| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract | 第7-10页 |
| 中文摘要 | 第10-12页 |
| AList of Abbreviations and Symbols | 第12-13页 |
| List of Tables and Figures | 第13-19页 |
| Chapter One INTRODUCTION | 第19-31页 |
| ·Research background | 第20-21页 |
| ·Significance of the research | 第21-24页 |
| ·Motivation for the research | 第24-27页 |
| ·Objectives of the research | 第27-28页 |
| ·Methodology for the research | 第28-29页 |
| ·Organization of the thesis | 第29-31页 |
| Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW | 第31-45页 |
| ·Introduction | 第31页 |
| ·Researches of cognitive pragmatics | 第31-32页 |
| ·Researches of cognitive pragmatics abroad | 第31-32页 |
| ·Researches of cognitive pragmatics at home | 第32页 |
| ·Hedges as pragmatic markers | 第32-34页 |
| ·Research of hedges abroad | 第34-41页 |
| ·L.A.Zadeh’sresearchofhedges | 第34-35页 |
| ·Lakoff’s research of hedges | 第35-37页 |
| ·Brown and Levinson’s research of hedges | 第37-38页 |
| ·Prince et al’s research of hedges | 第38-39页 |
| ·Hyland’s research of hedges | 第39-40页 |
| ·Luukka’s research of hedges | 第40-41页 |
| ·Researches of hedges at home | 第41-43页 |
| ·Approach for the present study | 第43-45页 |
| Chapter Three THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE RESEARCH | 第45-68页 |
| ·Introduction | 第45页 |
| ·Sperber &Wilson’s Relevance Theory | 第45-58页 |
| ·Inference | 第46-47页 |
| ·Cognitive environment and mutual manifestness | 第47-49页 |
| ·Ostensive-inferential communication | 第49-51页 |
| ·Informative intention and communicative intention | 第51-54页 |
| ·Principles of relevance | 第54-56页 |
| ·Contextual effect and processing effort | 第56-58页 |
| ·Verschueren’s metapragmatic awareness | 第58-61页 |
| ·Indicators of metapragmatic awareness | 第58-60页 |
| ·Metapragmatics and the nature of linguistic action | 第60-61页 |
| ·Theoretical Framework for the Research of Linguistic Hedges | 第61-66页 |
| ·Relevance theory used for the research | 第61-65页 |
| ·Verschueren’s theory used for the research | 第65-66页 |
| ·Summary | 第66-68页 |
| Chapter Four GENERAL DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH | 第68-75页 |
| ·Introduction | 第68页 |
| ·Research hypotheses | 第68-69页 |
| ·Research questions | 第69-70页 |
| ·Methodology of the research | 第70-71页 |
| ·Model applied | 第71-72页 |
| ·Material selection for the research | 第72-74页 |
| ·Summary | 第74-75页 |
| Chapter Five AN ANALYSIS OF PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF LINGUISTIC HEDGES FROM THE RELEVANCE PERSPECTIVE | 第75-106页 |
| ·Introduction | 第75-76页 |
| ·Panorama of linguistic hedges | 第76-87页 |
| ·Identification of linguistic hedges | 第76-78页 |
| ·Definitions of linguistic hedges and hedging | 第78-81页 |
| ·Taxonomy of linguistic hedges | 第81-85页 |
| ·Syntactic structure of linguistic hedges | 第85-87页 |
| ·Analysis of Pragmatic functions from the relevance perspective | 第87-103页 |
| ·Modification of the truth-value of the proposition | 第88-90页 |
| ·Improvement of the information precision | 第90-91页 |
| ·Appropriateness in verbal interactions | 第91-93页 |
| ·Protectionforthespeaker’sandhearer’sface | 第93-95页 |
| ·Interpretation in academic writings | 第95-97页 |
| ·Motivation for political and diplomatic situations | 第97-98页 |
| ·Preservation of literary styles | 第98-99页 |
| ·Remedy for the lack of knowledge | 第99-100页 |
| ·Metaphorical expression | 第100-102页 |
| ·Improvement for the expressive efficiency | 第102-103页 |
| ·Summary | 第103-106页 |
| Chapter Six AN ANALYSIS OF HEDGES FROM FREQUENCIES & RATIOS | 第106-129页 |
| ·Introduction | 第106-107页 |
| ·Analysis of approximators from frequencies & ratios | 第107-119页 |
| ·Analysis of rounders | 第108-113页 |
| ·Analysis of adaptors | 第113-119页 |
| ·Analysis of shields from frequencies & ratios | 第119-127页 |
| ·Analysis of plausibility shields | 第119-123页 |
| ·Analysis of attribution shields | 第123-127页 |
| ·Summary | 第127-129页 |
| Chapter Seven A COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF HEDGES | 第129-183页 |
| ·Introduction | 第129-130页 |
| ·General features of linguistic communication | 第130-135页 |
| ·Code model | 第131-132页 |
| ·Inferential model | 第132-134页 |
| ·Ostensive-inferential communication model | 第134-135页 |
| ·Analysis of pragmatic constraints and hedged utterances | 第135-142页 |
| ·Pragmatic constraints | 第136-138页 |
| ·Utterance production | 第138-140页 |
| ·Utterance comprehension | 第140-142页 |
| ·Analysis relevance features of hedged communication | 第142-154页 |
| ·Procedural information of hedges | 第142-146页 |
| ·Hedges in ostensive-inferential communication | 第146-148页 |
| ·Metapragmatic awareness in hedged communication | 第148-152页 |
| ·Relationships between hedges and information structure | 第152-154页 |
| ·Analysis of hedges from cognitive pragmatics | 第154-169页 |
| ·Hedges and degrees of relevance | 第155-158页 |
| ·Determination of assumption and hedges | 第158-162页 |
| ·Inference from hedged utterances | 第162-164页 |
| ·Cognitive context and roles of hedges | 第164-166页 |
| ·Influences of hedges over processing efforts | 第166-169页 |
| ·Utterance coherence and hedges | 第169-173页 |
| ·Utterance coherence | 第169-170页 |
| ·Influences of hedges over utterance coherence | 第170-173页 |
| ·Relevance between hedges and pragmatic principles | 第173-181页 |
| ·Conversational implicatures in hedged communication | 第174-175页 |
| ·Indirectness | 第175-177页 |
| ·Negative politeness | 第177-179页 |
| ·Face-threatening act | 第179-181页 |
| ·Summary | 第181-183页 |
| Chapter Eight CONCLUSION | 第183-192页 |
| ·Major findings of the research | 第183-188页 |
| ·Findings about the dynamic nature of hedged communication | 第184-186页 |
| ·Findings about the use of hedges in verbal communication | 第186-188页 |
| ·Implications of the research | 第188-189页 |
| ·Limitations of the research | 第189-190页 |
| ·Suggestionsforfuturestudies | 第190-192页 |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 第192-203页 |
| APPENDIX Ⅰ: Classification of Common Linguistic Hedges | 第203-206页 |
| APPENDIX Ⅱ: Tables for the Frequency of HedgeApplication In the Five Genres | 第206-219页 |
| APPENDIX Ⅲ: Randomly Chosen Samples for Further Investigation | 第219-226页 |
