Talk:Hedge (linguistics)
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This page uses overly complex language. Please help to describe hedging more clearly.
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[edit] Example
an example of a hedge may help to understand the idea more clearly: I'm not sure if this is right but I've heard it was a secret ceremony in York.
[edit] first sentence
"Indirect illocution is an illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses another illocutionary force." What sort of definition uses the root word itself not once but THREE times? In addition to not being very good english... the first sentence is simply gibberish. In the same way that "dynamics is dynamically important to expressing oneself dynamically" is a both a bad definition and gibberish. Novium 20:08, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Whole article
I have redone the article, not being sure whether the previous version was talking about hedges at all. Comments and improvements welcome. JREL (talk) 11:13, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Difference between "For all I know" (truncated) and "All I know"?
This is an excellent article. I believe there might be a difference between saying,
"All I know smoking is harmful to your health." and
"All I know is, smoking is harmful to your health."
Without the "is", I think "all I know" might be a shortening of the expression, "For all I know," which indicates the speaker feels what they state following the expression is possible but is quite unsure.
With the "is", I believe "all I know" means the opposite; that while the speaker is unsure of anything else, they are quite sure of whatever they state following the expression.
Opinions? Lawyer2b 17:38, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] More functions!?
Hedges in general might have different functions apart from signalling uncertainty. a) A hedge like "you know" could also be facilitative in that it invites another speaker to participate. Saying "Yesterday, I went to HMV and bought that red CD, you know, and then I met ..." refers to mutual background knowledge. b) When the hedege "I think" stands in initial position and is stressed, it can also express certainty and can both soften disagreement ("I think you are wrong there.") and strengthen agreement ("I think you are absolutely right."). What I want to say is that hedges can have different functions apart from the one(s) mentioned in the acricle. What do you think?--Wight 07:00, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
