Hedging
From Teflpedia
Hedging is a functional strategy that uses a word or phrase to avoid having to make a definite statement or commitment. Hedge words may also sometimes be used as fillers.[1] Hedging is considered "correct" when writing up studies for the APA, for example,[2] but the media tend to use overuse it.[3]
Tarja Nikula describes it as a strategy used by speakers to mitigate and soften their utterances.[4]
Typical hedge words[edit]
- about
- allegedly
- apparent
- basically
- fairly
- frequently
- generally
- hardly
- like
- may
- maybe
- might
- often
- possibly
- probably
- quite
- rather
- scarcely
- seldom
- usually
- virtually
Typical hedge phrases[edit]
- I don't remember
- I'm not sure
- I think
- just about
- More or less
References[edit]
- ↑ Hale, Sandra Beatriz. The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse Practices of the Law, the Witness, and the Interpreter. John Benjamins Publishing (2004) at Google Books. Retrieved 8th October 2012.
- ↑ Szuchman, Lenore T. Writing With Style: APA Style Made Easy. Cengage Learning (2008) at Google Books. Retrieved 8th October 2012.
- ↑ Shoup, K. and Loberger, G. Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook. John Wiley & Sons (2009) at Google Books. Retrieved 8th October 2012.
- ↑ Nikula, T. "Interlanguage view on hedging" in Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts. De Gruyer (1997) at Google Books. Retrieved 8th October 2012.
