Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Origin of the study
We know, in the natural world, there are a lot of things or phenomena which areindeterminate. It is difficult or even impossible for us to give them a clear-cutdefinition, such as cool，cold, warm，hot. The same is true for colors. We can say red，deep red, and pale red. But there are many colors between deep red and pale red; wecan not give them a definite name. All these things have a fuzzy zone. In our dailylives, things or phenomena like those mentioned above could be found everywhere.Human language is also rich in these vague things and phenomena.Fuzziness, as an essential feature of language，exists widely in many aspects ofhuman language. In 1965 L.A. Zadeh put forward the concept of Fuzzy Sets. Withthe birth of Fuzzy Sets, it has provided a new studying perspective to linguistics andlinguistic research work has stepped into a new stage. So far, a great achievementhas been made by the scholars in the filed of vague linguistics and more and morepeople do their research on the basis of vagueness, including business English.Language is the vehicle of business communication activities. Business English is alanguage to be applied by business people for conununication in business activities.In our daily communication, people tend to pursue precision in order to get a success.According to the Cooperative Principle made by Grice, there are four maxims whichshould be observed during a conversation: communicators should make what theysaid have enough information, the utterance is relevant and clear to the present topicand make sure what they say is not fake others.But, in reality，we do not necessarily process the communication according to thesefour maxims. We will use some vague language in our daily communication. Fuzzylanguage forms a considerable part of language and it has become part of our lives.In this regard, business English is not an exception. The 21 century is an era ofknowledge economy developing newly. International business English, generallyregarded as an ESP, manifests strong vitality increasingly. With the development ofglobal economy and international trade, business English is used in various businessactivities. Business language has long been identified with accuracy and clarity so asnot to lead to misunderstanding. So no room is left for fuzziness in business English.However, researches show that fuzzy expression still exists in such an accurate andclear language. Fuzziness and accuracy of language can coexist. In the actualbusiness activities, fuzzy language, both oral and written, does exist in businessEnglish in order to achieve specific communicative purposes. In recent years study,great success has been achieved on this field, especially vague language in businessEnglish correspondence and translation strategies.Cambridge Business English Certificate examination, which is popular in the world,is the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education and the British University ofCambridge Examinations Board examinations organized in cooperation. Theteaching materials, "pass Cambridge Business English Vantage" are recommendedby Cambridge ESOL Examination Center and the Ministry of Education, publishedby Economic Science Publishing House. This material is based on modem businessactivities as the material prepared for the exam, and it covers all the relevantbusiness information, including business articles, business correspondence letters,business conversation and business advertisements. There is a lot of fuzzy languagein it. However, up till now, there are no studies on vague language in CambridgeBusiness English. Based on the previous researches on the fuzzy language inbusiness English, this thesis plans to study the vague language in pass CambridgeBusiness English (Vantage, student book, the second edition). Then from thepragmatic perspective, it discusses why the vague language is employed in businessEnglish. That is making language more accurate, more tactful,
