A Comparative Study Of Hedges In Linguistic Book Prefaces Between Chinese And English An Adaptation Theory Approach

Hedge,as an important factor of fuzziness,occurs frequently in human language.In the past years,much progress has been made in hedge study and its application to various styles.However,little work has been done in analyzing hedge in book preface.This thesis is intended to give a comparative analysis of hedge in linguistic book prefaces between Chinese and English with Hyland's taxonomy based on Verschueren's adaptation theory so as to speculate the underlying reasons for the similarities and differences of using hedges between Chinese linguistic prefaces and English linguistic prefaces.It begins with a review of previous research on hedge at home and abroad,and introduces the theoretical framework of the present study-Verschueren's Adaptation Theory,then analyses the hedges used in Chinese and English linguistic prefaces with qualitative and quantitative approaches.The results show that there are some similarities and differences in the use of hedges between the two corpora.It has been found that both corpora have similar realizations of hedges and accuracy-oriented hedges are preferred in both corpora.However,Chinese authors tend to employ higher frequencies of writer-oriented hedges but lower frequencies of reader-oriented hedges compared to English authors. According to Verschueren's adaptation theory,hedges are actually a product of authors' linguistic choice stemming from the dynamic inter-adaptation between the linguistic forms and their contextual correlates.Hedges are adopted as a strategy in preface writing to adapt to the author,social world,mental world and physical world. Author's serious attitude to science and his value determine hedge choice.In the social world,hedges adapt to normative politeness,interpersonal relationship and academic environment.In the mental world,hedges are closely associated with authors' motivation of protecting self and motivation of writing.The physical world refers to the make-up of readers.It has been found that the choice of using hedges in two languages lies in such factors as authors' serious attitude to science,normative politeness,the motivation of protecting self and the make-up of the readers both in the two corpora.Some factors in context correlates exert great importance on the preference of hedges in Chinese and English book prefaces including the different value systems,different interpersonal relationship and academic environment that the authors have to adapt to,and the different motivations for writing book preface.Comparative analysis of hedges in linguistic book prefaces between Chinese and English could not only enrich the current studies on hedges but also help readers to understand authors' hedge strategies.It has far-reaching implication for the academic writing and teaching of academic reading and writing.