Maybe, Perhaps, I Believe, You Could – Making Claims and the Use of Hedges

Abstract

The study of hedges is well linked to pragmatics which Spencer-Oatey and Zegarac (2002) define as the study of the relationships between language forms, messages and language users. They further reiterate that one of the broad questions pragmatics seeks to answer is: How do people perceive the contextual factors (such as who the interlocutors are, what their relationship is and what circumstances they are communicating in) that influence the process of producing and interpreting language. In other words, it focuses on a communicative act that engages in reasoning about each other’s intentions, and it exploits the use of signals in the language code to contend with people’s sensitivities. In this paper, the concern is with sensitivities to face as it is recognised as an unattended area for language learning, as seen from investigations in textbooks and responses from learners. The paper provides insights into a typology for claim mitigation and offers suggestions for some approaches that could be incorporated in this area of learning thereby enhancing the repertoire of skills for social interactions in the functionality of positioning oneself in giving suggestions and opinions, feedback, and criticisms.