Pragmatic Analysis Of Hedges In Cosmetic English Advertising

Hedge is a phenomenon of the fuzziness in language. Many scholars analyzed hedges from different aspects. Advertising plays a more and more important role in our society, therefore many scholars have begun to focus on the advertising language. Because it has special purpose, advertising language has its distinguish features. Scholars also find there are many hedges adopted in English advertising. Some of them made the research from different perspectives. On the basis of their research, this paper will study and analyze hedges in English advertising from pragmatic perspective. This paper tries to answer these two questions(1) Why is hedging widely employed in English advertising?(2)What pragmatic functions do hedges perform in English advertising?This thesis consists of six parts. Chapter One presents the research’s aims, significance, methodology and the organization of the study. Chapter Two provides a literature review which mainly comments on the different researches of hedges and advertisements at home and abroad. Chapter Three disposes of research design. It starts with research questions, afterwards gives the introduction of data collection. After that, it recounts the research methodology. Chapter Four mainly analyzes the hedges in English advertising. Chapter Five is the essential part of this thesis. It analyzes pragmatic functions of hedges in different cosmetic English advertisements. Chapter Six summarizes the major findings, limitations and implications of the study.The exploration of hedges in cosmetic English advertising from pragmatic point of view promotes further study of them from different perspectives. More importantly, advertisers are able to fully appreciate hedge in advertising language so that they can employ hedge in a better way for promoting their products or service. Advertising English teacher can introduce hedges to the course and teach students how to use hedges appropriately to achieve their communicative intentions.