Hedging with Modals and Modifiers
Nestled among the marked (or “dispreferred”) behaviors of discourse we find a lovely little linguistic feature known as “hedging.” Hedging is the default refuge of… Read More »Hedging with Modals and Modifiers
July 2016
Like a Dog in a Doomsday Flick
Once upon a time, a fictional dog didn’t stand a snowball’s chance of surviving to the end of the story. Old Yeller, Bristle Face, and Where the Red… Read More »Like a Dog in a Doomsday Flick
The Principle of Expendable Virtue
Virtue, unfortunately, is too often disposable in a doomsday plot. We’ve all seen it: two people of casual acquaintance thrown into a story line that… Read More »The Principle of Expendable Virtue