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ain the common characteristics of political speechas well as their unique features. To be specific, as for the common characteristics (Lucas, 1986),being prepared in advance makes Obama’s weekly radio addresses simultaneously containfeatures of oral and written language, i.e. formal in genre, diverse in means of expression, andcareful in structure, and authentic in news items, all of that ensure the research value oflanguage; As to the unique features, Obama’s weekly radio addresses cover a wider range ofspeech content, including politics, economy, military, culture, education, and people’slivelihood, etc., rather than limited in one aspect. Thus, all of those features guarantee thatObama’s weekly radio addresses provide a comparatively comprehensive reflection of the wayhow vague expressions are used in political speeches, which ensure the practical applicationvalue of this research.Therefore, the author holds the wish that this study will provide some insights into a morecomprehensive and deeper understanding of pragmatic functions of vague expressions inpolitical speech. At the same time, it is also expected that this research can offer some helpfulsuggestions for further research.

　　
　　1.2 Objectives and significances of the study研究意义和目标
　　Although vague expressions penetrate both in daily communication and some specificfields, their great significance and the treasure of this strategy has not been paid enoughattention. Many previous studies (e.g. Leo Hickey, 1998; Liu (刘庆元，2005); Pang (庞建荣，2007), etc.) focus vague expressions in political speeches on their translation and rhetoriceffects, less attention has been paid on the way how they realize their pragmatic functions andwhat kind of pragmatic functions do they achieve, from the perspective of pragmatics. Thepresent thesis attempts to make a comprehensive and systematic pragmatic analysis on thegeneration and interpretation of vagueness as well as its pragmatic functions in political speech,from the standing point of the orator. This research is expected to make contribution to raiselanguage users’ awareness of the high frequency of vague expressions in language use, to showthat vagueness is the result of deliberate use in most political speeches as well as that1Lucas, sometimes appropriate use of vagueness is much better than using precise language, to makeclear how and what communicative purposes the orator of political speech use vagueness torealize, and that proper interpretation of a political speech requires the interpreters to possessnot only language ability but also knowledge of corresponding context. Besides, it also looksforward to be helpful in understanding and making public speeches, as well as English learning.In total, it is hoped that this thesis will enrich the present study of political speech and behelpful for further research.The Adaptation Theory (AT), put forward by Jef Verschueren (1999), is adopted to helpexplain the generation and interpretation of vagueness and the realization of vague expressions’pragmatic functions in Obama’s weekly radio addresses, for its nature of being comprehensive,dynamic and systematic. Verschueren (2000: 7) holds the view that pragmatics is a disciplineconcerning “a general cognitive, social, and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomenon inrelation to their usage in forms of behavior”2. The essential viewpoint of AT is that while usinglanguage, people are ceaselessly making linguistic choic本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。