A Pragmatic Study Of Hedges In Business Gaming Language

As an important factor of fuzziness, hedging is commonly used in human language and holds tight a high position in the fuzzy linguistics research. In the past years, much progress has been made in hedge study and its application to various styles. Since the 1980s, the focus of hedging study has been shifted to genre-based contextual framework with hedges in LSP (Language for Specific Purposes) texts being studied in multi-dimensional ways. However, the study of hedges in business context focus mainly on business letters, business negotiations, business advertisement and business contracts, and little work has been done in analyzing hedges in business gaming languages.The specialty of business gaming language lies in its high objectivities of both players in business interactions. The effectiveness of communication is directly related to the economic benefits of both players. Hedging in business gaming language can change its blur of vagueness through modifying and restricting one conception or proposition, so as to achieve certain purpose of businessmen—to maximize the economic benefit of business individuals. This provides us a new field in genre-based pragmatic study of language.Based on the achievements of previous studies on hedges, the thesis intends to make a further research on hedges in business gaming language concerning the business competition between two IT giants in China—Qihoo and Tencent,55 pieces of authentic statements made by the two players are collected, among which 210 hedges are identified with various linguistic realizations. After viewing G.N. Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown & Levinson's Face Theory, the author figures out three main functions of hedges in the given context with a consideration of the distinctive features of business gaming language, suggesting that hedges used in business gaming context embody the Politeness Principle from different perspectives; Meanwhile, hedging in business gaming language is a threatening act to the positive face of business rival as well as to the negative face of the third party. Moreover, the author introduces the Game Theory into analyzing the payoffs of both players in the game and points out the motivations that drive business competitors into using hedging expressions.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one introduces the research background, the research questions, the approaches, and the significance of the study. Chapter Two reviews the related studies of hedges both at home and abroad. Chapter Three figures out the various ways of linguistic realizations of hedges in business gaming context based on the grammatical categories. Chapter Four is a pragmatic study of hedges in business gaming language within the framework of Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown & Levinson's Face Theory, aiming to find out the way in which business gaming language embodies the pramgatic principles and the functions of hedges in the given context. Chapter Five is a Game Theory based account of motivations behind the use of hedges in business gaming language. Chapter Six concludes the thesis, summarizes the major findings, lists the limitations and provides suggestions for further research.