Exploring linguistic and cultural variations in the use of hedges in English and Chinese scientific discourse

This study examines the use of hedges across three academic writing corpora: the English scientific writing corpus, the Chinese-authored English scientific article corpus, and the Chinese scientific article corpus. Based on the Hyland's (1998) classification scheme on hedges and the frequencies of their various types, hedges in the three corpora were identified and quantified. Hedges across various sections of research articles in the three corpora demonstrated similarities; however, considerable variations were also found in the overall number and frequency of hedges, the distribution of hedges in various sections of the research articles, and the types of hedging devices in the three corpora. Findings were interpreted with respect to native speaker–non-native speaker variation, cultural and linguistic differences between English and Chinese, as well as traditions and paradigms of scientific inquiry in the scientific communities.

► Hedges in RAs in English and Chinese were examined. ► R&D section receiving over 70% of the hedges. ► Chinese authors employ more non-lexical expressions. ► English authors prefer to use epistemic adj, noun, and adv. ► Results reflect differences in paradigms of scientific inquiry.