A Pragmatic Study of Hedging Devices in the Research Articles of English as a Foreign Language by Libyan Professors

Abstract

Many studies have analysed the language of hedging in various corpora and types of discourse. Hedging in EFL researchf Libyan authors has not been investigated yet. Hedging in language refers to caution, and it is a tool used by writers to warn against allegations, and to acknowledge a degree of uncertainty in their writing. This research explores the usage and function of hedging devices in English research papers of Libyan authors. Meyer's (1997) and Hyland’s (1998) views of hedging are utilized in the study. Ten research papers on EFL and Linguistics are randomly selected from six Libyan journals of Human Science field to be analysed. The analysis covers the discussion and conclusion sections of the articles, and the data have been qualitatively analysed. The findings show that hedging devices are used variously and for specific purposes in the research articles. It is found that, the articles carry 320 expressions of hedging distributed on the discussion and conclusion. The discussion records (81%) while the conclusion rates only 19%. The variety of the linguistic choices of hedging are most frequently used in the discussion sections. Furthermore, the three functions of hedging are distinctively achieved.