硕士学位论文-英语新闻中模糊限制语 的语用研究.doc

学校代码：10254密 级：论文编号：上海海事大学SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY硕士学位论文MASTER DISSERTATION论文题目：英语新闻中模糊限制语 的语用研究 学科专业：英语语言文学 作者姓名：王丽娜 指导教师： 郑立信 教授 完成日期：二九年六月 论文独创性声明本论文是我在导师的指道下进行的研究工作及取得的研究果。论文中除了特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，不包含其他人或其他机构已经发表或转写的研究成果。其他同志对本研究的启示和所做的贡献均已在论文中作了明确的声明并表示了谢意。 作者签名：_ 日期: _ 论文使用授权声明本人同意上海海事大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留送交论文复印件，允许论文被查阅和借阅; 学校可以上网公布论文的全部或部分内容，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。保密的论文在解密后遵守此规定。作者签名：_ 导师签名：_ 日期： _64A Study of Fuzzy Hedges in English News：A Pragmatic ApproachBy Wang LinaUnder the Supervision of Professor Zheng LixinA Thesis Submitted to the College of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Maritime University in Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the MA Degree Shanghai Maritime UniversityJune, 2009ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSTo begin with, I am deeply indebted to Professor Zheng Lixin, my supervisor, who has given me constant and valuable advice, read my drafts through meticulously and offered incisive comments on them. Without his help, the thesis could never have reached its present form.My sincere gratitude also goes to all my teachers, such as Professor Shang Xin, Professor Cai Yongliang and Professor Zhang Yan, who have given me excellent lectures and great help, which are indispensable to the completion of this thesis. I would like to thank my roommates, Li Peng, He Yibing and Zhang Wei, for their valuable suggestions, tolerance and constant encouragement in those days of frustration and fatigue. In particular, I am thankful to my parents for their great love, encouragement, support and understanding. I also give my hearty thanks to my friend Li Yang who has offered generous help and useful suggestions in the process of writing this thesis.Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to all the writers whose works have been referred to in this thesis. 摘 要模糊性是客观世界的根本属性并广泛存在于客观世界的各个方面。同样,模糊性也存在于语言之中并成为其本质属性之一。很多学者如Peirce，Russell, Lakoff, Jackendoff和Channell分别从不同的角度对模糊语言进行了研究。 模糊限制语是模糊语言的一个方面。但到目前为止，对模糊限制语来说，还没有一个固定的定义。对模糊限制语的语用研究存在于文学、广告、法律等许多领域，但是人们却较少地关注英语新闻中的模糊限制语，主要是由于是新闻具有准确、真实的特点，使得人们很难将其和模糊语言联系起来。在合作原则，礼貌原则，言语行为理论和会话含义的基础上，本论文表明：恰当运用模糊限制语可以使新闻工作者更加准确和成功地报道新闻。本论文对模糊限制语在英语新闻中的运用的研究，包括：一、模糊限制语在英语新闻中的呈现方式。研究这一问题主要是以E. F. Prince 对模糊限制语的划分为基础。二、模糊限制语在英语新闻中的语用功能。对这一问题的分析的理论基础是合作原则，礼貌原则，言语行为理论和会话含义。作者采用定量分析的方法研究模糊限制语的出现频率。本论文中大量的语料来源于数据库/，另外的一些语料则来自纽约时报，华盛顿邮报等一些权威报纸。在本论文中，作者绘制了大量的图表，以便使读者对本论文有更好的理解。本论文包括六章：第一章是对论文的总体概括，包括写作动机，写作方法，文章结构等。第二章是文献综述。在这一章中，作者回顾了不同学者对模糊语言和模糊限制语的研究。此外，作者还在本章中基于张乔的研究对一些相近的概念如模糊、歧义、笼统进行了区分。第三章是理论框架，包括两部分。第一部分是Prince从语用学角度对模糊限制语的分类。第二部分是四大语用原则，包括Grice提出的合作原则，Leech提出的礼貌原则， J. Austin和J. Searle提出的言语行为理论以及Grice的会话含义。从第四章开始是分析部分，作者在第四章中依据Prince和Hyland对模糊限制语的划分，分析了模糊限制语在英语新闻中的呈现方式。作者随后选择了五篇不同种类的新闻，包括政治新闻，经济新闻，科技新闻，体育新闻和娱乐新闻，研究其中模糊限制语的出现频率，得出了这样的结论： 模糊限制语在不同种类新闻中的出现频率不同。 不同种类的模糊限制语在新闻中的出现频率也不同。第五章以第二章的理论为基础，分析了模糊限制语在英语新闻中的语用功能。由于新闻语言的特殊性，本文进一步研究了模糊限制语在新闻中的文本功能，包括增加新闻的可信度，避免过于繁琐，加强语言灵活性，以及保护功能。第六章是总结部分，包括研究成果，创新点以及存在的问题。本文帮助读者更好地认识了模糊限制语在英语新闻中的呈现方式，并且较为全面地概括了模糊限制语在英语新闻中的语用功能。从而使读者在今后的阅读中，能够对新闻语言这种特殊语言有更好的理解。关键词：模糊性；模糊限制语；语用功能；会话含义ABSTRACTFuzziness is an essential property of the objective world and exists in various aspects of the world. Accordingly, fuzziness occurs frequently in natural language and thus becomes one of the intrinsic features of it. Many scholars have done researches into this phenomenon from different perspectives, such as Peirce and Russell from the philosophical perspective, Lakoff from the semantic perspective, Jackendoff from the grammatical perspective, and Channell from the pragmatic perspective.For fuzzy hedges, there has been no fixed definition so far. The pragmatic research on fuzzy hedges has been carried out in many fields like literature, advertisement, law, etc. However, little attention has been paid to fuzzy hedges in English news. This may be the consequence of the traditional idea that news should be written accurately and truthfully. Based on the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle, the Speech Act Theory and the Conversational Implicature, the present study shows that the appropriate use of fuzzy hedges can help reporters report the news more