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in mind toachieve the following objectives:
(1) To explore the similarities and the differences in the frequencies and distributions ofhedges used in spoken English between CCSs and NSs;
(2) To explore the pragmatic functional similarities and differences of hedges used in spokenEnglish between CCSs and NSs.
(3) To explore some pedagogical implications relate

Chapter Two Literature Review

This chapter reviews the definitions, classifications and linguistic realizations of hedges,and then makes an overview of the previous studies on hedges both at home and abroad.

2.1 Definitions of hedges
Since the concept of hedges is the main concern of the current research, above all, it isnecessary to have a comprehensive understanding of it.Looking into the previous literature, we would find that the term of “hedges” was firstformulated by the American linguist Lakoff (1972: 195), who refers it as “the words whosejob is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy” as “hedges”. The definition of hedges given byLakoff sets a starting point for the later studies on hedges although it seems to be simple,which only involves some of the words and their semantic meanings. Thereafter, out ofdifferent research purposes, researchers put forward with different definitions referring to thatphenomenon from different perspectives.Brown and Levinson (1987: 56) take a hedge as a modifier of an utterance, either tointensify or to weaken the degree of the membership of an utterance; Hyland (1998: 1) refersto hedges as “any linguistic means used to indicate either a lack of complete commitment tothe truth value of an accompanying proposition, or a desire not to express that commitmentcategorically”; Channell (2000: 218) views the use of hedges as a strategy which can indicatea speaker’s or writers’ degree of responsibility to the proposition he or she makes.Verschueren (2002:193) believes that hedges directly modify the propositional content, assessthe status of the attitude, cognition or the evidence term, but equally indicate themeta-pragmatic awareness.
Some dictionaries also give various definitions of hedges. For example, Oxford ConciseDictionary of Linguistics (Matthews, 2000: 160) defines hedges as “any linguistic device bywhich a speaker avoids being compromised by a statement that turns out to be wrong, arequest that is not acceptable, and so on”. Longman Dictionary of Language of Teaching andApplied Linguistics (Mayor, 2002: 237) defines hedges as “linguistic devices that writers use either to indicate the writer’s lack of commitment of truth of a statement or a desire not toexpress that commitment categorically”. In The Oxford American College Dictionary(Lindberg, 2005: 621), a hedge (as a noun) in the linguistic field refer to “a word or phraseused to avoid over precise, commitment, and (as a verb) to avoid making a definite decision,statement, or commitment.” In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Bullon et al,2009: 1060), linguistic hedges are defined as “to avoid giving a direct answer to a question.”A multitude of definitions of hedges shows that there is no consensus on defining theterm of hedges. However, it would be seen that most of the definitions cling to the idea thatthe use of hedges is closely related to the users’ commitment. Therefore, in a broad sense,hedges in the linguistic field can be defined as some words or phrases employed by speakersor 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。