HEDGING FEATURES IN B. JOHNSON’S SPEECH

Abstract

The article studies the actual problem of mitigation in the British political media discourse. In this article, mitigation is considered through the notion of hedging. The purpose of the article is to analyze the concept of hedging and identify more and less frequent hedges in B. Johnson’s speech. The article reveals the problem of definition of this concept, provides classification of hedges in the English language. The main functions of hedging in political media discourse are also briefly described. The main content of the study is the analysis of the use of shields and approximators in B. Johnson’s speech. Based on the analysis of hedges used in B. Johnson’s speech, it is established that the most frequent hedges are approximators, but shields are also used by the politician. Thе problem of hedging in political media discourse has been little studied and requires further research.