Hedging

In linguistics, hedging is when you use certain words and phrases to make what you’re saying sound less harsh, more cautious or more unsure.

We use hedging for all kinds of purposes. Firstly, it has a huge impact on how polite we sound in both spoken and written communication. Plus, it shows that we’re not 100% sure that what we’re saying is true. We tend to rely on it when we know that our words could hurt or offend our interlocutors or other kinds of text receivers. It’s also something we use when we think our words might come back to bite us on the butt later on!

Hedging is a vital thing for you to understand for A-level exams and beyond. That’s because it helps you to analyse the way people and characters talk in closer detail. It makes you pay attention to when someone is being cautious with their words or trying not to offend those around them.

Plus, it’s important for you to know and understand when you can use it in your own writing and speech.

Hedging is just one of many ways that we use language to seem more polite and to reduce the harshness of our words. For more information on that, make sure you read up on the Politeness Theory.

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What Kinds of Words and Phrases Can You Use When Hedging?

There are plenty of ways that you can hedge when you’re speaking. Here are some of the most common examples:

• Modal verbs like “might”, “may”, and “could”.
• Adverbs that show you aren’t sure, like “maybe”, “possibly”, and “perhaps”.
• Litotes, e.g. saying “not exactly” instead of “no” or “you’re wrong”.
• Words that highlight that you’re only sharing your opinion, like “I believe” or “I think”.
• Words that emphasise that you’re just making an observation, like “seems”, “appears”, and “would suggest”.
• Quantifiers that show you’re not making generalisations, e.g. “some people”, “to some extent”, “many believe”.

This is not a complete list of all the ways you can hedge. However, I hope there’s enough there for you to understand the pattern!

As I said before, you can find hedging in both spoken and written communication. It’s pretty much everywhere in the English language. In fact, I just used it myself when I said “pretty much”!

It’s also important to note that it can be a formal or informal thing. There are plenty of examples of hedging words that you’d use in an informal situation. The phrase “sort of” is a great example of this. On the other hand, it is also a crucial part of academic writing in all subjects. It is most common in science writing, where it is super important for the text producer to highlight that they are presenting a (well-researched) theory that could be adapted and built upon – or even proven wrong – in the future.

Why Do People Use Hedging?

Like most language features that we talk about in English, there are multiple reasons why people might choose to hedge when they speak or write.

Hedging has multiple different purposes. So, it’s up to you to figure out what the purpose is when you spot it in a text. If you want to do this well, you have to think about how the text producer is trying to present themselves (or the character they are writing). What voice are they trying to create? What do they want to communicate?

Then, once you’ve worked that out, it is much easier for you to figure out where the hedging is and how it helps them to achieve their goals. You’ll be able to figure out whether they are trying to sound professional, polite, modest, unsure, etc.

I can’t tell you every single reason why people hedge in their text. Otherwise, this glossary term would be over 10 thousand words long! However, I can give you some of the most common reasons. That should cover most of the instances of hedging you’ll find in the texts you read.

Being Polite

In English, saying things in a straightforward, blunt way can come off as harsh or rude. This is especially true when you give them feedback or ask them to do something for you. It ties into what we call “Face-Threatening Acts” in the Politeness Principle.

Of course, if we were harsh or rude when we spoke to other people, communication would break down! People wouldn’t want to do what we ask them. They wouldn’t really want to keep us in their lives, either! So, we’ve got to find ways to show that we’re not trying to be forceful with our words. That’s how we sound polite and kind.

If you have to give someone negative feedback, it helps to hedge so that they know you’re not taking joy in what you’re saying. It makes you seem more humble and shows that you’re aware that what you’re saying could come across as hurtful.

Here are some examples.

Of course, the examples without hedging don’t sound rude exactly. However, they do sound more forceful. It makes it seem like you have power or influence over the person and don’t have to worry about their reaction.

The examples with hedging feel more humble – like you’re aware that you could hurt the person’s feelings. That comes across as more polite, as it shows you think about the impact of your words.

If there isn’t a logical reason why someone might feel hurt or offended by your words, we usually don’t expect you to hedge like this.

Not Fully Committing to Something

Thanks to modal verbs like “might” and adverbs like “maybe”, you can hedge to show you’re not 100% committed to a plan or idea. It shows that you have some doubts. So, it’s great if you don’t want to mislead people into thinking you’re fully on board.

Say your friend invites you out. They seem really excited about their plans, and you don’t want to kill their mood by saying “no”. After all, “no” is such a harsh buzzkill of a word. At the same time, though, you know that you might not feel up for going on the day. How can you make sure you don’t hurt their feelings while also giving yourself a way out?

Well, hedging can make your words sound more uncertain, which is perfect for this kind of situation. You can say you might be able to go – or maybe you’ll have the time and they’ll know you’re not 100% committed. That means you don’t have to feel bad if you don’t go!

On the other hand, though, we are all aware of what words like “maybe” mean. When I used to ask my mum if we could get a dog, she would always say that frustrating word. I knew it meant “no”, but she was just giving me a noncommital answer so I’d stop begging.

That’s what makes communication so interesting. We expect people to hedge if they can’t or don’t want to commit to plans. We even expect people to hedge when they know for sure that they won’t do the thing we asked them to. So, when they don’t do it, it foregrounds their words to us. We wonder why they are being so open by saying no like that. Then, we assume they’re trying to be rude, blunt or harsh.

Sharing Something You’re Not Sure About

There are plenty of times when you’ll want to share a piece of news that you’re not 100% sure about. Or, it might be the case that what you’re saying isn’t always true for everyone. If you want to share that information anyway, hedging can be an important way to do that.

