Study Of Pragmatic Functions Of Hedges

Fuzzy language, like precise language, is an effective instrument for human beings to exchange ideas and the frequent use of hedges, an important part of it, just largely manifests this interesting subject. In the 1970's, hedges were almost exclusively viewed from the semantic point of view. Nevertheless, in the 1980s, the concept of hedges was broadened because of the growing influence of pragmatic research. The appropriate use of hedges in interaction can enhance the expressive force and communicative effect of language, leading the expressions to be more natural, flexible, polite and efficient. Via the involvement of proper hedging, a good interpersonal relationship between the two parties in communication can be achieved. By a systematic analysis of pragmatic aspects of hedges, this dissertation aims to offer a more comprehensive research on the pragmatic functions of hedges with the aid of some selected corpora.Chapter 1 gives an overview of the historical development of hedging study and presents the various interpretations of hedges mainly regarding Zadeh's fuzzy-set-theoretic interpretation, Lakoff's semantic model, and post-Lakoff's pragmatic exploration. In China, Wu Tieping and some other scholars also contribute greatly to the development of hedging researches.Chapter 2 discusses four pragmatic categorizations of hedges and the stereotypes of linguistic forms of hedges to give a basic understanding of pragmatic hedging. The most influential pragmatic classification of hedges arises from Prince/Frader/Bosk, and a similar distinction is also drawn by Hübler. Furthermore, Hyland serves to provide a pragmatic framework of hedges and Salager-Meyer a rigorous contextual analysis of them. This dissertation also provides some stereotypes of linguistic realizations of hedges motivated from various hedging strategies illustrated both on lexical and non-lexical levels.Chapter 3 and 4 form the crucial part of this dissertation to illustrate the pragmatic effects of hedges in detail. In chapter 3, some main pragmatic principles and theories are engaged in approaching the use of hedges and their functions in language. Firstly, according to Halliday's description of functions of language, hedges may also find themselves equipped with two functions—interpersonal and textual functions. Secondly, by the employment of hedging expressions, the conversational implicatures can be cancelled or weakened. Thirdly, when dealing with Grice's Cooperative Principle, hedging expressions tend to observe the essence of the Cooperative Principle though seemingly flouting the prescription of certain maxim. Finally, it's helpful to accommodate the Politeness Principle and Face Threatening Act theory to analyze some pragmatic functions of hedging expressions for which the CP can not account and two functions of hedges concerning politeness are displayed—hedges as a negative politeness strategy and hedges as a positive politeness strategy. Chapter 4 presents hedges related to their pragmatic applications and pedagogical implications in a general way. Different linguistic environments may reflect different usages of hedges. Much energy of this chapter is thrown into enumerating the communicative effects of hedging in four registers: academic writing, politics, news, and courtroom. Hedges are part of the pragmatic knowledge and a proficient use of hedges is accessible to improve the communicative competence of the learners in English as a foreign language teaching.