In some cases, "I don't know" functions as a prepositioned hedge—a forward-looking stance marker displaying that the speaker is not fully committed to what follows in their turn of talk. Hedges may intentionally or unintentionally be employed in both spoken and written language since they are crucially important in communication. Hedges help speakers and writers indicate more precisely how the cooperative principle (expectations of quantity, quality, manner, and relevance) is observed in assessments. For example, All I know is smoking is harmful to your health. Here, it can be observed that information conveyed by the speaker is limited by adding all I know. By so saying, the speaker wants to inform that they are not only making an assertion but observing the maxim of quantity as well. They told me that they are married. If the speaker were to say simply They are married and did not know for sure if that were the case, they might violate the maxim of quality, since they were saying something that they do not know to be true or false. By prefacing the remark with They told me that, the speaker wants to confirm that they are observing the conversational maxim of quality. I am not sure if all of these are clear to you, but this is what I know. The above example shows that hedges are good indications the speakers are not only conscious of the maxim of manner, but they are also trying to observe them. By the way, you like this car? By using by the way, what has been said by the speakers is not relevant to the moment in which the conversation takes place. Such a hedge can be found in the middle of speakers' conversation as the speaker wants to switch to another topic that is different from the previous one. Therefore, by the way functions as a hedge indicating that the speaker wants to drift into another topic or to stop the previous topic. Hedges in different languages Hedges are used as a tool of communication and are found in all of the world's languages. Examples of hedges in languages besides English are as follow: genre (French) Il était, grand (He was, , tall.) eigentlich (German) După câte am înţeles (Romanian) sora dumneavoastră crede că omul nu poate iubi decât o singură dată în viaţă. (, your sister thinks that man can only love once