`We expect to report on significant progress in our product pipeline in the coming year': hedging forward-looking statements in corporate press releases
Restricted accessOtherFirst published online October, 2008
`We expect to report on significant progress in our product pipeline in the coming year': hedging forward-looking statements in corporate press releases
This article reports on the findings of a study of so-called `forward-looking statements' in a corpus of corporate press releases, focusing in particular on the mechanisms of hedging involved. Forward-looking statements are an important characteristic of corporate press releases in which companies make predictions about the future in an attempt to demonstrate to stakeholders that the company is making progress and that its prospects are good. Such statements are explicitly mentioned in a disclaimer which often accompanies corporate press releases and are noted to involve risks and uncertainties. This article aims to identify those lexicogrammatical forms which are typically used in forward-looking statements in press releases, including those used for the purpose of hedging, and also to try to identify the function(s) of hedging in the selected data. The data analysis points to a range of forms which function as hedges in the data. These are discussed and exemplified and, drawing on Hyland's (1998a) model in particular, an attempt is made to consider what function(s) the hedges serve.
Bhatia, V.K. (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse. London: Continuum.
2.
Bloor, M. and Bloor, T. (1993) `How Economists Modify Propositions', in W. Henderson, T. Dudley-Evans and R. Backhouse (eds) Economics and Language, pp. 153-69. London: Routledge.
3.
Butler, C. (1990) `Qualifications in Science: Modal Meanings in Scientific Texts', in W. Nash (ed.) The Writing Scholar: Studies in Academic Discourse, pp. 137-70. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
4.
Channell, J. (1994) Vague Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
Clyne, M. (1991) `The Socio-cultural Dimension: The Dilemma of the German Speaking Scholar', in H. Schröder (ed.) Subject-oriented Texts, pp. 49-67. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
6.
Coates, J. (1983) The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries. Beckenham: Croom Helm.
7.
Crompton, P. (1997) `Hedging in Academic Writing: Some Theoretical Problems', English for Specific Purposes16(4): 271-87.
8.
Donohue, J.P. (2006) `How to Support a One-handed Economist: The Role of Modalization in Economic Forecasting', English for Specific Purposes25: 200-16.
9.
Doolin, B. (2007) `Biotechnology Discourse', Discourse Studies9(1): 5-8.
10.
Ernst, T.B. (1984) `Towards an Integrated Theory of Adverb Position in English', Indiana Linguistics Club.
11.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd edn. London: Edward Arnold.
12.
Hyland, K. (1994) `Hedging in Academic Writing and EAP Textbooks' , English for Specific Purposes13: 239-56.
13.
Hyland, K. (1996) `Writing without Conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles', Applied Linguistics17(4): 433-54.
14.
Hyland, K. (1998a) Hedging in Scientific Research Articles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
15.
Hyland, K. (1998b) `Boosting, Hedging and the Negotiation of Academic Knowledge', Text18(3): 349-82.
16.
Jacobs, G. (1999a) Preformulating the News. Amsterdam /Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins .
17.
Jacobs, G. (1999b) `Self-reference in Press Releases', Journal of Pragmatics31: 219-42.
18.
Lakoff, G. (1972) `Hedges: A Study of Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts', in P. Peranteau, J. Levi and G. Phares (eds) Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting of Chicago Linguistic Society, pp. 183-228. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
19.
Lyons, J. (1977) Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
McLaren, Y. and Gurău, C. (2005) `Characterising the Genre of the Corporate Press Release', LSP and Professional Communication5(1): 10-30.
21.
Markkanen, R. and Schröder, H. (1989) `Hedging as a Translation Problem in Scientific Texts', in C. Laurén and M. Nordman (eds) Special Languages: From Human Thinking to Thinking Machines, pp. 171-9. London: Multilingual Matters.
22.
Markkanen, R. and Schröder, H. (1997) `Hedging: A Challenge for Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis', in R. Markkanen and H. Schröder (eds) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts, pp. 3-18. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
23.
Mauranen, A. (1997) `Hedging in Language Revisers' Hands', in R. Markkanen and H. Schröder (eds) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts, pp. 115-33. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter.
24.
Meyer, P.G. (1997) `Hedging Strategies in Written Academic Discourse: Strengthening the Argument by Weakening the Claim', in R. Markkanen and H. Schröder (eds) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts, pp. 21-41. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter.
25.
Myers, G. (1989) `The Pragmatics of Politeness in Scientific Articles' , Applied Linguistics10(1): 1-35.
26.
Pander Maat, H. (2007) `How Promotional Language in Press Releases is Dealt with by Journalists: Genre Mixing or Genre Conflict?', Journal of Business Communication44(1): 59-95.
27.
Perkins, M. (1983) Modal Expressions in English. London: Frances Pinter.
28.
Pindi, M. and Bloor, T. (1987) `Playing Safe with Predictions: Hedging, Attribution and Conditions in Economic Forecasting', in T. Bloor and J. Norrish (eds) Written Language, pp. 55-69. London: CILT/ BAAL.
29.
Prince, E., Bosk, C. and Frader, J. (1982) `On Hedging in Physician-Physician Discourse', in J. di Pietro (ed.) Linguistics and the Professions, pp. 83-97. Hillsdale, NJ: Ablex.
30.
Salager-Meyer, F. (1994) `Hedges and Textual Communicative Function in Medical English Written Discourse', English for Specific Purposes13: 149-70.
31.
Simon-Vandenbergen, A.-M. (1996) `Image-building through Modality: The Case of Political Interviews', Discourse & Society7(3): 389-415.
32.
Simpson, P. (1990) `Modality in Literary-critical Discourse', in W. Nash (ed.) The Writing Scholar: Studies in Academic Discourse, pp. 63-94. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE. Simpson, P. (1993) Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Routledge.
33.
Tench, R. (2003) `Public Relations Writing -A Genre-based Model' , Corporate Communications: An International Journal8(2): 139-46.
34.
Varttala, T. (1999) `Remarks on the Communicative Functions of Hedging in Popular Scientific and Specialist Research Articles on Medicine', English for Specific Purposes18(2): 177-200.
