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HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN GOOD

INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS?
 University Mohammed the first
Communication, culture and translation MA
Intercultural Pragmatics Course

MITIGATION
Presented by: Ikram Debbouza
 PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Definition of Mitigation

Related concepts to Mitigation

The classifications of Mitigation Devices

Examples of Some Mitigation Devices

 DEFINITION OF MITIGATION
• Farser: “it only means the reduction of the unwelcome effects that a speech act
may have on an addressee.”(255)
• Caffi: “it covers all strategies by which a speaker tries to avoid the risks arising
from verbal interaction.” (255)
• “Mitigation is a cover term for a set of strategies, rooted in a metapragmatic
awareness, by which people try to make their saying-doing more effective.”
(Caffi, 1999)
• Mitigation is defined as the modification of a speech act, in other words, it
is the reduction of certain unwelcome effects which a speech act has on the
hearer.
 RELATED CONCEPTS
• Lakoff’s concept of ‘hedge’ comprised the attenuation and the reinforcement of the
degree of category membership. It refers to markers of intentional vagueness
applied to single expressions.

• Mood and modality concern the indication of the utterance type and the attitude
towards the utterance. Mood is an illocutionary force indicating device. It mitigates
the commitment to a speech act. Since modality operates on propositions,
mitigators, like the English parenthetical I suppose, would be instances of modality.

• Vagueness is a necessary communicative strategy. Many natural language

expressions are vague, that is there are unspecified with regard to their meaning.
Using a vague expression has a side effect of reducing the speaker’s commitment to
the truth of the utterance.
 RELATED CONCEPTS

• The German term Abtö nung ‘downtoning’ traditionally refer to the semantic
and pragmatic effects of German modal particles. Unlike Abschwä chung
‘mitigation’, downtoning modifies the basic features of a speech act.

• Discourse markers are identified as mitigators by labeling them as

downgraders, reluctant markers, hesitation prefaces or discourse lubricants.
 MITIGATION DEVICES
• “Mitigation expressions are fine tuning devices that achieve a compromise between what
the speaker wants to say and what the interlocutor is willing to accept.” (255)

• Fraser: “A hedged performative contains a modal or a semi-modal. [It] counts as the

performance of the illocutionary act denoted by the performative verb.” (259)
Eg: I must advice; I should apologize; I can promise

• Brown and Levinson: “ hedges should be considered markers indicating that the speaker
is not fully adhering to one of Grice’s maxims”.
Eg: the maxim of quantity As you probably know; so to cut a long story short…
the maxim of quality As far a I know; I may be mistaken…
the maxim of relevance Oh, by the way; anyway; I don’t know if this is important…
the maxim of manner This may be a bit confusing; I’m not sure if this makes sense…
 Classification of Mitigation
devices (Prince, Frader, and
Bosk)

Fuzziness within the Fuzziness in the

propositional content relationship between the
proper : approximators propositional content and
the speaker: shields

Adaptors Rounders
Eg: He also has Eg: his weight was Plausibility shields Attribution shields
a somewhat approximately Eg: I think we can Eg: He was not very
low interior 3.2kg just slow him down ill, according to her
larynx to a little over estimates.
maintenance.
 Caffi’s Mitigation devices’ classification

Brushes Hedges Shields

Partially comparable
Correspond to Cover both speaker to attribution shields.
approximators. commitment and
Operate on the indication of
prepositional content illocutionary force.
by making referring Subsume plausibility Non-deictic
terms or predicates shields and hedged
Deictic shields shields
less precise. performatives.
shift on of the deictic
reference points of
the utterance (ego, Quotational shields Topical shields
hic, nunc) The speaker The speaker
[actantial and introduces a meta- backgrounds an
narrativization level with embarrassing,
shield] expressions. painful or delicate
topic.
 EXAMPLES OF MITIGATION DEVICES
Mitigation devices Examples
Past tense I thought you missed on something.
Interrogatives Should we change a little for its clearness?
modal May, could, would
hedges Sort of, kind of
Understaters Quite, a (little) bit
Downtoners Maybe, possible, probably
Subjectivisers I think, I feel, in my opinion
Consultative Do you think? So you agree?
Cajolers I mean, you see, you know
Appealers Okay? Right? Yeah?
CONCLUSION
“Mitigation is a phenomenon virtually omnipresent in verbal
interaction that permeates several, if not all, levels of linguistic
analysis.” (263)
An effective management of interpersonal relations is hardly
imaginative without the continuous aid of some expressions and
linguistic devices, AKA: Mitigation devices
References
Caffi, Claudia. “On Mitigation”. Journal of pragmatics 31 (7), 881-909, 1999
Scheinder, Stefan. “Mitigation”. In Miriam A Locher and Sage L Graham (Eds)
Interpersonal Pragmatics. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 2010
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