A Study Of Vague Language In English Editorials Based Oil Adaptation Theory

Vagueness is a common phenomenon in language use, and it is also an intrinsic propertyof natural language and human thinking. A lot of foreign and domestic studies on vaguenesshave been done in different scopes such as philosophy, semantics, pragmatics and so on.However, these studies are mainly made from the perspectives of Grice’s CooperativePrinciple or Leech’s Politeness Principle. Very few studies have been done fromVerschueren’s Adaptation Theory perspective, much less on vague language in Englisheditorials.In modern era, newspaper is an important mass media which can convey information topeople all over the world. It is accepted that reading English newspaper is a good way toknow the outside and learn language. With the rise of the genre of commentary, editorial hasattracted much attention because it is regarded as the soul of news media. Writings orresearches on editorials have become the hotspot. As a derivative genre from news report,editorial language has the essential requirement of accuracy, because news language is thecarrier of realities. Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that vagueness and accuracy aremutually incompatible. In fact, vague language is widely used in English editorials. Furtherresearch into employment of vague language in English editorials is still needed.Adaptation Theory put forward by Verschueren can offer proper explanations to themotivations and functions of using vague language in English editorials. Verschueren holdsthat communication is a process of adaptation. In the process of using language, peoplecontinuously make linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously. In this process, thevariability, negotiability and adaptability of language itself enable people to make properlinguistic choices. Adaptability which is regarded as a higher-order notion by Verschueren isthe core of the Adaptation Theory. According to the theory, people make linguistic choiceswith the purpose of adapting to the mental world, the social world and the physical world.Under this theoretical framework, this thesis attempts to analyze how vague language inEnglish editorials is used to adapt to the mental world, the physical world and the socialworld. The author selects a number of editorials published in authoritative American newspapers from their news websites, covering politics, economics, technology and so on.Qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct the research. Through thedetailed analyses, it is found that the application of vague language in English editorials is theresult of choice-making in communication. Vague language can be used as an effective andappropriate strategy by editorialists to achieve certain communication goals which areadaptation to the mental world, the physical world and the social world. The way in whichvague language in English editorials is used to adapt to the mental world includes adaptationto readers’ mental world and adaptation to editorialists’ mental world. Vague language used toadapt to time, space and features of the physical world help to realize the adaptation to thephysical world and the adaptations to politeness, political group and avoiding negative effecton society make the realization of adapting to the social world. Besides, the result shows thatadapting to the mental world is the most important and foremost one. The present study canenrich the research on vague language and provide some suggestions to readers andeditorialists. For editorialists, it can help them use vague language more appropriately andtactfully to achieve their purposes. As to readers, especially English language learners, it canhelp them obtain a better understanding of the aims of using vague language in Englisheditorials and make them understand the target language better. In this respect, the researchmay also provide some inspirations for language learning.