A Study Of Vague Language In American Presidential Inaugural Addresses From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Presidential Inaugural addresses are a type of unique and important practical style. They are delivered by the president towards the public at home and abroad, and the main purpose is to publicize his or her own governance policies and win the support of the public, which is of great historical significance. It is commonly believed that presidential inaugural addresses should seek for refined and precisely worded language, never be vague, however, vague language in presidential inaugural addresses has always been in a state of neglect. As a matter of fact, vagueness extensively exists in nature, human society and thought. It is also considered to be one of the essential features of language. Vague language is common, and plays an essential role in all parts of our life, which draws the attention of many philosophers and linguists at home and abroad for a long period of time. Vague language frequently appears in inaugural addresses, for it has irreplaceable features and functions.This paper tends to analyze the vague language in American presidential inaugural addresses by taking relevance theory as the theoretical framework. The research material is taken from the inaugural addresses of ten recent American presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama in order to reflect the characteristics of modern English. Relevance Theory, considered to be the continuation and development for H. P. Grice's relevant maxim in his cooperative principle, was put forward by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986 in their coauthored book Relevance: Communication and Cognition. It has become an influential type of theory of cognitive pragmatics in recent years. Relevance theory takes verbal communication as an ostensive-inferential process which holds that the understanding of utterances should seek for relevance based on context, make inferences, and achieve contextual effects. People in verbal communication always maximize the contextual effects, minimize processing efforts in order to achieve optimal relevance. This study pays equal attention to description and interpretation, as well as combines theory with practice on the basis of qualitative analysis. It turns out that vague language with irreplaceable functions should be commonly used by the presidents in inaugural addresses. Besides, it is also proved that relevance theory should have certain explanatory power for vague language in presidential inaugural addresses. Heretofore, in all publications on vague language, the interpretation of vague language from the perspective of relevance theory seems very rare, which demonstrates the practical value of this study from one aspect.