A Study Of The Application And Pragmatic Functions Of Hedges In Talk Shows

Hedges, as an important part of vague language, are generally believed to make language vague. However, the appropriate use of them makes the expressions more flexible and more accurate. Talk show, as one of the hottest television programs all over the world, generally involves a large number of language strategies to make the show successful. Employing hedges is one of those strategies.This study, taking "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" as an example, mainly explores the application and pragmatic functions of hedges in English talk shows based on Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory. More specifically, the two main research questions are:(1) What are the frequency and the distribution of hedges in talk shows? (2) What pragmatic functions do the hedges have in talk shows?In order to answer the two research questions, the videos of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" are searched on the website http://tv.sohu.com/s2014/ellens121. Since no English subtitles are available, the 23 selected interviews from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" are transcribed. According to LakofFs definition of hedges and Prince et al.’s classification, the hedges are identified. In the 23 interviews, hedges appear 870 times altogether. The total number of the words of all the interviews is 28110, of which 1107 are hedges or part of hedges, holding a percentage of 3.9%. The frequency and percentage of each hedge and the distribution of each subtype of hedges are displayed, and the pragmatic functions of hedges employed in talk shows are illustrated based on Adaptation Theory.Two major findings are concluded. (1) Hedges are often used in talk shows, taking up a percentage of 3.9%. Among all the hedges, "so", "really", "I/we (don’t) think" and "very" are the most frequently employed. Approximators, which take up a percentage of 80.3%, are much more frequently employed than shields, which only account for 19.7%. Among the four subtypes of hedges, adaptors are most frequently employed (74.2%). Plausibility shields, holding a percentage of 16.0%, take up the second largest portion among all the hedges. Rounders rank the third with a percentage of 6.1%. The least employed are attribution shields, holding a percentage of 3.7%. (2) Hedges are frequently used in talk shows when the speakers make linguistic choices and have a lot of pragmatic functions. From the perspective of Adaptation Theory, the choice-making of hedges adapts to the mental world, the social world and the physical world. In the interviews of talk shows, through the employment of hedges, the speaker manages to be more polite, follow the principle of economy, protect himself/herself, highlight important information, achieve accuracy, comfort others and adapt to culture, occupation, gender, time and space.The study is significant in the following two aspects. Theoretically, this study offers new data to the researches on hedges and, furthermore, proves the practicability of Adaptation Theory in pragmatic studies. Practically, this study helps audience better understand the information in the interviews and, at the same time, helps hosts and guests use hedges more properly so that the conversations could be smooth and successful.