A Corpus-based Comparative Study Of Hedges In China And US Government Reports

Government Report is a form of government document aiming at publicity.It summarizes a country’s achievement in one year,oversees domestic and international situations,and declares the goals of development in the next year.Hedges are an effective way to mean fuzziness.They can make a proposition fuzzier or less fuzzy.Therefore,hedges are frequently used in Government Report and the studies of hedges in China and US Government Reports have practical significance.This thesis is based on two self-compiled corpus--Government Work Report Corpus(GWRC)and State of the Union Report Corpus(SURC).It employs Lakoff’s definition of hedges and Prince et al.’s classification of hedges to conduct a comparative analysis of the use of hedges between China and US Government Reports.The research aims to reveal the functions and similarities and differences between hedges in China and US Government Reports.Results indicate that:(1)US State of the Union Reports use more hedges of different subclasses than China Government Work Reports do.There is a significant difference of the use of hedges between China Government Work Report and US State of the Union Report,especially of Shields.(2)As for Approximators,the research does not find a significant difference of the use of hedges in two Government Reports.Moreover,with studies of high-frequency Approximators used in the two corpora,there are overlaps between China and US Government Reports.(3)The functions of hedges in both Government Reports can be concluded as avoiding absoluteness,making statement more reliable and persuasive,improving efficiency,etc..The thesis provides linguistic reference for China Government Work Report English writers and translators and expands the research field of hedges.It proposes ways for the use of hedges in Government Reports.