4.4 Summary 11
5. Conclusion 11
References 13
Acknowledgements 14

Abstract

Business letters play an important role in business communication. Its effective use has a close bearing on the whole transaction. Though “correctness” and “clearness” are the principles of writing business letters, under some circumstances the addresser may employ the vague language to convey the information to the addressee, so that it can finally reach to the specific communicative intentions.
Based on various relevant theories, especially Joanna Channell’ s (1994) research results, twenty pieces of business letters are chosen to analyze the situations and pragmatic functions of vague language in business communication. The dissertation primary explores the six situations and six pragmatic functions from the positive aspect of vagueness.
Key Words: vague language; business letters; situations; pragmatic functions

中文摘要

商务信函在商务交际中发挥着重要的作用，它的有效运用密切关系到整个交易的顺利完成。虽然“准确”和“清楚”为商务信函写作的基本准则，然而在某些情形下，写信者需要运用模糊语言向收信者传达信息，以达到特定的交际目的。
本篇论文在相关模糊理论的基础上，尤其Joanna Channell（1994）的研究成果，结合20则商务信函来分析商务信函交际的运用情景以及语用功能。从模糊语言的积极方面出发，本篇论文主要探索了模糊语言在商务信函运用中的6种情景及所产生的6种语用功能。
关键词：模糊语；商务信函；情景；语用功能
1. Introduction
1.1 Research background
The attention of vague phenomenon can be traced back to the ancient Grecian philosophers. At that time vagueness has aroused philosophers’ attention though it did not come out the scientific conception--“fuzziness”. After that, scholars have studied the vagueness on different subjects.
Vague language appears almost in every corner of our life such as political discourse, literary works, and daily conversation, and so on. Previous researches show that vague language applying to communication results to two consequences. Firstly, as for the bad side, people can’t get the definite and exact information, which causes confusing; secondly, as for the good side, vague language can benefit the speaker and writer to satisfy different purposes as long as it is used appropriately.
Recently with the boom of foreign trade, business letters have become an indispensable step to fulfill a transaction. Apart form the 7Cs principles of writing business letters--completeness, clearness, concreteness, conciseness, correctness, courtesy and consideration, in many cases, the two sides of foreign trade may use vague language when falling into the tight corner such as conveying the bad news to the other side, urge the other side to complete obligations, so on and so forth. The appropriate use of vague language in business letters can promote the further negotiation, realize courtesy, enhance the flexibility, and finally, successfully complete the whole transaction.
1.2 Aims and objectives
Systematic research has been carried out on the vague linguistics, while vague language in business letters has not been paid such enough attention as other fields like political discourse, literary works, and so on.
The dissertation is going to analyze the vague language in business letters from the positive affection of vagueness. The dissertation primary aims to answer the following two questions:
What are the situations to use vague language in business letters?
What are the pragmatic functions of using vague language in business letters?
By answering the two questions above, the dissertation hopes to give the learners of foreign trade and English a better understanding of vague language in business letters and then write effective business letters in the foreign trade.
1.3 Data collection and research method
The dissertation is data-based, which “employs a non-experimental method, yields qualitative data, and provides an interpretive analysis of that data” (Huang & Ghadessy, 2008: 20).
Twenty pieces of business letters are collected from the course book of foreign trade and electronic version from the Internet and trade companies. Because of the length limitation of the dissertation, some of the collected sample letters are not listed.
The dissertation analyses the collected data, which combines the vagueness theory with the principles of writing business letters.
1.4 Organization
The dissertation includes five chapters. The first one is a brief introduction which is about the research background, the aims and method, and the organization. The second one moves to the literature review which includes the previous related studies, the classical and the working definition of vague language. The third one is primarily about the business letter’s characteristics and classifications of vague language in business letters. Then it moves to the important section--the forth chapter, which is the situations and pragmatic functions of using vague language in business letters, will be the specific and detailed section, with six points respectively. The last chapter will make a summary and discusses the limitation of the dissertation and suggests the further research.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This chapter states the previous related studies, presenting the influential research results by the scholar from different times. And then it outlines the classical definitions put forward by different scholars. The last part is the working definition of the dissertation.
2.2 Previous related studies
In the early time of ancient Greece, the vague phenomenon has aroused the philosophers’ attention. Eubulidies, the Greece philosopher born in the forth century BC, was the outstanding representative.
Another impressive British philosopher Russell wrote a famous paper in 1923 entitled “Vagueness”, pointing out that “a language is more or less vague”. According to his statement, we can not call a color is green because the green color can be deep or light; it is not because we do not know the meaning of “green” but the indefinite essence of the suitable scale.
In addition, Australia philosopher Wittgenstein in 1953 suggests that “words are like blurred photographs and ads”, he put forward and made a great contribution to the study of the vagueness. American Cybernetic expert L.A Zadeh (1972: 4) wrote a paper “A Fuzzy-set-theoretic Interpretation of Linguistic Hedges”. After that, “vague logic” and “vague linguistics” have been developed.
In China, scholars show interests in vague language after 1979. Wu Tieping (1999) is the first linguist to study vague language and introduce the theory of Zadah.
2.3 Definition of vague language
2.3.1 The classical definition
There were different points of view on the definition of vague language, so it can not reach into a consensus agreement. Some thought that vagueness in language was bad; while the others: good. Some previous scholars said that using vague language was because of lack of the precision, is kind of inadequacy to express the thought. While others thought that is a good thing when used in the suitable situations. For instance, if people want to withhold information to benefit him, he may use “maybe”, “about”, “sometimes”.