successfully. This thesis studies fuzzy hedges in English news, including: (a). Linguistic realization devices of fuzzy hedges which are studied according to E. F. Princes classification and Hylands classification. (b). The pragmatic functions of fuzzy hedges in English news which are studied based on the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle, the Speech Act Theory and the Conversational Implicature. The author chooses the quantitative approach which deals with numerical measurements to analyze the frequencies of the hedging devices in Chapter Four. The data are mainly collected from / which is an online corpus. Some authoritative newspapers are also the sources of the data. There exist some charts and bar diagrams which can make the readers understand the thesis better. This thesis is composed of six parts: Chapter one is the introduction to the whole thesis.Chapter two is a literature review of fuzzy language and fuzzy hedges. The author presents different definitions and classifications of fuzzy language and fuzzy hedges, and distinguishes the four conceptions: fuzziness, vagueness, ambiguity and generality, with emphasis on the first two, based on Zhang Qiaos study.Chapter three is the theoretical framework, including Princes classification of fuzzy hedges from the pragmatic angle and four pragmatic principles.Chapter four analyzes the linguistic realization devices including adaptors, rounders, plausibility shields, and attribution shields, based on E. F. Prince, J. Frader and C. Bosks model. Then, the author chooses five types of news to do a research and finds out that the frequencies of fuzzy hedges in different types of news have a close relationship with the factualness demanded by the news. The author also compares the frequencies of the different types of fuzzy hedges in this chapter, according to their pragmatic functions.Chapter five analyzes the functions of fuzzy hedges in English news using theories in chapter two like the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle, the Speech Act Theory and the Conversational Implicature. Then the paper deals with the textual functions of the fuzzy hedges in English news: increasing creditability of news language, avoiding giving details, improving flexibility of news language, and protective function. Chapter six is a conclusion showing the findings and limitations of the thesis.This thesis helps the readers have a general idea of the linguistic realization devices of fuzzy hedges, and serves as a summary of the pragmatic functions of the fuzzy hedges in English news. With this thesis, the readers can understand the news language better in the future reading.Key words: fuzziness, fuzzy hedges, pragmatic function, conversational implicaturContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTSi摘 要iiABSTRACTivContentsviChapter One Introduction11.1 Motivation of the Research11.2 Research Methodology and Data Collection21.3 Structure of the Thesis2Chapter Two Literature Review42.1 Theoretical Study of Fuzzy Language42.2 Fuzziness, Vagueness, Generality and Ambiguity62.2.1 Fuzziness & Vagueness62.2.2 Distinctions Concerning the Four Concepts72.3 Fuzzy Hedges and its Classification112.3.1 Definitions of Hedges/Hedging112.3.2 Classifications of Fuzzy Hedges Zadehs Classification of Fuzzy Hedges Wu Tiepings Classification of Fuzzy Hedges Li Qianjus Classification of Fuzzy Hedges Hylands Classification of Fuzzy Hedges14Chapter Three Theoretical Framework of the Study173.1 E. F. Prince et als Classification of Fuzzy Hedges173.2 Four Pragmatic Principles193.2.1 Cooperative Principle193.2.2 Politeness Principle203.2.3 Speech Act Theory223.2.4 Conversational Implicature23Chapter Four Fuzzy Hedges in English News254.1 The Features of English News254.1.1 The Structure of English News254.1.2 The Features of News Language2 Lexical Features2 Syntactical Features2 The genre features284.2 Linguistic Realization Devices of Fuzzy Hedges in News284.2.1 Approximators2 Adaptors2 Rounders324.2.2 Shields3 Plausibility Shields3 Attribution Shields354.3 Fuzzy Hedges in Different News364.3.1 Fuzzy Hedges in Political News374.3.2 Fuzzy Hedges in Business News384.3.3 Fuzzy Hedges in Technological news404.3.4 Fuzzy Hedges in Sports News414.3.5 Fuzzy Hedges in Entertainment News42Chapter