Hedges might be used in writing, to downplay a harsh critique or a generalization, or in speaking, to lessen the impact of an utterance due to politeness constraints between a speaker and addressee.
Linguists consider hedges to be tools of epistemic modality; allowing speakers and writers to signal a level of caution in making an assertion.
For example; In some cases, "I don't know" functions as a prepositioned hedge—a forward-looking stance marker displaying that the speaker is not fully committed to what follows in their turn of talk.
Hedges help speakers and writers indicate more precisely how the cooperative principle (expectations of quantity, quality, manner, and relevance) is observed in assessments.
[9] Examples of hedges in languages besides English are as follow: When this phrase has full syntactic complementation, speakers emphasize their lack of knowledge or display reluctance to answer.