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A "hedge" is an instrument used by speakers to suggest that the information they are presenting may not be totally correct to avoid the claims and make it more respectful. Furthermore, hedge can also navigate how the interactions are.

Example:

The professor perhaps has to go to his office first. Der Professor muss vielleicht zuerst in sein Büro.

The hedge "perhaps" is used to introduce a sense of uncertainty or tentativeness and it sounds like an alternative possibility.

Comment: Hedge is closely related to implicatures and maxims in Grice's theory.

Origin: The existence of hedging as early as 1966, and George Lakoff is known for having first used the phrase "hedge/hedging."

References: Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press. Schröder, H. & Zimmer, D. (1997). Hedging Research in Pragmatics: A Bibliographical Research Guide to Hedging. In R. Markkanen & H. Schröder (Ed.), Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts (pp. 249-272). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.249