Hedges showing power distance in the godfather from pragmatic perspective ( các phương tiện rào đón thể hiện khoảng cách quyền lực trong tác phẩm bố già từ góc độ ngữ dụng học)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG HEDGES SHOWING POWER DISTANCE IN THE GODFATHER FROM PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE (Các phương tiện rào đón thể khoảng cách quyền lực tác phẩm Bố già từ góc độ ngữ dụng học) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Hanoi, 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG HEDGES SHOWING POWER DISTANCE IN THE GODFATHER FROM PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE (Các phương tiện rào đón thể khoảng cách quyền lực tác phẩm Bố già từ góc độ ngữ dụng học) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Supervisor: Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Ph.D Hanoi, 2021 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Nguyễn Thị Huyền Trang, declare that this thesis is the result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other university or institution partially or wholly Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in text of the thesis Hanoi, 2021 Nguyễn Thị Huyền Trang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Ph.D for his enthusiastic guidance, insightful comments, and valuable support throughout my research I would also like to thank all of the lecturers of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, Vietnam National University for their useful lectures and materials which are of great value to my thesis A special word of thanks goes to all of my classmates, colleagues and students for their useful information and support Last but not least, I owe my gratitude to my family for their support and encouragement This thesis cannot avoid limitation, so I wish to receive comments and opinions to make it better ii ABSTRACT Hedges are a communicative tool which can be used to achieve pragmatic purposes The literature review shows gaps in researching hedges in the relation with power distance This present study seeks to fulfil such gaps by conducting an investigation into the American context after the World War II The data were from the conversations in one of the most prominent novels - The Godfather by Mario Puzo Hedges were analyzed in four categories: modal hedges, performative hedges, pragmatic-marker hedges and quantification hedges before they are interpreted in six dimensions of power distance The findings were discussed from pragmatic perspective via a model of hedging functions: content-oriented, speaker-oriented and reader-oriented The research pointed out that the use of hedges is determined by age, gender and social status to different extents This study argues that although the US is a low power country, the power distance in the novel is an exception This study hopes to contribute to the local and global understanding of hedges and power distance Practically, it may serve certain samples as a source of authentic materials in learning and teaching hedging devices and functions of hedges for power distance in the classroom and in communication iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES, FIGURE vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research 1.2 Aims and objectives of the research 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the research 1.5 Scope of the research 1.6 Research methodology 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Pragmatics function 2.2 Hedges and hedging 2.2.1 Classification of hedges 2.2.2 Pragmatic properties of hedges 13 2.3 Hedges and power distance 15 2.4 Related studies on hedges 16 2.5 Summary 18 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19 3.1 Research questions 19 3.2 Research design 19 3.3 Setting of the study 20 3.4 Data collection and data analysis 22 3.4.1 Hedges identification 23 iv 3.4.2 Analytical framework 24 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26 4.1 Hedging devices employed in conversations in the Godfather 26 4.1.1 Modal hedges 29 4.1.2 Performative hedges 30 4.1.3 Pragmatic-marker hedges 31 4.1.4 Quantificational hedges 32 4.2 The extent to which these devices show power distance between different social groups in the novel 33 4.2.1 Hedges showing power distance determined by age 34 4.2.2 Hedges showing power distance determined by gender 36 4.2.3 Hedges showing power distance determined by social status 39 4.3 Summary 42 CHAPTER5: CONCLUSION 44 5.1 Summary 44 5.2 Implications 44 5.3 Limitations of the research 45 5.4 Suggestions for further research 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS E Equal F Female H Higher L Lower M Male O Older Y Younger vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1: Salvager-Meyer's categorization of hedges Table 2.2: Yu‘s taxonomy of hedges 12 Table 3.1: An analytical framework of four hedging strategies 23 Table 3.2: Analytical framework 24 Table 4.1: Categories of hedges showing power distance used by groups of age, gender and social status in the Godfather 28 Table 4.2:Modal hedges showing power distance used by groups of age, gender and social status in the Godfather 29 Table 4.3:Performative hedges showing power distance used by groups of age, gender and social status in the Godfather 30 Table 4.4:Pragmatic- marker