Multifunction of Hedges Used by English Department Students: Gender Role Perspective

DOI

10.2991/soshec-18.2018.46How to use a DOI?

Keywords

hedges; multifunction of hedges; gender role; politeness

Abstract

Hedges are linguistic features that commonly used to lessen the impact of an utterance due to restriction between speakers and interlocutors. Yet, this function might be different depends on the content of conversation and who the speaker is. Some linguists claim that hedges are associated with women’s language. However, as a matter of fact, these features also appear in men’s speech with different functions, similar to women’s one. This study is conducted to examine the presence of possible different functions of hedges and the impact of them toward the interlocutors’ responds in the speech of male and female English Department students. To do so, two discussion sessions and a casual interview are done. The finding reveals that there are different types and functions of hedges employed by male and female. Male tends to employ hedges to express uncertainty, self-disclosure, and politeness while female tends to employ hedges to convey certainty and sustain interpersonal relationship. Moreover, the overuse of hedges creates a bad face of the speaker. The findings suggest that men and women may utilize hedges when communication to represents the state of their mind. However, wise use of these expressions should be considered to avoid negative labels for the speakers.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ninis Nur Kholisoh
AU  - Slamet Setiawan
PY  - 2018/07
DA  - 2018/07
TI  - Multifunction of Hedges Used by English Department Students: Gender Role Perspective
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd Social Sciences, Humanities and Education Conference: Establishing Identities through Language, Culture, and Education (SOSHEC 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 210
EP  - 215
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/soshec-18.2018.46
DO  - 10.2991/soshec-18.2018.46
ID  - NurKholisoh2018/07
ER  -