Abstract:Vague language are widely used in daily activities, including business negotiations. As a pragmatic strategy, it is very helpful for negotiators to reach their negotiation aims. Correctly and appropriately using vague language can make language expressions more polite, tactful, subtle, accurate and flexible, or else pragmatic failure will occur. This paper discusses vagueness in business negotiation from pragmatic perspective. The first part presents the research background and research purpose and the related previous studies. The second part talks about the theoretical background of vagueness, the basic knowledge of business negotiation, and an overview of vagueness in business negotiation. The third part explains how vagueness help negotiators to show cooperation and politeness from the perspective of cooperative principle and politeness principe. The fourth part discusses the pragmatic functions of vagueness in business negotiation, e.g. evading responsibility. In some instances, it also helps to mitigate the negotiators’ tones, creating friendly negotiating atmosphere and exploring or giving useful information. The conclusion part summarizes the whole study and makes an advise for future researches. This paper is intended to help negotiators better understand and use vagueness in business negotiations.
Key words: vagueness; business negotiation; pragmatic; cooperative principle; politeness principle
摘要：模糊表达被广泛使用于日常活动中，特别是商务谈判中。模糊语作为语用学上的一种策略，对谈判者达成目的起了帮助。正确和适当的使用模糊语可以使得语言表达更加精准，圆滑，微妙和灵活，否则就会出现语用上的不当。这篇文章从语用的角度探讨了商务谈判中的模糊语。第一部分介绍了研究背景和选题意义以及相关系列研究。第二部分谈论了模糊语的理论背景和商务谈判的基本知识，并且介绍了在商务谈判中模糊语。第三部分从合作原则和礼貌原则角度出发，对模糊语进行了解释，并探讨了模糊语是如何帮助谈判者去使得合作和礼貌适用在商务谈判中。第四部分探讨了商务谈判中模糊语的语用功能,例如逃避责任，在一些情况下，模糊语也起着缓和语气，创造友好谈判气氛以及探索和给与有效信息的作用。第五部分对全文进行总结，并提出了对未来研究的建议。这篇文章的目的在于使谈判者更好地在商务谈判中地理解和使用模糊语。
关键词：模糊语；商务谈判；语用的；合作原则；礼貌原则
注：本文全文为英语所写的英语论文。只有摘要是中英语写的，全文为英文。
