A Contrastive Study Of Hedges Between English And Chinese Talk Show Languages From A Pragmatic Perspective

Hedges are indispensable parts in language communication. As a language device, hedges improve the language communication efficiency and make communication process more smooth. Since the birth of hedges, they have attracted more attention and interests both at home and abroad. In addition, the study fields of hedges are broadening, such as, translation, linguistics, literature, etc. The study object moves from text materials to video materials. In a word, studied in hedges are walking into a deeper field.This thesis is on the contrastive study of hedges between English and Chinese talk show languages from a pragmatic perspective. Prince et al and his coworkers’ classifications of hedges are employed. The aim of this study tries to discover how the hedging strategies are applied in English and Chinese talk show languages, the similarities and differences in English and Chinese talk show languages as well as pragmatic functions of hedging strategies. It is expected that this study can help people better understand hedges in talk show languages and use hedges properly in language communication.In this thesis, efforts will be made to solve the three research questions:1. How are hedging strategies applied in the communication of TV Talk Shows?2. Are there any differences and similarities of hedges applied in English and Chinese TV Talk Shows? If yes, what are they?3. What are pragmatic functions of hedging strategies in English and Chinese TV Talk Show languages?The main research methods include the qualitative study method and the quantitative study method. By employing the qualitative study method, we can analyze the quality of English and Chinese talk show languages and try our best to discover how hedging strategies are applied and pragmatic functions of hedging strategies. The quantitative study method is employed to collect frequencies of four types of hedges in English and Chinese talk show languages so that their similarities and differences can be revealed by the data. Also, some pragmatics theories are applied in this thesis to help the study. Such as, Adaptation Theory, Politeness Principle in order to explain and analyze hedges more comprehensively.The study is to be conducted in five steps. It includes: [1] Choosing two talk show programs as study objects: one is the English Talk Show- Ellen Show; the other is the Chinese Talk Show- Jin Xing Show; [2] Selecting similar length of the talk show languages; [3] Transcribing the video materials into text materials; [4] The data collection of four types of hedges in talk show languages; [5] Making tables and analyzing.The study results can be summarized as three points:1. Hedging strategies are often applied in the language communication, especially in the dialogue. According to the research in the English and Chinese talk show languages, it can be discovered that the hedging strategies are mainly realized by employing different kinds of hedges.2. According to the quantitative study, there are some similarities and differences in the English and Chinese talk show languages. To be more specific:Similarities of hedges include four points:(1) Four types of hedges exist in both English and Chinese talk show languages.(2) Approximators in both English and Chinese talk show languages are higher than shields.(3) In the approximators column, adaptors are higher than rounders in both English and Chinese talk show languages.(4) In the shields column, plausibility shields are higher than attribution shields in both English and Chinese talk show languages.Their difference includes: Chinese talk show languages employ approximators more than English talk show languages, while English talk show languages use shields more than Chinese talk show languages.3. With the help of related pragmatic theories, it can be found that the main pragmatic functions of hedging strategies can be summarized as:(1) Achieving illocutionary goals.(2) Achieving social goals.