Due to these further investigations

Due to these further investigations, the concept of hedge has moved far from its origins. First, hedges in verbal communication with reference to context were considered. They have been split into ‘proximators’ and ‘shields’ in the work of Prince, et al. (1982). The former affected the truth condition of propositions, whereas the latter showed the speaker’s commitment to the proposition without affecting the truth condition. Second, there have accumulated well-documented studies, particularly on scientific articles, indicating that hedges were central to this type of writing (Myers, 1989; Hyland, 1994, 1996; Markkanen & Schröder, 1997b).