A Study of Hedges in the Top 10 TED talks in 2020 from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory顺应理论视阈下对2020年最热门的十场TED演讲中模糊限制语的研究文献综述

 2021-12-31 19:53:24

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文献综述

1. Introduction1.1 Research BackgroundHedges did not appear in the field of linguistics at the very beginning. Actually, the precise concept fuzzy sets was put forward by Zadeh, in the field of mathematics. His main idea of about fuzzy sets could be summarized as follows:It is a tool which makes possible the description of the vague notions and manipulations with them. The main idea of this theory is very simple and natural: as we are not able to determine the exact boundaries of the class defined by a vague notion, let us replace the decision if an element belongs to it or not by a measure from some scale. Every element will be evaluated by a measure expressing its place and role in the class. (Vilem, 1986:28)This concept of fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets does not only appear in mathematics but also had been applied in many other fields. It is made into models such as cloud model to deal with qualitative concepts. In the field of engineering, education, social science, it is used to empolder voice processing system, text identifier, psychological tests and other systems. Also, fuzzy linguistics is one of the fields to use this concept as a base. The study of Fuzzy linguistics in China officially began with the publication of Wus article A Preliminary Study of Fuzzy Language, in 1979. In the following years, the fuzzy language has become a magnet to the linguistic field. Among the various fuzzy language phenomena, hedges have been a focus of research attention in recent years. There are different classifications of hedges. One of the most renowned models is proposed by Prince and his colleagues Frader and Bosk (1982), which will be used in this study as a theoretical framework to study hedges in TED speeches. Another theoretical framework adopted in this study is Adaptation theory by Verschueren, a famous Belgian linguist and Secretary General of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA). This theory is elaborated in detail in his book Understanding Pragmatics (1999). Adaptation, as an attribute of language, can lead human beings to make choices from a variety of possible options to meet the basic needs of human communication. Its foundation lies in the other two linguistic attributes proposed by Verschuerens theory, named variability and negotiability.Adaptation theory was first introduced into China by He (1988) and Yu (1999). They gave a brief introduction to Verschueren's Understanding Pragmatics and introduced the framework of Adaptation theory in detail. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a private non-profit organization in the United States, which is famous for its Ted conference. The purpose of this conference is "ideas worth spreading". TED was born in 1984, and its founder is Richard Saul Wurman. Since 2001, Chris Anderson has taken over Ted Company, founded the Sapling foundation and raised the Ted conference. Since 2006, videos of TED speeches have been uploaded to the Internet for people around the world to watch. As an influential platform, TED includes bunches of speeches of different fields. As TED speeches are commonly concise, delicate and easy to understand, they are very suitable for studying and providing research materials for learners.1.2 Purpose of the StudyThis paper selected 10 most popular TED speeches in 2020 to analyze the frequency, effect and numbers of hedges in speeches. As a graduation thesis, it has mainly two purposes.The first purpose is to study hedges in speeches from the perspective of Adaptation theory. Due to time limit, I selected speeches as my materials, which is a literary style being designed roundly. By screening out the hedges, the numbers and frequency of them are laid out and their pragmatic function can be analyzed.The second purpose to do this research is to better understand the communicative features in speeches and to apply it to daily life. By studying hedges from the perspective of Adaption theory, we can better learn communications on three levels: the physical world, the social world and the mental world. By analyzing the speeches, we understand the importance to use the right and proper hedges in different environment with different people, thus improving our skill of communication. So this thesis is hoped to have practical value to help with our daily life communication. 1.3 Need for the Study After an extensive reading of the existing literature on fuzziness, the author finds that most researches on Fuzziness are concentrated on the field of mathematics and data analysis. Researches in the field of linguistics turn out to be less popular, especially the analysis of speeches. Even though there are some scholars focusing on speeches, they usually select a certain kind of speech, such us persuasive speeches, political speeches or speech in a specific field, like in business, law and so on. The paper will not be limited to a certain type of speech, but randomly select 10 speeches in all kinds. Moreover, in the past several years, researches devoted themselves mainly to Cooperative Principles, Conversational Implicature and Politeness Principle. Moreover, they studied hedges from phonetic perspective, grammatical perspective and semantic perspective.Research on hedges from the perspective of Adaptation theory is comparatively insufficient. In a nutshell, this thesis is hoped to enrich and supplement the existing understanding in the field. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Relevant research on hedgesThe concept of fuzziness has been applied in all fields, because fuzziness is a phenomenon often encountered in life.Before Zadeh formally put forward the concept of fuzziness, many scholars also gave comment on fuzziness. The most famous one is given by the French physicist Duhem in 1904. He thought that the concepts in physics is more accurate but have more space to explain them. (Li, 2006) In 1908, Marty, a German linguist, defined fuzziness as a phenomenon that different, changing names for an object have no limitations and cannot be restrained. (Li, 2006)The Swiss linguist Saussure, expressed his thought on hedges in his Course In General Linguistics (compiled by his students and published in 1916) from the perspective of pragmatics. He thought that without the expression of words, thought is just a mass of indefinite and vague things. (Saussure, 1983：150)In 1923, Russell, an English philosopher, published an article Vagueness on Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy, which pointed out language itself is filled with vagueness. For example, he believes that "bald" is a vague concept and cannot accurately represent the accurate state. From the