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II. Pragmatic Vagueness in Language
2.1 Definition of Pragmatic Vagueness
Pragmatic vagueness appears frequently in verbal communication. It is meaningful only when vagueness is analyzed from perspective of pragmatics, that is, from the perspective of language use and understanding. Pragmatic vagueness is a phenomenon in language use in which the speaker uses some obscure words deliberately to express thoughts which can be stated clearly, thus achieving a special communicative purpose. It is the uncertainty of language analyzed from the perspective of language use and understanding. Pragmatic vagueness includes such loose forms as approximation（约略）, fuzziness（模糊）, generality（笼统）, ambiguity（两可）, ambivalence（含混） and metaphorical forms as metaphor（隐喻）, meiosis（弱陈）, irony（反讽）, hyperbole（夸张）, etc. Although there is no unified definition, it has been agreed that pragmatic vagueness refers to the uncertainty or obscurity of language. For instance, a man asked his friend, “how much do you earn each month?” His friend thought for a while, and answered, “Er, I earn around several hundred a month.” Obviously, his friend did not want to tell him the truth. “Around several hundred” is uncertain, which may refer to one or two hundred, or even more. We say that the uncertainty used here belongs to pragmatic vagueness.
2.2 Characteristics of Pragmatic Vagueness
Many scholars have studied pragmatic vagueness in various ways, but few of them have generalized the characteristics of it. Chen Chun summarizes three characteristics of pragmatic vagueness in her “Characteristics of Pragmatic Vagueness in Diplomatic Language” (2004).
The first characteristic of pragmatic vagueness is the constraint of the context. The most typical example is the language used by the doctors. In order to comfort an incurable patient, doctors usually do not tell him the truth about his condition. In this specific context, doctors would express their ideas vaguely and indirectly. In this sense, pragmatic vagueness here is constricted by the context.
The second characteristic of pragmatic vagueness is that it is inferable. In verbal communication, both sides have their own scrupulosity, consideration or personal favor, thus they may use pragmatic vagueness in their words to ensure the success of the communication. However, vagueness does not obstruct people in understanding each other. The hearers may apply their available information and inferring ability to getting the profound meanings. Let’s take the following dialogue as an example.
A: What time is it?
B: The mail has already come.
In this conversation, it seems that B gives an irrelevant answer. He doesn’t tell A the time directly. However, there is something inferable in his words. The mail comes at a fixed time every day, which both A and B knows clearly. Therefore, A could infer the real time from B’s answer. In this way, pragmatic vagueness used here is inferable.
The third characteristic of pragmatic vagueness is its wide denotation. It seems that pragmatic vagueness violates the Cooperative Principle, and does not provide enough information, but people may associate the limited information with their experience, knowledge, and emotion. In this sense, they are able to understand the profound meaning and may create sympathy with the speaker. For instance, A and B are talking about the naughty child.
A: Bob is really mischievous, isn’t he?
B: Children are children.
Here, B violates the CP obviously. Her answer can be understood in many ways. As a mother, she intends to protect her child. Meanwhile, she doesn’t want to arouse conflict among neighbors. She may use pragmatic vagueness to indicate that children are all naughty, or she may also indicate that she should have been stricter with her child. In a word, A is able to understand B, and will not get angry any more. It follows that pragmatic vagueness has wide denotation.