The Pragmatic Analysis Of Vagueness In Diplomatic Language

As a linguistic phenomenon, vagueness exists in almost all languages and it is one of the characteristics of natural language. Since the 1970s, vagueness has been studied from almost every possible perspective and the concept of vagueness began to shift into pragmatic areas in the 1980s. Although many scholars study vague language from linguistic aspect, not so many people apply it to diplomacy occasions. As an essential part of social life, the diplomatic activity constitutes a treasury of mankind's wisdom and linguistic deftness. On those occasions, the special and practical functions of vagueness are brought into full play.Taking the theories of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle as its theoretical framework, this thesis makes a qualitative analysis of vagueness in diplomatic language based on the collected data and tries to find the realizations and functions of vagueness in this particular language, and tries to reveal whether there any similarities or dissimilarities in the use of vagueness between Chinese and English diplomatic language.This thesis finds that on diplomatic occasions, the pragmatic vagueness can be realized through use of hedge, negative structure, and numerals. The proper use of vague language in diplomatic language has functions such as being polite and amusing, being protecting oneself, reinforcement of flexibility. Essentially, the diplomats use the strategy of vagueness to realize some special political purposes and to maintain political relationships. At last, this thesis points out that vagueness in English and Chinese diplomatic language are similar in that they both can achieve polite function, but there is great difference as to the specific use of vague language.