A Study on Hedges of Spokesperson Remarks in Whitehouse Press Conference from the Perspective of Pragmatics

摘要

This paper describes and analyzes the hedges frequency and its pragmatic functions of Spokesperson remarks in Whitehouse press conference in perspective of Cooperative Principle and Face Theory. From the perspective of pragmatics, the qualitative and quantitative research methods are employed to analyze hedges in press conference language. The present research randomly selects five transcripts of spokesperson remarks in Whitehouse press conference to make a corpora as the research subject. On one hand, based on K. Hyland's definition and Prince et al.'s classification, hedges are identified and selected. On the other hand, hedges in the corpora are further analyzed from the point of Cooperative Principle and Face Theory. High frequency of hedges in spokesperson remarks is because positive and negative face strategy are frequently used by Whitehouse spokesperson in press conference, especially indirect devices, devices of minimizing the imposition and devices of hedges in negative face strategy.