Reporting verbs and Hedging Language
Reporting verbs
Neutral
e.g. address, assume, categorise, comment, compare, contrast, declare, define, demonstrate, describe, discuss, document, examine, explain, explore, express, find, focus on, found, go on to say that, identify, indicate, inform, interpret, investigate, list, mention, note, observe, outline, point out, present, reflect, regard, remark, report, reveal, show, state, study, take into consideration, use, view
Tentative
e.g. admit, advise, caution, consider, hypothesise, imply, intimate, moot, posit the view that, postulate, propose, question, reason, recommend, speculate, suggest
Strong (in favour)
e.g. accentuate, acknowledge, advocate, affirm, appraise, argue, assert, believe, claim, concede, conclude, condone, confirm, contend, convince, declare, determine, emphasise, encourage, endorse, establish, highlight, infer, insist, presume, maintain, recognise, satisfy, stress, substantiate, support the view that, theorise, urge,
Strong (against)
e.g. challenge, contradict, caution, deny, disagree, disregard, dismiss, dispute, doubt, counter the view/argument that, deny, ignore, misinterpret, negate, object, oppose, refute, reject
Hedging Language
Introductory phrases
e.g. seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think, believe, doubt, be sure, indicate, suggest
Modal verbs
e.g. may, might, could, would, should, ought to
Modal adverbs
e.g. certainly, definitely, clearly, probably, possibly, perhaps, conceivably
Category:English modal adverbs
Modal adjectives
e.g. certain, definite, clear, probable, possible
Modal nouns
e.g. assumption, possibility, probability
Quantifiers
e.g. some, many, most, a number of, a fraction of, a minority/majority of, a proportion of
Approximators
e.g.
mainly, largely, quite, fairly, rather, relatively, slightly
somewhat, somehow, to some extent, to a large extent, at least
approximately, roughly, about, more or less
often, sometimes, generally, in general, usually, typically, normally, occasionally, rarely
in the context of …, in certain situations…, in some cases, in/under any circumstances, within some households…, on the whole
Evidence
e.g. based on, according to, there is some evidence that,
Tendency
e.g. tend to, have/has a tendency to/for, be prone to, be likely to
It-is clauses
e.g.
It may be possible to obtain…
It is important to develop…
It is useful to study…
It would seem logical that
It is arguable
It seems equally likely that
It is widely recognized that;
It is not known whether
It is believed that
It is said that
It has been shown that
It might be suggested that…;
It could be the case that…;
There-be clauses
e.g.
There is little doubt that,
There is some doubt that,
There is no doubt that,
There is some evidence
There is every hope that…
If-clause
e.g. if true, if anything
Compound hedges
e.g. seems reasonable, looks probable