Use of Hedges in Definitions: Out of Necessity or Theory-Driven?

Mariusz Piotr Kaminski

doi:10.5788/29-1-1512

Abstract

Language has an inventory of words and expressions (e.g. especially, sort of, loosely speaking ) used to communicate that what is being said is not exactly precise or complete. Referred to as hedges, they provide support for the conception of prototypically organized categories, developed by Eleanor Rosch in the 1970s and elaborated by her followers in subsequent decades. Given the fact that hedges are extremely useful for lexicographers in defining, this paper examined the frequency and distribution of hedges in major English dictionaries over the past centuries. One of the findings of this research is the fact that, although hedges have been used in English lexicography since Johnson-1785, their use has intensified in certain dictionaries since the rise of prototype theory, suggesting that recent defining practice in these dictionaries must have been influenced by this theory. Other factors determining the use of hedges were explored.

Highlights

Language has an inventory of words and expressions used to communicate that what is being said is not exactly precise or complete
This paper aims to examine the frequency and distribution of hedges in definitions in major English dictionaries published over the past centuries
The first point to make is that the hedges occur in the definitions in a relatively high proportion, which ranges from 3.7% in Johnson-1785 to 8.2% in Collegiate2004

Summary

Introduction

Language has an inventory of words and expressions used to communicate that what is being said is not exactly precise or complete. Hedges are not a grammatically uniform group, as they include other word categories and even punctuation marks.. Hedges express varying degrees of category membership. Loosely speaking does not merely exclude the central member but points to "things that would not ordinarily be considered members" (as in Loosely speaking, a telephone is a piece of furniture) (Lakoff 1973, Taylor 1995: 77). Such hedges as loosely speaking show that are category boundaries flexible, but they can be redefined. These findings provide support for the conception of prototypically organized categories, whereby categories display degrees of typicality and their boundaries are blurred (Rosch 1973; Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2007: 145)

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