Hedging by Raisa on Eric Nam’s Podcast ‘Daebak

This research aims to investigate the hedging devices used by Raisa that occurred on Eric Nam’s Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. It also aims to find out the type of hedging, the meaning of the hedging, and the purpose of using the hedging device by Raisa as a guest star on Eric Nam’s Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. It is qualitative descriptive research. The object is data from Raisa’s utterances on Eric Nam’s podcast containing lexical hedging in words, phrases, or clauses. In the ana lysis, the theory used is the theory of taxonomy hedging by Salager-Meyer. The result of this research shows three results. The first result is the type of hedging used by Raisa that consists of five types: 1) modal verbs; 2) adjectival, adverbial, nominal modal verbs; 3) approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time; 4) introductory phrases; and 5) “if” clause. The next result is the purpose of hedging by Raisa, who tends to show politeness, make the sentence vaguer and less certain, tone down the force of the statement, and avoid the threatening statement by her addressee. The last result of this research shows how hedging by Raisa means saving her image and her addressee’s image.


INTRODUCTION
Hedges are often used in communication activities. When delivering statements, the speaker or writer wants to save their image. It can occur when they feel unsure of what they are saying. Hedges are used with the aim of avoiding absolute statements without detaching the image of oneself or the interlocutor. It can be said that with the use of hedging, the speaker can be protected from a false speech by showing a lack of commitment to the truth when conveying their message. When a person uses hedging, the information that is stated becomes less factual because the hedging element can make something statement becomes vaguer.
Hedging or lexical hedges are strategies used by individuals when communicating. In communicating, a speaker tends to use hedging to reduce the power of their statement to be well received by the addressee. In addition, hedging is found in various communication media that develop in the community and carry their interpersonal message through hedging. Moreover, hedging is also variously used by social elements within multiple ages, genders, sex, or social classes.
The term hedging was first introduced by a linguist named George Lakoff in 1973 in his article "Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts." Lakoff (1972), as cited in Rosanti and Jaelani (2016), defines hedges as words with implicit meanings related to vague words to make speech vague and less clear. In other words, hedges, hedging, or lexical hedges are linguistic forms that refer to words or phrases that can make an utterance or sentence vaguer and unclear. 4.
Approximators of Degree, Quantity, and Time. Approximators are an expression used to denote the blurring and vagueness of a statement based on an estimate of quantity, quality, or time. So that approximators can be used to indicate the quality of the low certainty value of a statement. This category is the latter category that differs from previous expert-proposed hedging categories, such as the adverb of frequency hedging category. In this type, the expert makes an in-depth understanding and classification related to hedging the degree, quantity, and time approximators. An example of approximation word is approximately, roughly, about, often, occasionally, generally, usually, somewhat, somehow, and a lot of.
5. Introductory Phrases This category usually deals with the individual's values to show doubt or direct involvement, which is more personal and personal doubt. Usually, this category that belongs to the introductory phrases is used as hedging seems to be placed at the beginning of a statement or sentence aimed at convincing the addressee. In the previous expert-proposed taxonomy, some words within this category fall into the category of fillers by Namsaraev (1997, in Rosanti andJaelani, 2016). A number of the words and phrases included in the introductory phrases are to our knowledge, it is our view that I believe, and we feel that. As can be seen in the example "I believe that he should go, if possible (Fraser, 2011)".
The example sentence above is a form of using hedging of the introductory type of phrases. The phrase "I believe" set at the beginning of the sentence serves as hedging because it is a phrase related to personal doubts expressed by the speaker or writer. The sentence indicates a doubt that involves direct involvement with the interlocutor so that the sentence can convince the addressee to have the same presupposition as the speaker.
6. "If" clauses In this category, included as hedging devices are those phrases that begin with the connecting word "if" and aim to show indirect doubts about his statements. An example is as in: If true, if anything. This category is the same category proposed by the previous expert, where some presupposition clauses or "if" clauses fall into the hedging device.
7. Compound hedges In this category, compound hedges are hedging phrases formed from a combination of two or more types of hedging that result in a long compound hedge. Salager-Meyer (1997) in Zakia (2018) divide the two types of compound hedges commonly found as follows: a. Modal auxiliary combined with the lexical verb. Examples of phrases formed on the combination of hedging of auxiliary capitals with lexical verbs such as it would appear b. Lexical verb followed by hedging adverb or adjective. Compound hedges, it is not only a combination of modal auxiliary with lexical verbs but also occur when lexical verbs merge with a hedge in the form of adjectives and complimentary words. In this category, it is subdivided into double hedges consisting of two hedges such as, this probably indicates, it may suggest that it seems likely that, it would indicate that. Then, treble hedges consist of three kinds of hedges, e.g., it seems reasonable to assume that. There are also quadruple hedges such as it would seem somewhat unlikely that, and it may appear somewhat speculative that.
However, of several hedging classifications proposed by linguists, Salager-Meyer's hedging classification is the most frequently used classification in research. In addition, Quaglio (Quaglio, 2009)) classifies hedging as the most explicit marker for vagueness in conversations into conversational hedges. Examples of words or phrases included are such as kind of, sort of, like, kinda, to be supposed to, by (some/any) chance, hopefully, if you know what I mean, as far as I know, from what I know, almost, at all, basically, at least, enough, hardly, just, little, only, quite, actually, anyway, less, more, and something. The writers choose the topic of Hedging because many hidden messages have specific meanings conveyed through the talk. It also occurs in podcast media, in which podcasts are one of the media that is very widely discussed by the younger generation these days and allegedly can replace radio as the communication media. In accordance with the choice of topic and the reasons stated by the writers for choosing this topic, they also formulate problems in the form of questions to assist them. First, the writers want to explain and explore the theory further in her research to terminate questions such as, "What kinds of hedging are used by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show?" and also "What meanings of the hedging are used by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show concerning the message's context?". Furthermore, in their research, the writers also want to evaluate the object of their research and develop several research questions such as "How does Raisa apply the hedging on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show concerning the situation?" and "What are the purposes of using hedges by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show?".
Thenceforth, this research focuses on 1) the types of hedging devices used by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast 'Daebak Show'; 2) the meaning of hedging used by Raisa in Eric Nam's Podcast, and 3) the purpose of Raisa using hedging devices on Eric Nam's Podcast concerning the situation.

