RU
Philology. Theory & Practice
  • Original research article
  • August 20, 2026
  • Open access

Communicative and pragmatic means of speech modification: hedging and mitigation

Full
text RU

Abstract

Nowadays, holding a successful conversation is one of the most essential skills for every person. The key aspects of successful dialogue are carefully selected communicative strategies, among which are linguistic hedging and mitigation. Although hedging and mitigation are often used as interchangeable phenomena from a functional perspective, these strategies cannot be regarded as identical. This paper aims to substantiate the differentiation of hedging and mitigation as independent communicative-pragmatic strategies. The novelty of this research lies in distinguishing the related linguistic phenomena of hedging and mitigation based on a functional-expressive criterion. The study focuses on presenting the existing approaches to hedging and mitigation, as well as suggesting the analysis of their classifications. The present paper also attempts to systematize the common and distinctive features of hedging and mitigation. The preliminary results show that the key difference lies in the hyperfunctions of the phenomena under study. The hyperfunction of linguistic hedging is to make a statement more or less fuzzy, whereas mitigation aims to attenuate the propositional content of an utterance. The shared and unique functional features of hedging and mitigation immediately depend on the existing correlation between their means of realization.

Research materials

  1. НКРЯ – Национальный корпус русского языка. https://ruscorpora.ru

References

  1. Байкова А. В. Лексические средства хеджирования как способ выявления ложных высказываний в американском политическом дискурсе // Russian Linguistic Bulletin. 2024. № 6 (54). https://doi.org/10.60797/RULB.2024.54.18
  2. Богинская О. А. Лексико-синтаксические актуализаторы хеджирования в русском языке: опыт анализа отзывов о диссертации // Русистика. 2023. № 1 (21). https://doi.org/10.22363/2618-8163-2023-21-1-18-32
  3. Власян Г. Р. Понятие хеджирования в лингвистике // Когнитивные исследования языка. 2023. № 1 (52).
  4. Власян Г. Р. Хеджирование как способ гармонизации общения в процессе социального взаимодействия // Журналистский текст в новой технологической среде: достижения и проблемы: сборник материалов III конференции PMMIS (Post massmedia in the modern informational society) (г. Челябинск, 28-29 марта 2019 г.) / под общ. ред. М. В. Загидуллиной. Челябинск.: Изд-во Челябинского государственного университета, 2019.
  5. Кацнельсон С. Д. Типология языка и речевое мышление. Л.: Наука, 1972.
  6. Кобозева И. М. Лингвистическая семантика. М.: Эдиториал УРСС, 2000.
  7. Тахтарова С. С. Категория коммуникативного смягчения: когнитивно-дискурсивный и этнокультурный аспекты: автореф. дисс. ... д. филол. н. Волгоград, 2010.
  8. Bates C. F. Mitigation in discourse: Social, cognitive and affective motivations when exchanging advice // Journal of Pragmatics. 2021. No. 173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.12.008
  9. Brown P., Levinson S. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
  10. Caffi C. Mitigation. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00392-8
  11. Caffi C. On mitigation // Journal of Pragmatics. 1999. No. 31. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00098-8
  12. Danet B. Language in the legal process // Law and Society Review. 1980. Vol. 14. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053192
  13. Fraser В. Hedged Performatives // Syntax and Semantics. Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1975. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368811_008
  14. Fraser В. Conversational mitigation // Journal of Pragmatics. 1980. No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(80)90029-6
  15. Holmes J. Modifying illocutionary force // Journal of Pragmatics. 1984. No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(84)90028-6
  16. Lakoff G. Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts // Journal of Philosophical Logic. 1973. No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00262952
  17. Marco M. A., Arguedas M. E. Mitigation revisited. An operative and integrated definition of the pragmatic concept, its strategic values, and its linguistic expression // Journal of Pragmatics. 2021. No. 183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.07.002
  18. Prince E., Frader J., Bosk C. On Hedging in Physician-Physician Discourse // Linguistics and the Professions // Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1982.
  19. Vlasyan G. R. Linguistic Hedging in the Light of Politeness Theory // The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences. 2018. Vol. XXXIX. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.04.02.98
  20. Weinreich U. On the Semantic Structure of English. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1966.
  21. Zadeh L. Fuzzy sets // Information and Control. 1965. No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0019-9958(65)90241-X

Funding

This research was supported by the Young Scientists Support Fund of Chelyabinsk State University, 2026.

Author information

Elena Mikhailovna Petrova

Chelyabinsk State University

About this article

Publication history

  • Received: March 2, 2026.
  • Published: August 20, 2026.

Keywords

  • коммуникативные стратегии
  • хеджирование
  • митигация
  • хеджи
  • дифференциация хеджирования и митигации
  • communicative strategies
  • hedging
  • mitigation
  • hedges
  • hedging – mitigation distinction

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)
© 2026 Gramota Publishing, LLC

User license

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)