Part 1 – What is hedging (tentative, minimising, cautious, vague) language?

1. Hedging language definition

The University of Bristol defines hedging language as follows:

„Hedging language refers to how a writer expresses certainty or uncertainty. Often in academic writing, a writer may not be sure of the claims that are being made in their subject area, or perhaps the ideas are good but the evidence is not very strong. It is common, therefore, to use language of caution or uncertainty (known as hedging language).“

(Source: University of Bristol official website, retrieved from  http://www.bristol.ac.uk/academic-language/media/BEAP/5.4/index.html on Oct 25, 2021)

a.      Hedging verbs (suggest, appear to, seem to)

appear/seem to + verb

There appears to be a correlation between social class and likelihood of getting to university,

seem to + verb

It seems to be the case that non-native speakers of English rely more on the mother tongue.

appears as if/though + clause

It appears as if/though they had been working together

seems as if/though + clause

It seems as if/though expeditions to Mars will be possible in the future.

suggest that

Other studies suggest that using L1 supports the development of language acquisition.

Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991) argue that input alone is not enough for language acquisition.

b.     Modal Verbs

May, might, could, can:

Advocacy groups may ask an institution such as judges, politicians or scientists, to take on, highlight or, in the best case, show support towards their particular stance.

A policy image might be fit into one venue better than another.

In the 1950s, the American Government put forward a positive image of nuclear power as a new source of cheap and endless energy that could help reduce the dependence on imported oils.

c.      That Clauses

It is clear that ...

It is apparent that ...

It may be perceived that ...

It has been suggested/argued/claimed that ...

It seems evident that ...

d.     Adverbs

All teachers were fully aware of the class being recorded, so they probably spoke more English than they usually would.

She argues that strategies of expansion do not necessarily have to involve authoritative institutions only.

There are always a number of issues which could potentially get onto the agenda.

2. Four types of hedging language

According to Hyland (1996), there are four general reasons writers tend to hedge their ideas:

1.      „Where the principal role of the hedging device is to specify the extent to which a term accurately describes the reported phenomena, it is likely to be acting as an attribute hedge.“ (example: „Viewed in this way the concept of lateral heterogeneity becomes obsolete“)

2.      Where the principal role of the hedging device is to convey the writer's assessment of the certainty of the truth of a proposition, then it is likely to be performing a reliability function

(example: „However, the opposite is also possible, and it cannot be ruled out that the 21 -kD

polypeptides seen in the bacteroid lane…“)

3.      Where the device occurs in a context which conceals the writer's viewpoint and avoids personal responsibility for propositional truth, then it is probably acting as a writer-oriented hedge (example: „The present work indicates that the aromatic ring to which the carboxyl group is bound is not necessary, provided that a bulky substituent is present…“)

4.      Where the writer acknowledges personal responsibility for the validity of propositional content or invites reader involvement, then the device is likely to be acting as a reader-oriented hedge“ (example of „managing susbstantive disagreement and avoiding conflict“: „We do not know the reason for the discrepancy between our results and those of Ngernpraintsin et al, but it might reflect genetic differences in….“)

The author argued that even though using hedging phrases in academic writing is very important, it is difficult to understand why the writers hedge their ideas without seeing a complete picture which would include social and institutional contexts.

Source: Ken Hyland’s article on types of hedging language retrieved from

https://courses.washington.edu/englhtml/engl563/PDFs/Applied%20Linguistics-1996-HYLAND-433-54.pdf on Oct 25, 2021