Analysis Of Hedges In Introductions Of English Scientific Research Articles-an Adaption Perspective

Hedges, the expressions of uncertainty and possibility, are central to academicwriting due to their functions of modifying categorical statements and maintainingsocial relationship. The use of hedges in written academic discourse, however,especially in the rhetorical section of introductions, received less attention. Thesisaims to explore the dynamic generation of hedges within the theoretical framework ofVerschueren’s (1999) linguistic adaption. Based on a contextual analysis of40SRA(scientific research article) introductions selected from six leading internationalscientific journals in the field of physics, chemistry and computer science, this thesisfound that the generation of hedges is essentially a dynamic process, in whichresearch writers continuously make negotiable choices to satisfy communicativeneeds.Firstly, there are432lexical, syntactical and discourse-based hedges from whichwriters can make choices. The lexical pattern accounts for90.28%, whereas syntacticand discourse-based forms respectively cover3.24%and6.48%. The numericalpredominance of lexical hedges implies that English writers incline to adopt lexicaldevices to express tentativeness and possibility.Secondly, corresponding to the motivation of avoiding readers’ differentoppositions to scientific claims, research writers’ choice-making of hedges proceedson the epistemic as well as affective dimension. On the epistemic dimension, the useof hedges is to meet the standard of correspondence with what is said or believed tobe true in the world and the optional hedges contain attribute, reliability andwriter-oriented types. In terms of affective dimension, writers are motivated to choosehedges to satisfy readers’ affective needs. Generally, compared with affective hedges,writers are more concerned with propositional correspondence with the natural reality.Thirdly, the use of hedges is a means of adapting to contextual factors. Hedges used in scientific writings are highly context-dependent and the choice-making ofhedges are affected by their contextual correlates. In our corpus, these factors belongto the social and mental domain. In terms of social factors, the genre of SRAintroductions, the convention of science and the requirement of scientific writingmotivate the choices of certain hedges. With reference to mental factors, writers’choice-making is motivated by self-protection and readers’ desire to be treated asprofessional scientific peers.This theoretical approach of linguistic adaption to hedges can contribute to theliterature on hedging research in academic settings. Meanwhile, this research alsoprovides pedagogical implications for teaching and learning English writing skill ofSRA introductions. As a whole, a deeper understanding of how hedges are generatedin SRAs can help scientific writers, especially second language learners, to improvetheir competence of academic communication.