METHOD
This research is included in the type of qualitative research. The writers use descriptive qualitative research. Qualitative research is a study where the presentation of data is not in the form of numbers, and the writer only provides an explanation without showing the process of processing numbers (Nuryanti and Allo K, 2022). Qualitative research is a kind of research in which all data found is presented in the form of elaboration of words that are formed into a sentence without involving data in the form of numbers or numeric.
In the design of qualitative studies, writers develop logical strategies and are asked to build and reconstruct their research designs. Some of the research designs that fall into the qualitative method are detailed by Creswell (2018) into five designs. Furthermore, this research is compiled by the writers related to individual problems in using language devices which are also included in the phenomenon of personal behavior. Thus, this research is written using a case study design because it observed the process of using language devices, such as hedging devices by individuals. Then, the writers are able to find meaning from the results of the study. In addition, this research uses a case study design because the writers conduct research that focused on individual cases. Furthermore, this research uses the taxonomy of hedging by Salager-Meyer (1997) in Zakia (2018). The taxonomy of Hedging is used to analyze all utterances uttered only by Raisa and will not take the utterances uttered by the host of the Podcast. Therefore, this study tries to identify, classify, interpret, and describe Raisa's use of language devices in podcast interviews. Thus, the qualitative descriptive method is used for this research.
The data collected by the writers is used for discussion or analysis to answer the formulation of the problem that has been formulated. In qualitative and quantitative research, data shows a fact from raw materials that still have to be processed to produce information. Data is the primary information or material that can be used as the basis for studies or research (Sugiyono, 2013). Thus, in the research conducted by the writers, they use a qualitative research method where they will reveal a meaning contained in the research data, which then describes in a research report written in detail in the form of words that form paragraphs. As Nuryanti (2019:47) said, the data will be explained in words, phrases, or sentences. The data that is used by the writers are included in the correct data to be studied using qualitative research methods, in which they will describe the results of the data in a text report.
the writers use audio-visual data as a data source. They use audio-visual data because the data used is taken from one of the videos shown in the YouTube application entitled "Raisa Takes Eric Nam Behind-the-Scenes of Her Life and Collab with Sam Kim | Daebak Show Ep. #138" with the link https://youtu.be/20tYOwMbgzM. The data is an audio-visual material because it presents images, videos, and sounds in one play which then later the writers take data in the form of sentences and utterances in the video. In the podcast, Eric Nam, a host, talked with Raisa, a female singer from Indonesia, about her career and life.
In addition to taking audio-visual material as a data source, the writers use a written document to transcribe the podcast video show. The duration of the video is about 57 minutes and 58 seconds. It often causes the writers to mishear when taking data. Thus, the transcription text can help them to find and collect accurate data. They are looking for the type and classification of the hedging device used by Raisa when conducting an interview with Eric Nam. In this research, the writers take Raisa's speech, which is included in the hedging device, then determines the type and purpose of the hedging device and analyze the data found.
The procedure for collecting data in this research consists of several steps. In the first step, the writers are looking for a DIVE Studios podcast entitled "Raisa Takes Eric Nam Behind the Scenes of Her Life and Collaborates with Sam Kim | Daebak Show Ep. #138" on YouTube for analysis. After they find and decide on the video, they download the video podcast from YouTube to reduce the use of too much data repetition. In the next step, they listen to the podcast video and pay attention to the conversation that takes place, especially the utterances uttered by Raisa, to find out the type of hedging device used.
When listening to the podcast, the writers also write down the words uttered by Raisa in one listen without repetition to keep the data valid. After writing down all of Raisa's utterances that have been found, the writers replay the podcast video once to match what has been written with what has been uttered by Raisa. Then, the writers put some codes on the utterances which belong to the hedging device based on the type of hedging used by Raisa based on the theory by Salager-Meyer. Finally, the writers collect the selected data from the video podcast "Raisa Takes Eric Nam Behind-theScenes of Her Life and Collab with Sam Kim | Daebak Show Ep. #138" into one data card.
In the process of analyzing data in the research, a particular technique is needed to make data analysis more structured so that it can explain the problem. In this study, the writers used data analysis techniques by Miles and Huberman (in Sugiyono, 2013). The proposed data analysis technique consists of three steps, they are: 1) Data Reduction is the procedure of summarizing, selecting, and focusing on important data (Sugiyono, 2103). In other words, this step is used to sort out the data that has been collected based on the important focus of the research. Researchers do this to facilitate data collection in qualitative studies. In this study, the writers have classified the data into several categories of evasive devices to obtain relevant data. The writers found 249 utterances by Raisa. However, of the 249 data, only 95 utterances contained the hedging devices. Then from the 95 data, the writers will summarize the existing data again to avoid the results of the same data overlapping. So that later in the process of writing a discovery report, they will only take the most relevant data. 2) Data Display is a technique after the data is reduced by the researcher. Miles and Huberman (1984) in Sugiyono (2013) stated that narrative texts are most often used in qualitative research to present data. In other words, in qualitative research, researchers can present text-shaped data with easy-to-understand sentence patterns. In this research, displaying data is the second step in the data analysis method after reducing the data. The writers take this step to make it easier for the writer to understand and write a report containing information related to the data that has been collected. 3) Drawing Conclusion or Verification. Based on Miles and Huberman's theory, the final step in data analysis is drawing conclusions or verification. Drawing conclusions or verification is a process that explains the results of the data that has been collected in the form of a short description. Qualitative research concludes that it is a discovery that has never existed before (Sugiyono, 2013). In other words, when the writers draw a conclusion, the conclusion is the result of a discovery that has never been made based on the results of his research. To conclude the results of the data analyzed in this study, the writers summarize them into several categories according to the data needed, then draw a line of relationships among the existing data categories. Then, the writers will present the conclusion in a brief description.
In analyzing the data, the writers were assisted by several theories in their research. The writer uses the theory of hedging by Salager-Meyer (2010) to analyze the formulation of the first problem, which is related to the type of hedging used by Raisa in Eric Nam's podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. Then, they use the theory by Fraser (2010) to analyze the purpose of using hedging by Raisa in Eric Nam's podcast Daebak Show Ep. 138.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The data analyzed are Raisa's utterances which containing of words or phrases in the hedging device in Eric Nam's podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. The writers only take the utterances expressed by Raisa as a guest star. They have found 44 data in the form of speech containing a hedging device by Raisa. In order to avoid repeated analysis, the writers only put ten data in the analysis.
In conducting the analysis, the writers will be guided by several theories related to hedging devices. First, they will identify the types of hedging devices used by Raisa using the theory by Salager-Meyer. Then, they will analyze the purpose of using hedging by Raisa based on the hedging function proposed by the same expert, Salager-Meyer. Finally, the writer will analyze the meaning of the hedging device used by Raisa by looking at the context of the conversation that occurred. The data that will be analyzed are in bold.

