Open AccessA Study on the Interpersonal Functions of Hedges in Academic Discourses
Author(s) -
Jie Chen,
Yi Zhang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of languages, literature and linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2972-3108
pISSN - 2382-6282
DOI - 10.18178/ijlll.2021.7.1.283
Subject(s) - interpersonal communication , linguistics , modal , psychology , noun , modal verb , section (typography) , computer science , social psychology , philosophy , chemistry , polymer chemistry , verb , operating system
Based on Hyland’s classification of hedges and Halliday’s theory of interpersonal functions, this study selected 30 research articles (RA) from Language Learning and English for Specific Purposes. This study employed software Antconc and manual checking to identify and tag hedges, investigating the distribution and interpersonal functions of hedges in the RAs. The main findings are: (1) Regarding the overall distribution, modal verbs are used most frequently, followed by epistemic adverbs, epistemic adjectives and epistemic verbs, and epistemic nouns are the least frequently used; (2) Hedges are most frequently used in the section of results and discussion. It is also found that hedges have the interpersonal functions of involving readers, coordinating the relationship between the author and the reader, highlighting the author’s stance and constructing the academic discourse groups.