淺談voa經(jīng)濟新聞中模糊限制語的應用和語用功能【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　?。?0_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設計</b></p><p>　　淺談VOA經(jīng)濟新聞中模糊限制語的應用和語用功能</p><p>　　An Analysis of the Application and Pragmatic Functions of Hedges

2、in VOA Economic News</p><p><b>　　英語</b></p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　作為模糊語言家族的一員，模糊限制語在自然語言中廣泛存在。盡管準確是新聞語言的基本要求，但并不排斥模糊限制語的存在。本文經(jīng)過分析VOA經(jīng)濟新聞中的典型案例說明模糊限制語的語用功能及

3、以此產生的帶給聽者的積極效果。說明新聞語言中是允許模糊限制語的存在的，恰當?shù)厥褂媚：拗普Z更能反映新聞的真實性和客觀性。</p><p>　　關鍵詞：模糊限制語；VOA；經(jīng)濟新聞；語用功能</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　As a part of fuzzy language, hedges widel

4、y occur in natural language. Although precision is one of the principles of broadcast news, it does not exclude the existence of hedges. This paper discusses the pragmatic functions and positive effect of hedges in econo

5、mic news by analyzing the examples from VOA. It proves that the existence of hedges is permitted in the broadcast news and the proper use of them can better reflect the truthfulness and objectivity of broadcast news.<

6、/p><p>　　Key words: hedges; VOA; economic news; pragmatic functions</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　AbstractIII</p><p>　　1 Introduction1</p><p&g

7、t;　　1.1 Introduction of hedges1</p><p>　　1.1.1 Definitions of hedges1</p><p>　　1.1.2 Classifications of hedges1</p><p>　　1.2 Purpose of the writing2</p><p>　　2 Lite

8、rature review2</p><p>　　2.1 Theoretical background2</p><p>　　2.1.1 Cooperative Principle2</p><p>　　2.2.2 Politeness Principle3</p><p>　　2.2 Previous studies3</p

9、><p>　　3 The application of hedges in VOA economic news4</p><p>　　4 The pragmatic functions of hedges in VOA economic news6</p><p>　　4.1 Being brief6</p><p>　　4.2Being

10、 accurate7</p><p>　　4.3Self-protection8</p><p>　　4.4Being polite9</p><p>　　4.5Creating persuasive effect9</p><p>　　5 Conclusion10</p><p>　　Bibliogr

11、aphy11</p><p>　　Acknowledgements11</p><p>　　1 Introduction</p><p>　　Fuzzy phenomena widely exist in every aspects of human life. Since L. A. Zadeh put forward the fuzzy-set theory

12、 in 1965, many subjects appear such as fuzzy logic, fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy linguistics, etc. Fuzzy linguistics is a new subject. Studies show that on the one hand, fuzziness is one feature of natural language; on the o

13、ther hand people use vague words and expressions to make meanings vague. There are lots of vague words and expressions being used in the formal and informal context, suc</p><p>　　1.1 Introduction of hedges&l

14、t;/p><p>　　1.1.1 Definitions of hedges</p><p>　　As a part of fuzzy language, hedges widely occur in natural language. Hedge this word originally appeared in the paper A Study in Meaning Criteria an

15、d the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts written by G. Lakoff in 1972. He gave the definition of “hedge”: words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy.(quoted from Hu Zhankui, 2009)</p><p>　　In A Dictionary

16、of Linguistics and Phonetics, hedge is defined as “an application in PRAGMATICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS of a general sense of the word (‘to be non-committal or evasive’) to a range of items which express a notion of impre

17、cision or qualification”. Examples of hedging include sort of, more or less, I mean, approximately, roughly. Hedge may also be used in combination: something of the order of 10 percent, more or less. (David Crystal, 2008

18、: 227)</p><p>　　Channell defines hedge from the perspective of pragmatics and points out that “perhaps a closer definition is that hedging refers to the use of words and expressions which encode the speaker/

19、 writer’s degree of commitment to the truth of what follows ”(Channell,2000: 218) </p><p>　　Different people have different definitions for hedge. From the different definitions, we can see that hedge can ma

20、ke things fuzzier and more imprecise, but it reflects the truthfulness.</p><p>　　1.1.2 Classifications of hedges</p><p>　　According to different perspectives, hedges can be classified into diffe

21、rent types. According to the semantic point of view, hedges can be classified into five types: hedge of degree, hedge of range, hedge of quality, hedge of quantity and hedge of manner maxim (quoted from Chen Linhua,Li Fu

22、yin,1994). From the view of pragmatics, Prince et al divided hedges into two types, approximators and shields. (quoted from Hu Zhankui, 2009) Approximators can be classified into adaptors and rounders. Words </p>

