Gender Differences in the Use of Hedging Devices in thePakistani Opinion Columns: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

This study investigates the use of hedges in the opinion columns written by Pakistani male columnists and female columnists. For this, the present study uses Hyland (2005) model interpersonal metadiscourse to recognize hedging devices. This study also investigates how or both genders show difference and similarity in the employment of hedges. The corpus was built of 580 opinion articles. The columns totaled 290 by male and 290 by female writers. For the present study, a mixed method approach was used. As for sampling, this study uses random sampling. The finding of this research reveals that both Pakistani male and female writers did not differ in the use of hedges devices in their opinion columns and concludes that the choice and distribution of hedges depend on genre of the text rather than on the gender of the text.