Study Of Pragmatic Vagueness In Remarks From Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokespersons On The Disputes Of South China Sea In 2016 From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Chinese Foreign Ministry' s regular pr ess conference opens a wind ow of delivering China's foreign policy to the wo rld and also serves as a bridge to communicate with other countries.The pres s spokesperson,as a representative of Chinese government to communicate with the world,has to respond to any questions raised by the press from other countries.He not onl y expresses his ow n opinions and position,but refrains his c ountry from unnecessary tro ubles.The pragmatic vagueness conveys an illocutionary forces with vag ue language intentionally to help the press spokesperson achieve communicative goals.The thesis builds on the Verschueren's Adaptation Theory to approach the pragm atic vagueness in remarks of Chinese Foreign Ministry's press spokesperson on the disputes of South China Sea as language m aterials,aiming at answering three questions:(1)W hat are the linguistic features of pragmatic va gueness in the language used in press conference on the disputes of South Chin a Sea?(2)How is pragm atic vagueness adapted to the mental world,social world and physical world in the language used in press conference on the disputes of South Ch ina Sea?(3)What are th e functions of pragmatic vagueness in the language used in press conference on the disputes of South China Sea?To deal with above questions,the qualitat ive approach is adopted in this thesis.Firstly,based on the standard of classi fication of the pragmatic vagueness proposed by Prof.He Ziran,UAM Corpus T ool will be used to annotate the pragm atic vagueness at lexical and senten tial level.The linguistic features at lexical level includes: vagueness in deixis,hedges,vague quantifier and nomenclative evaluation.The linguistic features at sentential level includes: the vagueness in shifting the focus of the issue,vagueness in pushing to the third party and vague interrogative sentences.Then,under Verschueren's Adaptation Theory,the thesis will explore the pragm atic vagueness from the angle of contextual correla tes of adaptability,that is,the mental world,the social world and physical worl d.Finally,the thesis will explore the functions of pragm atic vagueness in the language used in press conference on the disputes of South China Sea with the combination of examples.The research findings are as follows: Firstly,the us e of deixis and vague quantifier gives a rough idea or variable ra nge to the press spokespersons' answers which not only avoids the specific reference but makes the effect of expression more vague and abstract.The use of hedges and nomenclative evaluation weakens th e extent to which the press s pokesperson states his attitude s and position so that the reporter only gets a general understanding from his responses.The use of vagueness in shifting the focus of the issue and vagueness in pushing to the third party softens the tone.Although the press spokesperson m akes a response in form,he delivers less information essentially.However,the use of vague interrogative sentences helps the press spokesperson express a lar ge amount of information even though answering questions in an evasive way.Then,from the analysis of pragm atic vagueness in the language used in press conference based on the Adaptation Theory,it is found that the press spokesperson adapt to the mental world from three aspects,that is,adaptation to self-protecting,adaptation to face-saving and adaptation to keep good image.The adaptation to the social world can be expl ained from two aspects: the adaptation to the international environm ent and the adaptation to the conventions of the press conference.The adaptation to the physical world takes th e potential hearers into consideration.Finally,through the analysis of functions of pragm atic vagueness,it can be seen that when facing with th e reporters' harsh questions,the appropriate use of the pragm atic vagueness can help the press spokesperson respond to questions tactfully and achieve comm unicative goals.As a result,the role tha t the pragmatic vagueness plays in press conference should not be underestimated.On the one hand,the use of pragmatic vagueness can help the press spokesperson evade responsibilities,protect himself and take the overall situa tion into account.On the other hand,it can ease tension,safeguard national dignity and create harm onious international environment.The use of pragm atic vagueness can not only reveal his own position,but give respect to others.The thesis can not only help the world to realize the fact that the gov ernment pushes hard for South China Sea a peaceful settlem ent,but can offer some guidance to spokespersons of governm ent at all le vels or daily conversation and prom pt interpreters to have a be tter understanding for the use of vague language so as to complete jobs better in press conference or other occasions.