Five Pragmatic Functions of Fuzzy Hedges485.1 Cooperative Principle and Fuzzy Hedges485.2 Politeness Principle and Fuzzy Hedges515.3 Speech Act Theory and Fuzzy Hedges525.4 Conversational Implicature and Fuzzy Hedges535.5 Textual Functions of Hedges545.5.1 Increasing Creditability of News Language555.5.2 Avoiding Giving Details555.5.3 Improving Flexibility of News Language565.5.4 Protective Function57Chapter Six Conclusion596.1 Major findings596.2 Creations606.3 Limitations60Bibliography62Chapter One Introduction1.1 Motivation of the ResearchFuzziness is an intrinsic feature of the natural language. Many concepts in human language have no specific extension. For example: the words “old” and “young”, “big” and “small”. The boundaries between the two concepts are not clear.Russells Vagueness marks the basic formation of the fuzziness theory. Zadehs Fuzzy Sets in the journal Information and Control published in 1965 first put forward the famous conception “fuzzy sets”.(Zadeh, 1965: 338-353) Later, Lakoff, and McCawley (1981), apply Zadehs fuzzy set theory to the study of meaning. Researchers, such as Jackendoff and Channell, have studied fuzzy language from a grammatical perspective and pragmatic perspective respectively. In China, Wu Tieping and Li Qianju are named as “North Wu South Li”, for their contributions to the study of fuzziness. Wu Tieping is the first person who studies fuzzy linguistics and his papers on fuzziness are highly thought of by the academic circles. Li Qianju is another important scholar who studies fuzziness effectively. His Practical Fuzzy Linguistics, An Introduction to Fuzzy Semantics, An Introduction to Fuzzy Rhetoric published one after another study fuzziness respectively from the systematical, semantic and rhetorical points of view. Fuzzy hedging is one aspect of fuzzy language. So far, there has been no fixed definition for hedges and Lakoffs is comparatively widely accepted. He defines hedges as: “For me, some of the most interesting questions are raised by the study of words whose meaning implicitly involves fuzziness words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy.” (Lakoff, 1972: 195) Linguists such as Zadeh, E. F. Prince, Hyland, Wu Tieping, Li Qianju, have given different classifications of fuzzy hedges. E. F. Prince and his colleagues name those that affect the truth-conditions of propositions approximators and those hedges that reflect the degree of the speakers commitment to the truth-value of the whole proposition shields. Hyland classifies fuzzy hedges into two types: content-oriented hedges, and reader-oriented hedges. These two classifications are from a pragmatic point of view. This thesis mainly studies the pragmatic functions of fuzzy hedges in English news. So far, the pragmatic research on fuzzy hedges has been carried out in many fields like literature, advertisement, law, etc. However, little attention has been paid to fuzzy hedges in English news. This may be the consequence of the traditional idea that news should be written accurately and truthfully. Based on the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle, the Speech Act Theory and the Conversational Implicature, the present study shows that the appropriate use of fuzzy hedges can help the reporters report news more accurately and successfully. 1.2 Research Methodology and Data CollectionQuantitative approach deals with numerical measurements. By contrast, qualitative approach deals with how people understand their experiences. Many scholars use the two approaches when doing a research, and inspired by them, the author chooses the quantitative approach in this thesis to analyze the frequencies of the hedging devices in Chapter Four. The data are mainly collected from / which is an online corpus. The word corpus, derived from the Latin word meaning body, may be used to refer to any text in written or spoken form. However, in modern linguistics this term is used to refer to large collections of texts which represent a sample of a particular variety or use of language(s) that are presented in machine readable form. With the online corpus //, data collection becomes much easier. Some authoritative newspapers are also the sources of the data. There exist some charts and bar diagrams which can help the readers understand the thesis better. 