The Types of Hedging Used by Raisa in Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138
In this section, the writers will not only focus on the type of hedging used in data but they also will analyze data that related to the purpose and meaning of the use of hedging. So that in preparing the results of the report based on these data, the writers are assisted by supporting data that will be used. Further analysis will be described in the data below.

Data 1
The utterances is taken from Raisa's utterance at the beginning of the interview. Raisa utters "Hi everybody um I'm Raisa I'm very-very happy to be here slightly nervous but that's okay. I think Eric will make me feel at home. And yeah, just -just ready to chat". From this data, the writers assume that Raisa's utterance consists of several hedging devices. In response to Eric Nam's utterance, the hedging device is used by Raisa in her response. The hedging device that are used by Raisa in her utterances are: 'slightly', 'I think', 'will', and 'just'.
First, the writers think that the kind of hedging in the form of the word such as "slightly" in the sentence "…slightly nervous but that's okay" which is uttered by Raisa in response to Eric Nam, who asks her to introduce herself. Raisa uses a lexical expression in this data, and she uses the word "slightly," which is acknowledged to be included in the hedging device. The word "slightly" is an adverb that belongs to the hedging type for approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time. The word "slightly" has almost the same meaning as the phrase "kind of" which also falls into the approximators hedging type. It can be seen that Raisa wants to show doubt in her speech related to her feelings. Thus, the word "slightly" is used in sentences as the hedging of approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time.
After analyzing the data "…slightly nervous but that's okay", the writers could say that hedging in Raisa's utterance is included in the kind of approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time marked by the use of the word "slightly." In addition, the word "slightly" in the utterance shows the sentence is vaguer and less clear by the presence of the hedging such as "slightly." From this data, Raisa also utters, "I think Eric will make me feel at home". In the utterance, Raisa uses the phrase "I think," which is known to belong to the type of hedging device in the form of phrases. The phrase "I think" is usually used when someone expresses their opinion. Thus, the phrase can fall into lexical hedges for introductory phrases. The phrase falls into the type of hedges of introductory phrases because it is used concerning the personal doubt, that is usually placed at the beginning of the speech. In addition, the phrase "I think" also has nearly the same meaning as "in my view…" which is also included in the hedging of introductory phrases.
In those utterances, along with the phrase "I think," Raisa also uses the word "will" which is assumed by the writers to be included in the hedging device. The word "will" in the utterance is distributed as auxiliary verbs. Henceforth, some auxiliary verbs that indicate probability are included in modal verbs' hedging device, one of which is in the word "will." The word "will" is used by Raisa as an adherent of the modal verbs hedging device because it shows the possibility of being related to her opinion of Eric Nam.
From the utterance "I think Eric will make me feel at home" uttered by Raisa, the writer has found that there are two types of hedging in one utterance. However, the two types of hedging are not included in the compound hedges type because the two hedgings are separated by an object (Erick) that is placed between the two hedgings. In the utterance, it is found that two types of hedging are used in one utterance, such as the phrase "I think," which belongs to the type of hedging introductory phrases, as well as the word "will," which is a hedging type of auxiliary verbs. The two hedging makes the words uttered by Raisa sound full of doubts.
The kind of hedging is also included in this data as in Raisa's last utterance, such as, "And yeah, just-just ready to chat." In the utterance, Raisa uses repetition in the word "just," which is included as an adverb to describe something that will be done at the time. Therefore, the writer assumes that the word "just" in this utterance is a type of hedging device. The writer assumes that the word belongs to the type of adverbial modal phrase of the hedging device. The word "just" has no meaning that indicates the possibility of the situation, but in the sentence, the word "just" makes the speech vaguer and less clear. Thenceforth, the word "just" in this data belongs to the types of adjectival, adverbial, and nominal phrase hedging devices for lowering the certainty of the utterances uttered by Raisa.

Data 2
The utterance in data 2 have been taken from 00:02:59 until 00:03:01. This utterance is uttered by Raisa when she is talking and doing an interview with Eric Nam. The conversation between Raisa and Eric Nam in this data begins when Eric Nam asks about Raisa's location during an interview with him. Then, Raisa answers that at the time of the interview, she is in Jakarta, and as a guest star, she asks Eric Nam about his position. However, in the conversation, Raisa thinks that Eric Nam is in Dubai "I see. I thought you were in Dubai".
The writers assume that Raisa's utterance consists of a hedging device. In response to Eric Nam's utterance, a hedging device is used by Raisa in delivering her utterance. The writers think that there is one utterance uttered by Raisa that contains a hedging device. The word is assumed to fall into the type of hedging based on the theory of hedging proposed by the expert.
In this data, the writers assume that in the speech, "I see. I thought you were in Dubai" in response to Eric Nam's conversation, Raisa's utterance contains an element of the hedging device. In the utterance "I thought," it appears that the phrase is commonly used by someone to give an opinion or belief. The use of an opinion in an utterance usually relates to personal opinions, thoughts, and doubts, which are addressed to others. As in the phrase "I thought," which is also usually used in the phrase "In my opinion ...". Words or phrases relate to personal doubt can be categorized as hedging types of introductory phrases. Introductory phrases are hedging that directly involves the interlocutor and is related to personal doubts.
Furthermore, after analyzing the data above, the phrase "I thought," which is used by Raisa in her utterances, can be categorized as a type of hedging. Although what is being taught in the utterance is the phrase "I thought" instead of "I think," however both phrases have the same meaning when it is used in speech. Thus, the phrase can be categorized as an introductory phrases type in the hedging device. In its use, Raisa uses the phrase at the beginning of the sentence and makes the sentence seem full of doubts. It can be inferred in these data that the phrase "I thought" used by Raisa belongs to the type of hedging device of introductory phrases to express her thoughts where she prejudged that Eric Nam is in Dubai instead of in Los Angeles.

