VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE DISCOURSE OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MOVIE TRAILERS SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM DIỄN NGÔN QUẢNG CÁO PHIM MỸ VÀ PHIM VIỆT M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS CODE: 60 22 15 HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE DISCOURSE OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MOVIE TRAILERS SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM DIỄN NGÔN QUẢNG CÁO PHIM MỸ VÀ PHIM VIỆT M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS CODE: 60 22 15 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HÒA HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality ………………………………………………………………. ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents ……………………………………………………………………….
iv PART A: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………… 1 1. The aims and scope of the study ………………………………………………. The research questions ………………………………………………………… 2 4. Significance of the study ……………………………………………………… 7 6.
Design of the study …………………………………………………………… 7 PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……………………………………………………………. 8 Chapter I: Theoretical background …………………………………………………… 8 1. Theories of discourse …………………………………………………………. The concept of discourse …………………………………………………… 8 1.
The functions of language …………………………………………………… 9 1. Register and genre in discourse analysis ……………………………………. Register and genre in discourse analysis …………………………………. Advertisements as “style”, “register” and “genre” ………………………… 13 1.
The language of advertising …………………………………………………. Definition of advertising …………………………………………………. Functions of advertising …………………………………………………… 17 1. A model of advertising process …………………………………………….
General features of advertising language …………………………………. What is a movie trailer? …………………………………………………… 20 1. History of movie trailers …………………………………………………. Media used to advertise movie trailers …………………………………….
23 Chapter II: Features of American movie trailers ……………………………………. Structure of American movie trailers………………………………………… 25 2. Defining discourse mode of movie trailers ………………………………. Structure of American movie trailers …………………………………….
Features of language used in American movie trailers………………………. Explanation of the relationship between discourse processes and socio-psychological processes in movie trailers ……………………………. 50 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Chapter 3: Features of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between American and Vietnamese movie trailers ……………………………………………. Structure of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between American and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ structure ……………………………………….
Linguistic features of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between American and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ linguistic features …………………… 53 3. Summary of the study …………………………………………………………. Summary of the main findings ………………………………………………… 67 2. Implications for English language teaching and learning …………………….
Suggestions for further study ……………………………………………. I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The primary goal of any industry is sales – producers spare no efforts to sell as many of their products as possible. The same trend can be seen in movie industry in which the product is of a very special kind: it is “an experience of an entire show that eventually would feature one special film that would run only for a certain period of time and be replaced by a similar – but different – movie”.
(Cinema Journal, Vol. 3, Spring 1990) Adapting the notion that merely supplying the movie is insufficient in new age of film development, film producers, distributors and exhibitors accept the prevailing idea that demand for a movie can be stimulated, directed and controlled by industrially produced representations. To achieve the stimulation, direction and control over the demand, a very effective advertising tool – movie trailers - is used to persuade audiences to “buy” the experience of a show. In movie trailers, language is used as an effective means of conveying advertising messages.
It is obvious that language used in movie trailers is different from that used in other fields such as tourism, technology or law; it has its own characteristics and serves its own functions; and the task of linguists and interested people is to discover and understand these characteristics and functions for broadening human knowledge and exploiting them to the full in human life. A number of studies have been done on advertising such as commercials or technology advertisements; however, research on movie trailers is still a new area. Hence, I realize that filling this gap of knowledge is absolutely a necessity. The study of movie trailers can be approached in different directions, each of which provides different aspects of knowledge on the subject.
As a Vietnamese student studying English, I am determined to make a comparative analysis of Vietnamese and American movie trailers which is hoped to provide some helpful knowledge for such people who are concerned as advertisers, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers and students. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 In short, it is clear that studying this issue is beneficial for English teaching and learning. Therefore, I decided to carry out the study: “A comparative analysis on the discourse of American and Vietnamese movie trailers. The aims and scope of the study 2.
The aims The principal purpose of this study is to contribute a richer and more systematic conceptual understanding of advertising language used in movie trailers. Specifically, this study focuses on finding out the structure and linguistic features of advertising language of American and Vietnamese movie trailers. It identifies, studies, and compares the similarities and differences in terms of structure and linguistic features between English and Vietnamese movies trailers. Besides, it helps teachers, learners, advertisers and translators to have better understanding and interpretation of movie trailers.
The scope This study focuses on describing and presenting only the structural and linguistic features in movie trailers and analyzing those characteristics of the two languages in American and Vietnamese movie trailers. Within a limited time and knowledge, it is not my ambition to mention all issues of movie trailers such as music, sound, ect; but only discourse structure and linguistic features of movie trailers. The research questions This study seeks the answers to three research questions: 1. What structure characterizes American and Vietnamese movie trailers? 2.
