2。 Literature Review

2。1 The definition of vagueness

Vagueness is one of the properties of natural language, the vagueness of language is universal。 Vague language, as a kind of flexible language, refers to the specific language that has uncertain denotation。 In simple terms, vague language refers to the language that the meaning expressed is not clear。 

Channell thinks that“ an expression is vague if: a。 It’s meaning is indeterminate, even in a specific context; b。 It is deliberately vague to be used to achieve certain communicative intention。”( Channell 22) She noted that “ vagueness in natural language is neither all ‘bad’ nor all ‘good’。” ( Channell 23)文献综述

     About the definition of vagueness, there are a lot of different expressions。 Though the definitions of vagueness are various, we can draw the most features of vagueness is the indefiniteness。

2。2 Review of previous research on vague language

     The previous research on vague language has been greatly extended both at home and abroad。 In 1965, the American professor Zadeh published an article entitled Fuzzy Sets in Information and control。 In this paper, he noted that the object encountered in the physical world often doesn’t have precise and specific boundaries。 For example, the words like “morning”, “afternoon”, “night” and “mid-day”, etc。 All of these words don’t have a clear boundary, but there is a transitional edge zone between them。 This kind of words in fact conveys the concept of vagueness。 In 1972, the famous American scholar Lakoff firstly put forward “linguistic hedges”。 Deese(1974) noted that the vagueness of language was related to  our minds, and it was not generated from the language system。 His expression explained that why vagueness is one property of natural language。 Kempson (1977) discussed the semantic vagueness in Semantic Theory。 Prince and his partners in 1980 established a corpus through collecting the conversation between doctors and the meeting records。 They used these data to research hedges。 Levinson (1987) believed that hedges could be seen as a way to avoid disapprovement。 He expressed that the use of hedges is a polite strategy to protect both sides’ face and maintain the friendly relationship。 Williamson(1996) studied the vagueness especially the origin of vagueness in his book Vagueness from the perspective of cognition。 Joanna Channell(2000), the famous linguist, whose book Vague Language plays a very significant role in studying the vague language。 Vague language is a new research field in China。 The Chinese scholars started to study the vague language not until 1979。 The first domestic linguist that researched the vague language was Wu Tieping。 He published an article entitled Tentative Study of Fuzzy language in 1979。 His theory had a significant impact on the study of vague language in China。 Zhang Qiao (1998) in her book Fuzzy Semantics, studied the vague language from the perspective of semantic。 Tang Hongfang(2007) believed that the use of vague language could enhance the flexibility of language and make the expressions more vivid and interesting。 According to Wang Xuesen(2008), in order to protect both sides’ face, people always use vague language to relax the atmosphere in communication。 Besides, there are lots of other scholars having made contributions to the study of vague language such as Wu Zhenguo, Wen Xu, etc。 

2。3 The definition of bad-news business correspondence

     According to the content of the English business letters’ transmission, business letters can roughly pided into three categories: good-news letter, bad-news letter and persuasive letter。 Bad-news letter is defined as the letter used to convey negative news。 Complaint letters, claim letters, request refusal, delivery delay, etc。 These letters all belong to bad-news business letters。 Bad-news business letter is any message of negative reply to a request and it always gives the reader unpleasant emotional reaction。来*自-优=尔,论:文+网www.youerw.com