Data 3
The utterances for data 3 have been taken from 00:04:21 until 00:05:10. The utterance is uttered by Raisa when Eric Nam asks her to tell him about her family. She replies to Eric Nam's question and talks about her family in a long utterance "um I started singing when I was three years old according to my parents. And yeah, but I was really quite introverted when I was a child. So, I wasn't, you know? I didn't want to be a star since I was a-a kid, you know? So, I started I think pretty late. I was um probably 17, 18 when I, you know, really got into that musical band type situation".
Based on the data, the writers assume that Raisa's utterance consists of several hedging devices. In response to Eric Nam's question, the hedging device is used by Raisa in speaking her speech. The hedging device used by Raisa consists of the form of words and phrases such as: 'according to my parents', 'quite', and 'probably'. Those words fall into several types of the taxonomy of hedging proposed in theory by the expert.
The first assumption for the type of hedging that appears in the utterance "um I started singing when I was three years old according to my parents," is uttered by Raisa. Here, she responds to Eric Nam's question, who is asking her to talk about her family. The use of hedging by Raisa is discovered when she speaks about the first time she started singing. In her explanations, she uses the phrase "according to my parents" at the end of the utterance, which the writers assume the phrase belongs to the hedging device. The phrase "according to my parents," the one used by Raisa in the utterance, is a phrase that can serve as a hedging device of what is uttered to indicate doubt or possibility.
From the analysis of the utterance, the writers may decide that the phrase "according to my parents" can be categorized into hedging types into introductory phrases. Although the phrase is not at the beginning of the utterance, it shows the speaker's doubt in stating her statement and making it less clear. The phrase also concerns the personal doubts shown by Raisa as a speaker. The utterance becomes less clear because Raisa assumes that at the time, she first started singing by the time when she was three years old, according to her parents. Thus, the truth of the statement is full of uncertainty about Raisa's age when she first started singing. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the phrase belongs to the hedging type introductory phrases category.
The next hedging device used by Raisa is still found in the same data when Raisa uttered, "And yeah, but I was really quite introverted when I was a child". In the utterance, the writers suspect that she found the hedging device used by Raisa in stating her statement. According to the writers, Raisa uses the word "quite," which is assumed to fall into the category of hedging types. The word "quite" in the utterance is an adverb that describes a certain degree of the adjective "introverted". So that we think that the word "quite" may fall into the type of hedging device.
Then, the word "quite" inferred by the writers may fall into the type of hedging in approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time. The word "quite" is an adverb in the utterance that indicates the degree level for the adjective "introverted". The word "quite" makes the utterance unclear about how many levels Raisa has regarding her introverted behavior. Afterward, the word "quite" in the utterance belongs to the type of hedging in approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time.
Furthermore, the next hedging type assumed by the writers also found in the same data, such as in the utterance "I was um probably 17, 18 when I, you know, really got into that musical band type situation" is uttered by Raisa. The word "probably" is an adverb usually used when one expresses the possibility of something. Thus, the word can fall into lexical hedges for adverbial modal phrases. The word "probably" falls into the type of hedges of adverbial modal phrase because it is used to express the possibility of something happening or being true. In addition, the adverb "probably" also has nearly the same meaning as "maybe," which is also used to express probability.
From the analysis of the utterances above, it can be concluded that the word "probably" contains in the utterances "I was um probably 17, 18 when I, you know, really got into that musical band type situation" into the type of hedging device. The word "probably" includes hedging in adjectival, adverbial, and nominal modal phrases. The word is included in the hedging because the hedging that is used by Raisa makes the statement vaguer. The hedging makes the statement related to the age uttered by Raisa less clear because she is not sure of the truth of her statement.
In this data, as a whole, it can be concluded that the writers have found several types of hedging devices used by Raisa. The types included in the hedging device used by Raisa consist of phrases and words categorized into hedging types. The types of hedging found in the research data above include introductory phrases, approximators of degree, and adjectival modal phrases. The hedging is used in the speech to make statements unclear and uncertain.

Data 4
The utterances in data 4 are taken from 00:08:45 until 00:08:53. The utterance for this data is uttered by Raisa when she is talking to Eric Nam about her first album. The conversation between Raisa and Eric Nam in this data begins when Eric Nam asks about Raisa's career when she released the album. Eric Nam gets shocked when he knew if Raisa took two years to composed an album. Then, Raisa replies about her career's journey by uttering "I would say my career is a very a slow and steady. Uhm uphill".
From the data, the writers assume that Raisa's utterance consists of a hedging device. In response to Eric Nam's questions, a hedging device is used by Raisa in speaking her speech. The writers have the assumption that in the dialogue, there is one utterance uttered by Raisa containing a hedging device. The word "would" in the utterance is assumed to fall into the type of hedging based on the theory proposed by the expert.
In this data, the writers suspect that in the speech, "I would say my career is a very a slow and steady. Uhm uphill" contained an element of the hedging device. In the utterance, the word "would" appears as a word included in the modal auxiliary verbs. The modal auxiliary verb "would" is used to emphasize the speech acts in this utterance. Frequently, in modal verbs, the type of hedging is used to indicate the degree of certainty in an utterance. Thus, it acknowledges that some words in the modal auxiliary verbs that indicate the degree of doubt or possibility can be included in the hedging devices. Moreover, the word "would" can be included in the hedging device to convey low confidence and commitment levels.
Furthermore, the word "would" is included in the hedging devices for modal verbs type proposed by Salager-Meyer (2010). The auxiliary verb "would" in the sentence above serves to make the statement less clear, whether the speaker is sure of her statement or the speaker is less sure of the truth of her statement. So, the word "would" that is uttered by Raisa causes the statement's truth less clear. If Raisa uses a sentence, "I say my career is a very a slow and steady. Uhm uphill" instead of "I would say my career is a very a slow and steady. Uhm uphill", it causes the first statement gets clearer that her career was very slow but still steady. Thus, it can be concluded that the word "would" is the type of hedging device modal auxiliary verbs resembling the hedging taxonomy theory and serves to make the statement less clear.

