One tactful strategy in political rhetoric is hedging which is associated with vagueness and innuendos. Despite the studies that address hedging in academic discourse and conversation analysis, studies that investigate hedges in relation to political power, face, and politeness are tremendously few. To this aim, four political interviews were selected from CNN and BBC websites on the basis of the diversity of topics and the popularity of the interviewees and analyzed following a combination of the existing taxonomies of hedges. The results of this analysis revealed an inverse relationship between the frequency of downtoners and the degree of political power. The use of hedges in political interviews also contributes to the implementation of positive as well as negative politeness strategies.
Jalilifar, A. R. and Alavi, M. (2011). Power and Politics of Language Use: A Survey of Hedging Devices in Political Interviews. Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills), 30(3), 43-66. doi: 10.22099/jtls.2012.377
MLA
Jalilifar, A. R. , and Alavi, M. . "Power and Politics of Language Use: A Survey of Hedging Devices in Political Interviews", Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills), 30, 3, 2011, 43-66. doi: 10.22099/jtls.2012.377
HARVARD
Jalilifar, A. R., Alavi, M. (2011). 'Power and Politics of Language Use: A Survey of Hedging Devices in Political Interviews', Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills), 30(3), pp. 43-66. doi: 10.22099/jtls.2012.377
CHICAGO
A. R. Jalilifar and M. Alavi, "Power and Politics of Language Use: A Survey of Hedging Devices in Political Interviews," Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills), 30 3 (2011): 43-66, doi: 10.22099/jtls.2012.377
VANCOUVER
Jalilifar, A. R., Alavi, M. Power and Politics of Language Use: A Survey of Hedging Devices in Political Interviews. Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills), 2011; 30(3): 43-66. doi: 10.22099/jtls.2012.377
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