MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY ĐỖ VŨ HOÀNG TÂM DIRECTIVES IN THE MOVIE “GREEN BOOK” MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS BINH DINH, 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY ĐỖ VŨ HOÀNG TÂM DIRECTIVES IN THE MOVIE “GREEN BOOK” Field: English Linguistics Code: 8. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN ĐỖ VŨ HOÀNG TÂM HÀNH VI CẦU KHIẾN TRONG BỘ PHIM “GREEN BOOK” Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8.01 Người hướng dẫn: PGS. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis is accomplished by my own work and due acknowledgement is produced whenever information is derived from other sources. No part of this thesis has or is being simultaneously submitted for any other qualification at any university.
Quy Nhon, 2020 DO VU HOANG TAM ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Assoc. Nguyen Quang Ngoan, my supervisor, who kindly provides me with appropriate direction, useful suggestions and critical comments so that I can accomplish this thesis in time. Secondly, I would like to owe the completion of this thesis to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages in specific and to Quy Nhon University in general who have provided precious materials and support for me not only in English major but also in other fields of knowledge. Last but not least, my big thank is credited to my family, my friends and my colleagues who have provided me a host of favorable conditions and materials during this period so that I can successfully finish the thesis.
iii ABSTRACT This thesis demonstrates the results of a research into structural and functional features of directives produced by the two main characters in the movie “Green Book” on the basis of prominent characteristics on each type. A combination of analytic, synthetic, descriptive, and contrastive methods is employed for data analysis. The theoretical framework is adapted from the those from three leading linguistics. For structural features of directives, the researcher has her thesis based on theoretical framework of Ervin – Tripp (1976).
Similarly, for functional features of directives, Bach and Harnish’s (1979) framework is considered as the most fundamental basis for data analysis. In terms of the direct/ indirect analysis, the researcher mainly focuses on the George Yule’s (1996) basis. The data source of this study is the transcript of the movie “Green Book” with 398 samples of directives selected in the conversations of the two main characters. The results unfold typical structural and functional features of directives and level of frequency they are used in the movie “Green Book”, which could provide a profound insight into structures and functions of directives.
The results of the study are expected to contribute to the teaching and learning of speech acts in English in particular and the success of communication in English conversations in general. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii LIST OF TABLES. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Research Aim and Objectives. Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study. The Organization of the thesis.
4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. An Overview of the Speech Act theory. Definition of Speech Act. Levels of Speech Act.
Classification of speech acts. An Overview of English directives. Structural features of English directives. Functional features of English directives.
Indirect Speech Acts. Definition of indirect speech acts. Characteristics of indirect speech acts. A Review of Previous Relevant Studies.
23 CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND PROCEDURES. Reliability and Validity. 30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Structural features of Directives in “Green Book”.
Structural features of Directives uttered by Tony Lip. Structural features of directives uttered by Dr. Similarities and differences in structural features of directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr. Functional features of Directives in “Green Book”.
Functional features of directives uttered by Tony Lip. Functional features of directives uttered by Dr. Similarities and differences in functional features of directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr. Direct and indirect directives in “Green Book”.
Distribution of direct directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr. Distribution of indirect directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr. 75 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Conclusions concerning structural features of directives uttered by the two main characters.
Conclusions concerning functional features of directives uttered by the two main characters. Conclusions concerning direct/indirect directives uttered by the two main characters. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for Further Research.
89 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page Number Number Table 3.1 Framework for the analysis of indirect 29 speech acts Table 4.1 Distribution of structural features of 31 directives uttered by Tony Lip Table 4.2 Distribution of structural features of 42 directives uttered by Dr.3 Comparison of structural features of 52 directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr.4 Distribution of functional features of 55 directives uttered by Tony Lip Table 4.5 Distribution of functional features of 63 directives uttered by Dr.6 Comparison of functional features of 69 directives uttered by Tony Lip and Dr.7 Distribution of direct directives uttered by 71 Tony Lip and Dr.8 Distribution of indirect directives uttered 75 by Tony Lip and Dr. Shirley 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter is to present all the preliminaries of the thesis. It starts with the rationale, followed by the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and the organization of the thesis. Rationale It is widely-held that speech acts have always assured a prominent-and- leading place in the study of pragmatics in particular and in the field of language in use in general.
