The Use of Hedging in Some Iraqi EFL Theses and Dissertations

Prof. Hameed H. Al-Masudi, PhD Asst Prof. Ahmed S. Mubarak, MA Department of English/ College of Education for Human Sciences/ University of Babylon

The term ''Hedging'' was first introduced by Lakoff (1972) to describe words whose job is to make things fuzzier or more opaque. In other words, hedging is employed to indicate absence of certainty of some sort. Hence it is an important strategy to be used in scientific writings in order to lessen the commitment of making generalizations, introducing theories and putting forward solid conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study conducted about the use of hedges in scientific texts written by Iraqi EFL scholars. We are still unaware of the type of hedges these scholars employ in their writings and what functions they intend to achieve behind using such devices. Therefore, this study tries to fulfill the two objectives: (1) Investigating the types of hedging devices used in Iraqi EFL theses and dissertations; and (2) Identifying the functions achieved by such devices when writing theses and dissertations. In the light of the objectives of the study, it is hypothesized that phrasal hedges are used more than other types of hedges in Iraqi EFL theses and dissertations; and that uncertainty is the main function of hedging in Iraqi EFL theses and dissertations. The study first presents a theoretical background about the strategy of hedging to acquaint the reader with the definitions, types, as well as the functions hedging is employed to fulfill in theses and dissertations. It then analyzes hedging devices in some selected Iraqi EFL scholars theses and dissertations to find out the types of hedges used in such writings and functions they are used to fulfill. The results of data analysis refuted the first hypothesis since it is found that lexical hedges are used more frequently than any other type. The second hypothesis is verified because the analysis showed that expressing uncertainty is the main aim behind using hedging.