A Pragmatical study of Hedges in news reports

1.Introduction

News， working as a popular and well-received mass reading material， should be paid particular attention； in consequence， the particular exploration of functions or effects of hedges performed in news style are indispensable， which is a good way of promoting their proper use. This thesis aims to identify the major hedging devices used in English news to explore their pragmatic functions， offering some useful suggestions to English learners especially those who take up the career related to intercultural communications.

2. Research Methodology

Contextual correlates of adaptability “potentially include all the ingredients of the communicative context with which linguistic choices have to be interadaptable”， （Verschueren，1999：66）： it covers three worlds： The mental world covers the cognitive and emotional factors of the two sides of interlocutors such as personality， desires， motivations， etc， which are all taken into consideration in the process of making choices. Social world refers to the rules and principles that standardize the interlocutors’ speech act in social occasions and environments. Physical world contains two major factors： temporal reference and spatial reference.

3. An adaptive analysis of Hedges in English news reports

3.1 Improving News’ Objectiveness or Truthfulness

That’s typical of the way people look at messiness—it’s someone else’s mess that always seems most problematic. （from “The Perils of Order” in Newsweek March 5， 2007）.

Analysis： The use of “seem” implies the possible partial disagreement coming from some readers and it also demonstrates the changeable stance of the writers in these expressions.

3.2 Enhancing News’ Appropriateness

While a $ 2.6 trillion Chinese economy amounts to only about 5 percent of overall world output， it makes up a much larger share of the growth in the global economy. （from “China Exports Trouble” in Newsweek March 19， 2007）

Analysis： these data are not always exact and the long figures are not suitable for readers’ reading comprehension， which may just obscure the overall comprehension or interrupt the grasp of the main themes.

3.3Increasing News’ Brevity

…the overall effects of a China slowdown could easily knock more than 0.5 percentage points off global economic growth in 2007. （from “China Exports Trouble，

too” in Newsweek March 19， 2007）

Analysis： modal verbs always avoid absoluteness in expressions to not provoke anger， disagreement or contempt from the readers’ part and can omit the full exhibition of supportive evidences. Thus， the brevity of news is attainable by means of modal verbs.

3.4 Integrating the Sense of Humor into English News

As legions of international fans are about to find out， opera can be spellbindingly seductive. （from “Northern Exposure” in Time May 7， 2007）

Analysis： In view of Conversational implicature， the violation of any maxim in Cooperative principle gives rise to imply speaker or writer’s intended meaning potential. it gives the audience a sense of grand spectacle in mind； accordingly， a sense of humor accompanies.

4. Conclusion

Fuzziness， with hedges working as an important member in it， has been observed to occur widely in language use， and some investigators have shown the tendency to maintain that all language use is fuzzy in some way. On the whole， two major functions of hedges in English news are derived. The one is to fulfill the characteristics of the news style； the other is to coordinate the involved intra-personal relationships in news writing.

作者簡介：李美華（1992.09.02—）， 籍貫：安徽，院校：上海對外經貿大學。