Hedging Strategies in Selected Plays by George Bernard Shaw

This study aims to identify the devices, strategies, functions and purposes of hedging employed in Shaw’s Arms and the Man, Man and Superman, and Pygmalion. To fulfill this aim, an eclectic model is adopted, integrating the taxonomies of Salager-Meyer (1997), Hyland (1998), Varttala (2001) and Fraser (2010). Blending qualitative and quantitative methods, the data analysis shows that sixteen lexical and syntactic hedges are found in each play, and the most frequently employed device is the modal auxiliary. These devices are used as strategies of intimacy, irony, avoidance, concealment, depersonalization, downtoning, indetermination, persuasion, politeness, and subjectivization. The analysis also brings into light their different functions along with their descriptive, dramatic and thematic purposes. The findings indicate that hedging shows, to a greater extent, Shaw’s reliability in creating his drama, and reveals how he drags readers to take part in his philosophical debates, leading them, like himself, into an endless loop of tentativeness.