perspective of the function of fuzzy words, he believes that fuzzy cognition is more objective than the precise one in some cases. (Russel, 1923)In 1937, Black, the professor of philosophy of Cornell University, published his paper Vagueness in Philosophy of Science. He clearly proposed that vagueness on words is the finite area and lack of specification of its boundary. Also, he discussed vagueness from the perspective of philosophy as well. (Li, 2006)Published in 1953 (edited by students), Philosophiscal Investigation was written by Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher. He took artworks as a metaphor, expressing his thought that both fuzziness and clarity have their own advantages. (Wittgenstein, 1953)In 1965, Zadeh published his great work Fuzzy sets in the 8th issue of Information and Control, which marked that the concept of "fuzziness" has owned a formal definition and gave birth to the fuzzy theory. With respect to its complexity, in short, his definition of fuzzy theory was as follows. In mathematic fields, we have objects that cannot be accurately classified with sets. Therefore, the concept of "fuzzy set" was introduced. In a number of interrelated ranges, a segment is intercepted and appears as a set, which is called the fuzzy set. (Zadeh, 1965)After Zadeh framed the concept of fuzziness in 1965, Lakoff, a famous American linguist, put forward the concept of hedges in 1972. In Lakoff's works, he believed that there is no truth or falsehood in an event, so hedges allowed an event to have both the qualities of truth and false, it allows the proposition to be fuzzy. Even under logical reasoning, this characteristic still exists. (Lakoff, 1972)In 1983, Hubler analyzed hedges from the perspective of pragmatics that the proposition can be accepted by the hearers more easily and the credibility of the opposition can also be enhanced by performing hedges as directly interactive and communicative strategies. (Hubler, 1983)Then, in 1987, Brown and Levinson's shares the same view of hedges with Lakoff. They thought that hedges can be placed before and after a word or sentence to make its meaning clearer or fuzzy. (Brown Levinson, 1987) In 1988, Coates and Cameron thought that whether people believe something or not can be judged by the use of hedges. In conversation, hedges are euphemistic and can help the narrator keep face or hide secrets. (Coates Cameron, 1988) In 2000, Verschueren, the proponent of adaptation theory, also had comments on hedges. He believed that hedges can modify propositions, but they cannot be used to evaluate right and wrong. (Verschueren, 2000)In addition to the western and European views on hedges, the following is the appraisement of Hedges in China.Wu (1997) is recognized as the founder of fuzzy linguistics in China. He published a large number of thesis on fuzzy language in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he compiled more than 20 articles about fuzzy language into a book, which elaborates the concept and application of fuzzy linguistics and hedges. Different from Zadeh's research on fuzziness in mathematics, Wu focused on Fuzziness in linguistics. As a milestone in the history of Chinese fuzzy linguistics, this is not only Professor Wu's contribution, but also a new beginning of Chinese fuzzy linguistics. Since 1986, there have been thousands of papers on fuzzy language in China. 2.2 Relevant research on Adaptation theoryCompared to fuzziness and hedges, the Adaptation theory is relatively young.In 1987, Verschueren, a Belgian linguist, under the perspective of pragmatics, put forward the concept of linguistic adaptation in his thesis published in IPrA Working Document. In 1995, Verschueren published the Handbook of Pragmatics, which further elaborates the Adaptation theory. In this book, Verschueren gave a new explanation of pragmatics: the cognitive, social, and cultural study of language and communication, which paves the way for the completion of the Adaptation theory. (Zhang, 2018) In 1999, Verschueren published his book Understanding Pragmatics, which marks the maturity of the Adaptation theory. (Verschuren, 1999)The first person introducing Adaptation theory into China was Professor Qian (1991) of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. In 1991, he published Theory of Linguistic Adaptation - A Review of Verschuerens Adaptation theory, which shows his new view on pragmatics: pragmatics can be a separate section. It is not parallel to semantics. Instead, pragmatics is a subject focused on the function of language. (Qian, 1991)In 1999, He and Yu (1999) published Understanding pragmatics----Comments on Verschuerens new theory, which gives a detailed and systematic introduction to Adaptation theory, and mentioned that Adaptation theory is a pragmatic theory with great research prospect. (He Yu, 1999)References Bellman, R. E., Zadeh, L. A. (1970). Decision-making in a fuzzy environment. Management Science, 17:141-164.Brown, P., Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Channell, J. (2000). Vague language. Shanghai: Shanghai foreign language education publishing houseCoates, J., Cameron, D. (1988). Women in their speech communities. London: Longman. Hegding, Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://wenku.baidu.com/view/d40e27adac51f01dc281e53a580216fc700a538d.htmlHubler, A. (1983). Understanding Hedges in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Lakoff, G. (1972). Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Chicago Linguistic Society Papers, 183-228.Liu, C. Y., Gan, W. Y., Wu, T. (2010). A comparative study of Cloud Model and Extended Fuzzy Sets. Rough Set Knowledge Technology, 626-631.Prince, E., Frader, J., Bosk, C. (1982). On hedging in physician-physician discourse. In R. J. di Pietro, (Eds.), Linguistics and the Professions. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 83-97.Russel, B. (1923). Vaguness, Retrieved February 10,2021 from http://www.doc88.com/p- 3847501205037.htmlVerschueren, J. (1987). Levels of linguistic adaptation. Volume2: selected papers of the International Pragmatics Conference. Antwerp.Verschueren, J. (1987). Pragmatic as a Theory of Linguistic Adaptation. International Pragmatics Association.Verschueren, J. (1999). Understanding Pragmatics. London: Edward Arnold/New York: Oxford University Press.Vilem, N. (1986). Fuzzy sets and their applications. Philadelphia：IOP Publishing Ltd.Wu, S.X., Chen, W.Z. (2002), Review of Wu Tie-pings Fuzzy Linguistics. Modern Foreign Languages, 25:4,434-440.Zadeh, L. A. (2019). Fuzzy logic theory and applications: Part1 and Part2. University of California, Berkeley, USA. Rafik A. Aliev, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Azerbaijan. World Scientific.Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control, 8, 338-353.陈晓霏（2020），顺应论视角下健康类英语新闻中模糊限制语的语用研究，硕士学位论文。

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