An Pragmatic Account Of Vaguness In Diplomatic Language From The Adaptation-Revelance Perspecitve

The diplomacy is the activities between countries. As the carrier of diplomacy, diplomatic language differs form other general languages with its unique feature of pragmatic vagueness strategy. Diplomatic language is usually employed to state diplomatic stance, publicize announcement, release the outcome of talks, answer sensitive questions and create harmonious diplomatic atmosphere. With the features of terseness, flexibility and generality, pragmatic vagueness strategy perfectly meets the demand of diplomatic language and achieves the best communicative effects. From the cognitive pragmatic point of view, the present research makes a qualitative analysis of how the pragmatic vagueness is produced and interpreted by employing the newly-established Adaptation-relevance Model. According to the model, language use is an adaptation process for the seek of optimal relevance. Precisely speaking, the speaker's task is make sure that the interpretation he intends to convey is consistent with the principle of relevance; otherwise, he runs the risk of not being properly understood. The hearer's task is to find the interpretation which is consistent with the principle of relevance; otherwise, he runs the risk of misunderstanding the utterance or not understanding it at all. The process of adaptation-relevance is a dynamic interadaptation between linguistic and contextual choices on both the production and interpretation sides. This research is to raise the awareness of vagueness in human language; to explain the generation and the interpretation of vagueness in diplomatic language from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics and dig out the functions which vagueness can perform in communication. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces pragmatic vagueness, a very common language phenomenon, which is widely used in different language styles, including diplomatic language. Then the introduction of the research questions, objectives and method are followed. Chapter two is the literature review. On the basis of respective analysis of vagueness language and the vagueness in diplomatic language, the author specifies the notions of two terms:diplomatic language and pragmatic vagueness strategy. Chapter three expounds the theoretical framework of the thesis:the Adaptation-relevance Model. This theory is developed on the basis of Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory and regarded as the best theory that has been found so far to analyze the pragmatic vagueness strategy. Chapter four emphasized four important aspects from cognitive perspective. Firstly, cognitive context plays an essential role in the generation and interpretation of diplomat's vagueness. The diplomats can make use of their existed cognitive context to extend, reduce, and change the cognitive presumption in order to reconstruct the cognition presumption, and flexibly answer the question proposed by the communication participants. Then, the author explains the inter-adaptation between linguistic behavior and Contextual Correlates. Next to the last, the interpretation of speaker's meaning is also a dynamic process. Finally, the author argues the linguistic choice of vagueness is just a superficial phenomenon and the result of the utterer's adaptation to his physical, social and psychological world. Chapter five concludes the significance of this study, and points out the thesis's limitations and lists suggestions for further research. In a word, this research analyzes the pragmatic vagueness strategy in diplomatic language by Adaptation-relevance Model, which is of theoretical and practical significance. The research indicates that Adaptation-relevance Model is the most suitable one to elaborate the generation and interpretation of vagueness in diplomatic language. It is of great significance to ensure successful diplomatic activities, facilitate foreign language teaching and cultivate cross-cultural competence.