Ullmann (1962: 118) points out that “words with blurred edges”. He notes that “If one looks more closely at this vagueness one soon discovers that the term is itself rather vague and ambiguous: the condition it refers to not a uniform feature but has many aspects and may result form a variety of causes. Some of these are inherent in the very nature of language, whereas others come into play only special circumstances.” He attributes vagueness to four factors:
(ⅰ) generic character of words;
(ⅱ) meaning is never homogeneous (i.e. it is context-bound);
(ⅲ) lack of clear-cut boundaries in the non-linguistic word;
(ⅳ) lack of familiarity with what the words stand for.
Another approach to vagueness by Crystal and Davy (1975: 111) refers to vagueness as imprecision. “Lack of imprecision is one of the most important features of the vocabulary of informal conversation,” they state, and give four reasons for vagueness:
(ⅰ) memory loss--the speaker forgets the correct word;
(ⅱ) the language has not suitable exact word, or the speaker does not know it;
(ⅲ) the subject of the conversation is not such that it requires precision, and an approximation or characterization will do; and
(ⅳ) the choice of vague item is deliberate to maintain the atmosphere.
2.3.2 The working definition
Vague language exists in many fields of our life; it is widely used in language. Some investigators even want to insist that all language is vague in some way. But most of us do not realize the frequency use of vague language when speaking and writing. We are not aware of it unless it is pointed out and used unsuitability.
Joanna Channell (1994: 20) on her book Vague Language states the working definition of vague language and its use. She states that an expression or word is vague if:
(ⅰ) it can be contrasted with another word or expression which appears to render the same proposition;
(ⅱ) it is “purposely and unabashedly vague”;
(ⅲ) its meaning arises from the “intrinsic uncertainty” referred to by Peirce.
Different researchers have different views of vague language.
On the base of Joanna Channell, the working definition of the dissertation is:
(ⅰ) meaning of words or context is not definite;
(ⅱ) it can be purposely used in suitable situation;
(ⅲ) it has pragmatic functions in communication.
2.4 Summary
This chapter has settled on the related studies of vague language and presented the classical definition, and then moves to the working definition of the dissertation based on the Joanna Channell’s works. Inspired by this chapter, the following chapter will deal with the classifications of vague language in business letters.
3. Classifications of Vague Language in Business Letters
3.1 Introduction
To start with, this chapter briefly presents the business letter’s definition, function, and writing principles, so that it helps people to have a better understanding of the vague langue appearing on the letters. In the second place, this chapter will discuss the classification of vague language in business letters. Relevant words and sentences are chosen deliberately from the business letters.
3.2 Business letters in foreign trade
3.2.1 Definition, function of business letters in foreign trade
Business letter is a letter dealing with business between the two sides of trade.
In the large sense, business also includes telegrams, telex, postcards and a variety of reports, advertisements, and so on. Compared with ordinary letters, the business letter has its own special formats and fixed business terms. As the cultural diversity between the east and west, the format and context are also different. A good command of English and commercial regulations are necessary; besides, the writer should pay much attention to the writing skills and the characteristics, i.e. the layout of business letters, which consists of the letter head, the date, the inside address, the salutation, the message, the complementary close, the writer’s signature and official position.
Broadly speaking, the function of business letters may be said to (ⅰ) to establish business relation; (ⅱ) to ask for and convey information; (ⅲ) to deal with matters and make negotiation of business. In addition, there are letters with no purposes just remind the other side of the sender’s existence to maintain the commercial relations.
3.2.2 The principles of writing business letters
The business letters writing principles are 7Cs--completeness, clearness, concreteness, conciseness, correctness, courtesy and consideration. That is to say, the writer should pay attention to the attitude, language, content and form in order to meet the seven principles.
3.3 Classifications of vague language in business letters
The classification can be made into “approximations” and “shields” by E. F. Prince and his colleague J. Frader & C. Bosk, which is widely recognized up to now. The three scholars made the classification through the pragmatic aspect; K. M. Kempson on Semantic Theory (1977: 18) states that vagueness could be divided into four kinds: “referential vagueness”, “indeterminacy of meaning”, “lack of specification”, and “disjunction”. But some researchers even make more specific classification on vague language based on the previous study.
With reference of the previous researcher’s studies and combing with the characteristics of business letters, the dissertation prescribes the classifications as lexical vagueness, syntactical sentences and hedge.
3.3.1 Lexical vagueness
The lexical vagueness in business letters includes adjectives (e.g. good, high, competitive); nouns (e.g. interest, dissatisfaction); adverbs (e.g. perhaps, maybe, very); proposition (e.g. around, in an early date); quantifiers (e.g. a great deal of, a large amount of).
Different forms above have different purposes.
(ⅰ) Adjectives
(1) We believe that there is a competitive market in our area for the reasonable price of our goods.
(2) They are of the high quality, which will appeal to the most selective buyers.
(3) All the items quoted are made of the best quality material and can be supplied in various designs and colors.
Seen from the examples above, the vague adjectives employed in the business letters are about the attitude towards the goods, the price and the quality of the goods: satisfied, reasonable, expensive, high, and so on.
(ⅱ) Nouns
(4) But much to our disappointment, we have not receive any reply up to now, we, therefore, again sent