Pragmatic Functions And Interpreting Strategies Of Vague Expressions Based On Adaptation Theory

During the two sessions, the press conference, in which the spokesperson of Foreign Ministry will illustrate China’s diplomatic policies and statues over some hot issues, has become a spot attracting journalists from home and abroad. Diplomatic language, as the product of Chinese culture, is not only a tool for information delivery, but also a diplomatic means for handling various sensitive issues. Current researches on diplomatic interpretation can be divided into two categories. One focuses on the vagueness of diplomatic language and its translating strategies by dint of translation theories. The other concentrates on the interpretation of culture-loaded words and complicated sentences. However, the author finds the some strategies summarized by previous researchers can merely apply to written translation. Seldom do scholars dig out the interpreting strategies of vague expressions on diplomatic occasions. Therefore, this thesis, on the basis of previous researches, taking vague expressions used on diplomatic occasions as the research object, conducts a case study of Minister Yang’s speech in answering the journalists’ questions. It analyzes the pragmatic functions of vague expressions and relevant interpreting strategies including literal translation, simplification, addition, omission, clarification and restructuring sentence.This thesis includes six chapters. Chapter One introduces the background, necessity, organization of the research. Chapter Two looks back on the findings on diplomatic interpreting achieved by previous researchers from home and abroad. Chapter Three analyzes the main contents of Adaptation Theory including three characteristics of language choices and four research perspectives of Adaptation theory, among which contextual correlates with adaptability is the spot. Chapter Four discusses vagueness and the pragmatic functions of vague expressions, namely saving the face of spokesperson and journalist, maintaining a sound relation with other nations and establishing a positive national image. Chapter Five is the emphasis of this thesis, which focuses on the interpreting strategies of vague expressions in light of Adaptation theory attached with a number of typical examples selected from the press conference held in 2013. Altogether, this thesis concludes two kinds of interpreting strategies, namely vague-to-vague strategy and vague-to-clear strategy. The last Chapter concludes the whole thesis and its limitations and indicates direction for further studies.