23、<p>　　Prince’s classification will be adopted in this paper. </p><p>　　1.2 Purpose of the writing</p><p>　　Hedges are widely used in the context such as English broadcast news. Although pre

24、cision is one of the principles of broadcast news, it does not exclude the existence of hedges. Many scholars have studied the special functions of hedges in the English broadcast news. There are studies on political new

25、s, but the studies of economic news are rare. Because the application of hedges in the economic news is common, and economic news has unique characteristics, it is worth studying the hedges in the e</p><p>　

26、　2 Literature review</p><p>　　2.1 Theoretical background</p><p>　　2.1.1Cooperative Principle</p><p>　　The Oxford philosopher H.Paul Grice first put forward the Cooperative Principle

27、 in 1967. Cooperative Principle (CP) shows that people should meet some standards in the communication. The general principle: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, b

28、y the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. And the four maxims are:</p><p>　　First, maxim of quantity, requires the speaker to be informative: Make your contribution a

29、s informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange); do not make your contribution more informative than is required.</p><p>　　Second, maxim of quality, requires the speaker to be truthful: D

30、o not say what you believe to be false; do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.</p><p>　　Third, maxim of relation, requires the speaker to be relevant: Be relevant.</p><p>　　Fourth

31、, maxim of manner, requires the speaker to be clear and lucid: Avoid obscurity of expression; avoid ambiguity; be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); be orderly.(quoted from Chen Xinren, 2007:163-164)</p><p&g

32、t;　　The CP tells us that we should follow some rules and make some contribution in the conversation to make the communication smooth. When a speaker fails to observe a maxim, an implicature is generated. Something is imp

33、lied or left implicit in conversation.</p><p>　　2.2.2 Politeness Principle</p><p>　　Politeness Principle was first put forward by Brown and Levinson. It shows that politeness plays an important

34、role in the communication and it can make conversation smooth. Politeness Principle has three concepts. They are face, face threatening acts (FTAs) and politeness strategy (quoted from Luo Zhan, 2008:35-36):</p>&

35、lt;p>　　1) Face, the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself, consisting in two related aspects:</p><p>　　a) Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserve, rights

36、to non- distraction- i.e. to the freedom of action and freedom from imposition.</p><p>　　b) Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or “personality”(crucially including the desire that this self-im

37、age be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants.</p><p>　　2) It is intuitively the case that certain kinds of acts intrinsically threaten face, namely those acts that by their nature run contrary

38、 to the face wants of the addressee and/or the speaker. These acts are called Face Threatening Acts (FTAs). FTAs can threaten not only the hearer’s positive face and negative face but also the speaker’s positive face and

39、 negative face.</p><p>　　3) In the context of the mutual vulnerability of face, any rational agent will seek to avoid these face-threatening acts, or will employ certain strategies to minimize the threat. Th

40、e possible strategies include (a) bold on record (most direct); (b) positive politeness(c) negative politeness (d) off record (e) Don’t do the FTA</p><p>　　2.2 Previous studies</p><p>　　In 1965,

41、 L.A. Zadeh first put forward the theory of “fuzzy set” in his paper Fuzzy Set which was published in Information and control. He studies the fuzziness of nature language and establishes the quantitative fuzzy semantics

42、in which the fuzzy language is counted with mathematical functions. (Luo Zhan, 2008:16) Then a series of new subjects appeared, such as fuzzy logic, fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy linguistics, etc. Fuzzy linguistics is a new s

43、ubject to study the fuzziness of natural language on</p><p>　　In China, the studies of fuzzy linguistics started in the late 1970s. In 1979, Professor Wu Tieping published the paper Elementary Research of Fu

44、zzy Language in Foreign Language, which showed the beginning of the studies of fuzzy linguistics in China. It was the first paper to analyze the fuzziness of language on the basis of theory of fuzzy set in China. Then, a

45、 lot of Chinese scholars joined the studies of the fuzziness of language. </p><p>　　Hedge is one of the most typical types of fuzzy language. It was first raised by G. Lakoff in 1972. He gave the definition

46、of “hedge”: words whose jobs to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy. Linguistic study of hedges was mainly from the aspect of semantics in 1970s, while in 1980s, scholars began to study hedges from the angle of sociolingui

47、stics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, etc (quoted from Zeng Wenxiong, 2005)</p><p>　　The studies of hedges from the perspective of pragmatics started in the early 1980s. Fraser analyzed the modal verbs in p

48、ragmatics in his paper Hedged Performatives in 1975. He also analyzed the hedges in mitigation and politeness research in1980 and in the aspect of discourse markers in 1990. In 1978, P. Brown and S. Levinson, dealing wit

