Dissertation > Excellent graduate degree dissertation topics show

A Pragmatic Analysis of Vague Language in English Company Profiles

Author: SunYang
Tutor: CaiXingQi
School: Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: vague language online English company profiles Cooperative Principle Relevance Theory pragmatic analysis
CLC: H313
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2008
Downloads: 275
Quote: 1
Read: Download Dissertation

Abstract


The present study examines vague language employed in online English company profiles from a pragmatic perspective. The study is intended to be a qualitative one. The author collects English profiles from 31 international companies’ websites. Example of vague language from these 31 company profiles are analyzed and explained from the perspectives of Grice’s Cooperative Principle (1975) and Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory (1995) respectively.Online company profile writers use vague language in various ways. In this thesis, the author is only going to discuss the vague presentations of numbers and quantities. Based on Channell (2000) ’s categorization, vague expressions of quantities are grouped into approximating quantities with numbers and approximators, approximating quantities with round numbers and approximating quantities with non-numerical vague quantifiers. The analysis in the present study is going to be conducted upon such categorization.From the perspective of the Cooperative Principle, vague expressions are used as ways to demonstrate the cooperation of the writers: in some cases, they make it possible that the writers observe all conversational maxims at the same time; in other cases they adhere to one maxim by violating another. From the perspective of the Relevance Theory, vague language could save both the writers’ and the readers’ processing effort and still achieve the same cognitive effects. Thus, vague language is more relevant than precise ones under some circumstances.Having found out the three types of vague presentations of quantities and explanations from both the Cooperative Principle and the Relevance Theory, the author will work out the pragmatic functions achieved by using vague language in company profiles. The pragmatic functions are: tailoring the amount of information, making language more persuasive, coping with the lack of information, strengthening the credibility of the company and being emphatic.Vague language is a device often employed by English company profile writers. The pragmatic analysis of such a language phenomenon is needed in linguistic studies.

Related Dissertations

  1. Modern Chinese greeting,H136
  2. On the Trnslaion of Associative Meanings of Culturally-loaded Works by Applying Relevance-Adaptation Model,H315.9
  3. Contrastive Studies of Pun in Figures of Speech,H15
  4. Pragmatics Relevance Theory on the College English Reading Comprehension,H319
  5. Studies of Colloquial Discourse Markers in Friends from Perspective of Relevance Theory,H313
  6. Perspective of Relevance Theory Advertising Translation validity analysis,H315.9
  7. Relevance Theory Study of military term semantic generalization,H030
  8. An Experimental Study of Scalar Implicature from the Perspective of Relevance Theory,H319
  9. Omitted phenomenon in the Sino-Japanese Subtitles Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory,H36
  10. On Translating Verbal Humor in Hong Lou Meng from the Perspective of Relevance Theory,I046
  11. An Analysis of Interpretative Force of Relevance Theory on Cultural Factors in the Translation of Thunderstorm,I046
  12. \,H313
  13. A Pragmatic Analysis of Verbal Humor in How I Met Your Mother,H313
  14. Pragmatic Analysis of \,I561
  15. Catをい るthe a metaphorical performanceのturned訳につい ての,H36
  16. An Experimental Study on the Relevance Theory and Its Application to the Teaching of English Reading Comprehension for Junior Middle School Students,G633.41
  17. Relevance Theoretical Approach to Translation of Cultural Elements in Chinese Film Subtitles,H315.9
  18. \,H146
  19. A Study on Metaphor Interpretation & Translation Based on Relevance Theory,H05
  20. Study on E-C Film Subtitle Translation from Optimal Relevance,H059
  21. A Relevance Theoretic Approach to Film Subtitle Translation,H059

CLC: > Language, writing > FOREIGN > English > Semantics,vocabulary,semantic
© 2012 www.DissertationTopic.Net  Mobile