Abstract:This study mainly analyzes the pragmatic functions of vagueness in business negotiation, which can deepen the understanding of vagueness in order to use it appropriately and bring more convenience to the negotiation. This thesis can be classified into six chapters. The first one is an introduction. It briefly recommends pragmatic functions of vagueness in business negotiation and the main content of every chapter. The second one reviews previous researches on vagueness. The third chapter introduces realization of vagueness in business negotiation. The fourth chapter analyzes its features: being euphemistic and being implicate. The fifth chapter introduces pragmatic functions of vagueness in business negotiation. The last one makes the conclusion that using vagueness properly can make the negotiation go smoothly and this chapter talks about its limitations of the present research.

Key words: business negotiation; vagueness; pragmatic

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review.2

3. Realization of Vagueness in Business Negotiation3

3.1 Vague Words

3.2 Hedges

3.3 Syntactic Vagueness

4. Features of Vagueness in Business Negotiation.8

4.1Being Euphemistic 

4.2 Being Implicate

5. Pragmatic Functions of Vagueness in Business Negotiation9

  5.1 Enhancing the Accuracy of Expressions

  5.2 Improving the Flexibility of Language

  5.3 Boosting the Politeness of Expression

  5.4 Creating a Harmonious Atmosphere

  5.5 Negative Pragmatic Functions of Vagueness

6. Conclusion 12

Bibliography13

Acknowledgments14