Pragmatic Vagueness As A Strategy In Political Diplomatic Discourse

Pragmatic vagueness refers to a communicative strategy, which is carried out by the manipulation of vague language to achieve certain communicative goals. Using Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory, this thesis explores the pragmatic vagueness in political diplomatic discourse from the angles of language production and language interpretation.According to Verschueren, pragmatics is a general cognitive, social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in relation to their usage in forms of behaviour (or social action). So he puts forward the Linguistic Adaptation Theory, whose key ideas include: 1) using language is a process of the continuous making of linguistic choices (both forms and strategies). 2) three properties of language, i.e. variability, negotiability, and adaptability, make the process possible. 3) the concept of adaptation assigns four angles of adaptability, i.e. contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, the dynamics of adaptability, and the salience of adaptation process.In this thesis, the use of "diplomacy" is confined to political diplomacy only, and "diplomatic discourse" is limited to oral and written practices in negotiations, speeches,...