Analyzing Vagueness In Diplomatic Language From The Pragmatic Perspective

Diplomacy is involved with the negotiation between international affairs. Diplomatic language has its unique characteristics of using vague language. Diplomats frequently take the advantage of diplomatic parlance to announce the outcome of a talk, to answer sensitive questions and to harmonize the diplomatic atmosphere. Featured as terseness, flexibility and generality, vague language successfully meets the demand of diplomacy. This dissertation first reviews academic research on vagueness home and abroad and states the basic characteristics of vague language in terms of its definition and some related confusing terms. The reasons for the existence of vague language are given as well as the characteristics of diplomatic language. Then, on the bases of abundant practical diplomatic corpus, the dissertation tries to analyze how vagueness is embodied and what function it performs in diplomatic language from the pragmatic perspective. This paper holds that adopting vague language in diplomatic occasions may be effective to the promotion of diplomatic relations, achieving the functions of being polite, declaring one's position, protecting oneself, withholding information, breaking the deadlock, etc. Analyzing vagueness in diplomatic language from the pragmatic perspective gives some practical significance for the understanding and using of diplomatic language in successful diplomatic activities.