Positive face refers to a person‘s need to be accepted, or liked, by others, and
to be treated as a member of a group knowing that their wants are shared by others.
Negative face refers to a person‘s need to be independent and not be imposed
on by others.
2.7.4 Established writing style
Banks 1994:13 argues that a certain degree of hedging has become conventionalized, i.e., that the function of hedges is not necessarily to avoid
face-threatening acts definition No. 1, but simply to conform to an established writing style. This established style of writing arose as a
consequence of the combination of the needs and stimuli mentioned in definition 1, 2 and 3 above. A totally unhedged style would not be considered
seriously by journal editors.
It should be made clear at this stage that it is difficult to be sure in any particular instance which of the four above mentioned concepts is intended nor
need we assume that the authors of hedged utterances always know why they hedge their statements in the first place. As Salager Meyer 1994 :150 hedges
is first and foremost the product of a mental attitude, and decisions about the function of a span of language are bound to be subjective.
The reasons appeared by the theory of Salager-Meyer 1994:150 above explained how important the translation of hedges into the ST. Daily
life conversation is not far from the use of hedges as well as in writer‘s culture or in the
reader‘s culture. The writer seems to appear the hedges in his work to conform to an established writing style. The established style of writing whic h
is used by the writer arise as the consequence of the combination of the needs and stimuli mention in minimizing the thread to face, being a way of being
more precise in reporting result and conveying positive or negative politeness to the readers.
Hedges allow language users to say or write something and comment on what they are saying or writing. As social beings, we need to modulate our
speech act in order to guarantee a certain level of acceptability and possibility of coexistence. Hedges meet the condition; they help someone moderate
hisher thought. Some writers use hedges as their writing style in literary work. To defend the writers‘ writing style in translation work, a translator
should translate the hedges in the ST back to hedges in the TT.
2.8 Translation of Hedges
