The Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In Job Interview From Adaptation-theoretical Perspective

In recent years, the research on pragmatic vagueness phenomenon has receivedwidespread attention of linguists, but the study of pragmatic vagueness in the jobinterview is rarely involved. Therefore, this thesis will adopt Vershueren’s LinguisticAdaptation Theory as the theoretical framework to study the pragmatic vagueness in jobinterviews.Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory is widely applied in pragmatic study.According to Verschueren, the use of language is actually a social act, and is closelyrelated to the cognitive, social and cultural factors.The job interview is mainly the conversation in form, but the contents ofconversation are actually the crash and collision of social, culture and cognitive factors.Therefore, this thesis has both theoretical and practical significances. This thesis willstudy the pragmatic vagueness and its communicative functions in job interviewprogram with the case study of Tianjin TV program Only You from the perspective ofLinguistic Adaptation Theory.The main contents of the Linguistic Adaptation Theory are that:(1) the use oflanguage is actually a continuous process of making choices including linguistic formsand communicative strategies;(2) the choice process can be understood in terms ofthree hierarchically related notions: variability, negotiability and adaptability;(3) thereare four mainly investigation dimensions: structural objects of adaptability, contextualcorrelates of adaptability, the dynamics of adaptability and the salience of adaptationprocess.This thesis adopts the method of qualitative analysis. This paper mainly involvesthree questions:(1) what linguistic forms are used to realize pragmatic vagueness in jobinterviews?(2) what communicative functions does the vagueness language have in jobinterviews?(3) why is the pragmatic vagueness used by the interviewers and interviewees in job interviews?Finally, it’s concluded that the pragmatic vagueness in job interview is mainlymanifested in the lexical and syntactical levels. The use of pragmatic vagueness ismainly to adapt to non-linguistic factors: the mental world, social world and physicalworld. As for the functions of pragmatic vagueness, it can express politeness,euphemism, save faces and increase the utterance’s flexibility. However, every coin hastwo sides, so is the pragmatic vagueness. It can also produce some negative functionssometimes. Therefore, the candidates must use the pragmatic vagueness properly inorder to ensure the smooth communication.