Data 5
The data is taken when Raisa and Eric Nam are talking about something. First, Eric Nam asks Raisa about her new song and tells her to describe her song. Then, Raisa answers by telling Eric Nam about the making process of the song between her and Sam Kim. Furthermore, Raisa would like to send a sample of her collaboration song with Sam Kim to Eric Nam. Raisa utters "So, it was amazing. I can-I think we-we can send you a song for a preview. Maybe after this".
Based on the data 5 above, the writers think several types of hedging devices occur in Raisa's utterances. In response to Eric Nam's question, which he asks her about the song, the hedging device is used by Raisa in delivering her speech. The hedging device that Raisa uses consists of words and phrases, such as 'I think', 'can', and 'maybe'. Those words fall into several types of the taxonomy of hedging proposed in theory by the expert.
The writers think that there are elements of the lexical hedging in Raisa's utterance. The phrase "I think" appears as the phrase commonly used by someone to give an opinion or belief. The phrase "I think" is used for an opinion in an utterance that relates to personal opinions, personal thoughts, as well as personal doubts, addressed to others. As in the phrase "I think," it is also usually used as in the phrase "In my view.." The words or phrases relate to personal doubt can be categorized as hedging types of introductory phrases. The phrase "I think" is assumed by the writers could be included in the hedging device because the phrase conveys the doubt over the utterance spoken by the speaker to the addressee.
Furthermore, the phrase "I think" can be categorized as a type of hedging that conveys the speaker's doubt, refers to personal value. The phrase "I think" can be acknowledged that the phrase is included in the introductory phrase to show personal opinions about her speech. Here, Raisa expresses an opinion that she could send an example of her song to Eric Nam, but the truth of Raisa's speech may change in the future due to the occurrence of hedging elements.
In the same utterance, the writers have another assumption that there is other type of hedging used in sentences "So, it was amazing. I can-I think we-we can send you a song for a preview. Maybe after this". The type of hedging is found in the word "can," which serves as a modal verb in the utterance to describe a verb 'send.' We think that the word "can" is included in hedging because it belongs to the type of modal auxiliary verbs. Modal auxiliary or modal verbs are one of the groups of auxiliary words that belong to the type of hedging. Therefore, the word "can" in such speech belongs to the type of hedging of modal verbs that serves to express abilities of a tentative nature. The word "can" is uttered by Raisa to indicate the possibilities in the present. Then, the hedging "can" in the Raisa's utterance shows the high qualify of certainty due to her ability to the interlocutor, Eric Nam.
Furthermore, in the same data, the writers have found the last word "maybe" in the utterance "maybe after this" which is assumed to be recognized as the type of hedging. The word "maybe" is an adverb that serves to indicate possibilities that have the same meaning as the word "perhaps" or "possibly." Thus, the word "maybe" can fall into lexical hedges for adverbial modal phrases. The word 'maybe' falls into the type of hedges of adverbial modal phrase because it is used to express the possibility of something happening or being true. In addition, the adverb "maybe" also has nearly the same meaning as "perhaps," which is also used to express probability. Subsequently, it can be concluded that the word is included in the type of hedging device adjectival, adverbial, and nominal modal phrase. The word is used by the speaker to indicate that she is less sure of her statement. The words or phrases categorized into hedging are elements that serve as the hedging in the utterance to make the speech less clear and less sure.
Corresponding for the example if the utterances "So, it was amazing. I can-I think we-we can send you a song for a preview. Maybe after this" changed by removing the hedging elements into "So, it was amazing. I can-we-we can send you a song for a preview after this". In the first utterance, the words and phrases included in the hedging used by Raisa makes the speech less clear and lack commitment because of the presence of elements such as "I think" and "maybe". Meanwhile, if the speech does not use the hedging element, the certainty of the speech is seen more clearly and more certain.

