Hedging in academic writing: a contrastive analysis of scientific articles and student papers

Kristić, Andrea. (2018). Hedging in academic writing: a contrastive analysis of scientific articles and student papers. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Grubišić, Marina].

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Abstract

In terms of linguistics hedging is a topic that is commonly related to syntax and pragmatics. It is a valuable asset not only in academic writing but also in communication in general. As it influences the recipient‟s reaction, it can greatly affect understanding, which is why it is an essential aspect of the writer-reader interaction. Due to the lack of general agreement with respect to the definition and taxonomy of hedging devices, there is no established consent regarding the mentioned topic. Many different definitions and taxonomies which arose as a consequence (Lakoff [1972], Salager-Meyer [1994], Crompton [1997], Hyland [1995, 1996]) will be highlighted. The aim of this paper is to address and describe the main differences in using hedging in academic papers as written by experienced scholars and students respectively. As this study opened up the questions regarding possible obstacles in determining hedges, they will be tackled with the help of the results of the analysis carried out for this paper. There is enough space left for discussion, which has proved to be necessary after the thorough analysis of the articles used as dataset.

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