Metapragmatic Analysis Of Hedges Used By Females

Metapragmatic awareness refers to the self-monitoring awareness possessed bylanguage users who proceed to make specific selections in language activities. Theprocess of using language is a course of constantly making linguistic selections,which is guided and regulated by meta-pragmatic awareness of varying degree. Theguidance and regulation tend to leave certain traces in the layer of linguistic structure,namely indicators of meta-pragmatic awareness. Hedges are linguistic phenomenawith intense intention and are frequently-used communicative strategies in speechcommunication. As indicators of metapragmatic awareness, hedges are capable ofmanifesting speakers’ reflective awareness in selecting language in some degree.Meta-pragmatic analysis aims to probe into the operation mechanism ofmeta-pragmatic awareness in regulating and monitoring speakers to select specificlinguistic forms as well as exploring its meta-pragmatic functions. Females, as aunique social group, possess distinctive linguistic styles. One of the vital features offemale language is the frequent application of hedges that can reflect females’metapragmatic awareness.This thesis intends to conduct a pilot meta-pragmatic research on hedges used byfemales under Verschueren’s meta-pragmatic awareness theory and attempts to revealfemale speakers’ meta-pragmatic awareness via exploration of their hedgingphenomenon. Based on fifteen excerpts of interviews with women from Yang LanOne on One, the author adopted quantitative and qualitative approaches in this thesis,carefully transcribed the interview contents and built up a mini-corpus, from whichthe author calculated and picked out all the sentences and turns of communicationcontaining hedges. A quantitative analysis is undertaken and the author illustrated theamount, frequency, empirical distribution of hedges via tables. Then the authorundertook the qualitative analysis and discussed the relation between meta-pragmaticawareness and hedges under the meta-pragmatic awareness theory. Meta-pragmaticfunctions of hedges used by females plus reasons for their using hedges are also included.Research data indicate that frequency and distribution of the four sorts of hedgesdisplay divergence in verbal communication of the four female interviewees.Sequence of their occurrence frequency is①Adaptors;②Plausible Shields;③Attribution Shields and④Rounders (from high to low). Researches also demonstratethat, being a frequent communicative strategy employed by females, hedges are the“chemical action” of females’ meta-pragmatic awareness---regulating and monitoringfemales’ language selection; while hedges, in reverse, reflect specific meta-pragmaticawareness of female speakers. Hedges used by females manifest certainmeta-pragmatic functions. For one thing, hedges are provided with particular functionof interpersonal interaction, like adjusting interpersonal relation of communicatingparties and manifesting language users’ intention and emotions so as to achievepragmatic balance. For another, hedges are capable of altering hearers’ previouscognitive environment and providing them with certain inference directions,capacitating hearers to better comprehend the pragmatic meaning implied beyondspeakers’ literal meaning. Besides, hedges used by females can reflect specificcontextual factors and bring certain implicit pragmatic effects hidden in the utterancesfrom substrate of the language to the surface and narrow those uncertainties down. Inthe meantime, reasons for female using hedges can be attributed to the society,psychology and physiology. The author also proposed that hedges used by femalesvary from different interviewees, which is related to their age, characteristics,occupation, social status and the like.