i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I declare that this research paper is mine and original. No other person‘s work has been used without acknowledgement in the thesis. Binh Dinh, 2019 Signature Xaiyavongkham Vongbouasy ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Quang Ngoan for his support and guidance in my completion of the thesis.
I am also thankful to all the lecturers at Quy Nhon University for their profound knowledge and endless support during my study at Quy Nhon University. I would also like to thank my classmates who are always willing to help me and give their best suggestions and encouragement to me during my process of conducting the study. Finally, I owe the completion of this paper to my wife and children, who have always been standing by me on my road to success. iii ABSTRACT This MA thesis aims to study forms and structures of commissives by Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama, and Donald Trump as the US presidents in their terms.
The statistic, analytic, synthetic, descriptive, and comparative methods are used to examine 331 commissives, collected from 48 speeches made by the three presidents in their terms. The results show that forms of commissives are realized in structures with performative verbs, structures with commissive words, and structures without commissive words, among which the last one is the most commonly used. As far as functions are concerned, commissives are used by the three presidents to express offer/promise, threat/warning and refusal, with the first one being the most frequently employed. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB-COVERS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP…………………………………….
ii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………… iv ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS ………………………. vii LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………….… viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Aim and Objectives. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Definition of terms. Structure of the thesis .6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theory of speech acts.
Notion of speech act. Degrees of speech act. Classification of speech acts. Indirect speech acts.
Role of context in speech act studies. Previous relevant studies .22 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Data sources and samples. Validity and reliability .30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Structures of commissives in speeches by US presidents. Commissives with performative verbs. Commissives with commissive words. Commissives without commissive words.
Similarities and differences in structures of commissives by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Functions of commissives in speeches by US presidents. Commissives for offer/promise. Commissives for threat/warning.
Commissives for refusal. Similarities and differences in structures of commissives by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Limitations of the study. Suggestion for further study .64 vii ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS - Per.
V Performative verbs - Commissive W Commissive words - Italic is used for linguistic terms mentioned the first time and examples - Italic and bold is used for highlighting the signals of commissives - Examples and tables are numbered according to chapter. viii LIST OF TABLES Table Titles Page numbers numbers 2.1 Analysis of indirect speech acts 12 3.1 Commissive triggers for sample collection 27 3.2 Total of commissives as samples in the study 28 4.1 Frequency of occurrence of different commissive 31 structures in total 4.2 Frequency of occurrence of different commissive 32 structures by president 4.3 Similarities and differences in commissive structures by 41 the three presidents 4.4 Frequency of occurrence of different commissive 44 functions in total 4.5 Frequency of occurrence of different commissive 44 functions by president 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale, aims and objectives of the study with its research questions, scope and significance. The definitions of terms and structures of the thesis are also presented. RATIONALE When political leaders take a new position, they usually make commitments to different things to make people happy or satisfied.
It is for this reason that commissive speech acts are commonly made by political leaders. Commissive speech acts or commissives are kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to doing something with words. Let‘s analyze the commissives in (1.1) Let us guarantee every American comprehensive health benefits that can never be taken away.1) is a commissive made by Former President Bill Clinton in his address on health care reform on September 22nd, 1993. Structurally, this commissive is realized in a structure with the commissive word guarantee.
Functionally, it is for making a promise to the audience.2) Going forward, I am committed to addressing these costs openly and honestly. Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly $30 billion for the military this year, and I'll work closely with Congress to address these costs as we work to bring down our deficit. (December 1, 2 2009: Speech on Strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan) In terms of structure, utterance (1.2) uttered by Former President Barack Obama in his speech on strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan on December 1st, 2009 is realized, in the first part, in a structure with the commissive word committed, and in the second part in a structure without commissive words: “I‟ll work”. Both of them are, however, promises functionally.3) And we‘re pouring a lot of money and a lot of talent into this horrible problem.
And we pledge to honor the memory of those you lost with action and determination and resolve. We’ll get it. We will not rest until the end.3) is a commissive made by President Donald Trump in his remarks on combating the opioid crisis on March 19 th, 2018. He uses both the performative verb pledge and structures without commissive words “We‟ll get it” and “We will not rest” for the promises he intends to make.
