Abstract：
For a long time, people tend to regard precision as the most important factor in news language while avoid vagueness as best as they can, seeking for expressing themselves as clearly or precisely as possible in communication. However, vagueness, in various types, appearing to be an extremely pervasive phenomenon, is an intrinsic property of natural language. On the basis of the frame work of adaptation theory, this essay analyzes some English news materials in order to answer three research questions: Why does vagueness occur in English news? How is vagueness realized in English news? How does vague language contribute to the production of English news? With regard to the existential reasons of vagueness in English news, through the analyses of the English news materials from the perspective of adaptation theory, the author reaches a conclusion that both precision and vagueness reside in human language, which are the two inseparable sides of a contradiction and together help news language to be adequate. Besides, news wording has to make some certain adaptation: adaptation to the mental world, the social world, and the physical world and using vague language does not suggest one’s linguistic incompetence, nor interfere with our communication, whereas sometimes even get better communicative effects. Via the research of this essay on vagueness in English news, both the news reporters and readers will know more about vagueness and avoid two erroneous inclinations: one is to repulse using any vague term in news writing; the other is to abuse vague terms when reporting news.

Key words：vagueness; English news; adaptation theory; communicative effects

摘  要：
长期以来，人们趋向于认为“准确”是新闻语言最重要的要素，并且尽量避免模糊语的使用，以追求交际中表达的清晰化和准确化。然而，种类繁多的模糊语，作为自然语言的内在特征之一，是语言中及其普遍的现象。本文在顺应理论框架基础上，分析了多篇新闻材料，目的在于回答三个研究性的问题：为什么模糊语会出现在新闻语中？模糊语在英语新闻中是如何实现的？模糊语对英语新闻起到什么帮助？关于模糊语之所以会存在的原因，通过从顺应理论角度所作的对多篇新闻材料的分析，作者得出的结论是：准确性和模糊性作为矛盾统一体的两个不可分割的方面，共同使新闻语言变得准确。此外，新闻语言的措辞须做出某些顺应：顺应心理世界，顺应社交世界，顺应物质世界；使用模糊语并不意味着一个人的语言能力弱，也不会影响我们的语言交流，相反地，有些时候甚至会达到更好的交际效果。通过本文对英语新闻中的模糊语的研究，不论是新闻记者还是读者都会更好地了解模糊语，并且避免两种错误倾向：一种是在新闻中杜绝使用任何模糊语；二是在报道中滥用模糊语。

关键词：模糊语；英语新闻；顺应理论；交际效果

1 Introduction
If people pay a little attention to newspapers, magazines, and other mass media, they can discover an interesting fact that vagueness invariably presents itself in news. Since accuracy is a must for news, they are probably going to ask this question, “What motivates the occurrence of vagueness in English news report?” According to Nida, it is undisputable that the vagueness in news English is rooted in the nature of English as a human language which is an open system with overlapping meanings and fuzzy boundaries.