Abstract:
With the rapid development of global economy, English business letter has become an important method to the communication in written words in international trade. English business letter has played an important and effective role in business communication which can make business process successful and achieve the expected goals. In the actual business activities, vague language is often used in English business letter for some communicative purposes. This paper discusses the application of vague language in English business language. It concluded two ways to realize vague language in English business letter: by vague words and by implicature. This paper also introduces six occasions of vague language employed in English business letter, which are of great help to the business activities and English business education.

Key words: English business letter; vague language; implicature

摘 要：
随着全球经济的快速发展，商务英语信函已经成为国际贸易交流中双方进行书面商务信息交流的重要手段。在商务信息交流中，商务英语信函起着重要而有效的作用，它能使商务活动顺利运作且达到预期目的。在实际的商务活动中，商务英语信函经常使用模糊语言来达到一定的交际目的。本文对模糊语言在商务英语信函中的应用进行分析，指出了商务英语信函中模糊语言的两种实现方式：模糊词语和模糊蕴涵的使用。同时本文也介绍了模糊语言在英语商务信函中应用的六种情形，为商务活动和商务英语教学提供很大帮助。

关键词：商务英语信函；模糊语言；蕴涵

1 Introduction
Vagueness is one of the basic nature of human language. The application of vague language in English business letter is very important for business communication. English business letter’s soul is clearness, but sometimes vagueness can also make this soul true, and become an essential character of English business letter. This paper lists three significances of vague language in English business letter as follows:
The first one is that we can use the vague language to make the business communication more effective and promote the cooperation. Not all of the English business letter should be concrete, in some specific situations, words can be general, or even be vague. In business communication, when we needn’t or couldn’t get the concrete information, to persuade others to accept our request, vague language can be used to express our information properly and help us stay in the favorable situation. Actually, when being used, vague language is always being carried with the motivation. It’ good to enhance the language which appeals to take courtesy into account and it would be effective to make others assume some responsibilities of the consequences caused by language.