Hedged Performatives in Spoken American English: A Discourse-oriented Analysis

This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of so-called “hedged performatives,” which, although frequently referred to in the literature, have never been subject an in-depth functional study. Using data from Corpus Contemporary American English, focus is on I must/ say, admit, and confess, as hedged performatives which are among most frequent score highest terms collocational strength. The qualitative identifies two main functions, viz., downtoner emphasizer. They shown derive interplay three co(n)textual parameters: (i) “semantic valency” host clause (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral semantic content), (ii) “thematic orientation” toward speaker, addressee, third person/the situation), (iii) conversational “alignment” speaker with interlocutor agreement disagreement). It further that play important role rapport management, serving (mainly positive face) politeness strategies, captured face-preservation, face-damage, face-boost.