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Chapter One   Introduction  

1.1   Background 
This study intends to examine the development of English hedges used in written works by Chinese English-major students at different English levels. As  it  is  known  to  all  linguists,  vagueness  is  a  fundamental  characteristic  of natural  language,  and  language  without  hedging  is  language  without  life.  (e.g.  L.A. Zadeh,  1972;  John  Skelton,  1988;  Zeng  Wenxiong,  2005)  According  to  L.A.  Zadeh (1972),  because  in  our  real  world  we  will  encounter  such  classes  of  more  or  less fuzziness, fuzziness is indispensable to human cognition and language. Indeed, it may be  said  that  it  is  the  ability  of  the  human  brain  to  control  fuzzy  concepts  that distinguishes  human  from  computers.  According  to  Zeng  Wenxiong  (2005),  fuzzy language  depends  on  the  ambiguity  and  vagueness  of  the  subjective  and  objective world. Researchers argue that language is a reflection of thinking, and the vagueness of  cognition  and  thinking  pattern  makes  language  fuzzy.  (e.g.,  Ye  Feisheng  &Xu Tongqiang,  1997)  Some  researchers  (e.g.,  Wu  Guangting,  2013)  believe  that  the vagueness of language depends on individual differences and vague understanding as well  as  fuzzy  of  language  function.  Fuzzy  language  is  a  new  research  field,  but  it develops  so  fast.  Since  1960s,  more  and  more  linguists  have  paid  attention  on  the fuzzy language research, and made a progress in it. In 1965, L.A. Zadeh, a professor in  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  published  a  historic  paper  on  “Fuzzy”  in Information  and  Control  Magazine,  and  also  first  put forward  the  fuzzy  concept  and fuzzy  theory.  What  is  called  by  Zadeh  “fuzzy  set”  is  the  “hedges”.  As  a  typical  and common  fuzzy  language,  hedges  research  has  drawn  increasing  attention  and  has become  a  research  field.  Influenced  by  Zadeh,  George  Lakoff,  a  famous  American linguist, in a seminar in 1972 first put forward and interpreted the term of “hedges” in the paper named “Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts” and made a definition for it. He suggests that “some of the most interesting questions are raised by the study of words whose meaning implicitly involves fuzziness, words whose  job  is  to  make  things  fuzzier  or  less  fuzzy”.  (Lakoff,  1972:189)  Since &nbs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。