HEDGING IN WRITTEN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: POLYPRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS, COOPERATION AND POLITENESS
HEDGING IN WRITTEN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: POLYPRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS, COOPERATION AND POLITENESS

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the use of hedges as rhetorical tools in present-day written academic discourse, especially research articles. The aims are to explore the polypragmatic functions of hedging in the academic context and to carry out a theoretical analysis of hedges against the cooperation and politeness maxims. The polypragmatic character of these rhetorical tools is confirmed by the available literature while the present analysis concludes that hedges can be viewed as politeness strategies able to promote interaction as part of the cooperative endeavor that characterizes communication in today’s dynamic and competitive written academic discourse.

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