Hedges In English News

Vagueness, as an inherent feature of natural languages, has been widely known as a popular phenomenon in language. As one of the members in the category of language vagueness, hedging was introduced and analyzed first by G. Lakoff in 1972. From then on, many linguists have studied hedging from various perspectives. The thesis analyzes the framework of hedging in English news from the perspective of pragmatics. It aims to help the journalists use hedging properly in reporting news, and also help the news readers comprehend news more accurately and efficiently and improve their ability of English learning.The studies both at home and abroad on English hedges has laid a firm foundation for the understanding and mastering of them, but far from enough, especially in the researches on hedging in different genre-based texts.So the first chapter of the thesis has concluded the purpose of the study considering the study on hedges in English news and what benefits can be gained by the learning of appropriate use of hedges for journalists and English learners.The second chapter has given a review of the previous studies on hedges in various approaches and also summarizes the classification of hedges. In view of these studies, it has been pointed out that hedges are also widely used in news reporting.Chapter Three uses Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory as the main theory, and also compares Adaptation Theory with the previous utilized theories including Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and New Concept of Politeness Principle, through the comparison the advantages of Adaptation Theory can be exposed. The author tentatively proposed the functional framework of hedges in English news.Chapter Four has analyzed the characteristics of hedges and summarized features of news and points out the feasibility of hedges functioning in English news.Chapter Five has categorized the functions of hedges in news reporting into two functions, that is, a way to realize the characteristics of news style and a way to harmonize the three parties'inter-relationships in the reporting communication. To be subdivided, hedges can be employed to ensure news' objectiveness, elevate news' efficiency, heighten news' flexibility, to increase news'acceptability, so as to realize the characteristics of news style; next, they can be divided into three sub-functions in demonstrating the involved inter-personal relationships in news context, that is, as face-saving and self-protection strategy for the writer, as appealing-strategy to the reader and as safeguard strategy for the third party's interests. And the pragmatic functions of hedges in English news are analyzed with concrete sample sentences selected from recently issued magazines or papers briefly in this chapter.To sum up, Chapter Six concludes the functions of hedges in English news and infers hedges'significance in English learners'study. And still English news can be divided into some sub-styles and as a result the use of hedges in different styles needs further study. Finally the author also gave some suggestions for future research.