Pragmatic Analysis Of Vague Language In English Business Correspondence

Vagueness, as an attribute of natural language, is studied from various aspects in different approaches. The thesis aims at studying the addresser's deliberate use of vague language from the pragmatic perspective, adopting Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory to explain when people deliberately use vague language and Brown and Levinson's Face Theory to explain why people deliberately use vague language on these occasions. From the detailed analysis we can arrive at a conclusion that vague language, as adapted to different contextual influences, is used for the two parties' face-wants. The positive functions of vague language in English business correspondence are: (1) increasing the appropriateness of business language; (2) enhancing the flexibility of business communication; (3) deliberately withholding information; (4) mitigating the face-threatening effects; (5) self-protection and (6) indicating you-attitude. At the same time, the thesis points out that vague language has not only positive functions in English busienss correspondence, but also negative functions.Through the pragmatic analysis of vague language in English business correspondence, theoretically, this thesis tries to reveal that vague language is a result of linguistic choice and linguistic adaptation and a product of the two parties' face-wants, and practically, it may help people better understand how to use vague language to write effective English business correspondence.