A Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In International Business Contract

Since the concept and theory of fuzziness was proposed in 1960's, researchers have made much systematic descriptive study on vague language, especially on the aspects of semantics. But little interpretive study on the same topic has been conducted. Most people hold that international business contract has always been requiring clear and concrete language, so the systematic study of vague language in contract has been neglected. Actually vague language is frequently used in international business contract. The present study has centered its attention on employment of vague language in international business contract based on Verschueren's Adaptation Theory with the purpose of exploring the following two questions.(l)What specific contexts do people adapt to when vague language is used in business contract?(2)What pragmatic functions are performed by using vague language in business contract?The use of vague language can be classified into two types: (1) misuse or improper use of vague language; (2) deliberate use of vague language when contractors are reluctant to be more precise. The current thesis focuses on the deliberate use of vague language to help contractor fulfill certain communicative intentions. The aims of the study are to probe how the two parties of the contract adapt to context and choose proper vague language to achieve communicative functions they desire.In this study, vague language is made as adaptation to contextual correlates. From the detailed analyses we can arrive at a conclusion that vague language in business contract is a result of linguistic choice, a result of linguistic adaptation and a product of the interaction between the two parties in business contract.