Thus, it is especially interesting to study commissives as a speech act type. Surprising, no research of commissives has been conducted in Vietnam although there have been studies in speech act types in textbooks (Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung, 2014; Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, 2014), indirect speech acts (Đoàn Thị Hương Hiền, 2015), expressives (Võ Trọng Nhơn, 2016), representatives (Nguyễn Xuân Vĩnh, 2013) and directives (Nguyễn Thị Thanh Bình, 2011). Thus, there has been no study on commissives in Vietnam with a focus on structures and functions, especially by US presidents though they are famous for using language to successfully communicate their intended meanings. That means there are a literature gap and good reasons for my choice of the research topic “Structure and Functions of Commissives by US Presidents” for my MA thesis.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1. Aim of the Study This study aims to analyze the structures and functions of commissives speech acts made by US presidents in their terms to understand them better as a speech act type. Objectives of the Study This research is intended to deal with the following objectives: - To identify and analyze the structures of commissives made by the investigated US presidents in their terms. - To identify and analyze the functions of commissives made by the investigated US presidents in their terms.
- To compare and contrast commissives made by the investigated US presidents in their terms. RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to achieve the aim and objectives, the researcher tries to find the answers to the following questions: 1. What are the structures of commissives made by the investigated US presidents? 2. What are the functions of commissives made by the investigated US presidents? 3.
What are the similarities and differences in the commissives made by the investigated US presidents in their terms? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The present study is limited to a small scale research to fulfill the requirements for an MA thesis in English Linguistics. 4 The linguistic features are limited to structures and functions of commissives. The structures are divided into structures with performative verbs, structures with commissive words, and structures without commissive words.
The functions are further classified into offer/promise, threat/warning, and refusal. Samples are commissives by US presidents in their terms. They include 331 commissive speech acts collected from 48 political speeches made by the investigated US presidents. The US presidents are limited to President Donald Trump, Former President Barack Obama, and Former President Bill Clinton, the three latest presidents of the USA.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is expected to contribute a specific, thorough study of commissive speech acts and relevant issues in the genre of political discourse. The results of this study are expected to help Vietnamese learners of English improve their understanding of structures and functions of speech acts to better their communication in English. DEFINITION OF TERMS - commissives/ commissive speech acts: kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to doing something with words. They express what the speaker intends.
Representatives of this group include promising, offering, threatening, warning, refusing, vowing and volunteering. They can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group, e. “I‟ll be back”, “I‟m going to get it right next time”, “We will not do that”. - performative verbs: a type of verbs (e., apologize, forbid, inform, 5 promise …) that can explicitly convey the kind of speech act being performed.
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS The study consists of 5 chapters; each chapter takes responsibility for a particular function. - Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter reveals the overview of the study including the statement of the problem, research aim and objectives, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and structure of the thesis. - Chapter 2: Literature review In this chapter, all the terms as well as the key theoretical concepts including the notion of speech act, degrees of speech act, types of speech acts and indirect speech acts that the present study is based on are thoroughly discussed. Also, previous studies on speech act types and commissives are reviewed.
- Chapter 3: Research methodology This chapter describes the research methods used in the study. Additionally, the research procedures, data sources and samples, data- analyzing methods and commissive triggers are also mentioned. - Chapter 4: Findings and discussion This chapter depicts the results of the study that the researcher finds out from the collected data based on the three research questions and a detailed discussion on the research findings concerning structures and functions used in the investigated commissives by US presidents. - Chapter 5: Conclusion A summary of the study, major findings, implications, limitations as well 6 as suggestions for further studies are all mentioned in this final chapter.
SUMMARY This chapter reveals all the major aspects introducing the study, such as rationale, research aim and objectives, research questions, research scope, and so on. 7 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents a review of relevant theories and previous studies relevant studies to the research topic. It deals with theories of speech acts, commissives as a speech act types, and previous studies of speech act types and commissives. THEORY OF SPEECH ACT 2.
Notion of speech act The study of speech acts was pioneered by Austin (1962). According to him, all utterances should be viewed as actions of the speakers, actions performed by speech. He pointed out that the declarative sentences are not only used to say things or describe states of affairs but also used to do things such as making requests or invitations. Austin (1962) defined speech acts as the actions performed in saying something.
When people utter something, 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.
To a certain extent, both well-known linguists agreed that speech acts are actions intended to do by a speaker through utterances he performs in 8 conversations with others.