Abstract

As is known to most people, Legal English is gradually formed in the process of legislation, judicature and law enforcement; as a prescriptive language branch, legal English has its own unique features-it is characterized by the using of precise words. To our surprise, in the legislative language and judicial practice, the phenomenon of applying substantial vague expressions can be found nearly everywhere.

Legal English is to be as precise as possible, however, the legislator are apt to use vague expression, whose intention and purpose worth deeply exploring. In fact, it has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad. On the basis of previous studies, this paper mainly discusses  the use of vague expressions in legislative language and judicial language based on three principles of pragmatics, they are CP, PP and RT.

This thesis all together consists of five sections. In the first part, the author briefly introduces the background of this thesis; then she simplely reviews the pertient research in this field; after that, this thesis will go on with the introduction of some basic information of three pragmatic principles-the CP, PP and the RT; in section 4, the author is going to expound the pragmatic functions of vagueness in legislative and judicial language by applying some legal cases. Based on the pragmatic analysis of vagueness in legal English, this paper can enrich the existing research and widen the scope of the research in this field , what’s more, it can help people to understand, grasp and apply legal English better. 

Key Words: Legal English; Vagueness; Pragmatics

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

2  Literature Review-3

2.1 The Definition of Vagueness-3

2.2 The Main Study Approaches of Vagueness-4

2.2.1 The Objective Approach of Vagueness-5

2.2.2 The Subjective Approach of Vagueness-5

2.2.3 The Linguistic Approach of Vagueness-5

2.3 The Characteristics of Vagueness-5

2.3.1 Subjectivity-6

2.3.2 Indeterminacy-6

2.3.3 Agglutination-7

2.3.4 Variability-7

2.4 Summary-8

3  Theoretical Basis-9

3.1 The Cooperative Principle-9

3.2 Politeness Principle-11

3.3 Relevance Theory-13

3.3.1 Two Principles of Relevance Theory-13

4  Data Analysis and Discussion-15

4.1 The Application of Cooperation Principle in Vague Expressions of Legal English-15

4.1.1 The Case of Violating Maxim of Quantity as an Adaptation-15

4.1.2 The Cases of Violating Maxim of Manner as an Adaptation-16

4.2 The Application of Politeness Principle in Vague Expressions of Legal English-17

4.3 The Application of Relevance Theory in Vague Expressions of Legal English-18

5  Conclusion-20

Bibliography-21

Acknowledgments-23