1887
Volume 9, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1878-9714
  • E-ISSN: 1878-9722
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of hedging strategies employed by the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, in political interviewing. Using a discourse-analytic procedure, the study investigates a corpus of 22 press interviews and verifies the presence of hedging-related discursive strategies in the President’s responses. It also identifies four specific interrelated discourse moves: ‘Reformulating the interviewer’s question’, ‘Expanding the scope of the original question sequence’, ‘Switching the time frame of the question context’, ‘Recasting the question reference from specific to general terms’. It is suggested that President Obama manages to avoid explicit responses to questions about controversial issues through hedging strategies, which shift the focus of the interviewer’s question to different interrogative formats, time frames and reference perspectives.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ps.15030.pon
2018-06-28
2025-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aijmer, Karin and Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen
    2003 “The discourse particle well and its equivalents in Swedish and Dutch.” Linguistics41 (6): 1123–1161.10.1515/ling.2003.036
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2003.036 [Google Scholar]
  2. Alonso, Rosa Alonso , María Alonso Alonso , and Laura Torrado Mariñas
    2012 “Hedging: An Exploratory Study of Pragmatic Transfer in Nonnative English Readers’ Rhetorical Preferences.” Ibérica23: 47–64.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Brown, Penelope , and Stephen C. Levinson
    1987Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Caffi, Claudia
    1999 “On mitigation.” Journal of Pragmatics31: 881–909.10.1016/S0378‑2166(98)00098‑8
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00098-8 [Google Scholar]
  5. 2007Mitigation. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Clayman, Steven E.
    1992 “Footing in the Achievement of Neutrality: The Case of News Discourse.” InTalk at Work, ed. by Paul Drew and John Heritage , 163–198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. 1993 “Reformulating the Question: A Device for Answering/Not Answering Questions in News Interviews and Press Conferences. Text13 (2): 159–188.10.1515/text.1.1993.13.2.159
    https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1993.13.2.159 [Google Scholar]
  8. 2001 “Answers and Evasions.” Language in Society30 (3): 403–42.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Clemen, Gudrun
    1997 “The Concept of Hedging: Origins, Approaches and Definitions.” InHedging and Discourse, ed. by Hartmut Schröder and Raija Markkanen , 80–97. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Fraser, Bruce
    1975 “Hedged Performatives”. InSyntax and Semantics, Vol.3, ed. by Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan , 187–210. New York: Academic Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. 1999 “What are Discourse Markers?” Journal of Pragmatics31: 931–952.10.1016/S0378‑2166(98)00101‑5
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00101-5 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2009 “Hedging in Political Discourse: The 2007 Bush Press Conference.” InPapers from the 2nd International Conference on Political Discourse, ed. by Piotr Cap , 201–213. Warsaw.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. 2010 “Pragmatic Competence: The Case of Hedging.” InNew Approaches to Hedging, ed. by Gunther Kaltenböck , Wiltrud Mihatsch , and Stefan Schneider , 15–34. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.10.1163/9789004253247_003
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004253247_003 [Google Scholar]
  14. Hübler, Axel
    1983Understatements and Hedges. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pb.iv.6
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pb.iv.6 [Google Scholar]
  15. Hyland, Ken
    1998Hedging in Scientific Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.54
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.54 [Google Scholar]
  16. Hyland, Ken , and Marina Bondi
    2006Academic Discourse across Disciplines. Bern: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Jucker, Andreas
    1997 “The Discourse Marker Well in the History Of English.” English Language and Linguistics1(1): 91–110.10.1017/S136067430000037X
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S136067430000037X [Google Scholar]
  18. Jucker, Andreas , and Sarah Smith
    1998 “And people like you know just “wow”: Discourse Markers As Negotiating Strategies.” InDiscourse Markers: Descriptions and Theory, ed. by Andreas Jucker and Yael Ziv , 171–202. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.57.10juc
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.57.10juc [Google Scholar]
  19. Kaltenböck, Gunther , Wiltrud Mihatsch , and Stefan Schneider
    2010 “Introduction.” InNew Approaches to Hedging, ed. by Gunther Kaltenböck , Wiltrud Mihatsch , and Stefan Schneider , 1–14. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.10.1163/9789004253247_002
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004253247_002 [Google Scholar]
  20. Lakoff, George
    1972 “Hedges: A Study In Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts.” CLS8: 183–228.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Martín-Butragueño, Pedro
    2003 “The Pragmatic Rhetorical Strategy of Hedging in Academic Writing.” Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics0: 57–72.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Müller, Simone
    2005Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English Discourse. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.138
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.138 [Google Scholar]
  23. Partington, Alan
    2003The Linguistics of Political Argument: The Spin-doctor and the Wolf-pack at the White House. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203218259
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203218259 [Google Scholar]
  24. Ponterotto, Diane
    2014 “The Risks of Uncertainty: Hedging Strategies in Rape Trial Discourse.” Language and Dialogue4 (1): 93–111.10.1075/ld.4.1.06pon
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.4.1.06pon [Google Scholar]
  25. Prince, Ellen , Joel Frader and Charles Bosk
    1982 “On Hedging in Physician-Physician Discourse.” InLinguistics and the Professions, Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies, ed. by Robert J. Di Pietro , 83–97. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Salager-Meyer, Françoise
    1994 “Hedges and Textual Communicative Function in Medical English Written Discourse.” English for Specific Purposes13: 149–170.10.1016/0889‑4906(94)90013‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90013-2 [Google Scholar]
  27. 1995 “‘I think that perhaps you should’: A Study of Hedges in Written Scientific Discourse.” The Journal of TESOL France2 (2): 127–143.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Schiffrin, Deborah
    1987Discourse Markers. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611841
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611841 [Google Scholar]
  29. Schröder, Hartmut , and Dagmar Zimmer
    1997 “Hedging Research in Pragmatics: A Bibliographical Research Guide to Hedging.” InHedging and Discourse. Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts, ed. by Raija Markkanen and Hartmut Schröder , 249–271. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Smith, Sara W. and Andreas H. Jucker
    2000 “ Actually and other markers of an apparent discrepancy between propositional attitudes of conversational partners.” InPragmatic Markers and Propositional Attitude, ed. by Gisle Andersen and Thorstein Fretheim , 207–235. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.79.10smi
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.79.10smi [Google Scholar]
  31. Taweel, Abeer Q. , Emad M. Saidat , Hussein A. Rafayah , and Ahmad M. Saidat
    2011 “Hedging in Political Discourse.” The Linguistics Journal5 (1): 170–196.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Weinreich, Uriel
    1966 “On the Semantic Structure of English.” InUniversals of Language, ed. by Joseph H. Greenberg , 142–217. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Zadeh, Lotfi A.
    1965 “Fuzzy Sets.” Information and Control8, 338–353.10.1016/S0019‑9958(65)90241‑X
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0019-9958(65)90241-X [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.15030.pon
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): discourse analysis; hedging; mitigation; Obama; political text; press interviews
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error