A Comparative Study Of Fuzziness In National Defense White Papers Between China And U.S.

It is widely acknowledged that fuzziness is an inherent property of human language. The researches on fuzzy language before are mainly on semantics and pragmatics. However few researchers have conducted a systematic study on the relationship between context and the use of fuzzy language in political documents.National defense white paper is a kind of political materials. The latest 2010 National Security Strategy of the U.S.(NSSUS) and 2010 China's National Defense White Paper(CNDWP) is chosen as the research sample. This paper focuses on the analysis of fuzziness in the two papers. In this dissertation, documentary method, statistical method and method of comparative analysis are employed. For the documentary method, the definition and classification of fuzzy language and the context theory are clearly investigated. For the statistical method, the percentage and kinds of fuzziness in the collected data are figured out accurately. The method of comparative analysis is to analyze the differences or similarities of fuzziness in the two papers deeply by analyzing examples from the context dependence perspectives.There are three major findings: 1) The fuzziness in NSSUS and CNDWP is realized through lexical collocations, grammatical combinations, textual context, situational context, and culture context. 2) The percentage of fuzziness by choice of fuzzy words is the highest among the three kinds of fuzziness in CNDWP and NSSUS. The proportion of fuzziness by implicature and fuzzy additives are nearly the same. 3) The fuzziness by choice of fuzzy words in NSSUS is higher than in CNDWP. The differences of fuzziness indicate that Americans are more inclined to use fuzzy language than Chinese. The kinds of fuzziness Americans and Chinese used reflect their different cultures, thinking-patterns and value orientation. The objective of this study is to enable the readers to get a deeper understanding of the use of fuzzy language in political documents and promote the governors' skills in political writing. The significance of this study is to enrich theoretical and practical research on political documents and fuzzy language.