A Study On Vagueness In Diplomatic Language Of White House Spokesman/Spokeswoman In Press Conference-Based On Cooperative And Politeness Principles

Language vagueness exists commonly in the communication of people’s lives. In recent years, language learners all around the world have made much progress in the area of language vagueness from various perspectives. In the modern world, the influence of economy and politics of the United States of America is so obvious that no other country can ignore it. While the spokesperson often makes a speech at all kinds of White House press conferences to widespread their political and mental opinions, because White House Press Conference is an influential public activity and it requires a high standard of language conciseness and accuracy as well. However, we can clearly see a lot of language vagueness when the White House spokesperson is committing their speech. Until now, this kind of language research is still insufficient.In the current thesis, the author focuses on large numbers of selected White House language materials to study vagueness in diplomacy. In order to address this topic, both qualitative and empirical methods are utilized for the research work. The author will have a pragmatic analysis of vague languages in White House diplomatic language with the two theories of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. By analyzing the seven representative transcriptions in detail (chosen from different years randomly), the author analyzes the amount of the words, the amount of the sentences and the times vague languages appear in the form of making charts. These show that58percent of the words are vague language.The major findings of the research are as follows:(1) Vagueness strategy is often utilized by White House spokesperson and the frequency is very high and it makes up58%.(2) Generally speaking, vague languages violate the Quantity (61%), Quality (63%) and Manner Maxim (55%) of the Cooperative Principle but seldom violate the Relation Maxim (21%).(4) Vagueness strategy is mainly utilized to help the White House spokesperson to manage his/her remarks to create a good international environment for the country’s development.This thesis is both theoretically and practically significant. Theoretically, this thesis studies a new field--language in White House diplomacy to disclose the nature of vague languages and the language strategy in diplomacy. Practically, this thesis enables readers to get a better understanding of the diplomatic language and is helpful for diplomats’ interpretation and analysis of the diplomatic language.