A Pragmatic Study Of Hedging In American Presidential Debating Utterances

As an appealing linguistic phenomenon,hedging devices have been extensively studied by scholars from diverse disciplines such as semantics,stylistics,pragmatics and discourse analysis,etc.In recent years,an increasing number of studies have focused on hedging devices in various discourses,which also yields fruitful results.Nevertheless,the hedging devices used frequently and tactically in presidential debates are largely unexamined.More specifically,how is hedging being deployed as a pragmatic strategy in presidential debating session?Therefore,this study takes hedging in American presidential debates as the object,aiming to explore how presidential candidates employ such a strategy for certain communicative purposes within the framework of Adaptation Theory.The following two research questions will be answered:(1)What are the linguistic realizations of hedging in American presidential debates?(2)How do candidates employ hedging to adapt to different contexts in American presidential debates?All the data used in this study are from the 2016 American presidential debates and analyzed within the framework of Adaptation theory.According to Adaptation Theory,the process of using language is a process of making linguistic choices in which language presents three properties,namely,variability,negotiability and adaptability.The process of linguistic choice-making is actually the dynamic adaptation between context and language structure.The present study first analyzes the variability from lexical,syntactical and discourse levels to elaborate on linguistic devices used in American presidential debates to realize hedging.Then,a detailed explanation is given to demonstrate how candidates employ hedging to adapt to non-linguistic contexts of mental world,social world and physical world.In sum,the thesis has drawn two conclusions.Firstly,hedging as a pragmatic strategy can be realized at three levels of linguistic structures in American presidential debates,namely,lexical level,syntactical level and discourse level.Secondly,the employment of hedging realized by various linguistic devices in American presidential debates is to adapt to various elements in mental,social and physical worlds for certain communicative purposes.The study of hedging used by presidential candidates will enable us to further understand hedging and its operation mechanism and know about the real reasons of presidential candidates' choosing this pragmatic strategy.Meanwhile,it can also enrich the pragmatic study of hedging,and serves as a reference and inspiration to help people apply hedging devices properly in daily communication.