Data 6
In this data, Raisa utters "You-yeah. You must ask-been asked this question a lot too, and you can't answer. Or can you?" which consists of several hedging devices. Some words that are assumed to include in the hedging device in Raisa's utterance such as the word "must," "a lot," and "can". The first alleged hedging element is the presence of the word "must" in the utterance that functions as modal verbs. The word "must" is a word that belongs to the modal verbs to indicate a high degree of certainty to the interlocutor. In addition, the word 'must' shows a strong prediction so that it has a strong certainty regarding the proposition of its speech. Although it does not indicate the degree of doubt, the word "must" is an expression of certainty taught by Raisa to belong to the type of hedging modal verbs. The word used in Raisa's utterances belongs to hedging because it is used to smooth out statements that function is included in one of the purposes for hedging.
The next hedging device used by Raisa is "a lot," which is assumed to fall into the category of hedging types. The phrase "a lot" in the utterance is an adverb that refers to the degree of frequency or quantity. The phrase "a lot" has the similar meaning as "much" or "many". Moreover, the writers think the phrase "a lot" may fall into the hedging device type, such as the approximators of degree, quantity, and time. In addition, the presence of the phrase makes the statement vaguer. The utterances that are uttered by Raisa becomes less clear due to the facade of the phrase "a lot" intended for a noun word such as "question" in the speech. The hedging approximators of degree, quantity, and time for the phrase "a lot" are an expression used to denote the vagueness of the statement and refer to an estimate of quantity or frequency. The phrase "a lot" as hedging indicates the adverb used to hedge the statements, which relates to the certainty of whether the statements can or cannot be measured by the frequency. Thus, the quantity in the statement does not show an indicator clearly.
Furthermore, the last word "can," in the utterance "or can you?" is assumed to be recognized as the type of hedging. In the utterance, the word "can" is a modal verb that serves as the question Vol. 05 No. 02, December 2022, p 143-161 about the ability. Modal auxiliary or modal verbs are one of the groups of auxiliary words that belong to the type of hedging. Thenceforth, the word "can" in the utterance belongs to the hedging of modal verbs, indicating the possibility of the addressee's ability. Modal verbs used as a question also indicate a degree of politeness in stating a less absolute statement. Raisa uses the hedging "can" to ask about Eric Nam's ability towards the topic they discussed in this data. Then, the occurrence of hedging "can" in the speech uttered by Raisa makes the speech shows the possibility that refers to the addressee's ability. The word is used by the speaker to indicate that she is less certain of her statement towards her addressee.
Hence, after analyzing Raisa's utterance which contains hedging elements in this data, it can be concluded that one speech allows the speaker to use more than one type of hedging. As it is known, in this data, Raisa uses two types of hedging: modal verbs and approximators of degree, quantity, and time.
Data 7 The utterances "If I'm ever… If I'm ever to Korea, taking me to that bar" by Raisa shows the occurrence of several types of hedging device. The hedging device in Raisa's utterance consists of a subordinate clause 'If I'm …'. The clause falls into the taxonomy of hedging, which is proposed in theory by the expert. In this data, the writers presuppose that in the speech, "If I'm ever… If I'm ever to Korea, taking me to that bar" contains an element of the hedging device. In the utterance, the clause "if I'm ever" appears as a conditional clause alleged by the writers, including in the type of hedging. Conditional sentences or "if" clauses express the possibilities preceded by the word "if." Thus, the category of "if" clause as the type of hedging is acknowledged to indicate the speaker's assumption or the possibility of indicating indirect doubts. The "if" clause is considered hedging because it might cause the utterance or the sentence less clear. In addition, the "if" clause hedging could make the truth of the utterances less certain.
After analyzing the utterance, the writers conclude that in Raisa's utterance, "If I'm ever... If I'm ever to Korea, taking me to that bar," the clause "If I'm ever" falls into the "if" clause hedging type. Raisa's hedging "If I'm" indicates that the utterance shows the speaker's possibility and the uncertain situation. Thus, Raisa uses "If I'm ever" to show the tentative probability of her utterance. In other words, Raisa uses "If" to refer to the situation that will come if she goes to Korea, which means that until the utterance is said, she is still unsure whether it will come. Thus, Raisa uses hedging included in the "if" clause in her speech to indicate the possibility.

Data 8
The utterance "Oh… a lot of them are difficult for me, personally. Because, umm.. Huh.. It's kind of difficult to say. Because sometimes, I like the tone of my voice on that range. But, it's not the neces-it's not necessarily the best range that I can sing with uh… live" is uttered by Raisa. These utterances seem included several hedging devices. They are' kind of' and 'sometimes'.
First, the use of the phrase "kind of" in "It's kind of difficult to say". Raisa utters the utterance in order to response to the question by Eric Nam, who asks her about the most difficult her song to sing. In this data, there is a lexical expression by Raisa that uses the phrase "kind of" which is acknowledged to be included in the hedging device. The phrase "kind of" is an adverb that belongs to the hedging type for approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time by type of hedging. It has the same meaning as "slightly," which also falls into the approximators hedging type. It can be seen that Raisa wants to show the vagueness in her speech related to her feelings. Thus, the phrase "kind of" is used in sentences as the hedging of approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time.
In addition, the phrase "kind of difficult to say" in the utterance shows the sentence is vaguer and less clear by the presence of the hedging such as "kind of." The speaker shows a low certainty of the proposition by using the approximate expression. The phrase "kind of" in "It's kind of difficult to say" shows that the utterance is less clear when it refers to the context of the statement when Eric Nam asks Raisa about the difficult song.
Moreover, the next hedging type is found in the utterance "Because sometimes, I like the tone of my voice on that range". The word "sometimes" is an adverb with the same meaning as "occasionally" to approximate the degree of frequency or time. Thus, the word 'sometimes' can fall into lexical hedges for approximators. The word "sometimes" falls into the hedging of approximator's degree, frequency, and time because it is used to express something that happens or is true in a certain time and situation. In addition, the adverb "sometimes" also has nearly the same meaning as "at times," which is also used to express probability and time.
Therefore, it can be concluded that one speech allows the speaker to use more than one type of hedging as it is found in Raisa's utterance. In this data, Raisa uses two elements of the hedging device, which are included in the hedging device of degree, frequency, and time approximators. The use of hedging in Raisa's utterance makes the statement vague and lacks possibility.
Data 9 The utterance suspects to include the hedging device is "I usually take it up half". It is uttered by Raisa. The word "usually" in the utterance "I usually take it up half" is assumed to fall into the type of hedging. In this data, the word "usually" appears as a word included in the adverb. The adverb "usually" is used to emphasize the frequency of time. The writers accuse that the adverb "usually" is used by Raisa in her utterances belongs to the type of hedging approximators of degree, quantity, and time. In the adverb of frequency category, the hedging type indicates the lack of commitment from the speaker or the writer. Thus, it acknowledges that some words in the adverbs that indicate the lack of commitment or a hedging device to convey low levels of commitment.
Furthermore, the word "usually" is included in the hedging devices for approximators of degree, quantity, and time type. The adverbs of frequency "usually" in data nine makes the statement less clear for it shows a time or frequency that cannot be measured and does not have clear boundaries. So, the word "usually" is used by Raisa to make the statement's truth less clear and lacks certainty. If Raisa uses the sentence "I take it up half" instead of "I usually take it up half", making the first statement clearer that she always takes the key up half every time she is singing. However, in this utterance, Raisa does not mention how often she does the things such as modify the key until she can confidently use the word "usually" in her utterance. Thus, it can be concluded that the word "usually" belongs to the type of hedging device of the approximators of degree, quantity, and time which resembles the theory of hedging taxonomy and serves to make the statement less clear and less certain.

