An Analysis of Vague Language in Obamas Speeches at the UN General Assembly开题报告

 2022-08-13 14:31:32

1. 研究目的与意义

Pragmatic vagueness is a common phenomenon in daily conversation. Vaguelanguage is an interesting and complex area of study. Vagueness has been observed to occur widely in language use. However,linguistics has done a lot of research on the precise meaning of language for along time, but the research on the vague meaning of language is quiteinsufficient. There is no major study of linguistic vagueness and no generallyagreed approach to it yet. At present, the research on pragmatic vagueness ismainly in the fields of advertising, medicine, legal language, etc., but theresearch on the vagueness of diplomatic language is still plain. Diplomaticactivities are an important occasion to express a country''''''''s position.Therefore, when it is not convenient for diplomats to directly express theirown views and positions, the use of vague language is immensely helpful. Thelistener can make his or her own judgment through the vague surface andinternal clear form. The analysis ofvagueness in language offers huge potential for study. Defined by Guo[郭鸿](1992),diplomatic language is the actual language used in diplomatic activities. In orderto understand each other, representatives of various countries participating indiplomatic activities must adopt one or more communicative languages, which isdiplomatic language. In diplomatic activities, vague language is often used bydiplomats as a communication strategy, because the essence of diplomaticactivities is serious and error free, so every word and action of diplomatsrepresents the position of the whole country. Generally speaking, in diplomaticactivities, no matter how intractable problems they encounter, diplomats arenot allowed to refuse directly. Sometimes when diplomats want to provide moreaccurate information or keep it secret for the sake of national interests, theytend to choose some euphemistic language means, such as vague words. Because ofthe great flexibility of vague language, the correct use of vague language canlead to smoother communications. To some extent, it can also improve theaccuracy of language. Therefore, vague language is an essential part indiplomatic activities. (Li, 2003) Based on the cooperative principle, thispaper attempts to study Obama''''''''s vague language in his speech at the UnitedNations, and further analyze and evaluate the role of vague language indiplomacy.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

Research contents:

Based on the theory of cooperative principle, the purpose of thispaper is to reveal the concrete manifestation of vagueness in the ontologicaland pragmatic levels of American diplomatic language by studying the use ofvague language in Obama’s speeches at the UN. At the same time, through cooperativeprinciple, this paper further explains the application of vague language indiplomatic activities and the communicative effect achieved.

Research questions:

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3. 国内外研究现状

Introduction to the Study of VagueLanguage

Vagueness was attributed by Ullman(1962) into four factors, one of which is “lack of clear-cut boundaries in thenon-linguistic world'. That is to say the non-linguistic world is vague.In 1972, the concept of 'Hedges' was proposed by Lakoff (1972). Researchesof the f vague semantics, and vague logic were made to explore the function ofthese hedges. According to Lakoff, natural language sentences will often beneither true nor false, nor nonsensical, but rather true to a certain extent,true in certain respects, and false in other respects (p.183). Later, adetailed analysis of grammar vagueness was made by Ross(1973), which arguesthat the classification of parts of speech, and syntactic structure, etc. arevague. Besides the study of vagueness in this aspect, Crystal and Davy (1975)think of vagueness from a pragmatic point of view. According to their study,the usage of a vague item is deliberate to maintain the atmosphere. The discussionof the semantic vagueness in Semantic Theory appeared in Kempson’s essay in1977. Meanwhile the study of vagueness was extended in the aspect of grammarambiguity. (Lyon, 1977) Vagueness theory was introduced into the study ofgrammar category by Labov in 1978. In 1989, the sdudy of vague language hadseen a breakthrough from a cognitive point of view. (Taylor, 1989). In 1991, anargument was brought up by Burns that different people may have different wordboundaries in the same context, which he believed is the cause of vagueness. Introductionand study of the academic trend of vague language outside China were proposedby Zhang[张乔] (1998) inVague Semantics.

The first linguist in Chinastudying vagueness occurred in 2000. A very deep study of vague words, such asthe vagueness of color, time, and temperature words, etc. was made by Wu[伍铁平](2000). Inthe same year the pragmatic use of vague language was presented in detail byChannell. Analysis of the speaker''''''''s vague language skills and pragmatic functionsthrough specific cases were made by Zou[邹建华] (2005).

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4. 计划与进度安排

1．November26, 2022 Select of the topic；

2．December15, 2022 Complete thesis proposal；

3．February1,2022 Complete material research;

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5. 参考文献

Bi, M. (2019). Analysis of the conversational implicature of violatingcooperative principles in daily discourse. American Journal of History andCulture, 2, 13

Burns.L.C. (1991). Vagueness:An investigation into natural languages and the sorites paradox. TheNetherlands: Kluwer Academic publishers.

Crystal,D. and Davy, D.(1975) Advanced conversational English. London: Longman.

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