| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第6-7页 |
| ABSTRACT | 第7-9页 |
| 摘要 | 第10-16页 |
| Chapter One INTRODUCTION | 第16-20页 |
| 1.1 Significance of the Study | 第16-17页 |
| 1.2 Purposes of the Study | 第17-18页 |
| 1.3 Organization of the Thesis | 第18-20页 |
| Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW | 第20-31页 |
| 2.1 Defining and Understanding Hedges | 第20-23页 |
| 2.2 Taxonomy of Hedges | 第23-24页 |
| 2.3 Hedges in Scientific Research Articles | 第24-31页 |
| 2.3.1 Characteristics of scientific research articles | 第25-27页 |
| 2.3.2 Previous studies on hedges in scientific research articles abroad | 第27-28页 |
| 2.3.3 Previous studies on hedges in scientific research articles in China | 第28-31页 |
| Chapter Three METHODOLOGY | 第31-41页 |
| 3.1 Research Questions | 第31页 |
| 3.2 Corpus Description | 第31-32页 |
| 3.3 Research Procedures | 第32-35页 |
| 3.3.1 Identifying and labeling hedges | 第32-33页 |
| 3.3.2 Validating hedges identification | 第33-35页 |
| 3.4 Data Processing | 第35页 |
| 3.5 Adapted Operational Framework | 第35-41页 |
| Chapter Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSION | 第41-72页 |
| 4.1 Overall Comparison of Hedges between Published Writers and Student Writers | 第41-49页 |
| 4.1.1 Different types of hedges in scientific research articles | 第41-45页 |
| 4.1.2 Hedges in sectional parts of scientific research articles | 第45-49页 |
| 4.2 Sectional Features of Hedges in Published Writers’ and Student Writers’ Scientific Research Articles | 第49-67页 |
| 4.2.1 Hedges in INTRODUCTION | 第49-53页 |
| 4.2.2 Hedges in METHODOLOGY | 第53-57页 |
| 4.2.3 Hedges in RESULTS & DISCUSSION | 第57-62页 |
| 4.2.4 Hedges in CONCLUSION | 第62-67页 |
| 4.3 Differing Devices of Realizing Hedges | 第67-70页 |
| 4.3.1 Attribute-oriented hedges | 第67-68页 |
| 4.3.2 Reliability-oriented hedges | 第68-69页 |
| 4.3.3 Writer-oriented hedges | 第69页 |
| 4.3.4 Reader-oriented hedges | 第69-70页 |
| 4.4 Summary | 第70-72页 |
| Chapter Five CONCLUSION | 第72-77页 |
| 5.1 Major Findings | 第72-74页 |
| 5.2 Implications for This Study | 第74-75页 |
| 5.3 Limitations and Suggestions | 第75-77页 |
| REFERENCES | 第77-82页 |
| APPENDIX 作者在攻读硕士学位期间发表的论文 | 第82页 |
