A Study Of Hedges In Classroom Discourses For English Majors

The concept of"hedge"is put forward by George Lakoff in 1972. It refers to"words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy". The study of hedges is first carried out from the perspective of semantics and logic. In the following years however, many scholars both home and abroad adopted various approaches to study hedges, including the perspective of pragmatics, discourse analyses, social linguistics, communication strategies, and so on. The study of hedges, consequently, became a very important issue in linguistic studies. Hedges played an important role in communication and their semantic features and pragmatic functions were unique and irreplaceable. These preceding studies manifest more efforts which are needed for the practical value in distinct context. However, the study of hedges at present involves science text, economic discourse, advertisement discourse, news writing, etc. Few people did researches on the application of hedges in classroom discourses. From the pragmatic perspective, this thesis carries on a comprehensive study of the employment of hedges in classroom discourses for English majors. It aims to present a general situation of hedges used in classroom discourses, explain the reasons of their use and explore their pragmatic functions. In doing so, the present study hopes to deepen and further the research of hedges, and draw attention to hedges used in classroom communication. It can help teachers and students understand the functions of hedges and decide how to properly use them in communication. It can also improve the communicative ability and create harmonious environments and facilitate effective teaching.The thesis is an empirical study and the data are collected from classroom recording. By adopting Prince et al's pragmatic classification of hedges, this thesis analyses hedges used in classroom discourses comprehensively and systematically and makes qualitative analysis based on the data. Also, the thesis makes detailed analysis of hedges in classroom discourses with cooperative principle and politeness principle and summarizes the pragmatic functions of hedges. Based on the research, the author also offers some pedagogical implications and suggestions of the study. The proper use of hedges in classroom discourses can make the utterances more decent and polite and create harmonious environments and facilitate effective teaching.The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the background of the research, the significance and purpose of the study and the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 is the literature review, including the studies on hedges abroad and home and the studies of classroom discourses. Chapter 3 introduces the methodology which includes the research questions, the process of data collection and the research procedures. Chapters 4 are the results and analysis; it describes the general situation of hedges in classroom discourses and analyzes hedges within the cooperative principle and politeness principle. Chapter 5 explores the functions of hedges in classroom discourses from the pragmatic perspective. The author also offers some pedagogical implications and suggestions. Chapter 6 presents the findings of the thesis, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.