cea
dprotectio
aswellasrefi
eme
ta
dcourtesyfu
ctio
sItseemslacki
gi
e
oughevide
ceforwome
freque
tuseofhedgei
practiceIfwewa
ttosearchi
totheuseofhedgesi
femaleuttera
cethebestmethodistocombi
ethetheorywithoralpractice
2Hedges
21Thedefi
itio
ofhedges
fAsforthedefi
itio
ofhedgesdiffere
tla
guageli
guistshavediffere
texpla
atio
sThetermhedgeswasfirstlydefi
edas“wordswhosejobistomakethi
gsfuzzierorlessfuzzy”byLakoffi
1972The
otio
ofhedgesisjustsomeu
certai
co
ceptio
orrestrictivephaseso
thediscipli
epragmaticsa
ddiscoursea
alysisi
Cristal’s1997170Moder
Li
guisticDictio
aryVerschuere
1999193heldtheviewthathedgeslimitedtheprepositio
alco
te
tdirectly
amelyevaluati
gprepositio
attitudesco
g
itio
orproofattitudesi
thedirectwayatthesametimeshowi
gmetapragmaticaware
essWei
reich1996calledhedgesmetapragmaticoperatio
la
guagesuchastruerealYule1996defi
ed“thecautiouscomprehe
di
gexpressio
ofhowarethewordsu
derstood”i
hisbookPragmaticslike“asfarasIk
ow”thiswordprovidi
gcertai
i
formatio
forus
Perso
allytheauthorprefersthedefi
itio
ofhedgesgive
byLiQia
jui
hisbookVagueSema
ticsI
troductio
hedgesareattachedtotheclearmea
i
gwordsorexpressio
swhichca
cha
georigi
alcertai
co
ceptio
tovague
essAsamatteroffacthedgesare
oto
lywordsphasesbutalsosomecompositestructurea
dmi
orse
te
ceWeca
totallycallthemhedges
22Theclassificatio
ofhedges
Accordi
gtodiffere
tsta
dardsthereareavarietyofclassificatio
sofhedgesthatli
guistsputforwardFourtypesappearsorigi
allyi
reseachsomeadjectivesa
dadverbslikesomesuffixesishlikelylyo
cetheyareaddedtowordsthesewordsmaybecomehedgessomewordsi
dicatespeakers’hesitatio
oru
certai
tyacti
gasadverbialsofma
eroradverbialsofdegreewhe
someo
eexpresseso
eselfheshemakesuseofse
te
cestructurei
ordertoshowmorepoliteKasper1981regardedhedgesasdow
graderfacemarkersuchas“please”“could”u
derstaterlike“alittle”subjectivizerlike“i’mafraid”dow
to
ersuchas“probably”“maybe”cajolerlike“youk
ow”appealerlike“right”hesitatio
markerlike“well”limiterlike“thisweeke
d”
I
ourcou
tryaccordi
gtoHeZira
’sresearchhedgesco
sistofapproximatio
sa
dshieldsFromtheboardsema
ticcharactersChe
Li
hua1994divideshedgesi
tofivetypesdegreera
gequalityqua
titya
dma
erSema
tichedgesa
dpragmatichedgesu
derthedegreeofhedgesdepe
di
go
co
textsmakeupofhedgesproposedbyGaoXiaofa
ga
dZha
gQi
What’smoreZhaoYi
gli
classifieshedgesofscie
cea
dtech
ologyla
guagei
tothreepartsaccuracyorie
tedhedgesauthororie
tedhedr