商务英语信函中模糊限制语的语用功能分析

1、论文题目The Application and Functions of Fuzzy Language in English Business LetterContents1. Introduction12. hedges13. Business English letter in the pragmatic functions of hedges3.1 The politeness principle3.2 Compliance theory4. Pragmatic Analysis of Vagueness in English News4.1 Vague Language in poli

2、tical News4.2 Vague Language in Economic News4.3 Vague Language in Social News4.4 Vague Language in Technological News5. conclusionBibliographyThe Application and Functions of Fuzzy Language in English Business LetterWANG YuQian (Tutor: CHEN Ruyun) (College of Continuing Education, Hubei Normal Univ

3、ersity, Huangshi, China, 435002)Abstract: Business English letter is the purpose of building and maintaining business relationships, promote trade cooperation and keep a good business relationship, the stand or fall of its expression effect is directly related to the economic benefits of enterprise

4、or the company. Hedges are widely used in various kinds of business English letters, and effect of hedges in business English communication is of vital significance. Based on the analysis of the business English letter in the pragmatic functions of hedges, points out that the reasonable use of hedge

5、s can make business communication more accurate, more flexible, more polite and more effective.Key words: Business English；letter hedges；Pragmatic functions 商务英语信函中模糊限制语的语用功能分析摘 要：商务英语信函的目的是建立和维持商业联系、促进贸易合作与保持良好商务关系。其表达效果的好坏直接关系到企业或公司的经济效益。模糊限制语广泛应用于各种商务英语信函中而模糊限制语对于商务英语的交际效果有着举足轻重的作用。本文根据分析了商务英语信函中

6、模糊限制语的语用功能,指出合理地使用模糊限制语能使商务交际更准确、更灵活、更礼貌、更有效。 关键词：商务英语信函 模糊限制语 语用功能The Application and Functions of Fuzzy Language in English Business Letter1. Introduction With the rapid development of social economy, business English letters gradually become people in the global economy international trade both s

7、ides the important means of written business information communication, through which people can communicate information, contact the business, to discuss trade, consultations, dealing with problems, such as pass the friendship, the writing is critical for business success. The fuzzy language is wid

8、ely used in many kinds of business letters, the use of fuzzy language in largeExtent, improve the ability of language communication, make business letters more rigorous, accurate, polite, decent, can produce positive effect, so as to achieve good communication with each other, in order to achieve pu

9、rpose.Therefore, for the study of fuzzy language in business English letter has important practical significance. 2. hedgesVagueness is the essential attribute of natural language. The earliest by the American linguist hedges Mr (Lakoff) in 1972 and began to study. Mr Interpreted hedges make things

10、vague language. Hedges, therefore, refers to people sometimes cant say very precise, even to speak of fuzzy in order to achieve some pragmatic purpose of language. The uncertainty of fuzzy is refers to language. Fuzzy is not fog, also is mixed. Language is an important means of communication art. Fu

11、zzy in the history of art, is the embodiment of the euphemistic. Hedges in business negotiations, political and diplomatic, legal language, news, advertising, etc are widely used, have very strong language application value.3. Business English letter in the pragmatic functions of hedges3.1 The polit

12、eness principlePoliteness principle is a basic requirement of business English letter writing. Politeness phenomena as one of basic means to ensure the success of the human communication, cause the social linguistics, pragmatics, psychology of attention. Famous British scholar leach (Leech) put forw

13、ard politeness principles, think that courtesy is guidelines when dealing with interpersonal relationships. The use of the politeness principle of business English letter words has important guiding significance. The pragmatic world of polite phenomenon is one of the biggest impact on the study of f

14、ace preservation theory. Everyone loves face, if not in the letter to face to the other party, can affect business between us. On the other hand, if you can respect each others wishes, give each other enough face, it is easy to lead to trade cooperation. Kasper think, hedges can make the discourse e

15、xpression has more leeway, reduce the negative impact, have to save face, self-protection and flexible change, etc. Dai Jiandong think hedges said courtesy and respect, and avoid direct conflict, follow the politeness principle and with the aid of fuzzy language said he was not sure attitude or indi

16、rectly expressed their views, in order to achieve the purpose of the moderate tone.Degree of hedges is commonly used in business English letter, by the degree of change will have meaning of modifiers, increase or decrease, such as: a little, almost, kind of, more or less, quite, sort of, etc. . For

17、example, Your reply is a little newest on sentence mean you reply a bit late suggests that the other party has missed opportunity. But the use of a little, soften the tone of the strong, make them aware of their mistakes, but also give each other face, to be more polite, and make it possible to cont

18、inue to trade in the future. How to make up for this type of injury the recipient face behavior will decide whether the trade both sides continue to cooperate. Writing English business letter must pay attention to the politeness principle and politeness principle in different culture. This is indisp

19、ensable in business English letter notice, also must follow the pragmatic principle.3.2 Compliance theoryVerschueren pragmatics throughout the compliance theory in pragmatics provides a comprehensive and scientific research perspectives, especially to the interpretation of adaptation, is of great th

20、eoretical significance, so to speak. Compliance theory is that: when people are not willing to do more accurate use of fuzzy language, namely intentional use, such as: roughly, approximately, the about, around, the or so, the at further, etc. Scope of this kind of hedges can estimate of the things t

21、o make a kind of uncertain, or elementary views are put forward. Reason for using these hedges, the writer didnt want to put the words too the dead, in order to avoid accident objective situation. Writers deliberately using fuzzy language is for the sake of achieving communicative intention, in orde

22、r to adapt to different contexts and psychological emotional factors. According to resilience theory, fuzzy language is the result of the writer select the language and language adaptation. Hedges in business English letter has the appropriate message, improve the elasticity of business language and

