A Study Of The Interpersonal Functions Of Hedges

Fuzziness is an essential nature of language, which is widely presented inpractical communication. As an important component of fuzzy family, hedges alsoattracted great attentions from linguists. Since the1970s, linguists graduallyrecognized the importance of hedges and carried out researches on hedges fromdifferent perspectives such as semantics, pragmatic, discourses and so on. In recentyears, some linguists started to combine hedges with the diplomatic discourses. Theyanalyze hedges from the principles of cooperation, politeness and the adaptationtheory. However, there are few researches on interpersonal functions of hedges indiplomatic discourses by choosing Halliday’s functional grammar. So, based onplenty of practical diplomatic discourses, this thesis tries to analyze the interpersonalfunctions of hedges in the diplomatic discourses from the theory of Halliday’sinterpersonal function.Diplomacy is the communication among sovereign states. As the main carrierof communication, language plays an important role in diplomatic activities.Diplomats often take the benefit of hedges to declare the result of a talk, to answertheir sensitive questions and to harmonize the diplomatic atmosphere. Cited a numberof realistic diplomatic discourses, this thesis tries to study the interpersonal functionof hedges in the diplomatic language from the theory of Halliday’s interpersonalfunction. The results show that the use of hedges can enhance the acceptability of theexpressions and make the expressions more subtle, more polite and more secure at the level of interpersonal function. It can not only protect the speaker effectively, but alsoimprove the effectiveness and flexibility of the expressions. Halliday’s functionalgrammar expands the study area of hedges and promotes their development towardsthe direction of functional gammar.The research in this thesis can give some inspiration and help to those who areengaged in diplomacy, translation and language education in the understanding ofdiplomatic language and we also hope it can give some contributions to the study ofvague language and hedges.