Pragmatic Analysis Of Hedges In Advertising English

Vagueness is one of the primary properties of natural language. As a member of the family of vague language, hedging is also a phenomenon of vagueness in language and is frequently utilized in human communication. Since G.Lakoff first proposed "hedges: words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy" in 1972, more and more researches on hedges have been done in many scopes especially from the semantic and syntactic perspectives. But those researches place too much emphasis on the formalization of hedges and can nof dequately interpret why people tend to deliberately use hedges in some circumstances. As is known, advertising English expresses personal meaning and intentions. The language used in advertising must be precise and clear so as to avoid economic losses. However, hedges are often found in advertising English which make things fuzzier or less fuzzy. Yet there is not enough attentions given to studies on hedges in advertising English in academic circles, especially studies on the application of hedges in advertising English from the perspective of language use and understanding. Hence, this study.The author carries out an interpretative research on hedges in advertising English from a pragmatic perspective. This research is targeted at discussing four questions: 1.How frequently are hedges used in Advertising English? 2. What means of linguistic realization of hedges can be observed in Advertising English? 3. Why is hedging employed in advertisements? 4. What pragmatic functions do the hedges have in advertising English?This thesis classifies advertising English into five types according to the products advertised. One hundred sample advertisements are collected for the present research, twenty of each type. Based on the data, the author performs both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis. On the basis of the quantitative research, it is found that hedges are pervasive in English advertisement and there is some discrepancy in the frequency of hedges used in different types of English advertisements. The difference is depicted as such:Clothing> Food & Drinks> Electronic products> Automobile> Watches. On the other hand, this research explores the interpretation of hedges on the part of both the addresser and the addressee via Adaptation Theory. It is found that the addresser chooses to use hedges in adaptation to the social conventions and to his psychological motivations so as to achieve his communicative intentions. Taking the hedges as stimulus, the addressees seek to adapt to the option of language and derive the addresser's communicative intentions. This research also suggests five pragmatic functions:1.Appealing to consumers, 2.Making the language more persuasive,3. Avoiding absolutization,4. Promoting objectivity and credibility,5. Saving face and achieving politeness.This research is expected to have some theoretical and practical significance. Firstly, it helps to deepen the understanding of the nature of hedging, its linguistic features and pragmatic functions, communicative strategies and the relationship between language and psychology and cognition, etc. Secondly, it casts some enlightenment on foreign language teaching, advertising English teaching in particular. English teachers should introduce hedges to the course and teach students how to use hedges appropriately to achieve their communicative intentions. Thirdly, it also raises professional businessmen's awareness to use hedges properly when necessary and helps them conduct smooth and successful business communication.