A Study Of Contextual Adaptability Of Hedges In Chinese Civil Judgments

In human communication fuzziness is prevalent as a crucial trait of language.And in 1972,Lakoff firstly proposed the concept of hedge as the realization of fuzziness.Before long,it received a big welcome from the scholars both at home and abroad.However,there is little attention paid to hedges in Chinese civil judgments.This thesis intends to study hedges in Chinese civil judgments in light of the Adaptation Theory to probe into the following three research questions.1.How are hedges distributed in civil judgments?2.How do hedges in civil judgments adapt to the three different worlds?3.What are the functions of hedges in civil judgments?Civil judgments are supposed to be as precise as possible in language use.However,after analysis and investigation,it is found that hedges do exist in Chinese civil judgments and are of great significance.In the present study eight civil judgments are selected at random from the website China Judgments Online.They are about contract disputes,divorce disputes,property disputes and traffic accidents.The quantitative and qualitative analysis will be adopted to identify,classify and calculate hedges and to show the distribution of hedges in civil judgments,which figures out the first research question of the study.In the study Verschueren's Adaptation Theory is adopted to analyze and discuss hedges in Chinese civil judgments.In line with this theory,people are making linguistic choices intentionally or unintentionally when utilizing language.The study on hedges not only demonstrates the existence of hedges in Chinese civil judgments,but elaborates how they adapt to the physical world,the social world and the mental world.In addition,their pragmatic functions are highlighted.They can be made use of to keep objective and fair,to show accuracy and appropriateness,to protect oneself and make people trust the authority and power.It is advisable that proper hedges in civil judgments do make a big difference.Making a deep study on hedges in Chinese civil judgments has a significant effect on the study of hedges.It is of great help to make people better understand hedges and Chinese civil judgments.Also,it enriches the studies on both hedges and vague language.