| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-9页 |
| Abstract | 第9-11页 |
| 摘要 | 第11-12页 |
| CONTENTS | 第12-14页 |
| LIST OF TABLES | 第14-15页 |
| LIST OF FIGURES | 第15-16页 |
| CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION | 第16-19页 |
| ·Background of the Study | 第16页 |
| ·Significance of the Study | 第16-17页 |
| ·Outline of the Thesis | 第17-19页 |
| CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW | 第19-32页 |
| ·An Overview of Business Letters | 第19-21页 |
| ·Definition of Business Letters | 第19页 |
| ·Function of Business Letters | 第19-20页 |
| ·Classification of Business Letters | 第20-21页 |
| ·An Overview of Hedges | 第21-30页 |
| ·Vagueness vs. Fuzziness | 第21-22页 |
| ·Previous Studies on Vagueness and Hedges | 第22-25页 |
| ·Classifications of Hedges | 第25-30页 |
| ·Summary | 第30-32页 |
| CHAPTER III THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK | 第32-36页 |
| ·Relevance Theory | 第32-34页 |
| ·Definition of Relevance | 第33页 |
| ·Two Principles of Relevance | 第33-34页 |
| ·Relevance Translation Theory | 第34-36页 |
| ·Translation as an Ostensive-inferential Communication | 第34-35页 |
| ·Translation as an Interlingual Interpretive Use of Language | 第35-36页 |
| CHAPTER IV METHODOLOGY | 第36-45页 |
| ·Corpus-based Approach | 第36-38页 |
| ·Research Questions | 第38页 |
| ·The Software Employed in This Study | 第38-39页 |
| ·The Self-built Business Letter Parallel Corpus (BLPC) | 第39-41页 |
| ·Retrieval of Hedges in BLPC | 第41-43页 |
| ·Processing Procedure | 第43-45页 |
| CHAPTER V DATA ANALYSES AND DISCUSSION | 第45-74页 |
| ·Translation at Word Level | 第45页 |
| ·Distribution of Hedges in Six Types of Business Letters | 第45-50页 |
| ·Pragmatic Functions of Hedges in Business Letters | 第50-52页 |
| ·Improving Expressive Efficiency | 第50页 |
| ·Enhancing Expressive Flexibility | 第50-51页 |
| ·Making the Letter More Polite | 第51页 |
| ·Making the Letter More Persuasive | 第51-52页 |
| ·Summary | 第52页 |
| ·Analysis of Translation of Hedges in BLPC | 第52-68页 |
| ·Translation of Epistemic Modal Auxiliaries | 第52-62页 |
| ·Translation of Epistemic Adverbs | 第62-63页 |
| ·Translation of Epistemic Adjectives | 第63-65页 |
| ·Translation of Epistemic Verbs | 第65-68页 |
| ·Different Frequencies of Hedges in BLPC | 第68-69页 |
| ·Discussion | 第69-74页 |
| ·Interpretation of Hedges Translation Based on Relevance Theory | 第69-70页 |
| ·Strategies for Translating Hedges in Business Letters | 第70-74页 |
| CHAPTER Ⅵ CONCLUSION | 第74-77页 |
| ·Major Findings | 第74-75页 |
| ·Implications of the Research | 第75页 |
| ·Limitations of the Present Study and Suggestions for Further Study | 第75-77页 |
| REFERENCES | 第77-80页 |
| APPENDIXⅠ | 第80页 |
