A Pragmatic Analysis Of English Hedges In International Business Negotiation

Hedge is a useful way for people to communicate and exchange ideas with each other. As an important part of fuzzy language, the learning of hedge has greatly contributed to the study of fuzzy language. Actually, hedges are the reflection of human daily language. From 1970s, many scholars have begun to pay attention to the study of hedges from the perspective of pragmatics, instead of simply from the perspective of semantics. In accordance with pragmatic study, hedges can be defined as the certain expressions whose function is to modify the degree of vagueness of other words and expressions. And with more and more scholars join to the line of studying hedges, the scope of its concept has widened. Not only does it include adverbs and adjectives which can make the expressions fuzzier, but it also can help to reflect the speaker's attitude towards the hearers.Along with our country entering into the WTO, international trade is becoming more and more frequent. Different kinds of trades and business negotiations have gradually shown their important functions in our society. So how to negotiate efficiently is also gaining its emphasis on our agenda.However, in the previous studies of business negotiation, the academic efforts are mostly focused on the whole context or environment, therefore not enough work has been done from the perspective of hedges, so even though hedges play an important role in business negotiation, they have not attracted the attention of scholars to make a research in this field. Actually, the special feature of English in business negotiation is its strong purposiveness. The communicative efficiency of it is directly related to economic benefit. As just one part of English in business negotiation, hedges carry a big weight. They can help the negotiators to establish a harmonious relationship with their counterparts and also help them remain invincible in business negotiation, so making a good use of hedges is beneficial to the negotiators. This thesis analyzes the hedges from the perspective of pragmatics. Within the framework of cooperative principle, politeness principle and face saving theory, the thesis has dealt with the different aspects of the hedges, such as the definition, classification, the attributes and the function. The thesis finds that the pragmatic motivations of hedging are to be self-Protective and deceptive. The mainly Pragmatic functions of hedging in business negotiation are to improve the efficiency of expression, to make the sentence be objective and reliable and to enhance flexibility of the sentence. Besides the thesis also cites some examples from real situations to verify the importance of hedges in business negotiation, arriving at the conclusion that hedges are a common method in business negotiation. So how to make a good use of hedges has become a significant question for negotiators. On the basis of its in-depth analysis, the thesis summarizes some useful skills which can be applied in business negotiation.In this thesis the author makes a study of hedges, and especially tries to make a study of hedges in business negotiation, thus is in the hope of making the Pragmatic study of hedging more specific and providing further insights into the studying of hedges in business negotiation.