That is to say, speech acts are believed to be one of the most representative features regarding pragmatics aspect, which are of great importance during the process of communication in daily contexts as well as the procedure of language teaching and learning. Indeed, among the five types of speech acts by Searle (1976), it is directives that emerge as one of the most strikingly typical pragmatics characteristics, especially gaining their popularity in real-life social contexts. However, despite the fact that directives have occupied an importantly irreplaceable position in terms of speech act studies, there has been a lack of research putting much emphasis on such directive-related issues under the umbrella of pragmatics perspective. As regards the movie “Green book”, which is the main source of data for the study, it is noteworthy for research.
To illustrate, it is indisputable that this Oscar award-winning film has proven its extraordinarily conspicuous success with an incredible plot criticizing racism as well as the mastery of the linguistic feature utilization of the two main characters, resulting in the overall excellence in acting accompanied with conveying emotions. 2 Last but not least, one of the most research-provoking motivations which evoke a high level of interests is the main characters’ ways of linguistic manipulations. Indeed, the fact that the two main characters’ backgrounds can be traced back to the discrepancies in socio-cultural origin and living environment is claimed to be the paramount factor leading to the skillful divergence in the characters’ linguistic strategies and politeness markers. In addition, as far as I know, there has been no research on directives in the movie “Green book” so this thesis is hopefully a more complete and relevant source of indirect speech acts, especially directives for teaching, learning as well as daily communicating.
The research will also help people comprehend directives and be proficient in applying them in the real-life context according to corresponding status and living environment. All these factors have triggered a great extent of tremendous motivation for me to conduct this research. Research Aim and Objectives 1. Research Aim This study is aimed to examine linguistic features of directives in the movie “Green Book”.
Research Objectives To attain the research aim involving linguistic features of directives, the following objectives are aimed: 1. To examine structural features in directives in the movie “Green Book” 2. To examine functional features in directives in the movie “Green Book” 3. To examine the direct and indirect directives in the movie “Green Book” 3 1.
Research Questions Based on the aims of the study, the following research questions are expected to be answered: 1. Which structural features of directives are realized in the Movie “Green Book” and how often are they realized? 2. Which functional features of directives are realized in the Movie “Green Book” and how often are they realized? 3. How often are indirect and direct directives used and how are they realized in the conversations in the Movie “Green Book”? 1.
Scope of the Study This study is expected to identify and analyze directives in the Movie “Green Book” which is considered to be the main source of research data. Specifically, it focuses on the directives produced by the two main characters’ directives in the movie. The study involves identifying and analyzing the main character’s directives on the basis of structural features, functional features and directness/indirectness. This is to uncover the mastery of linguistic features and prominent discrepancies between socio-cultural backgrounds of the two main characters in this resound film.
Significance of the Study Theoretically, the study is expected to contribute to the field of pragmatics studies, especially directives in speech act research which still receives little attention from researchers in the field. Besides, with results from analyses on how to identify and investigate the prominence of directives as a speech act type, it is proven to acclaim its noteworthiness in pragmatics field in particular as well as language in use in general. 4 Practically, the manipulation of directive types in the movie into real-life contexts to reinforce the effectiveness and efficiency of communication and language teaching-learning process is worth considering. The Organization of the thesis The thesis is divided into five chapters as follows: Chapter one, introduction, is the first chapter of the study where the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scope of the study, and significance of the study are all clarified.
Chapter two, literature review and theoretical background, is where previous relevant studies and basic theoretical aspects are presented and discussed with the author’s critical comments. Chapter three, research methodology, reveals the research methods, data collection, data analysis, research procedures, and clarification of validity and reliability. Chapter four, findings and discussion, is the major part in which the research findings are presented with illustration, interpretation, and comment, based on the theoretical background and frameworks presented in chapter two and chapter three. Chapter five, conclusions and implications, is the final part of the main text where the major study results are summarized implications are suggested, limitations are discussed and suggestions for further research are made.
5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is to present an overview of speech act theory including definitions, levels, and classification of speech acts, followed by a brief introduction of English directives in terms of structural and functional features as well as direct and indirect speech acts, especially directives. An Overview of the Speech Act theory 2. Definition of Speech Act The issue of speech acts, as stated, was pioneered by Austin (1962). According to him, all utterances should be viewed as actions of the speakers.
He pointed out that the declarative sentences are used not only to say things or describe states of affairs but also to do things. Austin (1962) defined speech acts as the actions performed in saying something. When people produce utterances, they often perform actions via those utterances. These actions are called speech acts such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise or request.
Yule (1997) defined that "in attempting to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words, they perform actions via those utterances". According to him, actions performed via utterances are speech acts.