23、 polite pragmatic effect. Such as: Our samples will arrive about 2 nd September.（我们的样货大约9月2号到达。） Due to objective factors, the seller can not be sure what time the arrival of the goods. One thousand from the arrival of the goods on time, probably caused economic losses to the buyer. But about theres

24、 room for manoeuvre, the buyer will consider, flexible adjustment, at the same time, the seller also protects oneself, to avoid unnecessary disputes. Visible, the use of hedges in business English letter makes the business communication more accurate and decent.4. Pragmatic Analysis of Vagueness in

25、English NewsIn the present study.vague language is displayed within the theories so as to demonstrate its application and realization in English news report.In this section,our attention is focused on the adaptability and pritieal Discourse Analysis of pragmatic vagueness in English news.4.1 Vague L

26、anguage in political NewsAs is mentioned above. pragmatically.concepts such as human right,freedom,democracy. and so on are often vague . The understanding of these concepts differs greatly in the speaker s political stand and viewpoint. Thus, political news can not do without vague language. for so

27、me political terms embody vague concepts.The example of news report go as follows :Both side have had full and talk on a wide range of subjects of mutual interest.(China Daily,May 20,2004)In this case, the expression full and frank and a wide range of is the vague expression,adapting to both the jou

28、malist s and the two parties acceptance.The readers and both sides only focus on the information they need or are interested in,so the unnecessary details should be generalized in news report.Thus vague language,especially hedge is the best choice.Both sides have had talks on positive aspects and ne

29、gative aspects,and talks on which they may agree with each other, or disagree. In the news, the vague words full and frank generally modify thetalks without reaching a conclusion and specifying the way they talked.Vagueness here adapts to saving face of both sides without telling theprocess of talks

30、.The hedge a wide range of subjects may involves some sensitive topics.or the headache issues such as political and economical interest.Some isssues are so confidential that they are not proper to be released.This is what accurate language can not achieve. but they are not achieve. but they are not

31、proper to be released. This is what accurate language can not achieve.but vague language works so well.adapting to keeping secrets of the talks and avoiding negative effects.4.2 Vague Language in Economic NewsIn economic news report,vague language can achieve some pragmatic functions through the pro

32、per choice of words to adapt to the acceptance of both the addresser and the addressee.and to aim at winning the objective and credibility if economic events.e.g. The plan places a heavy emphasis on fixed and mobile high-speed internet services.a market that has recently become massively competitive

33、 with rivals rushing to undercut each other in recent years.(The New York Times,January 30 ,2008)Vague words of time always show the uncertainty of data when the events take place.The hedgerecentlyandin recent years conveys a vague concept of time.Because of the vagueness of people s mental worlds,t

34、he vague words of time adapts to people time awareness and expressing habits in daily communication.People have got used to expressing the latest time asrecentlybut not the concrete time.The vague expressing massively competitive is a vigorous modifier.adapting tostrengthening the fierce degree of c

35、ompetition.Hedge is always applied as an adverb modify and explain the determined upper limit of following word.Such vague words are the utterances used by speakers to adapt to making subjective judgments or indirect evaluations.4.3 Vague Language in Social NewsSocial news had a close relationship w

36、ith people s daily life, so vague language occurring in social events enables addresses easy understand an accept.e.g. Beijing subscribes of a popular China Mobile service will not pay for in caming calls from within the city stating today as a part of the telecom giants latest move to woo customers

37、 with price cuts. . The ministry of information industry said last month that it would urge the nation s mobile operators to further stash charges and adopt the caller-pay-only mode across the nation in two years. the new pohcy will benefit quite a few users said Liu Zhe. an analyst with Analysis In

38、ternational. a Beijing-based IT consultancy firm. pointing out that some of its package deals already offer free incoming calls.InFebruary.China Mobile Launched different serice packages.costing from 99yuan to 299yuan in Beijing. and more than half of its customers noe use packages that dont charge

39、for incoming calls.(China Daily Wednesday,May 23,2007)Vague Language functions so well in certain context.Vague Language is interdependent on and to the context. So Learmed from the above example. under the context of price cuts on mobile service in Beijing.vague language is applied to manifest the

40、great benefits its subscribers get.The vague expression further slash charges indicates the trend of further price cuts in Mobile service without specifying the exact price cuts.for it is a prediction made according to the trend. Thus,due to the reporter s limited ability to the world.the vagueness

41、here adapts to the objectivity of news information.In the sentence the new policy will benefit quite a few users,the hedgequite a few adapts to the proper choice of words.for there is no need to find out the number of the users who really get benefits from the new policy,considering the timeliness o

42、f news report. The hedge proves that there are surely a countless number of users who benefit from the policy,which attracts readers especially the users attention and adapts to their acceptance.The hedge more than halfadapts to another strategy of vague language-adapt to reliability and objectivity

43、 of the news information.When reporting news.using the exact number of figures seems so wordy and verbose,however,hedges in this way can achieve accuracy and adapt to readers cognitive habits as well as the requirements of news Language.4.4 Vague Language in Technological NewsWith the develoment of

44、science and technology,a great number of new-born technological terminologies have sprung up which only some scientists and scholars can figure out.In this sense,vague language is an effective device to be resorted to help readers understand the new technological information.e. g Microsoft and Yahoo

45、 have discussed possible options over the past year. the newspaper said.Microsoft could sell its MNS online net work to Yahoo and take a minority stake in the internet portal.it said.(New York Times Online, May 4,2006)In above example, the vague expression possible options is a workable device here.Possible option means some options are feasible while others do not work. In technological field, the discussion between two corporations is believed to be confidential, and the decisi