A Gender- and Age-Based Study of “Hedges” in the Speech of Persian Speakers

The present research aims to examine and classify "hedges” through investigating the effect of “gender" and "age" on the use of this linguistic category in the everyday speech of Persian speakers. To this end, a researcher-made questionnaire was designed and randomly distributed among 523 Persian speakers in 4 different age groups (15-25, 26-35, 36-45, and 45 years and older). As far as it is concerned to the methodology, it is questionnaire-based survey benefiting from the qualitative components and quantitative analysis. The theoretical framework was based on Hyland’s (1996) and Varttala’s (2001) classifications of hedges. The statistical tests including T-test, ANOVA, and Tukey were used for data analysis. The findings showed that women used “evidential verbs” more than men to show their uncertainty, while the opposite was true for “judgmental verbs”. Furthermore, the statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in the use of “judgmental, modal, and evidential verbs” among participants in different age groups. Finally, the results indicated that Persian speakers used only five groups of Hyland’s and Varttala’s hedging classifications in their everyday speech.