MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY LÊ THỊ ÁNH NGUYỆT POLITENESS MARKERS IN THE CONVERSATIONS IN THE FILM “THE BLIND SIDE” BY JOHN LEE HANCOCK FIELD: English Linguistics CODE: 8.01 Supervisor: BÙI THỊ ĐÀO, Ph. e BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN LÊ THỊ ÁNH NGUYỆT DẤU HIỆU LỊCH SỰ TRONG NHỮNG ĐOẠN HỘI THOẠI TRONG PHIM “GÓC KHUẤT” CỦA JOHN LEE HANCOCK Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh Mã số: 8.01 Người hướng dẫn: TS. Bùi Thị Đào e i DECLARATION I hereby certify that the M.A thesis entitled Politeness markers in the conversations in the film “The Blind Side” by John Lee Hancock is my work. This thesis has not been submitted for any other degree or diploma.
Binh Dinh, 2020 Signature Lê Thị Ánh Nguyệt e ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, my lecturers, my family, my friends for their help, support, and encouragement in preparing and completing this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to send my profound gratitude to Dr. Bui Thi Dao for all her enthusiastic supervision, valuable comments, endless encouragement, patience, and constant support from sketching out the plan of the research to submitting the final draft for examination. Without her guide, this thesis would not have been possibly finished.
My special thanks go to the lecturers and the staff of the Foreign Language Department at Quy Nhon University for providing a great deal of knowledge as well as valuable documents. Last but not least, I would like to express my indebtedness to my family and my best friends who have been always beside me when I have troubles during the process of doing the research. They have always encouraged me to fulfill the research. e iii ABSTRACT In this research, an attempt has been made to investigate what is the basic ingredient of successful interpersonal communication in conversations - politeness markers - used in the film “The Blind Side”.
The objectives of this research are divided into two parts. The first objective of this research is to know the types of politeness markers and their frequencies in the conversations in the film. The second objective of this research is to find out which types of politeness markers in the film are the most frequently used. To achieve the aims of the research, a variety of methods of descriptive in combination with both quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed to analyze 80 conversations within the investigated film.
This thesis is mainly based on the theory of Sifianou (1987) as a theoretical framework. The results show that there are 8 types of politeness markers, namely (1) Indirectness, (2) Imperatives, (3) Interrogatives, (4) Negatives, (5) Declaratives, (6) Modals, (7) Ellipsis, (8) Modification found in the film. Among them, imperatives is the most frequently used in comparing to the rest types of politeness markers expressing requests, with 32.08% of all while indirectness and ellipsis are used at the lowest rate with the frequency at 5. Besides, it is hoped that the findings of this study may serve as guidance and are considered to be useful for learning English as a second language to Vietnamese people with major attention to the effect of politeness markers and provide some implications for learners who use this film as the main material within the process of learning English.
e iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. Aim of the study. Objectives of the study. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES. THE FILM “THE BLIND SIDE”.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. TYPES OF POLITENESS MARKERS. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH. 1 e vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS Ind Indirectness S Structural Indirectness P Pragmatics Indirectness Imp Imperatives Ne Negatives De Declaratives Int Interrogatives Mo Modals El Ellipsis IM Internal Modification H Hedges F Fillers Mod Modification EM External Modification S Seeking commitment R Reinforcing devices C Conversation Italic Used for terms and direct quotations [C1], [C2], [C3]… Numbers of conversations in the Appendix.1)… Numbers of examples in the main text. e vii LIST OF TABLES No.
Title Page Table 4.1 Frequencies of politeness markers and their 35 subtypes Table 4.2 Frequencies of indirectness and its subtypes 37 Table 4.3 Frequencies of modals and its subtypes 46 Table 4.4 Frequencies of internal modification and its 50 subtypes Table 4.5 Frequencies of external modification and its 52 subtypes e viii LIST OF FIGURES No. Title Page Figure 2.1 Classification of modification 24 Figure 4.1 Frequencies of politeness markers and their 36 subtypes Figure 4.2 Frequencies of modals and its subtypes 46 e 1 CHAPTER 1. RATIONALE Language plays an important role in our daily communication. People use language to mention or deliver their ideas, feelings, suggestions, requests, information, and many others, either in spoken or written forms.
According to Steinberg (2007, p. 115), “language is a unified system of signs words that allows people to think, share meaning and define reality”. Besides, good communication occurs when there is an understanding between the interlocutors or between the speaker and the hearer. Therefore, it is essential to consider someone‟s attitude when they are doing or saying something.
