An Analysis Of Pragmatic Vagueness In The Political Interview

The research object in the present study is the use of pragmatic vagueness inthe political interview. In order to reveal the underlying operation mechanism ofpragmatic vagueness in the political interview, the present study analyzes14politicalinterviews based on the framework generated from Verschueren’s adaptation theory.The author attempts to probe into the operation mechanism of pragmaticvagueness from three aspects:1. indicators of pragmatic vagueness in the politicalinterview;2. adaptation of pragmatic vagueness to the political interview;3.pragmatic functions that pragmatic vagueness performs during the politicalinterview.The present study finds out that during the political interview, when theinterviewer and the interviewee make linguistic choices, a high degree ofmetapragmatic awareness is involved, which results in linguistic traces at lexical andsentential levels. Besides, pragmatic vagueness is the result of adaptation to thephysical, social and mental worlds. To be more specific, these contextual factorsinclude settings, audience, social identities, social conventions, motivations, beliefsand emotions. Finally, pragmatic functions that the interviewer and the intervieweeperform are different. From the perspective of the interviewer, it is used to guidetopics and shift hearers’ attention, while for the interviewee, functions ofappropriateness, perceived cooperativeness and perceived authenticity areperformed.Theoretically, the present study hopes to further the understanding of pragmaticvagueness and reveal the explanatory power of adaptation theory; practically, theresearch aims to assist the interviewer and the interviewee in using languagestrategically, thus, their communicative goals will be achieved respectively.