| With the appearance of Zadeh's "fuzzy sets"theory in 1965, more and morepeople do their research on vague language. Interest in the vagueness of language usehas arisen in recent years. Much progress has been made in the past years in the areasof vagueness study and its application to various styles. However, little work has beendone in the interrelationship between vagueness and diplomatic language. In thecurrent thesis the author focuses on a number of selected diplomatic languagematerials to study the linguistic realization of vagueness in diplomacy and decodewhat diplomats mean by using vague language purposefully. To address this topic,both qualitative and descriptive methods are employed for the research work. Thethesis consists of six chapters:Chapter One presents an overview of previous studies and the author's field ofresearch. The purpose and the significance of the present study are expressed. Inaddition, the theoretical background of this thesis is given.Chapter Two defines the term vagueness and classifies vague expressions. Inaddition, difference is made between vagueness and other terms in order to betterunderstand the term "vagueness".Chapter Three introduces the definition of the diplomatic language, demonstratesits vague characteristics and briefly illustrates the reasons for vagueness in diplomaticlanguage.Chapter Four applies pragmatic principles and theories: the Cooperative Principleand the Politeness Principle to the analysis of vagueness in diplomatic language.Vague language in diplomacy can be used to achieve politeness, to deliberatelywithhold information, to use language persuasively, to protect oneself and so on. Inperforming these functions, vague language enables the speaker either to observe or toviolate the maxims of CP or PP, thus achieving different communicative goals indiplomatic activities.Chapter Five is a case study on the Taiwan issue. The samples are largely chosenfrom the communiqués signed between China and America. This part explains...
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