VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG LINH A STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “TWILIGHT” BY STEPHENIE MEYER (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự trong lời thỉnh cầu của các nhân vật trong tiểu thuyết “Chạng vạng” của Stephenie Meyer) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60. Hà Cẩm Tâm Hanoi- 2012 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG LINH A STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “TWILIGHT” BY STEPHENIE MEYER (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự trong lời thỉnh cầu của các nhân vật trong tiểu thuyết “Chạng vạng” của Stephenie Meyer) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.15 Hanoi- 2012 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………. ii Table of contents…………………………………………………………. vi List of tables …………………………………………………………….
vii List of figures……………………………………………………………. ix PART A: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………. Rationale of the study……………………………………………. Aims of the study……………………………………………….
Objectives of the study…………………………………………. Scope of the study………………………………………………. Significance of the study……………………………………. Methods of the study…………………………………………….
Organization of the study………………………………………. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………. The speech act theory……………………………………………. The speech act of request……………………………………….
Social variables affecting politeness……………………………. Politeness and indirectness. Politeness and indirectness in requests…………………………. Previous studies on requests…………………………………….
14 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………. Direct requests- Category 1…………………….2 Conventionally indirect requests- Category 2……. Non- conventionally indirect requests- Category 3……. Lexical/phrasal downgraders………………………….
External modification…………………………………………… 22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS……………………. Overview of “Twilight” ……………………. Politeness strategies in request by the characters in “Twilight”…………. The utilization of strategies.2 The utilization of internal and external modifications…………….3 Politeness strategies in requests in “Twilight”, seen from S-H 31 relationships………………………………………………………………….
Major findings and concluding remarks…………………………………. Suggestions for further study………………………………….……… 43 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX A: The coding system………………………………….……… I APPENDIX B: Sample of the coding procedure……………………. II APPENDIX C: The use of internal modifications by types in “Twilight” IV APPENDIX D: The polite request strategies in each group of speakers in V “Twilight” ………………………………………………… APPENDIX E: The use of internal modification in each group of speakers in VI “Twilight” ………………………………………. APPENDIX F: Figures for illustrations………….
VII vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABBREVIATIONS FTA : Face- Threatening Act IFDI : Illocutionary Force Indicating Device H : The Hearer S : The Speaker D : Distance P : Relative Power R : Absolute ranking of imposition (…) : omitted words, phrases, or sentences n : Number of Appearance DR : Direct (Strategy) CI : Conventionally Indirect (Strategy) NCI : Non- Conventionally Indirect (Strategy) SD : Syntactic Downgrader LPD : Lexical/Phrasal Downdgrader UD : Upgrader : viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: The balance of direct, conventionally indirect, and non- 24 conventionally indirect polite request strategies in “Twilight” Table 2: Polite request strategies by types in “Twilight” 25 Table 3: The use of internal modificationsin “Twilight” IV Table 4: The use of external modifications in “Twilight” 31 Table 5: The use of direct, conventionally indirect, and non- 32 conventionally indirect strategies in requests in “Twilight” seen from the characters‟parameters Table 6: The use of internal modification in “Twilight” seen from S-H 36 relationship Table 7: The use of supportive moves in “Twilight” seen from S-H 39 relationship ix TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: The balance of direct, conventionally indirect, and non- VII conventionally indirect polite request strategies in “Twilight” Figure 2: Polite request strategies by types in “Twilight” 25 Figure 3: The use of internal modifications in “Twilight” 29 Figure 4: The use of external modifications in “Twilight” VII Figure 5: The use of direct, conventionally indirect, and non- 32 conventionally indirect strategies in requests in “Twilight” seen from the characters‟ parameters Figure 6: The use of internal modification in “Twilight” seen from S-H VII relationship x TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT The speech act of request is a face-threatening act in human‟s communication because it challenges the mutual face of both the speaker and the hearer. The current study aims to uncover how politeness strategies in requests are employed in the novel “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. All the requests carrying the illocutionary force of getting somebody to do something serve as the data source. The coding system is based on Blum-Kulka et.
al (1989) and Trosborg (1995)‟s coding manual. The findings show that the characters in “Twilight” overwhelmingly chose the Direct Strategies in formulating their requests, in which the Imperative Strategy or Mood Derivable was the most preferable strategy. On the choice of Internal Modifications, the speakers in “Twilight” used a wide range of mitigating devices within the Head Act to reduce the requestive force, mostly the Question forms, Downtoners, and Past tense. With reference to External Modifications, the speakers mostly chose Grounders to give reasons for their requests.
The findings also show that the choice of request strategies and mitigating devices was influenced by the relationships between the characters. xi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Language, as stated by Crystal (1992:212), is “the systematic, conventional use of sounds, signs, or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression”. If communication is to be effective, both the speaker and the hearer need to have shared knowledge; i., the same perception of what they are talking about.
