Based on three local English newspapers between December 1999 and July 2002, this paper attempts to examine how Taiwanese politicians manipulate their language in a bid to covertly pretend that their utterance does cooperatively reply to the question posed, thereby fulfilling its conversational demand, yet their utterance is indeed evasive. The findings are that politicians pervasively tend to exploit four main mitigating devices: sloganing, use of politicizing terms, smearing and labeling. These strategies enable politicians to disclaim responsibility and distance themselves from the predicament. Aimed at this phenomenon, this study will hopefully not only shed light on our better understanding of political discourse, but also help us detect the truth of political events behind the rhetorical strategies. 本文以國內三家主要英文報紙的政治新聞為題材做言談分析，來剖析台灣的政治人物，當他們面臨困境或危機時，在語言上是用何種方法來掩飾、規避問題。本文發現：台灣政治人物普遍使用的語言模式有四種，包括措辭的「口號化」、「政治性化」、「抹黑」及「扣帽子」。政治人物藉由這些規避性的語言行為，而達到逃避責任及困境的目的，希望本文不僅讓人更了解政治語言的本質，而且幫助人們去審視政治新聞或事件背後，語言運作的策略與技巧。
