A Study Of Vague Language Interpretation In Premier Wen Jiabao’s Press Conferences From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Interpretation has enjoyed tremendous development in current years as an important part of the translation studies. Of all the categories of interpretation studies, the study on diplomatic interpretation, which is directly related with a country’s interests, image and even its national dignity, is the one that attracts particular attention. Therefore, Premier Wen Jiabao’s Press Conferences Interpretation (It can be short for PCI) also deserves attention and study as one of important diplomatic occasion. It is highly believed that the sentences used by Premier Wen Jiabao are usually accurate and clear. However, on occasions like press conferences when confronted with sharp questions, the premier would have to maintain international relationships and avoid conflicts. Most of the strategies taken are vague language. What’s more, Premier Wen Jiabao has a good knowledge of Chinese culture and national situation and he always answers reporter’s questions vividly and aptly by quoting various poems and famous sentences. These poems and sentences also make Premier Wen’s talks vague and indirectly. Therefore, one of the most prominent features of Premier Wen Jiabao’s press conferences is that it is often embedded with a considerable amount of vague information.Vagueness happens at any possible level of language. Vague language has the features of subjectivity, variability, indeterminacy and agglutination which are interlinked with the three notions of language given by Verschueren in Adaptation Theory. Therefore, vague language and Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory are highly related. In other word, Adaptation Theory casts light on the study of vague language interpretation.Adaptation Theory was firstly put forward by Verchueren in 1987. According to him, language use is a continuous process of choice-makings among various possibilities, and the choice-making demonstrates three features of language:variability, negotiability and adaptability. The choices of language are dynamic. In Premier Wen Jiabao’s press conference interpretation various dynamic choices are made between speaker and the interpreter, interpreter and hearers affecting by the different factors. In order to explain these dynamic choices, Verschueren also put forward four angles of investigation: contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation process. Verschueren’s four angles of investigation provide a new perspective for this research on the interpretation of vague language.Through data collection and material analysis, the author found that the Adaptation Theory has showed its advantages compared with other theories in explaining the interpretation of vague information. However, after reviewing previous studies conducted on governmental leader’s press conferences, the author found that few of them were conducted under the theoretical framework of Adaptation Theory. Therefore, this thesis will study vague information interpretation in Premier Wen Jiabao’s PCI based on Adaptation Theory and offer concrete strategies with ample examples.This thesis falls into five parts. Chapter Ⅰ introduces the research background, purpose, methodology and organization of the thesis. Chapter Ⅱ defines the key terms and reviews previous studies. Chapter Ⅲ introduces Adaptation Theory and provides the theoretical framework for the study. Chapter IV, as the main part of this thesis, conducts a close study of vague language interpretation from the four angles of investigation in Adaptation Theory and offers strategies in interpreting vague information in Premier Wen’s press conferences with examples. The last chapter comes into a conclusion with major findings and limitations of this thesis and gives suggestions for further study.