Analyzing the use of Vague Language in Political Context: The Case of President Rouhani and PM Boris Johnson

AbstractThe present research study examined the form and function of vague language employed by PM Boris Johnson and President Hassan Rouhani in their spoken political discourse. To this end, two corpora including speeches delivered by the two politicians within the time span of ۲۰۱۸ to ۲۰۲۰ were investigated. The corpus by Dr. Rouhani was۱۷۰۰۰ words and the one by the British politician added up to ۱۶۸۰۰ words. Zhang’s (۲۰۱۱) model of vague language elements was employed to identify vague language elements. The results revealed that the six categories of vague language presented by Zhang (۲۰۱۱) were employed by both politicians. The most highly frequent category of vague language used by president Rouhani was vague nouns followed by vague category identifiers (Boosters) and vague quantifiers. Vague category identifiers (Extenders), Downtoners and softeners were used less than ۱۰%, respectively. On the other hand, the most frequent category of VL in Boris Johnson’s speech was the category of vague quantifiers followed by vague category identifiers (Boosters) and vague quantifiers. Besides, downtoners and vague category identifiers (Extenders) occurred less frequently than the other categories of vague language. Finally, the least frequent category of vague language was found to be softeners. The results of a Chi-square test revealed significant differences between the spoken corpus of the two politicians in terms of different categories of vague language (p <.۰۵), except the vague category of softeners (p >.۰۵). In terms of function, it was found that the two politicians employed vague language categories for purposes of self-protection, issues of power and politeness, giving the right amount of information as well as mitigation. The results of the present study have some implications for L۲ practitioners, students, policy makers.

Keywords:

_Pragmatic ambiguity , President Rouhani , PM Boris Johnson , Political discourse , Vague language_