A Tentative Study Of Hedges In English Business Negotiations Based On Adaptation Theory

As a member of vagueness family, hedges are not only a universal phenomenonof human language, but also an important linguistic strategy. Generally speaking,business negotiations are closely related to participants’ interest. They are supposed tobe clear and accurate, but the author finds that many hedges are used by negotiators.The reason for this is that negotiators make use of it consciously for their specificintentions. Appropriate employment of hedges in business negotiations can enhancethe effect of negotiations. The implicit, polite and flexible expressions can helpnegotiators achieve their intentions successfully.The theoretical framework of this paper is the Adaptation Theory proposed byJef Verschueren in his book Understanding Pragmatics. In this book, he holds thatlanguage has variability, negotiability and adaptability. Language use is a process ofchoice making. Besides, he elaborates language phenomena from fourangles---contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability,dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation process. This theory isuniversal for all language phenomena. It can explain not only the dailycommunication, but also other types of language phenomenon. The author thinks thatthese four angles can also explain hedges in English business negotiations, and helpus better understand its application and functions.The material of this paper is from a textbook of eleventh five-year plan, calledEnglish for Business Negotiation. The author sets up a small corpus of all hedges inthis book and analyzes them carefully. Firstly, the author makes a calculation ofhedges and put them from high frequency to low frequency in tables. At the same time,the author finds that adaptors are most frequently used, then plausibility shields,rounders and finally attribution shields. The top two are for direct subjective feelings,while the rest two indirectly express speaker’s idea from the angle of the third party. Itshows that negotiators tend to start from their own standpoints but not other angles.Secondly, this paper analyzes hedges in business negotiations from the four anglesand finds that they adapt to context more then structure. As to the three worlds incontext, they adapt to mental world more than physical and social world. The wholeprocess of negotiation is dynamic and salient. Apart from the four angles of analysis above, the author also summarizes fourmajor pragmatic functions of hedges in business negotiations. Through this study, theauthor aims to help people to better understand the mechanism and functions ofhedges in business negotiations so that they can apply the strategies more effectivelyand finally conduct business negotiations more successfully. Finally, the author hopesthat this study is comprehensive enough to make a little contribution to thedevelopment of hedges and pragmatics.