A Study Of Hedges In English Economic News

Hedges which are the most common and typical fuzzy language, are an important component of all natural languages, which deserve our attention and better understanding. Much progress has been made in hedge study from the pragmatic perspective and its application to various genres. However, little attention has been paid to hedges in English economic news. Based on Hyland's taxonomy, this thesis is intended to give a systematic analysis of hedges in English economic news from the perspective of the adaptation theory.This thesis aims to study hedges in English economic news from the following three aspects. 1) What types of hedges are mainly employed in English economic news? What is the occurrence frequency of each type? 2) What's the generation mechanism of hedges in English economic news from the perspective of adaptation theory? 3) What pragmatic functions can hedges perform in English economic news? The analysis is based on the case study of English economic news reports during the 2008 financial crisis and economic recession. In the research, altogether sixty economic news reports published from September, 2008 to June, 2009 are selected at random from two newspapers, this is, The New York Times and Financial Times. Both quantitative research and qualitative research are used in the present study. After the analysis, the results show hedges are a common linguistic phenomenon in English economic news. All three types of hedges, namely accuracy-oriented hedges, writer-oriented hedges and reader-oriented hedges are employed in English economic news. The frequencies of three types of hedges are different and accuracy-oriented hedges are used most frequently. From the perspective of Verschueren's adaptation theory, we can find out the generation mechanism of hedges in English economic news. The generation of hedges in English economic news is a process of making linguistic choice. It is a process with higher degree of consciousness since it is used to achieve certain communicative purposes. The use of hedges, which is the result of making linguistic choices, aims to adapt to the communicative context. All these are conducted to achieve a desired communication effect between reporters and readers. Besides, Pragmatic functions of hedges are also summarized. Hedges are a useful tool to increase credibility, enhance efficiency, protect reporters and achieve politeness.The study consists of six chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction of the present study, including the research background, the objective and significance of the study and the organization of the thesis. The second chapter is designed to make a literature review of previous researches from semantic and pragmatic perspectives. The application of hedges in different genres has also been reviewed. The third chapter introduces the theoretical framework which would be used as an analyzing tool---the linguistic adaptation theory. The forth chapter presents the methodology of the thesis, including five parts, namely, the research questions, data collection, research methods, research procedures and data analysis. The fifth chapter analyzes and discusses the hedges used in English economic news. In this chapter, we will try to analyze the collected data and discuss their generation mechanism from the perspective of adaptation theory. The sixth chapter comes to the conclusion of the current study. The major findings, limitations and implications are presented in this chapter.