Research On Interpersonal Meaning Of Hedges In Advertising Text

The thesis does research on the interpersonal meaning of hedges in advertising text basing on the theory of interpersonal function in Systemic Functional Grammar. Hedges widely exist in the advertisements, in which those with hedges cover over 80% of the total advertisements. (Refers to Table 1). It has theoretical and practical meaning in doing this research.The thesis mainly uses qualitative analysis method and quantitative analysis method. It collects 120 advertisements as its researching objectives. The advertisements which are taken as research objectives involve different aspects, such as food and family appliances. After calculating the percentage that the advertisements with hedges in the total advertisements, the widely existence of the hedges in advertisements are proved. Then the thesis uses qualitative analysis method to analyze the advertisements one by one and classifies them. Another analysis method is classifying analysis. Hedges are classified as modality hedges and un-modality hedges. Modality hedges can realize interpersonal meaning, because they are included in the modality system. And through analyzing the hedges, we can find that those un-modality hedges also can realize interpersonal meaning.Through analyzing, the thesis gets the conclusion as follows:1) As interpersonal meanings are realized by mode and modality, most hedges are in the modality system, the interpersonal meaning can be realized by hedges.2) The hedges which are not included in the modality system can realize interpersonal meaning.3) Because advertisements have its own features such as being purposeful, attractive, simple and fuzzy, the interpersonal meaning of hedges in advertising text is different from those in the other kinds of texts.4) The interpersonal meaning of hedges in advertising text can be divided into three parts, which are self-protection, politeness showing and persuasion. The hedges which can show self-protection are probably, may, etc. The hedges which can show politeness are less, more, etc. The hedges which can express persuading attitude are up to, off, etc.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One and Chapter Two will give a general introduction to the thesis, for example, it will talk about the significance and the layout of the thesis. In Chapter Three, the fuzziness theory is introduced, which is the basement of the research. Chapter Four firstly discusses semantic realization of hedges in advertising text, and then does the pragmatic realization of hedges in advertising text. At last, the interpersonal meaning of hedges in advertising text is discussed and the author would give her own classification of hedges on the perspective of interpersonal meaning. These two parts are the essence of the thesis. Chapter five is the summary of the whole thesis. The limitation and the future consideration of the research are mentioned there.Because of the limited condition, the researching objectives cannot cover all the aspects of people's lives; therefore, some advertisements cannot be discussed in this thesis. In the future, if people can collect as much as advertisements, their research would be more objective.