The Politeness Principle overcomes the shortcoming of the Cooperative Principle which can not explain why people tend to express their ideas in an indirect and implicit way. In diplomacy field, politeness is one of the basic norms governing diplomat's behavior. Vagueness is always tactfully used by diplomats to achieve politeness, avoid conflict and so on, which conforms to the Politeness Principle. Among the maxims of Politeness Principle, the Tact maxim, Approbation maxim and Agreement maxim are frequently observed by diplomats.
Cooperative Principle calls for people to speak in such a way that is informative, truthful, relevant, clear and brief.However, in diplomatic circle,sometimes politicians do not obey the Cooperative Principle, frequently conveying indirectly their meanings by using vague expressions for various political purposes.This essay analyzes the vagueness in diplomatic language from the perspective Cooperative Principle, investigating how the use of vagueness violates the Cooperative Principle and how diplomats manage to achieve various pragmatic purposes.
