A Pragmatic Study On Hedges In Desperate Housewives

Fuzziness, one of intrinsic attributes in human natural language, is a prevalent phenomenon of language use in verbal communication. Hedges, as the essential part of pragmatic vagueness, attract great attention among scholars of different fields. Hedges have been studied from extensive perspectives, including semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, second language acquisition, translatology, intercultural communication, sociolinguistics and etc. Drawing on prior studies, choosing the American serial Desperate Housewives as its raw source, with the employment of both qualitative and quantitative approach, the thesis offers a tentatively detailed analysis of the practical use of hedges in the serial. The study combines the hedging analysis with cooperative principle, politeness principle and face-saving theory.The linguistic stylistics in the American comedy-drama serial Desperate Housewives is causal and colloquial, bearing the feature of comedy, farce, mystery, trifle and satire. Therefore, we can get a clue of how hedges work in actual conversation from the show which mirrors the vivid, daily trifling modern lives of four American housewives. The thesis focuses on the first five seasons of the play which won the American top ten in ratings and altogether has 111 episodes. The script of the show is available on the web, in total having 700,367 words.In the analysis of the interpersonal functions of hedges, it is found that in conveyances of requests and advice, hedges help weakening the imposed tone, so as to enable the expression to be more euphemistic and polite. In communications of compliments and condolences, hedges help strengthening the feelings, so as to enhance the intimacy of the participants. In expressions of complaints and disagreements, hedges help fogging the wording and euphemize the mood, so as to ensure the smoonthness of the conversation and in turn maintain a good relationship between the interlocutors.In the analysis of the use of hedges combined with politeness principle and face-saving theory, it is found that hedges can not only help the speaker achieve a certain communicative purpose, but also can be considered as a self-protection strategy in protection of the speaker’s own face. Meanwhile, hedges may reveal the speaker’s observation of the politeness principle, so as to convey his/her respect of the hearer’s face.In the analysis of factors influencing hedging choices, it is found that on one hand, the use of hedges reflects the temporal as well as the spatial features in the context, and on the other hand, the employment of hedges reveals the characteristics of gender, personality, profession, and education background of the speaker. Moreover, the use of hedges bears the typical feature of female talks.Based on the analysis of hedges in the serial, the thesis aims at highlighting a comprehensive and deepgoing insight of pragmatic usage of hedges realized through leading characters’ language performances, so as to provide an effective means for us to better understand English, especially hedges, used in the upper-middle-class native speakers. Thus, it could enable English learners to avoid misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication due to the language and cultural differences, and to adopt a more flexible and diplomatic strategy in communication with the help of hedges when practicing the language.