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area of research for many scholars and researchers, who have explored it different perspectives, such as Philosophy, semantics, psychology and pragmatics. However, little attention has been paid to the vagueness in news. Based on the theory of linguistic adaptation (Verschueren, 2000), the present study attempts to describe vague language in news from a pragmatic perspective.
　　　This research attempts to explore the employment of vague language in news and its pragmatic functions. To be specific, this present study seeks to answer the following questions:
What are the main lexical linguistic realization devices of vagueness in news?
Why do reporters use vague language in news?
　　　This thesis is enriched by the following methods to manifest the detailed analyzing of vague language, especially hedges, in English news. The present study uses qualitative methods to research the application and functions of vague language in English news, such as description, deduction, induction, enumerating and exemplifying.
　　　The data collected in the study are various news reports selected from some authorized newspapers and news websites both at home and abroad. These newspapers and websites are chosen as representative ones, which are so widely read and influenced. With a view to these respects, the United States, the Great Britain and China news fields are respectively chosen, that is The New York Times, The Observer and China Daily. News in such newspaper is believed internationally, authoritatively and mainstream. The data analyzed here are extracted mainly from the articles about politics, economics, society , technology, sports and entertainment.
　　　This thesis consists of three chapters, namely, Literature Review, the pragmatic analysis and the advantages and disadvantages of fuzziness.
　　　Chapter One is the study of vague language. It explains vague language, its definition and the factors causing vague language; and hedges---the core of vague language.
　　　Chapter Two is the pragmatic analysis of vagueness in English news. In this part the thesis comes to its focus that is the investigation of English news with vague language.
　　　Chapter Three is the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of fuzziness use in news.
　　　Then follows the conclusion which summarizes the main points as well as the results, and points out the limitations and some suggestions for further study.
　　　
Chapter 1 An Overview of Vague Language 第一章 模糊语言的概述
　　　
　　　It should be generally acknowledged that vagueness in language is a common phenomenon in communication. However, little attention was paid to it until philosopher Peirce (1902), the originator of the nation of vagueness in language, showed his interest in natural language. In this chapter, we will trace back to the previous studies related to the vagueness phenomenon. Firstly, a number of terms related to our research will be explained and clarified, such as vagueness, ambiguity, fuzziness and generality; secondly, the introduction to the hedges and hedging will be carried out; finally, approaches to the study of vague language both abroad and home will be introduced.
The Definition of Vague Language
There is no generally agreed definition for the term of vague language and different researchers have different ideas about wha