Data 10
The utterance for data 10 occurs when Raisa tells how she wants to get a mandate or advice from people around her about her career by saying "Just some singers". The writers assume that Raisa's utterance consists of a hedging device. There is one utterance uttered by Raisa that contains a hedging device. The word "some" in Raisa's utterance "Just some singers" is assumed to fall into the type of hedging based on the theory proposed by the expert.
Based on this data, the writers think that in the speech "Just some singers", the phrase "some" appears as word that is commonly used by someone to express an unspecified amount of something. Usually, the word "some" also has the same meaning as "approximately." The word "some" is related to unspecified numbers of something and makes the statement vaguer because it shows the low degree of approximators.
Furthermore, the word "some," that Raisa uses in her utterances can be categorized as a type of hedging. It is categorized as an approximator of degree, quantity, and time type in the hedging

The Purpose of the Use of Hedging Devices by Raisa in Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138
In this section, the writers will analyze the purpose of using hedging in Raisa's utterances. Hedging in a speech is used to avoid statements to reduce the strength or certainty of a statement. In addition, hedging indicates the doubts, tentativeness, and vagueness indicated by the speaker in her statements. When vagueness arises in a statement, the value of the truth contained in the utterance proposition becomes temporary. Then, hedging is also used to mitigate undesirable effects deriving from the hearer so that the speaker uses hedging with the purpose of politeness.
The different purposes of using hedging are found in this research. The first purpose of using hedging by Raisa is seen from the use of the hedging type of modal verbs. Modal verb hedging is used to indicate politeness; it is used to lower the strength of the tone in order to show politeness in uttering the statement. In addition, the use of modal verbs hedging is also found to show probability as well as showing politeness to the interlocutor.
Moreover, modal verbs used as hedging with the aim of politeness are also contained in the speech "Or can you?" Raisa expresses and contains the modal verb "can." The modal verb "can" in the utterance is used as hedging by Raisa to show politeness towards Eric Nam. In the utterance, Raisa uses modal verbs to politely ask about the abilities possessed by Eric Nam so that he is not threatened by Raisa's statement.
Then, the next purpose of using hedging by Raisa is to lower the tone of a strong statement. This purpose is the most widely used in hedging the statements uttered by the speaker. Usually, the speaker lowers the tone of the statement to minimize the unwanted effects shown by the listener. In other words, this goal is to avoid the negative response that the interlocutor will give when the speaker delivers a statement without using hedging. For example, Raisa uses hedging-type adjectival, adverbial, and nominal modal phrases in the statement, "we can send you a song for a preview maybe after this." In the utterance, Raisa uses the hedging element "maybe" to weaken the tone of the statement as well as to avoid the threat he would get from Eric Nam if he utters the statement, "we can send you a song for a preview after this." If Raisa does not use the hedging "maybe," she would feel responsible for being asked by Eric Nam to send a song preview.
In addition to using hedging in a speech to avoid threats that the speaker will obtain, hedging is also used to avoid personal accountability for a statement uttered. In this case, it is usual for the speaker to use hedging phrases to indicate the vagueness of their statement. However, the speaker also tries to hedge if the statement will get a negative response from the listener. In this study, the purpose of avoiding statements that are hard to get the accountability of the truth is shown in the phrase "according to my parents," which is uttered by Raisa in data 3. The phrase is included in the hedging introductory phrases because it shows the vagueness and uncertainty over Raisa's utterance. Thus, Raisa uses the phrase "according to my parents" to avoid the statement being uttered could get her accountable to her listener, Eric Nam.
The last purpose can be assumed to be the main purpose for the use of hedging, that the aim relates to the purpose for which hedging is used to show vagueness, low certainty, indicate possibilities, as well as doubts in a statement. The purpose of using hedging is usually indicated by words or phrases that might be able to make a statement vaguer. Generally, the use of hedging for those purposes contains in words or phrases that belong to the type of hedging of approximators.
For example, in the utterance that contains the hedging element approximators in data 1, "slightly nervous, but that's okay", where the utterances uttered by Raisa have the word "slightly" as the hedging element. The word "slightly" in the utterance can be used as an assumption of the use of hedging to make the statement less clear. In the speech, it can be seen that the tone of the statement becomes less clear because of the presence of elements that make the statement blurred, whether the speaker feels nervous or just feels a little nervous. The word is also used to make the statement less clear because there is no definite amount or quantity that refers to the nervous statement made by Raisa.

