Hedges and Boosters as Modality Markers: An Analysis of Nigerian and American Editorials
Keywords:
Editorials, modality markers, hedges, boosters, persuasion, doubt, conviction.
Abstract
Many studies have been carried out on the use of hedges and boosters as persuasive strategies, but little is known about their employment when texts such as editorials are compared cross culturally. This study comparatively examined the employment of modality markers to express doubt and conviction in Nigerian and American editorials. Farrokhi and Emami’s (2008) classification of hedges and boosters was employed to analyze twenty editorials selected from two Nigerian newspapers and two American newspapers. Findings reveal that both sets of editorial writers made use of hedges and boosters a lot in their writings. However, lexical verbs were not employed as boosters in the analyzed editorials. The fact that the Nigerian editorial writers as ESL writers equally made great use of hedges and boosters implies that in texts such as editorials, writers from different cultures equally employ the same linguistic devices to express doubt and conviction.
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References
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Alo, M.A. (2013). English modality as a rhetorical tool in Nigerian political manifestoes. In A. Ogunsiji, A. Kehinde & A. Odebunmi (Eds.), Language, literature and discourse: A festschrift in honour of Professor A. 'Lekan Oyeleye (pp. 125-138). Ibadan: Stirling- HordenPublishers Ltd.
Ansary, H. & Babaii, E. (2004). The generic integrity of newspaper editorial: A systemic functional view of text for contrastive rhetoric research. Regional Language Centre Journal 40.2, 211 – 249.
Ansary, H. & Babaii, E. (2009). A cross-cultural analysis of English newspaper editorials: A systemic functional perspective. Asian EFL Journal.6, 1- 58.
Badeh’s murder and unbridled insecurity. (2018, December 21). The Punch, p. 20.
Bandits’ killing of 16 policemen in Zamfara. (2018, December 13). The Nigerian Tribune, p. 13.
Buhari’s rejection of electoral act (amendment) bill. (2018, December 18). The Punch, p. 20.
Cleaning the congressional stables. (2018, December, 31). The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/editorials/democrats-reform-house.html
Connor, U. (1996), Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second-language writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crismore, A., Markkanen, R. & Steffensen, M. (1993). Metadiscourse in persuasive writing: A study of texts written by American and Finnish university students. Written Communication, 10 (1), 39-71.
Democrats used Russian tactics in Alabama. Now they must swear them off. (2018, December
27). The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../democrats-used-russians-tactics-in-alabama...
EFCC and 2019 elections’ credibility. (2018, December 11). The Punch, p. 22.
Farrokhi, F. & Emami, S. (2008). Hedges and boosters in academic writing: Native vs. non-
native research articles in applied linguistics and engineering. The Journal of Applied Linguistics, vol. 1, 2, 62-97.
FG’s verdict on electoral promises. (2018, December 27). The Nigerian Tribune, p.13.
Hinkel, E. (2002). Second language writer’s text: Linguistic and rhetorical features. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Holmes, J. (1982). Expressing doubt and certainty in English. RELC Journal, 3, 9-28.
Holmes, J. (1988). Doubt and certainty in ESL textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 9 (1), 20-44.
Hyland, K. (1998). Hedges, boosters and the negotiation of academic knowledge. TEXT, 18 (3), 349-382.
Hyland, K. (1996). Talking to the academy: Forms of hedging in science research articles. Written
Communication, 13 (2), 251-281.
Hyland, K., & Milton, J. (1997). Qualification and certainty in L1 and L2 students’ writing. Journal of
Second Language Writing, 6 (2), 183-205.
Jegede, O.O. (2015). Language and ideology in the media: A study of Nigerian newspaper editorials.
International Journal of English Literature and Culture, vol. 3, (3), 76-84.
Lewin, B.A. (2005). Hedging: An exploratory study of authors’ and readers’ identification of
‘toning down’ in scientific texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4, 163-178.
Medubi, O.C. (2007). The fundamentals of journalism. In O. Obafemi, G.A. Ajadi & V.A. Alabi (Eds.). Critical perspectives on English language and literature. Ilorin: The Department of English. (pp. 105 - 116).
Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10 (1), 1-35.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Starvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of English
language. London and New York: Longman.
Russian’s support for Trump’s election is no longer disputable. (2018, December 17). The Washington
Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../russias-support-for-trumps-election-is-no-longer-dis...
Ryan Zinke, into the sunset. (2018 December, 15). The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/opinion/ryan-zinke-interior-resigns trump.html.
Salager-Meyer, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written
discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 13(2), 121-140.
Sedaghat, A., et al (2015). Cross cultural analysis of hedges in Persian and English editorial columns. International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, vol. 8, (1), 37-50.
Shutdown? More like a breakdown. (2018, December 21). The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/opinion/government-shutdown-2018-trump. html.
The electoral act amendment controversy. (2018, December, 17). The Nigerian Tribune, p. 13.
The latest chance for D.C. voting rights. (2018, December 26). The Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../the-latest-chance-for-DC-voting-rights...
The Macabre dance in Akwa Ibom. (2018, December 7). The Nigerian Tribune, P. 13.
The Metele attack. (2018, December 6). The Nigerian Tribune, p. 13.
The unlearned lessons of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. (2018, December 23). The Washington
Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../the-unlearned-lessons-of-jamal-khashoggis...
The war on truth spreads. (2018, December 9). The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/09/opinion/media-duterte-maria-ressa.html
Vassileva, I. (2001). Commitment and detachment in English and Bulgarian academic writing.
English for Specific Purposes, 20, 83-102.
When security votes spending turns genocidal. (2018, December 12). The Punch, p. 20.
Why Congo’s election on Sunday will be a travesty. (2018, December 28). The Washington Post.
Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../why-congo-election-on-sunday-will-be-a-travesty...
Will the Supreme Court save Obamacare again? (2018, December 28). The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/opinion/trump-obamacare-
supreme-court.html
Published
2020-12-13
How to Cite
Ojo, O. (2020). Hedges and Boosters as Modality Markers: An Analysis of Nigerian and American Editorials. K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Languange and Literature, 22(2), 55-62. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.22.2.55-62
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
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