Frequency and Type of Hedging Devices Used in the Research Articles of Humanities, Basic Sciences and Agriculture

The present study compared and contrasted the frequency of use of hedging devices used in the research articles of three fields of Humanities, Basic Sciences and Agriculture and three sub-fields within each field (i.e. Law, Persian literature and TEFL within Humanities; Biotechnology, Soil Sciences and Horticulture within Agriculture; and Biology, Applied Chemistry and Geology within Basic Sciences). In so doing, 180 research articles, 20 from each sub-field, were selected and analyzed based on Salager- Meyer's (1994) taxonomy of hedging. The results of the chi-square analyses revealed, regarding the frequency of use and type of hedging devices, there were significant differences among: a) the three fields of Humanities, Basic Sciences and Agriculture; b) the sub-fields of Humanities, Basic Sciences and Agriculture.