Pragmatic Vagueness In The Diplomatic Language From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

There are large quantities of pragmatically vague utterances in the pressconference where diplomats intend to adopt pragmatic vagueness to avoid sensitivequestions and create a harmonious atmosphere. For a long time, the study ofpragmatic vagueness in diplomatic language has been a research subject withparamount importance among scholars who have conducted various researches fromdifferent angles.According to Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren (1999), language useis a continuous process of making language choices, no matter conscious orunconscious. Before making the appropriate choices, language users will take everyelement in the context into consideration and then choose the most proper languageform. The process of choosing appropriate language forms in accordance with thecontext is the adaptation process. Generally speaking, context is comprised ofphysical world, mental world and social world. Pragmatically vague utterances in thediplomatic language are the typical adaption process. In the formal diplomatic context,in order to reach certain goal, diplomats usually adopt vague utterances which shouldhave been expressed clearly.Within the theoretical framework of Adaptation Theory, the thesis chooses partof records of2012news press conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, andanalyzes how language users adapt to the three worlds to get pragmatic vagueness.Then by taking the shared background knowledge of both parties in thecommunication as the foundation, the thesis probes into the exact steps in interpretingpragmatically vague utterances in the diplomatic language. In conclusion, thepragmatic vagueness in the diplomatic language belongs to the adaptation made bythe diplomats by adapting to the elements in the context and it has various linguisticrealizations and its interpretation process. This thesis conducts certain researches onpragmatic vagueness in the concrete corpus and the author hopes that it will inspirediplomats, language researchers and learners.