A Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In The U.S. Department Of State Spokesperson’s Remarks From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Vagueness,as a progressively explored phenomenon for centuries,has been ideally positioned in the academic field by now.Vague language,which is challenging“the basis of fine tradition — preciseness of a language”,prevails in our daily communication.There are many instances in everyday language that vagueness is employed as a communicative strategy for special intentions.People even cannot define the meaning of these simple words like tall,high,good,red,bald,old.Therefore,the phenomenon of vagueness in language should not be overlooked and treated pejoratively even though it is difficult to characterize.The broad aim of this present study is to make a rigorous analysis of vagueness from a pragmatic view in the setting of the United States Department of State spokesperson’s remarks(USDSSRs,for short).Taking Sperber & Wilson’s Relevance Theory as a theoretical framework,this thesis addresses the questions as follows:(1)What are the linguistic devices that make pragmatic vagueness realized in the U.S.Department of State spokesperson’s remarks? And what are the frequencies of these linguistic devices of pragmatic vagueness in the spokesperson’s remarks?(2)How is pragmatic vagueness interpreted in the spokesperson’s remarks under Relevance Theory?(3)What are the functions of pragmatic vagueness in the spokesperson’s remarks?In order to investigate the four specific research questions comprehensively,the present study is a research combining both quantitative and qualitative methods on account of the complementarity between these two approaches.The data used in the research are confined to the spokesperson’s remarks from the daily press briefings held by the U.S.Department of State.Twelve transcripts of daily press briefings,authentic without any single change,are selected randomly from January 1st 2016 to June 30 th 2016 on the official website of the U.S.Department of State(http://www.state.gov/).From the perspective of Relevance Theory,the analysis ofpragmatic vagueness in the data has yielded the following major research results:1)Pragmatic vagueness,used as a communicative strategy,pervades in the remarks of spokespersons in the State Department press briefings.Six major linguistic devices at two levels,including lexical level and syntactical level,have been adopted to make pragmatic vagueness into realization in the USDSSRs.Most pragmatic vagueness used in the USDSSRs are realized at lexical level(95.81%),including hedges(38.40%),deixis(20.18%),general/abstract words(29.69%),and modal auxiliary verbs(7.54%).With a small number,the other two linguistic devices at syntactical level(4.19%)are negative structures(3.10%)and meaning inconsistent structures(1.09%).So the results show that pragmatic vagueness often appears in the form of lexicon in the USDSSRs.2)Relevance Theory explores pragmatic vagueness from a cognitive point of view and throws some light on the likely reasons why pragmatic vagueness occurs naturally and inevitably.Spokespersons using pragmatic vagueness in the press briefings are guided successfully by the principle of relevance.The utilization of pragmatic vagueness and ostension are not contradictory each other.Besides,the interpretation of pragmatic vagueness is influenced by several factors,including:cognitive ability of the participants,cognitive context and cultural influences.3)Pragmatic vagueness has some important functions.The positive effects of pragmatic vagueness in the USDSSRs include showing politeness and saving face,protecting spokespersons against unfavorable responsibility,being flexible and creating a harmonious atmosphere.The appropriate and reasonable use of pragmatic vagueness in the linguistic communication really matter.