No straight talk here: A multi-level analysis of hedging strategies employed by the Fed Chair in press conferences

Abstract

This study aims to analyze hedging strategies in a financial communication context. The American Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”) is frequently investigated by economists, but has rarely been examined in linguistics. From the perspective of interpersonal pragmatics, this analysis of Fed Committee press conferences identifies the hedging strategies employed by the Fed Chair at the lexical, syntactic and discursive levels during Q&A sessions to elucidate how the Chair uses hedging as vehicle to manipulate the public's perceptions of the institution. The findings reveal the Chair uses words of uncertainty, formulations of abstract information, and indirect responses to avoid inconvenient questions and promote a positive image. This study enriches our understanding of the mechanisms of Fed communication, broadens data sets of hedging within financial communication contexts, and offers novel insights into hedging rationales and frameworks as well as the function of hedging. Finally, it provides both linguists and economists with a robust descriptive basis for critically assessing Fed communication.