An Adaptation-Based Approach To Hedges In Thunderstorm

As an intrinsic property of language, the vagueness is a common phenomenon in language communication. Hedges are an important part of the fuzzy language as well as the subject studied by many domestic and foreign scholars. Lakoff (1972:183-228) has first proposed the "Hedges are those expressions which makes some of the things vague". Subsequently, hedges come into the context of linguistic research by linguists who study it from different perspectives. Throughout the literature study, the author finds that there are many communicative discourse studies of specialized uses such as advertising, news, law, politics, and so on.But a smaller number of studies on hedges in the literary text, especially few pragmatic studies on the drama. Therefore, Thunderstorm has been selected as a case corpus, trying to make analysis of hedges from a new perspective.This thesis attempts to make pragmatic research of hedges in Thunderstorm from the perspective of the Adaptation Theory. Verschueren (1999) systematically has proposed Linguistic Adaptation Theory in his book Understanding Pragmatics. Linguistic Adaptation Theory emphasizes that the use of language is regarded as a process of making a constant choice by the speaker and listener, or the process of making a choice by language users in accordance with the needs of the communicative context to achieve communicative intention. This thesis takes quantitative and qualitative methods and refers to the classification method classified by Prince and his colleagues, C.Bosk and J.Frader as the basis for classification of this study from the pragmatic point of view which has been widely adopted. It makes interpretive research of hedges in Thunderstorm and mainly discusses three issues:(1) The frequency and distribution of hedges in Thunderstorm.(2) The analysis of reasons for character’s differences of using hedges in Thunderstorm.(3) Pragmatic functions of hedges in Thunderstorm.The results of the quantitative study show that hedges in Thunderstorm are widespread and the frequency of different kinds of hedges is different, as follows: approximators have a higher frequency of hedges than shields. In Thunderstorm, the reason for character’s difference in using hedges is influenced by many contextual factors such as occupation, social status, interpersonal relationships, gender and so on. Results of qualitative research show that hedges have the rich pragmatic functions: helping to achieve accuracy; protecting oneself; highlighting important information; following the principle of economy; avoiding being absolute; showing politeness; avoiding threatening other’s face. The use of a large number of hedges is the result of characters’constantly adapting to the context.The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one presents background, the objectives and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two mainly reviews studies on vagueness and hedges at home and abroad as well as Thunderstorm. Chapter three presents the theoretical framework, Adaptation Theory, and the study on hedges based on adaptation theory. Chapter four analyzes research methodology. It begins with research questions, and the research method, quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collection. Chapter five focuses on pragmatic functions of hedges in Thunderstorm. Chapter six is the concluding part. It sums up major findings, limitations and suggestions for future studies. The resarch possesses some theoretical and practical importance. First, its theoretical significance is to provide the basis for the study of hedges from Adaptation Theory. Second, it is to increase research instance of pragmatic functions of studying hedges in the literature. Its theoretical significance is to enhance the understanding of learners and researchers towards hedges and their functions. Thus, it will improve their correctness of using hedges and it will be very helpful to application of intercultural communication and language teaching.