A Comparative Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In Chinese And English Diplomatic Language

As an essential and intrinsic property of natural language, vagueness is a universal linguistic phenomenon and an indispensable part to linguistic communication. In recent years, vagueness has become a hot topic for scholars and great achievements have been made in semantic approaches to vagueness theory and pragmatic studies of vagueness applied in a variety of discourse, including diplomatic texts. Diplomatic language, as an effective means for international exchange, reflects the foreign policies of a country and is a useful tool for diplomats to protect the interests of their countries. Both Chinese and American diplomats resort to vagueness to achieve certain diplomatic purposes. However, most of the previous studies are mainly dedicated to the general analysis of vagueness applied in diplomatic environment. In other words, some Chinese data or English materials are analyzed respectively to probe into how vagueness is used in diplomatic language. It is recognized to us all that the rapid development of world economy has spurred the communication between China and the rest of the world, which explains partly why a comparative study of vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language becomes necessary.The thesis selects six Chinese texts and six English texts on various topics and genres as the research materials. The actual data are collected by the qualitative and quantitative research methods. The comparative analysis of vagueness between Chinese and English diplomatic language is made with Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory as the theoretical framework, with a view to answering the following questions:(1) How is vagueness realized in Chinese and English diplomatic language, and what are the similarities and differences in the realization?(2) What are the underlying causes for application of vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language from the perspectives of Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory?(3) What are the functions of vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language?The present thesis has got three main findings:First, through the comparative analysis of linguistic realizations of vagueness in diplomatic language, it is found that vagueness is realized in both English and Chinese materials lexically, syntactically and textually. And the frequency of vagueness on the lexical level is the highest for both Chinese and English diplomatic texts, while the frequency of vagueness on syntactic and textual levels is much lower. The difference lies in that vagueness on textual level enjoys a comparatively higher frequency in Chinese materials.Second, from the perspectives of Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory the underlying causes for application of vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language include the special occupation of diplomats and the typical characteristics of diplomatic language, the different modes of thinking and the different value orientations between two people and different diplomatic policies between two countries.Third, through the qualitative analysis of pragmatic vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language, the functions of vagueness adopted by the diplomats are found, which comprises four points: achieving politeness, self-protecting, creating harmonious atmosphere and being flexible.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the study. It briefly points out research background, research questions, data collection and research methodology, the significance of the research, and the layout of the thesis. Chapter two displays the research on vagueness and the diplomatic language. And the literature review of studies on vagueness in diplomatic language both at home and abroad is included. In Chapter three, the author elaborates on the theoretical framework of this study, i.e. Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle, Face Theory. Chapter four is the most vital portion of the thesis, which mainly consists of three sections. First, it analyzes the realization of vagueness in both Chinese and English diplomatic language at lexical, syntactic and textual levels. Second, from the theoretical perspectives of Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory, the application of pragmatic vagueness in Chinese and English diplomatic language is manipulated. Third, from what has been discussed above, the similarities, differences, underlying causes and the pragmatic functions of vagueness are presented. Chapter five brings the study to a conclusion, including major findings, limitations and further exploration.The present study further proves the explanatory power of Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory. And readers will have a better understanding of international relations based on their knowledge of the similarities and differences of vagueness in English and Chinese diplomatic language. It is hoped that further and more insightful studies can be made in this field in the future.