If the speaker decides to say something, it means that she/he has already thought about the way and choice of words which is used during the conversation. For instance, among our friends, we can easily say something that would be seen as discourteous among strangers and we avoid over formally with our friends. However, people should be able to decide how to use language appropriately and politely to avoid making the hearer embarrassed and uncomfortable. Politeness has a big effect refers to the goal of communication.
The politeness is not only for one group society but also it is for everyone in all conditions that using language as their tools in daily conversation to make a good social interaction with other people. Besides, using politeness can make hearers give a good response to the speaker‟s question or request. Politeness is showing awareness of another person‟s face that is related to social distance or closeness by Yule (1996, p. Thus, if we are being polite, many people feel comfortable and do not hesitate to make relation with us, although just talk for a moment.
This study, being polite can be indicated with the e 2 expression of face, speech, gesture, and many more. These politeness markers are considered as primarily linguistic phenomena that have become one of the major fields in recent language researchers. To the range that interlocutors aim to successfully communicate, politeness markers principally exist in all interpersonal communication that can express complicated ideas through important shade in the use of a wide range of meanings and constructions in conversations. In other words, it is not just seen simply as the product of two speaker-hearers who make an effort to convey messages to each other, but as mutually orienting to interact with people surroundings orderly and meaningfully.
Besides, politeness markers are also used in literal work like novels, drama, or films, especially for films that have been reflected through real life. Furthermore, a film always contains the value of education and moral values that can be taken by moviegoers. Based on films, the important points about politeness are easier than to understand because we can watch directly without having to imagine it, and some films teach good manners, polite, thoughtful, and others. Hence, we can choose which one is good for us to apply in daily life.
Moreover, to accomplish effectiveness in communication through conversations, it is necessary to cover politeness markers for each certain context. That is the reason why this thesis concentrates on politeness markers conveyed in the conversations in the film, which inspires the researcher to invest in a study on politeness markers with the topic: Politeness markers in the conversations in the film “The Blind Side” by John Lee Hancock with the hope that this study, to some ranges, can help improve English language learning and use politeness markers appropriately and effectively in communication. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. Aim of the study This study aims at investigating the types of politeness markers and their frequencies in the conversations in the film “The Blind Side” by John Lee Hancock.
Objectives of the study To achieve the aim of the study, the research will concentrate on the following objectives: - To examine the types of politeness markers and their frequencies in the conversations in the film. - To find out which types of politeness markers in the film are the most frequently used. RESEARCH QUESTIONS To achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, the thesis addresses to answer the following questions: 1. What are the types of politeness markers and their frequencies in the conversations in the film? 2.
Which types of politeness markers in the film are the most frequently used? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study only focuses on the descriptive account of politeness markers and their subtypes (indirectness, imperatives, interrogatives, negatives, declaratives, modals, ellipsis, and modification) basing on the e 4 theoretical framework of Sifianou (1987). These subtypes can function as requests and be also considered as the main criteria for recognizing how politeness markers are used in conversations of the films. In this study, the data are taken from 80 conversations between or among characters that contain commands with politeness markers in the movie entitled The Blind Side.
It was directed by John Lee Hancock in 2009 and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study will contribute both theoretical and practical significance in the pragmatics field to the linguistic research. Theoretically, the results of the study will contribute to a better understanding of politeness in general and politeness makers via conversations collected from the movie. Practically, the findings of the study will make readers and those who have deeps concerns about the field of linguistics to understand thoroughly the language they deal with as well as the speaker‟s attitudes or context they indicate.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The study will be organized into five chapters as follow: 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) is concerned with the review of related previous studies and the brief view of the theoretical background for the e 5 matters of study. Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the research methods, research procedures, data collection, data analysis, the validity and reliability of the study. Chapter 4 (Findings and Discussion) demonstrates the findings of the data analysis, the frequency of 8 types of politeness markers expressing requests employed in conversational activities in the film.
Then the discussion of the findings is pointed out. Chapter 5 (Conclusion and Implications) summarizes the results of the study, points out the limitations as well as provides implications for teaching and learning, and puts forward suggestions for further research. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES Basing on the politeness theory, there have been a great number of studies on politeness. Ani (2007) did a study of positive politeness strategy in the film entitled “In Good Company”.
Through a descriptive qualitative study to find out the kinds of positive politeness strategies employed by the characters and factors influencing the characters to employ those strategies with Brown and Levinson‟s politeness strategy. The result of the analysis showed that there are 15 strategies of positive politeness employed by the characters in the conversations of the film. Besides, two factors were influencing the characters when they employed this strategy, namely payoff and circumstances.