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20
child
politician
employee
adolescent
nurse
Esquire (Esq.)
Mrs.
actress
princess
director
lass
lad
soldier
waiter
chairman
astronaut
Ms.
spinster
master
stewardess
conductor
caliph
mistress
nun
ballerina
maiden
Mr.
bachelor
UNIT B: LANGUAGE OF RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS IN SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES (“Hedging”)
8.10 Hedging Words — the Language of Results and Conclusions
8.10.1 Results and Conclusions:
The following statements have been taken from a psychology article reporting on an experiment set up to
study the reactions of witnesses to an accident. Which of the statements reports a Result (R) of the experiment
and which represents a Conclusion (C)? Is there a difference in the language of the reporting?
_ 1. It is not our impression that the non-responders had decided not to act. Rather, they were still in a state
of non-decision.
_ 2. Subjects who had met the victim were faster to report his distress than other persons from sixperson
groups.
_ 3. The groups ranked the same on speed as they did on response rate.
_ 4. Apparently the ability to visualize a specific distressed individual increases the likelihood of helping
him.
_ 5. The situation created an avoidance-avoidance type conflict. On the one hand, subjects wanted to avoid
guilt and shame for not helping; on the other hand, they wanted to avoid making fools of themselves by over-
reacting.
_ 6. The behavior of other bystanders and the relationship among them seem to be important.
_ 7. A stranger who has been programmed not to react is the most inhibiting, a neutral stranger next; and a
friend the least.
_ 8. Of those who heard the accident while alone in the waiting room, 70 percent offered to help the victim
before she left the room.
8.10.2 Language of «Hedging»