A Study Of Hedges In Brexit News Reports From The British Mainstream Newspapers

Hedging devices in news discourse is a common phenomenon of language use.In news reports,hedges are a linguistic device used by journalists to mitigate the force of their claims and enhance the credibility of news.Based on the classification of hedges raised by Prince et al.,this thesis adopts quantitative and qualitative methods to study the overall frequency,distribution,features and functions of hedges in Brexit news reports on the basis of a self-built corpus,aiming at revealing how these hedges are used by the British mainstream newspapers in the news reports of Brexit.The findings show that:firstly,in terms of the overall frequency,hedges are widely used in Brexit news reports,and all four categories of hedges are applied in the Brexit news reports.Secondly,shields are more frequently used than approximators in Brexit news reports.Thirdly,hedges can be expressed through various hedging forms,that is to say,the four categories of hedges have different features in Brexit news reports.Lastly,the analysis of the functions of hedges in Brexit news reports shows that proper use of hedges can make news more concise and accurate,improve credibility and politeness,safeguard state image and protect personal privacy.The present study offers some reference for the further study of hedges in news reports,and sheds light on both journalists and readers to get a better understanding of hedges in news discourse.