What are the most effective linguistic features characterizing American and Vietnamese movie trailers? 3. What are the similarities and differences between American and Vietnamese movie trailers in terms of structure and linguistic features? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Methods The descriptive method and comparative analysis have been applied to this study. + The descriptive method The study follows the descriptive approach as it “involves a collection of techniques used to specify, delineate or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation” (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989:124).
Therefore, the collection of data will be conducted via non-intrusive and non-manipulative processes. The descriptive approach provides an investigation into the frequency of the occurrence of some linguistic features in American and Vietnamese movie trailers. The aim of this type of study is to find out more about the phenomena and capture it with detailed information. + A comparative analysis: According to Carl (1980:18), a comparative analysis is viewed as an interlinguistic, bidirectional phenomenon which is concerned with both the form and function of language.
As such, comparative analysis must view language psycho-linguistically and socio-linguistically as a system to be both described and acquired. The comparative analysis is suitable for the study because it is concerned with the comparison of two subjects: Vietnamese and American movie trailers. Furthermore, both the form of the language and its functions in real life are considered. The analysis of movie trailers is in close relation with psychological and social basis because the language of movie trailers is only meaningful when not being separated from these bases.
Data collection and processing 50 movie trailers are collected randomly, 25 American and 25 Vietnamese trailers mainly on the internet or some established television channels. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 Data analysis After collection, each movie trailer is analyzed in terms of discourse structure and linguistic features. Descriptive method is applied in this stage. Then American and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ features are compared and contrasted in terms of discourse structure and linguistic features.
The method of comparative analysis is exploited in this stage. In terms of discourse structure: The analysis of discourse structure follows Labov‟s model of narrative structure. According to Labov (1972), at a high level of structural analysis, a full- form narrative includes five main parts. It begins with an orientation, proceeds to the complicating action, is suspended at the focus of evaluation before the resolution, concludes with the resolution and returns the listener to the present time with the coda (see the table below) Abstract Orientation Complicating Evaluation action Climax Resolution Coda Table 1: Labov‟s model of narrative structure 4.
In terms of linguistic features Linguistic features including grammatical, lexical and rhetorical features have been taken into consideration. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Grammatical features It is obvious that English and Vietnamese have different grammatical systems because Vietnamese is an analytic language while English is a morphologic-analytic one. However, the writer has made an effort to find a shared coding system between language used in American movie trailers and that in Vietnamese ones and the analysis of grammatical features is based on English traditional grammar.
Time reference - In English: According to Bernard Comrie (1976:6), the semantic concept of time reference is grammaticalised in English , i. it may have a grammatical category that expresses time reference, in which case we say that English has tenses. As Fabricius- Hansen (2006) states in "Tense", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, tense is usually indicated by a verb or modal verb. In English, there are basically two tenses: present and past tense.
What is commonly called the future tense in English is not a true tense, but a modal construction that does not always appear (it is optional in subordinate constructions such as I hope you (will) go tomorrow, and is prohibited with other modals as in I can go tomorrow). - In Vietnamese: Bernard Comrie (1976) also states that many languages (including Vietnamese) lack tense, i. do not have grammatical time reference. However, Vietnamese can lexicalise time reference, i.
have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time. Present time reference: is expressed by “đang”, “bây giờ”, “hôm nay”, “hiện thời”… Past time reference: “đã”, “vừa mới”, “xong”, “rồi”… Future time reference: “sẽ”, “sắp”… Voice reference - In English, there are two voices: active and passive. The passive voice, which provides information about the roles of different participants in an event, is formed with the auxiliary "be" and the "-ed" participle form of the lexical verb. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 - In Vietnamese, like tense voice is not a recognized grammatical category and Vietnamese can lexicalize voice reference.
Passive reference is expressed by “bị” or “được”. However, not all sentences including “bị ” or “được” are passive one. Another criterion must be based on meaning: if the recipient of the action is the subject of the sentence, it expresses passive. Mood reference - In English, a verb phrase can also express mood, which refers to the "factual or non- factual status of events.” There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
Indicative mood: expresses an assertion, denial, or question. Imperative mood: expresses command, prohibition, entreaty, or advice. Subjunctive mood: expresses doubt or something contrary to fact. - In Vietnamese, mood is not a grammatical category, too.
Mood reference is expressed by lexical elements. Indicative reference: expresses in statements, questions… Subjunctive reference: expresses non-factual statements through “giá như, nếu, giả sử…” Imperative reference: expresses command, advice…through “hãy, cứ, đừng…” Lexical and rhetorical phenomena are not culture-oriented, which means that these phenomena appear in any language whether it is an analytic or morphologic one. Lexical features: First, the use of word layers including: academic words, slangs or dialects, colloquial words is investigated. Then there is an analysis of the use of particular kinds of words (descriptive adjectives and adverbs, first and second person addressee and negatives) 4.
Rhetorical features: The following rhetorical devices are taken into consideration: hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, parallelism, contradiction. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.