MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG DIỄM HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM "CALL ME BY YOUR NAME" BY LUCA GUADAGNINO MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH Binh Dinh - 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG DIỄM HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM "CALL ME BY YOUR NAME" BY LUCA GUADAGNINO Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.01 Supervisor: TRƯƠNG VĂN ĐỊNH, Ph. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG DIỄM PHƯƠNG TIỆN RÀO ĐÓN TRONG PHIM “GỌI EM BẰNG TÊN ANH” CỦA LUCA GUADAGNINO Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh Mã số : 8.01 Người hướng dẫn: TS. TRƯƠNG VĂN ĐỊNH i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authority of the study submitted entitled: HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM "CALL ME BY YOUR NAME" BY LUCA GUADAGNINO for the degree of Master of Arts. This is the result of my own research that has not used any other materials published elsewhere or extracted in the whole, or in part from a thesis except for the references made in the thesis.
Binh Dinh, 2020 Nguyễn Thị Hồng Diễm ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In all sincerity and ingenuousness, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the following people who give me precious experience encouragement to fulfill my graduation thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank the Department of Foreign Languages for offering me the opportunity to approach the scientific researching. Secondly, I would like to express my special heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Truong Van Dinh, who gave me valuable advice and provided me with useful materials.
It is very difficult for me to finish the thesis without his guidance and encouragement. Thirdly, my gratefulness extends to the Master‟s Thesis examiners for their valuable feedback and helpful suggestions for my thesis. Last but not least, I am truly grateful for my family‟s support and encouragement, which motivates me to carry out the thesis. iii ABSTRACT The study aims at analyzing hedging forms and frequency of hedging devices in the film “Call me by your name” by Luca Guadagnino under Yu‟s model (2009) to find out the functions of these devices in the film.
The data for analysis was 209 hedges collected in the film. In order to achieve the aim and objectives of the research, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are conducted. Besides, this study also utilizes descriptive and contrastive methods. The findings of the study present the distribution of subtypes of hedging devices occurring in the film.
Based on Yu‟s (2009) framework, there are four main subcategories of hedges: modal hedges, performative hedges, quantificational hedges and pragmatic-marker hedges. These modal hedges ranked first in terms of quantity. The other subtypes: tag questions, impersonalization and subjunctives were found with the smallest percentage. However, the frequency of each is different.
In addition, it also shows the functions of hedging devices in the films. Moreover, it also suggests some theoretical and practical implications for teaching and learning hedges in communication. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES.
vii LIST OF FIGURES.viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY. AIM AND OBJECTIVES. Aim of the study.
Objectives of the study. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.
4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. OVERVIEW OF HEDGES. Definitions of hedges. Classification of hedging devices and hedging functions.
Properties of hedges. Hedges and cooperative and politeness strategies. The importance of hedges in conversation. The characteristics of dialogues in films.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE FILM “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” BY LUCA GUADAGNINO. HEDGE-RELATED STUDIES. 20 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS.
Criteria for data collection. Data collecting sources. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY. 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
OVERVIEW OF HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” BY LUCA GUADAGNINO. HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” BY LUCA GUADAGNINO. Pragmatic–marker hedges. FUNCTIONS OF HEDGING DEVICES IN THE FILM “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” BY LUCA GUADAGNINO.
Pragmatic–marker hedges. Others which include sunjunctives, tag questions and impersonalization. 65 CHAPTER 5: CONLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.
72 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table Titles Page numbers numbers Table 2.1 Taxonomy of hedging devices (adapted from Yu, 10 2009) Table 2.2 Types of hedges according the four maxims 14 Table 4.1 Distribution of hedging devices in the film “Call 26 me by your name” by Luca Guadagnino Table 4.2 Distribution of subtypes of modal hedges 28 Table 4.3 Modal hedges 29 Table 4.4 Performative hedges 40 Table 4.5 Quantificational hedges: Quantity approximators, 42 Frequency approximators, Degree approximators and Negation + intensifier approximators Table 4.6 Frequency of subcategories of pragmatic-marker 45 hedges Table 4.7 Sunjunctives, tag questions and 49 impersonalization viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Titles Page numbers numbers Figure 2.1 The film “Call me by your name”.1 Modal auxiliary verbs 30 Figure 4.2 Frequency of modal adverbs 37 Figure 4.3 The frequency of epistemic lexical verbs 38 Figure 4.4 Frequency of the items of quantity approximators 43 Figure 4.5 Subtypes of propositional pragmatic-marker 47 hedges 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Films play an integral part in life because they reflect the real world. It is no doubt that life is a colorful picture, so something cannot be presented directly. The use of hedges is used instead.