The Meaning of Hedging used by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast Concerning to the Message's Context
Based on the analysis, the writer assumes that research data shows that the purpose of using hedging by Raisa has its meaning for the speaker. In other words, Raisa uses the hedging device with a specific purpose that contains a specific meaning based on the message context when the conversation occurred. For example, the function of using hedging type modal verbs such as the word "can," "would," and "will," which are included in the modal verbs hedging to show politeness.
Based on the context of the utterance, Raisa uses the word "will" in the utterance "I think Eric will make me feel at home. And yeah, just-just ready to chat" to show that she uses a polite sentence. Thus, the meaning of the words uttered by Raisa can save Eric Nam's face. In other words, Raisa wants to make Eric Nam gets comfortable through her non-threatening statements.
Furthermore, the meaning contains in Raisa's utterance that using hedging indicates that Raisa as a speaker wants to show personal doubt through her speech. These doubts and vagueness cause Raisa to use hedging in the form of phrases, such as "I think." From the use of hedging, such as "I think," and "I thought" by Raisa, the writer assumes that Raisa wants to get validation for her doubtful utterances. Although the statement showed unclear certainty, Raisa wants to get validation for her statement against her interlocutor Eric Nam. She wants to show validation because her statement was full of doubts, so she indirectly asked Eric Nam for validation and makes the statement to save her and Eric Nam's image.
Furthermore, the meaning of Raisa's use of hedging can be seen in the phrase, "according to my parents," which is used by Raisa when she explains the age when she first sang. The phrase "according to my parents," which is used by Raisa as hedging, means that Raisa, as the speaker, is unsure of her own statement. Thus, she tends to use evasion to avoid negative responses from her addressee. Based on the context of the statement, Raisa says that she started singing at the age of three, according to her parents.
In the statement, Raisa tries to avoid the threats she would get if she makes her statement without using the hedging elements. It can be known that a person cannot remember something at three years old, so Raisa uses the phrase to avoid threats from her interlocutor. The use of the phrase means that the speaker is less sure to make the statement's value less absolute. Thus, the speaker wants to avoid threats from the interlocutor without making the interlocutor's face threatened because the statement is not entirely based on her knowledge as a speaker.
The meaning of hedging used by Raisa also shows the low self-confidence of the speaker. In general, the use of hedging by the speaker means that the speaker wants to show themselves is doubtful and lacks confidence in what is uttered without wanting to threaten their self-image or the image of the interlocutor. Moreover, when the speaker has less confidence, a speaker tends to use hedging as evasion and make their speech less clear. Raisa demonstrates this through the use of hedging by using words such as "slightly," "some," "sometimes," "probably," and "maybe." Raisa uses the words as hedging to show herself lacking self-confidence as in her speech, "I'm Raisa. I'm very-very happy to be here. Slightly nervous, but that's okay." The utterance above shows the use of hedging by Raisa, which aims to make the statement vaguer. In addition to making the statement less clear, the statement that contains the hedging "slightly" means that the speaker has lacked confidence in her statements. It can be known if the statement shows Raisa feels nervous, but she does not fully feel the nervousness. So, she uses the word "slightly" which refers to her nervousness. This is done because she wants to show a lack of self-confidence without making her interlocutor feel threatened. If Raisa makes the statement without using hedging elements such as "I'm nervous, but that's okay", the utterance might threaten the interlocutor. Then Eric Nam will utter a negative statement as a response to Raisa. Thus, even though Raisa shows a lack of confidence through her speech, she tends to try to convince Eric Nam as her interlocutor so that she does not get a negative response.
As the speaker, the use of hedging by Raisa shows the lack of confidence in her statement when she feels less confident and full of doubts. The doubtful gestures are shown by Raisa through her utterances in the statement, "If I'm ever..." The statement contains an "If" clause or an assumption which can be known the conditional clause that has the meaning that a person uses a sentence indicating the probability that will occur. Through the statement, Raisa wants to show that the meaning of her speech at that time is still tentative and could change at any time to indicate a huge degree of possibility. As a speaker, Raisa uses the utterance to show her interlocutor that her statements are still vague and unclear. Furthermore, by stating this statement, Raisa receives a good response from Eric Nam.

CONCLUSION
After conducting the analysis, the writers can conclude that several types of hedging are used by Raisa in her utterances. The writers find five different types of hedging in the utterances uttered by Raisa on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. In determining the type of hedging used by Raisa, the writers refer to Salager-Meyer's theory of hedging. In this theory, hedging is divided into seven types such as a) modal auxiliary verbs; b) modal lexical verbs; c) adjectival, adverbial, and nominal modal phrases; d) approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time; e) introductory phrases; f) "if" clauses, and g) compound hedges.
In the results of this analysis, the writers have found only five types of hedging uttered by Raisa in her utterance on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. The five hedgings include modal verbs; adjectival, adverbial, and nominal modal phrases; approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time; introductory phrases; and "if" clauses. The writers have found that the result most widely used type of hedging are approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time, which appears 9 times in data analysis. At the same time, the least used type of hedging is the "if" clause that appears once in the data. The results of the research are described in table 1.
Furthermore, the hedging type of approximators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time is the type that is often used by Raisa in uttering her utterance on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep. 138. She tends to show uncertainty and less clear statements by using approximators hedging. From the results of this research, the writers can say that each type of hedging used has a different function and purpose for using hedging devices in a speech. At the beginning of its development, hedging is used by writers or speakers to make statements less clear, vague, and fuzzy. This can be seen from the hedging most widely used by Raisa, showing that she makes statements containing hedging less clear. Thus, the message she uttered does not have an absolute truth value. From the results of the research, there are several purposes for using hedging by Raisa in uttering her statement on Eric Nam's Podcast Daebak Show Ep.138. The first purpose of hedging is to make statements less clear and vague to show the speaker's lack of confidence. From the analysis results, Raisa often uses hedging to show low self-confidence to make statements less certain by using several hedging elements of approximators. Then the next reason is using hedging to show politeness toward the addressee. Generally, the use of hedging with politeness is found in a modal verb hedging that indicates politeness to save the listener's image through auxiliary verbs such as "can" or "would." Then, the next goal is still related to the use of hedging with the purpose of politeness which is to avoid undesirable effects due to the force statements against the addressee. In other words, hedging is used to avoid statements that have the potential to threaten the image of the speaker or listener. In general, hedging can make a statement less threatening to the interlocutor. Hence, when making doubtful statements, Raisa uses hedging to make the statement more or less clear without worrying about the image of the interlocutor being threatened. Thus, the writer can conclude that the use of hedging can save the speaker and the interlocutor's image so that communication becomes smoother.
In addition to the purpose of using hedging, the writers also have found the result of the meaning of the use of hedging by Raisa in her statement. In Raisa's use of hedging, the writers find that during the use of hedging, Raisa tends to want to show statements full of doubt and lack of confidence. However, using the hedging devices makes Raisa avoid the threatening statements that Eric Nam might utter. In addition, Raisa tends to show polite statements through hedging, so some of the statements she makes become more polite. Raisa's use of hedging also means that she does not want her interlocutor to give judgment on what Raisa said. As a result, it can be terminated that Raisa does not want to get judgment or threats from her interlocutor, so she uses an evasive device.