1.3 Structure of the ThesisThis thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is an introduction. Chapter two is a literature review of fuzzy language and fuzzy hedges. Chapter three is the theoretical framework, including E. F. Prince, J. Frader and C. Bosks classification of fuzzy hedges and the four pragmatic principles: the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle, the Speech Act Theory, and the Conversational Implicature. Chapter four analyzes the linguistic realization devices including adaptors, rounders, plausibility shields, attribution shields, based on E. F. Princes model, and Hylands model is also taken into consideration. Then the author chooses five types of news to do a research and finds out that the frequencies of fuzzy hedges in different types of news have a close relationship with the factualness demanded by the news. The author also compares the frequencies of the different kinds of fuzzy hedges in this chapter, according to their pragmatic functions.Chapter five analyzes the functions of the fuzzy hedges in English news, including the Cooperative Principle and fuzzy hedges, the Politeness Principle and fuzzy hedges, the Speech Act Theory and fuzzy hedges and the Conversational Implicature and fuzzy hedges. The paper also deals with the textual functions of the fuzzy hedges in English news: increasing creditability of news language, avoiding giving details, improving flexibility of news language, and protective function. Chapter six is a conclusion showing the findings and the limitations of the thesis.Chapter Two Literature ReviewIn order to understand the thesis better, we will have a general review in this chapter including fuzziness and fuzzy hedges. 2.1 Theoretical Study of Fuzzy LanguagePeirce (1902:748) is often considered as the originator of the notion of vagueness in language. He formulates the notion as follows: “A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether, had they been contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them as excluded or allowed by the proposition.” In 1923, the famous English philosopher Russell published a thesis titled Vagueness, which marks the basic formation of the fuzziness theory. He indicates that language is more or less vague and explains vagueness by using the principles of symbolism. He maintains that “vagueness, clearly, is a matter of degree, depending upon the extent of the possible differences between different systems represented by the same representation.” (Russell, 1923:5) Russell studied fuzziness from a philosophical point of view, and inspired by fuzzy language, Zadeh published his thesis Fuzzy Sets in the journal Information and Control in 1965, which first puts forward the famous conception “fuzzy sets”. In his thesis, Zadeh announces that “most objects do not have an exact demarcation line; it is an important method to use fuzziness, fuzzy conception and fuzzy inference during the process of cognition.” (Zadeh, 1965: 338-353) Later, Lakoff is considered to be of great contribution to the study of fuzzy language from a semantic point of view. According to Lakoff, “natural language sentences will often be neither true nor false, but rather true to a certain extent, true in certain respects, and false in other respects”. (Lakoff, 1972:183) It is Lakoff and McCawley (1981) who apply Zadehs fuzzy set theory to the study of meaning.Besides, there are some researchers who study fuzzy language from different perspectives, such as Jackendoff, who does a research from the grammatical perspective and Channell, who works on it from the pragmatic point of view.Jackendoff explains the fuzzy phenomenon from the grammatical aspect: “Words, contrary to common-sense intuition, do not have definite and precise meanings which can be exhaustively decomposed into necessary and sufficient conditions.” Jackendoff (1983) gives several examples to illustrate this point. Here are a few: “a. COLOR: What exhaustive decomposition of RED can one give? Once the feature COLOR is stated, what is left to decompose further and how can one make sense of redness minus coloration?b. BIRD: This is the old problem of accounting for the fact that a robin is a better example of a BIRD than an ostrich or a penguin.c. MOVEMENT VERBS: Verbs such as w