| Fuzziness is common in communications. Hedges, as typical members in fuzzy languages, have always been a study focus of scholars in different fields. Due to the accuracy of language in news reports, studies on hedges applied in news reports are comparatively rare. However, for each genre, the language is more or less fuzzy. Hedges also exist in news language and perform certain functions. Based on some relevant researches, this thesis attempts to analyze hedges in English political news reports based on the theory of conversational implicature.Hedges can be classified into approximators and shields. Approximators are divided into adaptors and rounders, while shields consist of plausibility shields and attribution shields. According to Prince (1982) et al’s taxonomy, the author has made a detailed study on the employment of different types of hedges in the 40 samples. Also, an analysis of the functions realized by hedges in these reports has been made from two aspects-one is the floutings of maxims of conversation caused by hedges in English political news reports, and the other is the pragmatic properties of implicatures realized by hedges. Through statistics and analysis, some findings are drawn as follows:1) Hedges are largely employed in English political news reports, and differences exist in the application of different types of hedges. The frequency of shields is much higher than that of approximators; in approximators, adaptors are much less employed than rounders.2) The employment of hedges in English political news reports can reflect pragmatic properties of implicatures.3) The appropriate application of hedges plays some role in the realization of certain pragmatic functions in news reports:ensuring objectivity of news while allowing reasonable subjective opinions, leaving adequate leeway in news statements to avoid absoluteness and improving efficiency of news reports. |
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