Use of hedges in English and Japanese : a comparative study of empirical research articles by native English and Japanese writer

Native English scholarly writers use interactional metadiscourse markers in their research articles to indicate their stance and negotiate their claims with readers. Hedges are a type of interactional metadiscourse marker often used in scientific research articles to soften writers’ claims and protect themselves from criticism (Hyland, 2005a). When Japanese researchers write research articles in English, they tend to use fewer English hedges than native English writers. Although hedges are used in research articles written in Japanese, their usage appears to differ from that of English hedges.
This study analyses the use of hedges in research articles by Japanese writers in both English and Japanese in comparison with English hedges employed by native English writers in order to reveal the differences in the use of hedges between the two languages. The analysis focuses not only on the discrepancies in usage between native English and Japanese writers, but also on the characteristics of hedges used in academic articles written in English and Japanese. Furthermore, this study investigates the impact of Japanese writers’ first language on their use of English hedges in articles written in English. A total of 30 published empirical research articles in soft science disciplines in English and Japanese were used for the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the use of hedges, revealing both the writing and linguistic differences between the two languages. Thus, this study aims to offer pedagogical suggestions for Japanese learners of English to use hedges more effectively in their research papers written in English.