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Analysis On The Vague Strategies In English Political Discourse

Posted on:2010-01-16Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H R GuoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360275499156Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Vagueness is the fundamental feature of human languages. In the human languages, there are a great number of words that express the concepts, which have not definite boundaries, namely "vague concepts". Vagueness is an indispensable part of human languages, which can be found in every language. So much progress has been made in the past years in the areas of vagueness study and its application to various styles. In the political discourse, the appropriate use of vagueness would contribute to the enhancement of language validity to a certain extent, instead of weakening the accuracy of political language.This thesis will points out that English political discourse is characterized by vivid vagueness in the aspects of syntax, semantics and pragmatics by analyzing the basic features of vocabulary, style and rhetoric. What's more, the thesis does some research on the expressive methods and the functions of vague strategies in political texts. It draws the conclusion that pragmatic vagueness as a way of communicative strategy is a main means to construct the political discourse, as well as an irreplaceable language skill to make the political discourse integrated flexibleness and principles. The political discourse is constructed to express the ideas and thoughts in an indirect, polite, exact and flexible way by implicative and brief vague language, by which saves face, maintains good relationship, defenses your interests and realizes the communicative aims. Vague strategies are of various expressive ways and functions. A kind of vagueness can perform many functions, and one function can be performed by different ways of pragmatic vagueness. The interaction between them is the most significant feature of communicative strategies in political discourse. It is needed without doubt to have a good command of firm language knowledge and rich background knowledge in order to understand the vague strategies and acquire the deep communicative aims by seeing into the surface vagueness.
Keywords/Search Tags:Vagueness, English Political Discourse, Strategies
PDF Full Text Request
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