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t vague language is concerned. One reason is that vague language itself is vague. However, the present study needs to define the research object and has its own definition of vague language since it is not intending to be all-inclusive.
　　　H. P. Grice also offers a definition for vagueness: to say that an expression in vague( in a broad sense of vagueness) is presumably, roughly speaking, to say that there are cases (actual or possible) in which one just dose not know whether to apply the expression or to withhold it and one’ s not knowing is not due to ignorance of the facts. (H .P .Grice, 1975) Grice’ s definition is a broader one: it applies to what we call pragmatic vagueness as well as semantic vagueness. ‘Not knowing whether to apply the expression’ can mean (a) not knowing whether applying a statement would be true, or(b) not knowing whether it would be appropriate in the circumstances to make such a statement. Black (1937) brings forward a more concrete definition of fuzziness. In his view “fuzziness” is a label for the phenomenon of borderline cases. An expression or a concept is vague or fuzzy if and only if it has borderline cases. An expression or a concept is vague or fuzzy if and only if it has borderline cases, that is, actual or potential cases in which it neither clearly applies nor clearly fails to apply.
　　　It is widely acknowledged that vagueness of human languages shows itself most prominent in words and their meanings. Then how did these words, or so-called vague items, come into being? In fact, there have been kinds of views on the origin of vagueness, and still no firm agreement on it has been reached. According to Chen Weizhen and Wu Shixiong (2002), these views can be summarized as follows; (1) The vagueness of language symbol is originated from the vagueness of things and events; (2) Vagueness is caused by the cognitive limitation of human being; (3) Vagueness is a basic attribute of language symbol. Wu Shixiong (1996) assumes that “the fuzziness of language arises from the process of human’ s cognition”. (In other parts of this thesis, “vagueness” and “fuzziness” have the same meaning and denotation.)
　　　The present study tries to put forward the definition of vague language as follows, based on the definition of Channell (2000) and Zhang Qiao (1998):
　　　An expression or a word is vague, if：(1) It has more than one possible interpretation and no definite meaning can be derived; (2) It is intentionally vague to be used to achieve certain communicative intention.
　　　It can be seen that there are no consistent opinions about the definition of vague language, however, such definitions put forward by the influential linguists actually have something in common and make great sense. Vagueness is typical of human language, and vague language diversifies human being’ s mind and language expressions.
1.2 The Distinction between Vagueness and Some Similar Terms
　　　　In fact, there is no unified opinion on the differences between the four linguistic concepts of vagueness, fuzziness, generality and ambiguity. Though much effort and research has been done on the matter, it is still not clear how to distinguish these four similar concepts and there is a great diversity among linguists in defining them, which share the same characteristic of indeterminacy and conveying imprecise information.
1.2.1 Vagueness and Fuzziness
　　　Strictly speaking, fuzziness is distinct