Abstract：
In recent years, more and more scholars both at home and abroad have realized that vague language, just like precise language, is also a useful means of exchanging ideas that people want to express, and it also plays a very important role in English journalism. Accuracy is the primary requirement in news reporting, which makes the news brief and clear. However, the existence of vague language in news is very common, as accuracy does not equal precision，so vague language also exists in business English, advertisement English, journalistic English and so on. According to the classifications of vague language, the author analyzes the application of vague language in specific news reporting based on the cooperative principle and conversational implicature. The application of hedges in journalistic English may observe or flout one maxim of cooperative principle, and has unique pragmatic functions in news. Besides, the characteristics of hedges are related with the features of conversational implicature, and hedges get crucial pragmatic functions in special news. The employment of hedges in journalistic English meets the characteristics of news— objectivity and accuracy. Therefore, the application of hedges is the focus in this paper. By exploring the application and inevitability of vague language in English news, the author hopes to help readers obtain a better understanding about vague language in news reporting.

Key words：vague language；hedges；news reporting；cooperative principle；conversational implicature

摘  要：
近年来，国内外越来越多的学者认识到,同精确语言一样，模糊语言也是一种有用的表达意思的手段，同时也在英语新闻中起着重要的作用。准确性是英语新闻的首要要求，塑造了英语新闻简洁明了的特点，但这不是否认模糊语言在新闻中存在的理由，准确并不等于精确。因此，模糊语言也应用于商务英语，广告英语，新闻英语等各种语体。根据模糊语的分类，以合作原则和会话含义为理论基础，着重分析了模糊语特别是模糊限制语在具体英语新闻中的运用。模糊限制语在新闻英语中的运用遵守或违反合作原则中的某一规则，这种运用在新闻中有特殊的语用功能。另外，模糊限制语的特点和会话含义的特征相互关联，模糊限制语在新闻英语中有特定的会话含义并起到了特殊的语用作用。在新闻英语中的运用恰恰符合新闻的特点——准确性和客观性。本文通过对模糊语言在英语新闻中的应用及必要性的探讨，来帮助读者更好的理解新闻报道中模糊语言。

关键词：模糊语言；模糊限制语；新闻报道；合作原则；会话含义

1 Introduction
Being one of the sources of information in people’s daily life, news provides people with the valuable information in different fields. The aim of news is to report the real situation of latest events in shortest time. Therefore, journalistic language differs from the language in literary works. The news reporting requires accuracy, brevity and objectivity in language. But it is not the reason to deny the existence of vague language in news, as accuracy does not equal precision. In fact, vague language is very common in news reporting, but the study of vague language is seldom associated with news reporting. This may be the consequence of the traditional idea that news should be written accurately and truthfully without any vagueness.