Hedging the Negative Discussion

i. Using a Mitigator

Using a mitigator is one of the strategy of doing dispreferred act on the second pair part which is commonly found in daily conversation. When someone uses a mitigator to do dispreferred act, they will use really, mostly, sort of, kinda in their utterances. Those indicators aim to show that the second pair part is unsure about the statement that is given by the first pair part. The example of this linguistic phenomenon of using a mitigator to do dispreferred act on the second pair part is: Joanne : Does he put passion above common sense? Witty statements on the tip of his tongue? Lane : Sort of, yeah. SC 1417AD This is a conversation between Joanne and Lane. They talk about a man whom Lane has met. Joanne starts to ask and show her assesment about that man to Lane whether he is included as Lane’s type or not. Joanne shows her assesment by asking many questions to Lane which indicate that Joanne feels very curious to find out the truth. However, Lane gives a brief respond and makes Joanne feels disappointed because Lane does not give a clear answer. From the conversation above, it can be seen that Joanne wants an amazing answer from Lane. On the other hand, Lane says. “Sort of, yeah..” It indicates that she feels unsure about the assesment that is given by Joanne. Here, Lane uses the strategy of using a mitigator as a mark that she is doing dispreferred act on the second pair part to respond to Joanne’s assesment or statement.

j. Expressing Doubt

Expressing a doubt is one of the way to do dispreferred act on the second pair part in a conversation. It is used to show the defensive act between the second pair part to the first turn. The indicator when someone expresses hisher doubt to show hisher dispreferred act is by saying “I’m not sure”; “I don’t know.” This strategy is used to avoid giving a next respond to the interlocutor. The phenomenon of expressing a doubt is illustrated in the following conversation. Lane : Oh, she’s so helpful. Oh, that’s not right. Oh, that’s not right. Go back. Go back. God You stupid thing. Come on. Aspiring Assistant : Sshh Lane : Well, how do I go back? Aspiring Assistant : You can’t. You either know this stuff or you don’t. And my guess is you don’t. Lane : Somebody has low blood sugar. Here, have some candy. Aspiring Assistant : I don’t eat sugar. SC 0511RR The conversation above occurs when Lane is doing a software test after she did an interview at her new company. This test aims to decide whether Lane is qualified in her new job desk or not. Yet, Lane does not really understand about what kind of test is that, and she is