Especially, using hedging devices in conversations is more important because it is said, “Courtesy costs nothing”. In communication, making frictions for the partners is almost inevitable. Therefore, it is very necessary to use the strategy, called hedging, in order to soften such frictions. That is the reason why Hyland (1996) states that hedging devices are used to indicate a lack of complete commitment to the truth of the proposition, and a desire not to express the commitment categorically.
Furthermore, in conversations, hedges are considered as a mean speakers use to protect themselves. For example, if A says “Money is important.”, he may cause a debate because his statement is arguable. However, the situation will divert in the case A says “It is said that money is important”. Using the expression “It is said that”, one of the hedging devices, makes his hearer either agree or disagree without arguing with him because he is still unsure of the exactness of the information.
This situation reveals one of the reasons why I made a decision to do the research on “Hedging devices in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino”. In addition, much attention has been paid to hedges in academic writing and academic discourse by many researchers such as Lakoff (1972, 1973), Markkanen and Schröder (1989), Salager-Meyer (1994), Hyland (1996, 1998, 2 2001), Varttala (2001), Riekkinen (2009), Yu (2009). In the field of applied linguistics, hedging is the object of study in many of interest not only foreign researchers but also Vietnamese researchers at the level of MA researches such as “Hedging devices in representative speech act in English and Vietnamese” by Nguyễn Dương Nguyên Trinh (2001), “A Vietnamese – English cross – Cultural study on the use of hedging in dispraising” by Nguyễn Quốc Sinh (2004), “A contrastive analysis of Hedged Performatives in English and Vietnamese” by Võ Thị Thu Thảo (2011), “Conditional Clauses used as hedging devices in English and Vietnamese equivalents: pragmatic perspective” by Ngô Thị Minh Trang (2012), “Types of Hedges Used by American and Vietnamese Celebrity” by Nguyễn Lê Tố Quyên (2014), “A contrastive analysis of Hedges in giving comments by judges in The Voice America versus The Voice Vietnam” by Bùi Văn Sang (2016), and “Hedging devices in conversations in the Vietnamese high school English textbooks versus those in the New Interchange series” by Lê Thị Phương Thủy (2019) have conducted so far. Although the studies have had the same interest in the term “hedge”, no resources focused on the use of hedges in real conversations in a film, which reveals pragmatic functions of hedging devices.
In the hope of contributing to enlarging the theoretical background of hedging in spoken discourse and helping readers to make effective conversations thanks to hedging devices. Above reasons lead to my decision to conduct a research on hedging, entitled “Hedging devices in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino”. This film is chosen because the new film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017. Sony Pictures Classics gave the film a limited release in the United States on November 24, 2017, before a wide release on January 19, 2018 and is considered as a sensual 3 and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman, which helps viewers feel the psychology of each character perfectly.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1. Aim of the study This research aims to investigate the hedging devices used in conversations in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino. Objectives of the study In order to achieve this aim, the researcher tries to fulfill the following objectives: + To identify types of hedges used in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino. + To investigate the functions of hedges used in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to achieve the above aim and objectives, the research questions will be addressed as follows: - What types of hedges are used in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino? - What functions do the hedges in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino perform? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The object of the study is the hedging devices used in conversations in the English version of the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino. The study focuses totally on the types and functions of the hedging devices in conversations in this film and intralinguistic factors are taken into consideration 4 without presenting the prosodic features and the kinetic mode because these issues are extremely complicated and no general agreement on them has been reached by researchers. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Theoretically, the study is expected to help make a useful contribution to the literature of hedging study in general and the literature of researches on hedging in spoken discourse in particular.
Practically, the study helps to establish communication skills, which raises listeners‟ attention to speakers and decreases the imposition that utterances are likely to have on them. In addition, the research also contributes to increasing the culture awareness. It means that if both speakers and listeners know how to use hedging devices in conversations, which depends on cultures of different countries, they will avoid culture shock. Moreover, the findings of the study can be a useful source of reference for those interested in hedging devices.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The study consists of 5 main chapters. Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the study, which includes the rationale, justification, the scope of the study, the research questions, and organization of the study. Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background, presents the overview of hedges and the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino. Chapter 3, Research Methods and Procedures, mentions the aim, objectives, research methods, organization of the research, data collection, data analysis, and description of the corpus.
5 Chapter 4, Findings and discussion, demonstrates the findings and discusses how the hedging devices used in the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino. Chapter 5, Conclusion, deals with the conclusions drawn from the study and the review of the issues presented, the limitations, and suggestions for further study. 6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter shows the theoretical framework related to hedging devices and some main information about the film “Call me by your name” by Luca Guadagnino.