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Linguistic Hedging In The Light Of Politeness Theory

Table 1:

Linguistic expression Hedge
modal verbs may, might, can, could, would, should
modal words: adjectives, nouns, adverbs possible, probable, un/likely; assumption, claim, possibility, estimate, suggestion; perhaps, possibly, probably, practically, likely, presumably, virtually, apparently
approximates of degree, quantity, frequency and time approximately, roughly, about, often, occasionally, generally, usually, somewhat, somehow, a lot of
epistemic verbs to believe, to assume, to suggest, to estimate, to tend, to think, to argue, to indicate, to propose, to speculate
parenthetic constructions I believe, I guess, to our knowledge
if clauses if true, if anything
indirect speech acts Could you open the window?
metalinguistic comments strictly speaking, so to say, exactly, almost, just about
tag questions ..., isn’t it?
negative constructions didn’t...?
agentless passive it might be suggested
compound hedges seems reasonable, looks probable
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