Questão 66781

An EAP (PORTUGUÊS-INGLÊS for Academic Purposes) teacher is working with advanced PhD students on their writing. A key area of difficulty is the appropriate use of pragmatic-discursive features for expressing stance, particularly the use of 'hedges' (e.g., may, suggest, possibly, to some extent) and 'boosters' (e.g., clearly, undoubtedly, of course). The students tend to write in a very direct, unhedged style, presenting all their claims as absolute truths, which can come across as naive or arrogant in academic discourse. The teacher wants to develop a lesson that helps students understand the rhetorical function of these features. She bases her lesson on research in academic discourse analysis, which states: 'Stance is not about dishonesty; it's about positioning oneself responsibly within a scholarly conversation. Hedges are used to express appropriate caution, acknowledge limitations, and open space for dialogue. Boosters are used to express confidence in a claim and to build a sense of shared ground with the reader. The skillful deployment of both is a hallmark of mature academic writing.' She provides the students with a short excerpt from a published research article.

The excerpt reads: 'This evidence suggests that our initial hypothesis may be only partially correct. It is possible that another variable is at play. Of course, further research is undoubtedly needed to confirm this.' Analyze the function of the bolded features:

I. The phrases 'suggests,' 'may be,' and 'It is possible' are hedges, used by the author to present their conclusions with a degree of academic caution and modesty.
II. The phrases 'Of course' and 'undoubtedly' are boosters, used to present the need for further research as a self-evident and non-controversial point, thereby aligning the author with the reader and the wider research community.
III. The combination of hedges for the new claims and boosters for the established community practices (like the need for more research) demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of academic rhetoric.

Which of the statements provides a correct pragmatic-discursive analysis of the excerpt?