A Study of Hedges in Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokespersons’ Speeches at Regular Press Conference

Abstract

As a tool effective in yielding special semantic and pragmatic effects through promoting linguistic fuzziness, hedges are widely applied to various discourses, and thus hold tight a high position in the fuzzy linguistics research. Based on Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s speeches at regular press conference, the present study intends to analyze the hedges in qualitative and quantitative methods at both lexical and non-lexical levels, for the purpose of discovering the features of the usage of hedges in Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s speeches at regular press conference and figuring out how spokesperson’s speeches achieve his political meaning through hedges and the corresponding reason, hoping to help the public and foreign media comprehend Chinese foreign policy better.