A Tentative Study Of Vague Language In The State Of The Union

Vague phenomenon has drawn many linguists'attention from the days when Zadeh put forward"Fuzzy Set Theory". Wu Tieping, a guru of vague linguistics in China pointed out that vague language can be widely seen; thereby to master vague language can greatly improve communicative competence. Scholars have almost unanimously reached a consensus that vague language means a kind with plain core meaning but blurry extension meaning; or the sort which is obvious in semantic meaning while obscure in pragmatic circumstances. At present research concerned includes semantic vagueness, pragmatic vagueness and rhetorical vagueness; and mainly involves the areas like news, business, laws and diplomacy. However, so far little study on vague language in the State of the Union has been found.Based on the theories in vague linguistics research such as nature, features, lexical vagueness, pragmatic vagueness and rhetorical vagueness, combined with the statistical tool Antconcordance, the present dissertation aims at the study of vague phenomenon in the State of the Union from both quantitative and qualitative research methods, with the data primarily coming from ten presidents'State of the Union scripts. The analysis is mainly undertaken on three aspects: lexical vagueness, grammatical vagueness (such as negative sentence and passive sentence) and rhetorical vagueness (such as metaphor and irony as examples). Moreover the functions of vague language in the State of the Union will be discussed. Consequently, rules of vague phenomenon in the State of the Union are to be summarized.The study shows that adjectives and adverbs account for the major portion of vague words in the State of the Union. Besides, the statistics has clearly revealed that plausibility shield has occurred more frequently in the State of the Union than other kinds of hedges. Furthermore, vague languages often convey some presupposition. There is no doubt that understanding the hidden information contained in vague language will help us better appreciate the excellent English in the State of the Union. On the basis of the findings, this thesis will yield some implications for relevant areas; and in the end the author will make some suggestions for further research.