A Tentative Study on Fuzzy Language in the Business English Letters —— from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

With the rapid development of globalization, international trading becomes increasingly significant. English business letter, as a communicative tool and an element of international trading, plays a more and more important role in the business world. Considering that business events are of great formality, there is no doubt that the accuracy of the language to be used should be pursued. However, fuzzy language also appears frequently in the English business letters in that its characteristics of flexibility and generality can show politeness and respect to the addressee so that potential conflicts can be effectively avoided in the business matters. While the name of fuzzy language may create a feeling of uncertainty, it actually can add to the accuracy of the communication.

Now that English business letters bear close relationship with fuzzy language, a thorough understanding of the pragmatic functions of vague expressions in the English business letters seems essential. Through such kind of study, we can have a better comprehension of fuzzy language and simultaneously promote a more successful and effective business communication.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

the present paper tries to give a comprehensive study of fuzzy language in the english business letters based on adaptation theory. this study ventures to seek answers to the following questions:

1. how is contextual adaptation of fuzzy language applied in the english business letters?

2. what are the pragmatic functions of vague expressions in the english business letters?

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   3. 国内外研究现状

   fuzzy language has been widely used in daily communication for a long time. different scholars have different opinions on the definition of it. although there is no universally accepted definition of fuzzy language, there are terms adopted by scholars with high frequency in previous studies: fuzziness, generality, ambiguity and hedge. and various studies have been conducted on fuzzy language from three major perspectives ---- philosophical, semantic and pragmatic ----- both home and abroad.

   peirce (1902) is believed to be the starter of the notion of vagueness in language. in his philosophical perspective, the system of language itself allowed communicators to produce utterances without having made the decision about whether certain facts are excluded or allowed by them. in 1965, zadeh (1965) published his article fuzzy set and just in this article, the study of vagueness began to turn to a semantic perspective. the term fuzziness first came into being, which was developed from fuzzy set. fuzzy set refers to “a notion which extends the concept of membership in a set to situations in which there are many, possibly a continuum of, grades of membership” (zadeh, 1965: 338).

   different from studies from semantic perspective, scholars with pragmatic perspective put emphasis on utterances, because they thought that“language only has meanings by virtue of its use”(channell, 2000:29). george lakoff (1972) introduced the concept of linguistic hedge first. it is seen as a kind of means to realize vagueness, and hedge belongs to vague or fuzzy language.

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   4. 计划与进度安排

   1. introduction

      1. research background

      2. objectives and significance of the study

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         5. 参考文献

         1、blundell, r. (1998). effective business communication. englewood cliffs. n.j.: prentice hall.

         2、channell, j. (2000). vague language. shanghai: shanghai foreign language teaching press.

         3、lakoff, g. (1972). hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. chicago: chicago linguistics society.

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