49、h politeness in verbal interaction from the point of view of pragmatics, consider hedge as a device to avoid disagreement. They described hedges as a strategy </p><p>　　Also many scholars in China studied he

50、dges from the perspective of pragmatics. Yang Yujun (2002) and Chen Zhian.etc (1997) used Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle to analyze the communicational functions of hedges. Gao Xiaofang (2002) discussed t

51、he pragmatic implication and application characteristics of hedges from the violation of Cooperative Principle. And they showed speaker’s attitude and point of view to the topic. Meanwhile it is a strategy for communicat

52、ion.</p><p>　　Some scholars also analyzed the fuzziness of the language in news. Hu Zhankui(2009) studied the functions of hedges in the English news report from four degrees, hedge of range, hedge of qualit

53、y, hedge of quantity and hedge of degree. And he summarized that hedges can avoid the untruthfulness of the report and the assertion of the words. Kang Juanni (2000) analyzed the functions of hedges in the broadcast news

54、: reflecting the truthfulness and abiding by Cooperative Principle, self-protection, be</p><p>　　3 The application of hedges in VOA economic news</p><p>　　The application of hedges in the econom

55、ic news is rather common. The vague words and expressions in the broadcast news do not make listeners misunderstand the real meanings of the news, but make meanings more clear. When the reporters lack the detail informat

56、ion, the hedges will be chosen. The hedges can prevent reporters from being absolute. Here are some examples from VOA economic news. </p><p>　　(1) But experts say it will be as much as 20 years before China

57、can catch the United States, which remains almost three times larger with an annual GDP of more than $14 trillion. 2010-08-17</p><p>　　Here “almost” belongs to adaptors. In example (1), we can see that in or

58、der to catch the United States, China has a long way to go. The economy of the United Stated is very strong. Its GDP is larger than that of China. But the reporter can not be sure about the exact multiple. The word “almo

59、st” can make the report more tactful.</p><p>　　(2) The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation protects the pensions of more than thirty-four million workers. The federal agency takes control of troubled

60、pension plans.  2005-12-30</p><p>　　In example (2), “more than” belongs to rounders. Timeliness is one of the features of the broadcast news. Within the limited time, it is hard to collect all the infor

61、mation and find the precise number. In order to avoid subjective assertion, the reporter gives the hedge “more than” to show that the number of workers is large. In the economic news, there are lots of figures among the

62、reports. Because of the limited time and other reasons, it is not usual to use the figures alone without the hedge</p><p>　　(3) With the president's job approval ratings dropping as low as 41 percent in

63、one recent poll, Democrats will more intensively portray Republicans as advocating reckless policies that might reverse economic gains achieved so far under Mr. Obama, however fragile those may be. 2010-8-25</p>&

64、lt;p>　　“Might” is a plausibility shields. The speaker has no confidence that the policies of Republicans will reverse economic gains. It is just a guess. “Might” can avoid the subjective assertion.</p><p>

65、;　　(4) It says the pensions of Delta and Northwest have a total deficit of more than sixteen thousand million dollars. 2005-12-30</p><p>　　“It says” is an attribution shields. In order to avoid the responsib

66、ility the reporter should bear or protect himself, he quotes others’ words to make the words more objective and persuade the listeners to believe the truth of the information. </p><p>　　In fact, there are ma

67、ny examples to show that the application of hedges in economic news is very common. Sometimes the deliberate application of hedges can make the news more objective and truthful. It can reach the goal of communication bet

68、ween the reporters and listeners smoothly.</p><p>　　4 The pragmatic functions of hedges in VOA economic news</p><p>　　As we have analyzed above, the presence of hedges in economic news is ubiqui

69、tous. And hedges play an important role in the economic news. There are many functions coming into being in the particular context of economic news. And it is difficult to sum up all the functions. This paper will choose

70、 some examples from the VOA economic news and analyze the most important pragmatic functions. Thus we can see the following analysis.</p><p>　　4.1 Being brief</p><p>　　As we all know, broadcast

71、news are different from news in paper. They should follow “ABC” three principles: accurate, brief and clear. So brief is one of the important characteristics of news. Sometimes it is impossible and unnecessary to report

72、all the details of the news. With the limitation of reporting time and listeners’ background knowledge, the using of hedges can give a general idea to the listeners. And that is enough for the listeners and they even do

73、not have sufficient time to hear a</p><p>　　(5) Benchmark indexes in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Seoul fell up to two and a half percent Friday. Some markets sank nearly three percent in early trading,

74、but the losses eased in the afternoon.</p><p>　　--Asian Markets Drop After Wall Street Reacts to Obama's Bank Limits 2010-1-22</p><p>　　Here “nearly” is also a hedge. In example (5), we can

