A Semantico- Pragmatic Analysis of Lexical and Non- Lexical Vagueness in UN Reports on Human Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking is a heinous violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The United Nations (UN) plays a crucial role in establishing the global agenda, offering a framework for norms, directing international initiatives, and assisting member nations in combating the intricate and varied issue of human trafficking. The UN publishes reports on all its platforms, including YouTube, to address this issue. Like any other form of communication, these reports contain lexical and non-lexical vague expressions to achieve specific communicative functions. Therefore, this paper will look at the semantic and pragmatic aspects of the use of lexical and non-lexical vagueness in these reports to get a better sense of how vague language is used and how it serves specific communication functions in this sensitive setting. To achieve this aim, the researchers have adopted Walsh, O’Keeffe, and McCarthy's (2008) classification of vagueness on the semantic level and Levinson's (2000) Neo-Gricean approach on the pragmatic level. The analysis focused on three UN-spoken reports on human trafficking. The findings suggest that speakers strategically utilise both lexical and non-lexical vagueness to convey implicit meanings, such as communicating a general idea when specific information is lacking