Lakoff proposed that words like ‘so

Lakoff proposed that words like ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, ‘rather’ etc. were hedges “whose job is to make things fuzzy or less fuzzy” (1973, P.471). They were used to modify predicates and assign them to different degrees of membership in a category. Induced by these ideas, subsequent researchers have developed his model further from perspectives such as discourse analysis (Prince, et al., 1982; Markkanen & Schröder 1997a), sociolinguistics (Lakoff, 1975; Preisler, 1986), pragmatics (Brown & Levinson 1978, 1987), intercultural communication studies (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Nikula, 1997), and academic communication research (Myers, 1989; Hyland, 1994, 1996). 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).