9.3 模糊语的使用
Hedging: vague language
用来表达对陈述的确定程度
作用
- 降低被怼的风险
- 增加了表达的准确性
- 礼貌策略，表现出谦卑的姿态
有哪些模糊限制语？
1.Modal auxiliary（情态动词）
- may might can could would should
For example:
The tendency for higher indoor temperatures in flats and lower indoor temperatures in detached homes could be explained by the differences in their externa surface to floor area ratio.
2.Modal lexical verbs（表达情态的实义动词）
- 似乎： seem，appear
- 假设：assume
- 推测：speculate，surmise，postulate
- 暗示：suggest，indicate
- 估计：estimate
- 往往：tend to
- 认定：believe
For example:
Free-running homes with a higher external surface to floor area ratio tend to cool down more by conductive heat loss than homes with a lower ratio.
3.Probability adjectives （表达可能性的形容词）
- possible probable likely unlikely
For example:
It is possible to see that in January this person weighed sixty point eight kilograms for eight days.
4.Modal nouns（表达情态的名词）
- assumption claim possibility estimate suggestion
For example:
There is a suggestion that one in five marriages end in divorce.
5.Modal adverbs (表达情态的副词)
- perhaps possibly probably practically presumably apparently.
For example:
A week or ten days may not be long enough and a fortnight to three weeks is probably the best.
6.Approximators of degree, quantity,frequency and scale(程度、数量、频率和范围副词)
- 程度：roughly，to some extend
- 数量：approximately，about
- 频率：usually，often，occasionally
- 范围：generally，overall
For example:
Further modal's limitations in predictive ability are usually ignored, and these limitations are significant.
7.If clause
- if true
- if necessary
- if anything
- if only temporarily
For example:
Because participants had successfully completed 24 hours of fasting already, their tendency to persevere had already been increased, if only temporarily.
8.Compound hedges
- seems reasonable
- it may suggest that
- it seems likely that
- it would indicate that
- this probably indicates
- it seems reasonable to assume that
