MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ HỒNG THẮM AN ATTITUDINAL STUDY OF THE NOVEL “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY FIELD: English Linguistics CODE: 8220201 Supervisor: VÕ DUY ĐỨC, Ph. e BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRẦN THỊ HỒNG THẮM NGHIÊN CỨU THÁI ĐỘ TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT ÔNG GIÀ VÀ BIỂN CẢ CỦA NHÀ VĂN ERNEST HEMINGWAY Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Người hướng dẫn: TS. VÕ DUY ĐỨC e STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted for any degree and is not currently being submitted for any other degree or award. I also declare that any help received in preparing this thesis, and all sources used, have been acknowledged in this thesis.
Binh Dinh, 2020 Trần Thị Hồng Thắm e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am filled with deep gratitude and I aspire to acknowledge many individuals who have heartened me in various ways to arrive at this accomplishment today. journey could not have been initiated without considerable encouragement and invaluable support from my supervisor, Dr. Vo Duy Duc. And without his timely enlightenment, my academic pathway could have been unfortunately interrupted.
I genuinely appreciate and learn a great deal from his professionalism, dedication, intellectuality and loving personality. Besides, I would like to express my gratitude to all the lecturers of my master‟s course, who have enabled me to upgrade my skills and enrich my knowledge of linguistics for the past two years. They all play a great part in nurturing my interest in linguistic research to further explore the allurement of both English language and my mother tongue, Vietnamese. I am also indebted to the authors and experts whose works have been cited in the Literature Review of my study.
Last but absolutely not least, I need to extend thanks to my family, who have been my sources of motivation to conquer all the challenges and obstacles during the time of my study. e ABSTRACT This paper presents a study on Attitudinal resources in the novel The Old Man and the Sea written by Enerst Hemingway. The main objectives are to list, describe and classify attitudinal resources in the discourse and to reveal Ernest Hemingway‟ s attitude towards the characters in the novel. The study was carried out through the use of quantitative, qualitative, analytic, synthetic, and descriptive approaches.
The data were gathered from the entire novel. The study was based on Appraisal Theory of Martin and White (2005), which is considered as a new approach to evaluating languages. The study registered the occurrence of all types of Attitudinal values, namely Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation. Specifically, Judgment occupied the largest proportion, the second highest was Appreciation and Affect was found to occur at the lowest rate.
Besides, Ernest Hemingway tends to employ more positive Attitudinal values to show determination and strong ambition of human beings about the future. The explicit resources were also preferable than the implicit ones, featuring a detailed description of each of human characteristics, nature, and fishing so that it evokes profound meanings about the great dream of the working man. From the results, it is hopeful that the study may make some contributions to linguistic theory and help English learners use Attitudinal resources effectively. e TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1.
Rationale of the study. Aim and objectives. Aim of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Structure of the thesis. Previous studies on Appraisal Theory and The Old Man and the Sea. Description of data.
Reliability and validity of the study. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Authorial and Observed Affect. Positive and Negative Affect.
Sub-types of Judgment. Positive and Negative Judgment. Explicit and Implicit Judgment. Sub-types of Appreciation.
Positive and Negative Appreciation. Explicit and Implicit Appreciation. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Suggestions for further research.
72 APPENDIX e LIST OF TABLES Number Title Page of table 2. The Monoglossic and the Heteroglossic 8 2.2 Grammatical realizations of Affect 13 2.3 The system of Affect 14 2.4 The system of Judgment 18 2.5 Types of Appreciation 23 2.6 Patterns of Attitude 26 Distribution of Sub-systems of Attitudinal Resources in 4.2 Distribution of Authorial and Observed Affect resources 46 Social Esteem and Social Sanction in “The Old Man 4.3 50 and the Sea” e LIST OF FIGURES Number Title Page of figures 2.2 Judgment and Appreciation as institutionalised affect 11 2.3 Typology of Attitude subsystems 11 4. Attitudinal Resources of Affect from the data 41 4.2 Frequency of positive and negative items of Affect 48 4.3 Frequency of positive and negative items of Judgment 55 Attitudinal Resources of Explicit and Implicit Judgment 4.4 56 in the data 4.5 The overall distribution of Appreciation in the data 59 Frequency of Positive and negative items of 4.6 63 Appreciation Frequency of Explicit and Implicit Appreciation 4.7 64 resources e 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Through time, literature has played a crucial part in human communication because people have used it to fulfill awareness, educational, and art functions and even exchange their viewpoints towards life.
American Literature has attracted worldwide attention because of its enormous influence. Ernest Hemingway, whose works have attracted readers all over the world, is the most influential American writer in the 20th century. His works have been translated into many languages and taught at schools. The Nobel Laureate of 1954 in the field of Literature, Ernest Hemingway, has made significant contributions in the literary world through his diversified writings.