We call this “tentative” or “cautious” language. It’s all about showing that there is some doubt to what you’re saying – or that your statements don’t always apply.

This is very useful for sharing theories or gossip, as hedging makes sure your interlocutor know that they should take what you’re saying with a grain of salt.

It’s also very helpful if you want to avoid being accused of defamation or misinformation. You throw in the word “allegedly” and it’s harder for people to claim you’re ruining their reputation. Of course, that isn’t perfect and you should always make sure to check in with defamation laws before you say things about other people.

That’s why journalists hedge so much in their writing – particularly when they’re reporting on someone who might have done a crime.

I mean, could you imagine if you were a journalist reporting on a case of a man who might have murdered his wife. Imagine if you say he did do it, but he was found innocent in court. He could turn around and sue you for all the damage you did to his reputation. You can protect yourself with hedging like:

• Allegedly…
• According to…
• May have…
• Is believed to…
• Some say…

Of course, there are other things you need to do to stop your words from being considered defamation. However, hedging is a great place to start.

In Academic and Professional Settings

Tentative language isn’t only useful when you’re gossiping or writing for a news outlet. It’s also a crucial part of a lot of academic and professional writing. This is particularly true when you need to use research or talk about theories.

Take science as an example. Part of the attitude you need to adopt as a scientist is that there is no such thing as certainty. All you can do is believe the theories that have the most evidence to back them up until some other, new scientific breakthrough comes along to change what we thought was true.

Also, you can’t be sure that your analysis of the evidence is completely right. In fact, you can’t be sure the evidence itself is completely perfect, either. There is no such thing as a completely perfect study. There are too many other variables that might affect a study. All we can do is come to educated conclusions from the imperfect evidence in front of us.

So, scientists want to make that attitude clear in their writing. They want to show that they know everything we think of as fact can change at any moment. It’s part of their job to make it clear that they can’t ever be certain about what they’re saying.

Hedging is a great way to do that. It helps you to develop a good academic voice that matches your subject.

Of course, there will be times in academic writing when you want to sound more sure – particularly when you’re sharing your own interpretations of a historical event or text. So, there’s probably going to be more hedging in a linguistics or economics essay than in a literary one. That’s not to say that there will be none in a literature one, though! Just less!

Hedging and Power Dynamics

How much a speaker hedges in a conversation can give us clues about the power dynamics between them and their interlocutors. It is a really useful, helpful way to analyse conversations so you aren’t just relying on picking out word connotations and metaphors. So, analysing hedging is useful for you if you’re doing your A-levels!

The principle is simple, really. If you are talking to someone who has power or influence over you, you’re much more likely to use hedging. On the other hand, people who feel like they have more power won’t use a lot of hedging and will probably use more imperatives in their speech. That makes it really easy to spot patterns in a conversation and make A* points about power and control.

Of course, there are exceptions – particularly when it comes to saying something that you know might hurt your interlocutor. For example, let’s say that your boss has to make you redundant. Sure, they have a lot of power over you. They are your boss. Plus, they literally have your future in their hands at that moment. So, you’d expect them to use as little hedging as possible, right?

Well, not in that case. When it comes to delivering bad news like that, even people with power are likely to use hedging. They use it to show that they have a heart. They do have empathy and they don’t take pleasure in saying the bad thing to you.

In both cases, people are hedging to show they have respect for you. Either you’re respecting someone because they have power over you, or you’re doing it because you’re saying something that might hurt someone or ruin their life. All of this is about the Politeness Principle. Definitely check that out for more information.

How Can You Talk About Hedging In Your Exams?

I’ve already mentioned a few of the ways that you can talk about hedging in your exams. However, let’s talk about it more explicitly now.

People hedge for many different reasons. Once you figure out why a character or text producer might be using it, there are plenty of things you can say about it. Here are some of the big reasons why hedging might be used:

• Showing that you have respect for someone.
• Trying to make your language sound less forceful or blunt.
• Acknowledging that your interlocutor has power over you.
• When you have to deliver information that is unpleasant or harmful.
• Showing that you’re not really sure of what you’re saying.
• Making a character seem insecure or uneasy.
• When a character is worried about how their interlocutor will react to something.
• Avoiding getting in trouble for defamation by using hedging words like “allegedly”.
• Making a character seem more academic and/or scientific with their speech.
• When there is something that the character really doesn’t want to say.

You can probably think of plenty of other reasons why a character or text producer uses hedging in a text. This isn’t a full list of things it might show. So, it’s up to you to read the text for yourself and figure out what kind of dynamic is going on.

Once you’ve figured that out, you can use hedging to back up what you’ve noticed about the text. It’s a pattern to the language that you can notice, which makes it easier for you to say advanced A* points in your A-level essays.

Where Can You Learn More?

When I was making this glossary entry, I used multiple sources to help me get a better understanding of how hedging works. If you want to know more, I recommend you check out those resources. Learn from the experts in English, not just me! After all, they’re the ones I learnt from.

Here’s a list of my sources for you to check out.

• The University of Bristol Glossary
• The UCL Writing Centre
• Stylistics – Leslie Jeffreys and Dan McIntyre
• Creative Writing and Stylistics, Revised and Expanded Edition: Critical and Creative Approaches – Jeremy Scott
• The Concept of Hedging: Origins, Approaches and Definitions – Gudrun Clemen
• Pragmatic Competence The Case of Hedging – Bruce Fraser
• Hedging in Political Discourse: The 2007 Bush Press Conference – Bruce Fraser
• How to Analyse Texts – Ronald Carter and Angela Goddard
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics – P.H. Matthews