An Analysis Of Hedges In The English Business Letters From The Perspective Of Language Economics

Fuzziness has always been a basic phenomenon in the natural world.Since the publication of Fuzzy sets by L.A.Zadeh in 1965,the study of fuzzy language has emerged and drawn much attention.After this,the term “hedges” was put forward by American linguist Lakoff in 1972.He defined it as “the words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy”(Lakoff,1972: 195).Hedges are the most typical representatives of fuzzy language.So far,hedges have been widely used in all kinds of social occasions,especially in the business letters.Thus,the studies of hedges in the business letters have been constantly focused on and made great achievements.Language is an indispensable tool in human economic and social activities.With the development of human capital theory and education economics,the status of language becomes prominent in the economics.Until 1965,information economist Jacob Marschak first brought up the theory of language economics,which is an emerging interdisciplinary subject crossing both economics and linguistics.Language economics believes that economics has a close relationship with the exploration of optimal language structure.Meanwhile,language shows the economic features just as other resources,namely,value,utility,cost and benefit.The analysis of the four aspects has become an important content of language economics.Language economics examines language by means of economic theories and methods,which brings new vitality to the development of linguistics.This paper makes a thorough analysis of hedges in the English business letters based on the theory of language economics.On the one hand,the author investigates the distribution of hedges in eight types of English business letters through quantitative method.The classification of hedges is based on the research achievement of Prince et al.On the other hand,the author explores the economic features of hedges in the English business letters from the perspective of language economics through qualitative method.The analytical framework is in accordance with the four economic features raised by Marschak.Firstly,the value of hedges is analyzed in terms of their market value and non-market value.Secondly,the utility of hedges is analyzed on the basis of scarcity and network externality in the economics.Thirdly,the cost of hedges is analyzed from the view of communication cost in the commercial activities.Finally,the benefit of hedges is analyzed in the light of rational-economic man and Pareto Optimality in the economics.In a word,this paper aims to examine the distribution of hedges in the English business letters and reveal the economic features of hedges.It not only enriches the theory of language economics,but also provides a new theoretical perspective for the study of hedges.In addition,it also helps business people make clear the economic effects of hedges in the business letters so that they can take advantage of them to facilitate business communications.The proper use of hedges in the English business letters not only protects the dealer's interest,but also achieves mutual benefits in the economic activities.At last,the author hopes to bring some enlightenment to the readers,which will shed light on the relevant studies in the future.