Hedges in Male and Female Language

Abstract

Hedging is a linguistic phenomenon used to convey interpersonal messages in spoken interaction. It is a communicative strategy which enables speakers to soften the force of utterances or moderate the assertive force of  utterances. It is resulted from different features such as uncertainty, doubt, tentativeness, ambiguity, neutrality, mitigation, and subjectivity. Hedging is used widely in  TV debates to make utterances more acceptable to the interlocutors. Hedges are expressions used to communicate the speaker's  weak commitment to information conveyed. The utterances in debates are often hedged because in an unhedged form  might sound threatening to the addressees, and, therefore, be likely to be rejected.