An Analytical Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In Political Diplomatic Discourse

Research on vagueness has a long history. Vagueness is a matter of linguisticindeterminacy and connects with context. Pragmatic vagueness is a tactful and skillfulapplication of vagueness in communication. People usually take it as a strategy inspecific communicative cases. Pragmatic vagueness is a communicative strategy whichis fulfilled by means of linguistic manipulation and realized through the skillful andtactful choices of vague language. (Wu Yaxin, 2002).Much progress has been made in the past years in the area of pragmatic vaguenessstudy and its application to various styles. However, little work has been done in theinterrelationship between pragmatic vagueness and political diplomatic discourse. Thisstudy explores pragmatic vagueness in political diplomatic discourse based on thetheoretical framework developed from a new theory—Verschueren's (2000) AdaptationTheory.In political diplomatic discourse, the communicative strategy is frequentlyemployed by diplomats to satisfy certain communicative needs. Under the instructionof the Linguistic Adaptation Theory, the present study makes a qualitative analysis ofthe data and investigates the variability, negotiability and adaptability of pragmaticvagueness in political diplomatic discourse. The following three questions aredynamically approached: 1)What are the linguistic choices in political diplomaticdiscourse that put the communicative strategy of pragmatic vagueness into action;2)How is political diplomatic language adapted to the contextual correlates (specificcontexts or psychological motivations where politeness motivation has played animportant part) by means of pragmatic vagueness;3)What are the pragmatic effects (i.e.communicative functions) that the strategy of pragmatic vagueness in diplomaticdiscourse can perform.The analysis of the data collected reveals that 1) the study makes clear thevariability of pragmatic vagueness as a communicative strategy and the ways of howvague language in diplomatic discourse is maneuvered to realize pragmatic vagueness.The strategy of pragmatic vagueness can be realized by pragmatic markers, especiallyhedging and it is the result of linguistic choices and adaptation;Owing to thecomplexity of linguistic choices, we will study the hedging at three levels: lexical level,syntactic level, cross-textual level;2) the research of the study is the motivated use ofvague language, so it is necessary to find the reasons why diplomats choose pragmaticvagueness rather than other strategies in political diplomatic discourse. Considering thenegotiation and adaptability of pragmatic vagueness, the non-linguistic contextualcorrelates involving many ingredients with which diplomats adapt to for somemotivations are investigated. The non-linguistic contextual correlates that politicaldiplomatic language adapts to by means of pragmatic vagueness encompass social,physical and mental world, the study just chooses linguistic adaptation to specificcontexts and psychological motivations;3) the communicative functions of pragmaticvagueness in political diplomatic discourse are generalized. In diplomatic affairs,diplomats choose pragmatic vagueness to show politeness, to create a harmoniousatmosphere, to be euphemistic and self-protecting, to be flexible and to be tactful. Afterall, the diplomats deliberately use the strategy of pragmatic vagueness to serve theirnational interests, to realize some special political purposes. So they will not alwaysexpress their opinion directly, nor to take a stance definitely.The study of pragmatic vagueness in political diplomatic discourse has itspractical significance. It aims to increase the awareness of this domain of study, anddisclose the nature of using pragmatic vagueness by diplomats, as well as its impact onrelationships between countries. This study may give some insights to the study ofcommunicative skill and language teaching. The focus of teaching, especially foreignlanguage teaching is usually putting on the ways to express oneself clearly andunambiguously. It is expected the study of pragmatic vagueness may offer someinsights for the curriculum designing in language teaching.