In other words, people need to have communicative competence. Hymes (1967, cited in Tam, 2005) asserts that communicative competence includes not only knowledge of the linguistic forms of a language but also knowledge of when, how and to whom it is appropriate to use these forms. In other words, linguistic components; i. grammatical, lexical, phonologicalare not enough for a language learner to avoid cultural shock, miscommunication or even communication breakdown.
Language learners thereforeshould acquire pragmatic competence, i., the ability to perform language functions appropriately in social contexts. Being aware of the importance of pragmatic ability, a lot of researchers have drawn their attention to its crucial role, highlighted the significance of social context, and made suggestions for appropriateness in communication. The teaching and learning of foreign languages, including English has shifted from linguistic forms of the target language to the communicative approach with more emphasis on communicative competence in order to meet the demand of global development. In line with this, the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam has witnessed a great effort in improving learners‟ communicative competence.
More attention has been paid to oral skills and practice which stress on the pragmatic meanings of utterances in contexts. Nevertheless, the traditional ways of teaching and learning, which mainly focused on the development of linguistic competence seem to hold its position as the prominent method. This leads to the fact that Vietnamese learners appear to fail to communicate naturally and appropriately in English. These learners may possess relatively good linguistic knowledge to understand the structures and the words literally, but they fail to achieve communicative goals because they may not be aware of the hidden or unsaid meanings of utterances under certain settings, and lack social appropriateness and linguisticrealization rulesfor performing and 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com respondingcommunicative acts.
Unfortunately, while grammatical errors are likely to be accepted by native speakers, English learners‟ pragmatic incompetence seems to be much less tolerated, and is often consideredrude. This again highly appreciates the importance of mastering saying the right thing at the right time to avoid unintentional impoliteness, misunderstandings, or communication breakdown. The speech act of request has been regarded as one of the face-threatening acts (FTAs) in communication, since it intrinsically threatens the hearer‟s face and is affected by social parameters (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Requests occur in everyday life and play a leading role in human interaction as a vital part of successful communication.
Hence, many interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatic studies within different language backgrounds have widely examined the speech act of request such as House & Kasper (1981, 1987), Blum-Kulka (1987), Blum-Kulka et al. Most of those studies focused on examining the use of pragmalinguistic formulae employed to express the request head act and the modification devices that accompany it. Obviously, these studies have investigated numerous aspects of the Head Act of request and provided a relatively full understanding in single language, interlanguage, and cross-culture pragmatics. However, there seems to remain gaps in literary genre that need to be bridged since literature, as being judged, plays a significant role in our life, especially the spiritual one.
It has worked as a reflection of society and culture (Thao, 2010); as a matter of fact, language, especially daily language used in a literary works appears to be presented truthfully and naturally. A long with the researcher‟s special personal interest in the topic, these factors have created an urge for her to choose the minor thesis, namely “A study on politeness strategies in requests used by characters in the novel“Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer”. The study aims to investigate English native speakers‟ use of polite request strategies and modification devices via the language employed by the characters in the novel. It is an attempt to support the aforementioned studies and to fill the gap in the area.
Aims of the study The study aims at exploring how polite request strategies are appropriately manifested in the English language. Specifically, the study attempts to examine the 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com choice of politeness strategies and modification devices in requests employed by the characters in the novel “Twilight” by Stepheanie Meyer. Objectives of the study The objectives of the study are: - To uncover the use of politeness strategies in requests employed by the characters in the novel “Twilight”. - To uncover the use of modification devices in requests employed by the characters in the novel “Twilight”.
Research questions The study seeks to answer the following research questions: What politeness strategies are employed by the characters in “Twilight” in their requests? What mitigation devices are employed by characters in “Twilight” in their requests? 5. Scope of the study The study focuses entirely on the verbal aspect related to speech acts. Other non-verbal aspects such as facial expressions and eye contact are beyond the scope of the study. Theories of speech acts and politeness are applied.
The study uses the theoretical framework which is based on Blum- Kulka et al. All requests made by the characters in “Twilight” are the data source. Significance of the study The study would hopefully be of theoretical and practical significance in the area of pragmatics where the use of linguistic acts should be taken into account. Theoretically, the study would contribute to a better understanding of speech acts in general and the speech act of request in particular.
Practically, findings of the study would heighten Vietnamese learners and teachers‟ awareness of native speakers‟ use of request strategies. As a result, Vietnamese learners of English could probably adopt appropriate tones of polite requests in the English language to improve their pragmatic competence. More importantly, the research findings would be a reference source for those who have 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com deep concerns about the utilization of politeness strategies in requests as well as other speech acts. Method of the study The method employed in this study is mainly the Quantitative method which stresses more on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistic.
The study makes use of utterances in “Twilight” as the major data source, thus counting and measuring are commonly used. The research findings are generally presented in tables and charts or figures. Organization of the study The study comprises three parts. Part A is “Introduction” which presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scopes, significance, method and organization of the study.
Part B entitled “Development” consists of three chapters.