A Study Of Hedge In Interpersonal Relationships

The vagueness of physical world and human cognition lead to the vague property of natural language. As an important member of vague family, hedges are common in verbal communication, assuming unique functions which are different from those of accurate language. The proper use of hedges can make linguistic expressions implicit and indirect,natural and appropriate, flexible and effective. Thereby hedges are able to better convey the thoughts and emotions of interactants, establish and maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships, achieve expected communicative purposes.Since American scholar Lakoff put up with the term "hedge" first in 1972, the circle of linguistics have conducted multidimensional and thorough research on hedges from the perspectives of semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and so on, and attained fruitful findings. However, the functional study of hedge is comparatively far from sufficient. Thus this thesis attempts to study hedges in interpersonal relationships within functional framework, and investigates in interaction how hedges realize interpersonal relationships.Based on Theory of Context, Rapport Management Model and Appraisal Theory, this thesis constructs an analytical framework of hedges in interpersonal relationships. First, it offers the definition of hedge, and classifies hedges into the mitigated and the unmitigated.Next, it proposes a flowchart of the realization of interpersonal relationships by hedge,which categorizes "emotion" and “situation" factors. It adopts a deductive approach to analyze typical examples from social life. The findings of the thesis are:(1) In interaction, the speaker's positive emotions can be realized through the up-scaling of force of unmitigated hedges, the negative emotions can be realized by the focus softening of mitigated hedges, the up-scaling of force of unmitigated hedges and the representing uncertainty of unmitigated hedges. When expressing the negative emotions,the speaker, based on his evaluation of the communicative situation and the role relationship between the hearer and he, sometimes uses mitigated hedges intentionally to cover up his negative feelings so as to manage interpersonal relationships efficiently.(2) In formal communication, unmitigated hedges are often used to show the speaker's uncertainty to guarantee the truthfulness of his utterances; mitigated hedges function to attenuate the speaker's tone,making his discourse more appropriate and acceptable. In informal communication,unmitigated hedges perform actively to open dialogic space and motivate the participation of different voices, contributing to enlarging the speaker's interaction with others; mitigated hedges serve to shield the speaker's negative tone. In collaborating activity, unmitigated hedges take prominence. They show the speaker's uncertainty on the subject, offering the hearer proper information and helping him to make correct judgment, contributing to achieving the goal of activity and solidarity; while in confronting activity, mitigated hedges play a key part to realize interpersonal relationship by attenuating the speaker's verbal force or making utterances indirect.The thesis holds that language and society co-construct. The linguistic selection in interaction not only reflects static social category, but also entails the speaker's subjective initiative. This study classifies hedges into the mitigated and the unmitigated, proposes a model for analyzing the realization of interpersonal relationships by hedge. It makes supplement to theories of hedge and also has significance in using hedges to construct interpersonal rapport.