6 Language used to hedge or soften
Katherine refers to as ‘fluffy phrases at the beginning of sentences’, such as ‘I’m wondering what/if’, ‘Am I right in [thinking that] … ?’, ‘It sounds like/as though’. These sentence starters are linguistic resources used to hedge or soften the statement which follows, serving a range of functions, as you’ll explore in the next activity.
Activity 4 Direct and indirect statements
Try to describe in linguistic terms what is happening in each of the types of ‘fluffy phrases’ quoted above. How might they have sounded if expressed more directly, and what do you think would be the impact of the shift in expression?
- ‘Am I right in thinking that you’re getting angry?’
- ‘I’m wondering if you’re getting angry.’
- ‘It sounds as though you’re getting angry.’
Discussion
- ‘Am I right in thinking that you’re getting angry?’ asks a question in order to state an opinion.
- ‘I’m wondering if you’re getting angry’ makes the speaker more prominent, foregrounding the speaker’s mental processes (the thinking/reflecting expressed through ‘I’m wondering’) over the addressee’s feelings.
- ‘It sounds as though you’re getting angry’ takes away the addressee’s personal agency altogether.
A more direct expression of all of these might have been ‘I think you’re getting angry’ or simply ‘You’re getting angry’, which would probably be experienced by the addressee as more threatening or combative.