75、see that there are differences about the degree of some Asian markets drop. The reporter does not point out all the number. In order to be brief, sometimes the reporter needs to use hedges (Zhang Jian, 1994:216) He uses

76、“nearly” to show the numbers are within three percent. It makes the news more brief and objective. So it follows one of the principles of CP, maxim of manner: “Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)” And “nearly” can sim

77、ply ex</p><p>　　Sometimes we can also see the hedges being used in the titles and leads of the news. As we all know, titles need to be brief and make the people understand the general idea of the news clearl

78、y and easily. And the vague languages like hedges have such function to avoid giving details. Look at the following lead.</p><p>　　(6) The Greek philosopher Plato said necessity is the mother of invention.&#

79、160; And in tough economic times, innovation is essential for job seekers.  With 10 percent of the U.S. workforce unemployed, some entrepreneurs are seizing opportunity.  For young people entering the labor mar

80、ket, creating a business can be an appealing option.</p><p>　　--Young Entrepreneurs Tackle Tough US Economy 2010-1-30</p><p>　　As we all know, lead has to summarize the general idea of the whole

81、 news. So its words need to be brief and make people understand the event clearly and quickly. The word “some” belongs to adaptors. In the above lead, it does not describe the detailed information about entrepreneurs lik

82、e the number of the entrepreneurs who seize opportunity and what kind of entrepreneurs they are. It uses “some” to summarize all the content. It just gives the hearers a general idea that when the rate of unemploy</p&

83、gt;<p>　　Being accurate </p><p>　　As we have mentioned above, accuracy is also one of the important characteristics of news. As reporters, they should report the truth to the hearers. But somet

84、imes it is not easy to reach this goal. Within the limitation of time and the shortage of sources, it can not get all the details. And it is wise to use hedges so as not to make exact statements which they do not have en

85、ough evidence for. And the application of hedges can make the news more truthful, accurate and believable. </p><p>　　The example is as follows：</p><p>　　(7) In September, fuel prices hit new hig

86、hs. American drivers paid an average of three dollars and seven cents a gallon, or almost four liters. Damaging storms and growing demand were blamed for much of the increase. Hurricane Katrina and Rita da

87、maged about one-third of all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. 2005-12-30</p><p>　　In example (7), we can see many hedges are used, such as “almost”, “much of ” and “about”. The news show

88、s that the price of fuel is increasing and American drivers have to pay more money. Although the average number of money is not reaching 4 liters, it is rather high. The reporter can not know the exact number. In order t

89、o be accurate, “almost” is necessary to add before the number. It is the same to the rounder “about”. The reporter can’t calculate exactly how much oil and natural gas has been</p><p>　　Sometimes telling the

90、 exact number is not the only way to show the truth. If we use the vague language properly, they can also have such function. And under the most situations, the former is difficult to do. So the latter can be a good choi

91、ce.</p><p>　　Self-protection</p><p>　　By self-protecting, Pang Jianrong(2007:160) means that vagueness can be used as a safeguard against being later shown to be wrong or later caught doing some

92、thing that a person previously pledged not to do. It is also truthful for hedges. Under some situations when reporters release the news, they are not sure about everything. In order to reduce their responsibilities or pr

93、otect themselves, they will use some hedges to make the meanings vague. Some words such as “someone says that”, “according t</p><p>　　(8) Economists and business analysts say eight percent growth is the mini

94、mum needed to foster job creation and ward off social unrest among China's more than one billion people. 2009-10-23</p><p>　　In example (8), we can see that the reporter doesn’t know how much growth is t

95、he minimum needed to foster job and ward off social unrest. But the economists and business analysts study it and give the exact number. The reporter quotes their words, but does not point out exactly who they are. For o

96、ne thing, the reporter is being deliberately vague about the source. And if really he has to “protect” one’s reputations as scholars. For another, if their statements are wrong, he can release responsib</p><p&

97、gt;　　Quoting others’ words in the news is very common, especially in the economic news. There are many figures needed to be counted in the economic news. And it usually is the work of experts or officials. And they are t

98、he authority and trusted by the ordinary people. To some extent, putting their words in the news can release the responsibilities of the reporters.</p><p>　　Being polite</p><p>　　According to Br

99、own and Levinson, politeness shows the need of saving face for people.(quoted from Luo Zhan,2007) Negative politeness is to protect negative face. Channell(2000:190) points out that “Vagueness is used as one way of adher

100、ing to the politeness rules for a particular culture and of not threatening face.” So in order to avoid threatening face, we should pay more attention to some politeness rules. Sometimes the application of hedges can sav