Abstract

Hedges have been studied as crucial elements of communication. The component of fuzziness associated with them allows researchers to convey propositional content in their utterances. Despite extensive research in literature, little or nothing has been done to identify and extract them. This study aims to extract hedges for information retrieval by first identifying potential hedges. Here, tokens of three from sentences are hypothesized, and Hedge-Qualifiers, acting as potential hedges, are extracted, with the hedges then retrieved from the Hedge Database. This initiation process serves the purpose of information retrieval. The present study is focused on the identification and extraction mechanisms to facilitate a comparative analysis.

References

• Adams-Smith, D. (1984). Medical discourse: Aspects of author's comment. English for Special Purposes 3. 25-36.
• Afshar, H. S., M. Moradi, and R. Hamzavi. 2014. Frequency and type of hedging devices used in the research articles of humanities, basic sciences and agriculture. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 136:70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.05.290
• Azher, M., R. Nisa, and S. Nawaz. 2020. Hedging as an indicator of disciplinary variation in Pakistani academic discourse: A corpus-based study. Global Language Review 46. https://doi.org/10.31703/glr.2020(v-i).06
• Biber, Douglas. 2004. Historical patterns for the grammatical marking of stance. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 5:107. https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.5.1.06bib
• Butler, C. 1990. Quantifications in seience: Modal meanings in scientific texts. In W. Nash (ed.), The writing scholar: Studies in academic discourse. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Channell, J. 1990. Precise and vague expressions in writing on economics. In W. Nash (ed.), The writing scholar: Studies in academic discourse, 95–117. Newbury Park: Sage.
• Coates, J. 1989. Women’s Speech, Women Strength? York Papers in Linguistics, 13. 65-76.
• Crismore, A., and W. J. V. Kopple. 1990. Rhetorical contexts and hedges. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 20:49. https://doi.org/10.1080/02773949009390869
• Durik, A. M., M. A. Britt, R. Reynolds, and J. E. Storey. 2008. The effects of hedges in persuasive arguments. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 27:217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x08317947
• Fahnestock, J. 1986. Accommodating science: The rhetorical life of scientific facts. Written Communication 3(3). 275-296.
• Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., and Todd, C. M. 1996. Social skills of children with specific language impairment. Language Speech Hearing Services in Schools 27(3). 195–202.
• Hanania, E., and Akhtar, K. 1985. Verb form and rhetorical function in science writing: A study of MS theses in biology, chemistry and physics. ESP Journal 4. 49–58.
• Holmes, J. 1984. Hedging your bets and sitting on the fence: Some evidence for hedges as support structures. Te Reo 27. 47–62.
• Holmes, J. 1988. Doubt and certainty in ESL textbooks. Applied Linguistics 9. 20–44.
• Hyland, K. 1994. Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Special Purposes 13(3). 239–256.
• Hyland, K. 1996a. Writing without conviction? Hedging in science research articles. Applied Linguistics 17(4). 433–454.
• Hyland, K. 1996b. Talking to the academy: Forms of hedging in science research articles. Written Communication 13. 251–281.
• Hyland, K., and Milton, J. 1997. Qualification and certainty in L1 and L2 students’ writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 6(2). 183–205.
• Hyland, K. 1998. Hedging in scientific research articles. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Klímová, B. 2014. Using tentative language in English. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116:661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.275
• Koutsantoni, D. 2006. Rhetorical strategies in engineering research articles and research theses: Advanced academic literacy and relations of power. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5:19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2005.11.002
• Lakoff, G. 1973. Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Journal of Philosophical Logic 2(4). 458–508.
• Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics, (Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Myers, G. 1989. The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics 10(1). 1–35.
• Palmer, F. R. 1986. Mood and modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Pindi, M., and Bloor, T. 1986. Playing safe with predictions: Hedging, attribution and conditions in economic forecasting. Written Language, BAAL. 2. CILT.
• Salager-Meyer, F. 1991. Hedging in medical discourse: 1980–1990. Interface 6(1). 33–54.
• Salager-Meyer, F. 1993. Imprecision and vagueness (hedging) in today’s medical discourse: Courtesy, coyness or necessity? The ESPecialist 14(1). 1–15.
• Salager-Meyer, F. 1994. Hedges and textual communicative funstion in medical English written discourse. English for Special Purposes 13. 149–170.
• Salami, L. A. N. R. A. 2021. A socio-pragmatic study of hedging in Iraqi Arabic. Psychology and Education Journal 58:3599. https://doi.org/10.17762/pae.v58i1.1314
• Sorour, N. 2018. Hedging in applied linguistics theses: An exploratory comparative study. In Springer eBooks, 255. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98533-6_12
• Skelton, J. 1997. How to tell the truth in the British medical journal: Patterns of judgement in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Raija Markkanen & Hartmut Schröder (eds.), Hedging and discourse. Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts, 42–63. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
• Tamta, P., M. Bisht, and B.P. Pande. 2017. Comparison of hedges in women writings. Glottotheory 8:47–60. https://doi.org/10.1515/glot-2017-0002.
• Tamta, P., B. P. Pande, and H. S. Dhami. 2020. Writing comparison over hedges. Journal of International Academy of Physical Sciences 24:373-385.
• Vallauri, E. L., and V. Masia. 2020. L’information implicite entre économie d’effort et esquive du jugement critique. Faits de Langues 50:113. https://doi.org/10.1163/19589514-05002013
• Yu, S. 2009. The pragmatic development of hedging in EFL learners. City University of Hong Kong Ph.D. thesis.
• Yuwen, L., and G. Wencheng. 2019. A study of hedges in Pride and Prejudice. Sino-US English Teaching 16. https://doi.org/10.17265/1539-8072/2019.08.003
• Zainuddin, S. Z., A. C. Damiano-Nittoli, and A. Z. Zainal. 2019. Hedging functions in Malaysian doctoral candidature defense sessions. SAGE Open 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019894275
• Zuck, J. G., and Zuck, L. V. 1986. Hedging in news writing. In A.-M. Cornu, J. Van Parjis, M. Delahaye & L. Baten (eds.), Beads or bracelets? How do we approach LSP, 172–180. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Zuck, J. G., and Zuck, L. V. 1987. Hedging in newswriting. In A.-M. Cornu, J. Vanparijs & M. Delahaye (eds.), Beads or bracelets: How do we approach LS, 171–181. Leuven, Belgium: Oxford University Press.