Among many great American writers, Hemingway is well-known for his objective and terse prose style. Of all the novels Hemingway published in his life, The Old Man and the Sea, which is one of the best works of literature, typically reflects his unique writing style. Mellouki and Berriha (2016) denote that the prominent feature in the work is the simplicity and naturalness of the words and expressions. To make the writing more interesting, he used Iceberg Theory as a special style which is expressed more on the surface without revealing the theme, because the true meaning may not be obvious in the story.
Besides, numerous elements made The Old Man and the Sea a masterpiece and attracted the attention worldwide. Applying Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White ( 2005) to study written language is very popular in the field of discourse analysis. It has been used as a popular framework for investigating how language is used to evaluate emotions, judge human behaviors and appreciate things or phenomena. Attitude, along with Engagement and Graduation, forms the Appraisal e 2 System.
It plays an integral role in the expression of interpersonal meanings of the language. Attitude consists of three sub- systems: Affect- expressions of feelings and emotions, Judgement- evaluations of human behaviours and Appreciation-evaluations of things and entities. The language employed by well- known writers can also be deemed valuable, authentic linguistic resources for language learners and researchers. Researches relating to the linguistic resources in literary works have been carried out.
There have been lots of studies based on Appraisal Theory to investigate various features of discourses. A significant number of studies on attitudinal resources have been conducted, with various types of discourse being investigated, ranging from American leaders‟ speeches ( Le Thi Van Tue, 2017), Vo Thi Ngoc Hien (2014), travel advertisements (Nguyen Tiet Hanh, 2015), readers‟ opinions (Vo Thi Kim Thao, 2017), travellers‟ holiday reviews (Nguyen Thi Lien, 2017), letters of complaint (Le Thi Bao Chau, 2017), film reviews (Phan Thi Thanh Hoa, 2017), news about environment (Ngo Ai Quynh Nhu, 2017), advertising slogans (Nguyen Thi Minh Ngan, 2017), love song lyrics (Nguyen Thi Ngan, 2018), to Expressives by the Judges (Le Huu Loc, 2019). The attitudinal resources of the language that Hemingway used in the story The Old Man and the Sea in terms of its interpersonal meaning may lead us to uncover Hemingway‟s attitude towards life. Although the novel which has been studied by many other researchers from different perspectives, the value of the work has been credited by various scholars, no research has been conducted on that by applying Appraisal Theory.
From the above reasons, “An attitudinal analysis of the story The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway” is the focus of my study. This research contributes to a specific investigation into the attitudinal resources in the story. AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1. Aim of the study This research aims at studying the attitudinal values in the story The Old Man and the Sea in the light of Appraisal theory, thereby interpreting the evaluations of the writer toward the plot of the story.
Objectives To achieve the aims, these following objectives are focused on: - To investigate the sub-types of attitudinal resources in the novel including Affect, Judgement and Appreciation; - To find out the frequency of occurrence of these values and determine which of them are widely used in the story. RESEARCH QUESTIONS To fulfill the aims and objectives of the study, the following research questions are focused on: 1. What sub-types of Attitude are employed in the novel “The Old Man and the Sea”? 2. What are the frequencies of their occurrence of Attitudinal resources in the novel? 1.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY Attitude, along with Engagement and Graduation builds up a complete evaluation of language in any discourse. Attitude involves three semantic regions relating to emotions, ethics and aesthetics. It plays an important role in expressing author‟s viewpoints through plots, contents and characters of the novel. In this study, I would like to investigate the Attitudinal resources in the story The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Emotional, ethical and aesthical aspects are investigated to find out how the author expresses his style in writing and understand more about the unique features of the novel. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study focuses on analyzing Attitude, which is concerned with feelings, including emotional reactions, judgments of behavior and evaluation of things, and its effectiveness in the story. The study emphasizes the importance of Appraisal Theory as a framework. The learners of English can know how to use attitudinal resources effectively and naturally in communication.
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1, “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, and objectives, research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization of the study. Chapter 2, “Literature Review”, briefly reviews the literature of previous studies relating to this study. This chapter also provides the theoretical background of the study.
Chapter 3, “Methodology”, deals with the research methods, the description of the data, data analysis, and research procedures. Chapter 4, “Findings and Discussions”, presents the results of the data analysis, discusses Attitudinal resources employed in the novel The Old Man and the Sea. Chapter 5, “Conclusion and Implications” summarizes the results of the study. It also offers implications for writing and mentions the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further research.
e 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the theoretical framework the study is based on and the previous studies relating to the topic. It consists of three parts. The first part is about the theoretical background of the study. The second part deals with Ernest Hemingway, the content of The Old Man and the Sea and the description of the previous studies.
APPRAISAL THEORY Appraisal has emerged for over three decades as a framework for investigating how language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personas, and to manage interpersonal positioning and relationships. It is an extension of the interpersonal function of language described in Systemic Functional Linguistics by a notable linguist, M. Halliday, and is developed by a group of linguists led by James Martin.