Synonym(s):

• downgrader
• mitigator

Related Term(s):

• hedging
• politeness

Source(s):

QUIRK etal. 1985597-598
TRASK 1993128
CRYSTAL 2003216
WALES 198940-41
IELVol. I, 423
BROWN & LEVINSON145ff.
LEECH 1983140 (hedged performative)
MATTHEWS 1997160
ELL4261

• QUIRK, Randolph, GREENBAUM, Sidney, LEECH, Geoffrey, & SVARTNIK, Jan. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
• TRASK, R. L. (1993) A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics. New York: Routledge.
• CRYSTAL, David. (2003) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 5th Ed Oxford: Blackwell.
• WALES, Katie. (1989) A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman. 
• International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. (1992) New York: Oxford University Press.
• BROWN, Penelope & LEVINSON, Stephen C. (1987) Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
• LEECH, Geoffrey N. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics. Longman: London.
• MATTHEWS, P.H. (1997) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• The Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. (1994) Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Domain:

Pragmatics