LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE USE OF HEDGING DEVICES IN DIRECT QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH(IN CONTRAST WITH THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS)

Abstract

The first purpose of this study is to investigate how hedging devices are used in direct questions in English spoken language. Another purpose of the study is to do a contrastive analysis to see whether Vietnamese speakers, when asking direct questions, use hedging devices  or not and if hedging devices are in use, how they are used. The data needed for the study were collected through conversation exchanges in foreign and Vietnamese short stories and novels written by famous authors. The results of the research revealed that: (1) in both spoken English and Vietnamese, hedging as a mitigating device is extensively employed; (2) though the structures of hedging devices may vary in both languages, these hedges have the same roles in spoken discourse in Vietnamese as they have in English: to indicate a lack of complete commitment to the truth of the proposition, and a desire not to express the commitment categorically, or to lessen the impact of an utterance.