A Corpus-based Study on the Use of Hedges in Writings of Chinese English Majors

Abstract

Hedge serves as a key component of pragmatic competence. This paper reports a corpusbased contrastive study of hedges used in argumentative essays by Chinese English majors and native university students. The results shows no statistically significant difference in the amount of hedges used in two corpus, but generally Chinese learners tend to apply a rather limited range of hedge items to convey their meanings than the counterparts, especially in the use of epistemic modal auxiliaries, and adverbs. Part of the compositions by Chinese learners were examined manually from pragmatic perspectives and a large number of incorrect uses of hedges are identified. The findings of the paper are expected to facilitate Chinese learners’ writing of English papers as well as to provide some implications for related teaching practice.