hedges showing power distance used by groups of age, gender and social status in the Godfather 31 Table 4.5:Quantificational hedges showing power distance used by groups of age, gender and social status in the Godfather 32 Figure 2.1: Hyland's categorization of scientific hedges 10 Figure 3.1: The Corleone family 22 Figure 4.1:Hedges identified in the Godfather by Mario Puzo by gender 26 Figure 4.2: Hedges identified by age 27 Figure 4.3: Hedges identified by social status 28 Figure 4.4: Power distance identified in The Godfather 33 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter will briefly present the rationale of the research, the aims and the research questions; provides the theoretical and practical significance of the research, together with the scope of the study and research methodology Finally, this section outlines the organization of the study as a whole 1.1 Rationale for the research The novel is usually in a large part based upon reality When we speak of ‗the novel‘, the phrase is not a material thing, but rather a medium of dialogic interaction It hardly navigates toward a single voice, but it is constrained from one mouth to another‘s and from one context to another and so on in the dialogic relationship In this process, a novel does not free itself from its own path and forget the power of those involved in these contexts Bakhtin (1981), in his Discourse in the novel, calls ‗doubly-voiced or doublyoriented‘ Although hardly distinguished from the poetic genre, the novel genre offers readers a rather different dimension of the society The former is a single language and single style while the latter consists of several stylistic unities that go together to form the stylistic system of the novel Bakhtin (1981) differentiates five basic stylistic unities integrated in the novel as follows: (1) direct authorial literary-artistic narration, (2) the use of various forms of oral everyday narration, (3) the use of various forms of written semiliterary everyday narration such as a letter or a diary; (4) various forms of literary with extra-artistic authorial speech such as scientific statements; and finally (5) the stylistically individualized speech of characters When it comes to novel as a written form of discourse, the text denotes the different stratas such as social, professional, dialectic, cognitive and so on in the same text By this, (Bakhtin, 1981) rejects the view that text is unitary or the uniqueness in meaning In his chapter Discourse in the novel, Bakhtin (1981) reorganized different levels of meaning in a text, he perplexes that in a have him out here on the plane tonight, with your money that is, and if I think it necessary But you can walk out of here and see your quack buddy or sweat while you decide to see another doctor, or get referred to somebody incompetent Then if it‘s malignant and gets big enough they‘ll cut out your whole larynx or you‘ll die Or you can just sweat Stick here with me and we can get it all squared away in a few hours You got anything more important to do?‖ When it was all over Jules grinned at Fontane and said, ―Warts.‖ Fontane didn‘t grasp it Jules said again ―Just some warts We‘ll slice them right off like skin off baloney In a few months you‘ll be OK.‖ Jules shrugged ―On that there‘s no guarantee But since you can‘t sing now what‘s the difference?‖ CII afterward, how will it affect my singing?‖ Fontane looked at him with distaste ―Kid, you don‘t know what the hell you‘re talking about You act like you‘re giving me good news when what you‘re telling me is maybe I won‘t sing anymore Is that right, maybe I won‘t sing anymore?‖ Jules started to walk out of the room when Valenti said, ―Attaboy, Doc, that‘s telling him.‖ Valenti said, ―Sure,‖ and grinned at him and with such good humor that Jules said more gently than he had meant to, Valenti was lumbering up to him Jules said coldly, with little dancing ―Listen, Mr Fontane, steps He threw his I‘m a doctor of arms around Jules, his medicine and you can breath stank of call me Doctor, not kid bourbon He was And I did give you very laughing very hard good news When I ―Five years?‖ he brought you down here asked still‘ laughing I was certain that you ―Is it going to take had a malignant growth that long?‖ in your larynx which would entail cutting out your whole voice box Or which could kill you I was worried that I might have to tell you that you were a dead man And I was so delighted when I could say the word ‗warts.‘ Because your singing gave me so much pleasure, helped me seduce girls when I was younger and you‘re a real artist But also you‘re a very spoiled guy Do you think because you‘re Johnny Fontane you can‘t get cancer? Or a brain tumor that‘s inoperable Or a failure of the heart? Do you think you‘re never going to die? Well, it‘s not all sweet music and if you want to see real trouble take a walk through this CIII hospital and you‘ll sing a love song about warts So just stop the crap and get on with what you have to Your Adolphe Menjou medical man can get you the proper surgeon but if he tries to get into the operating room I suggest you have him arrested for attempted murder.‖ Jules whirled around and said, ―Do you always get looped before noontime?‖ ―You have to figure you‘ll be dead in five years if you keep that up.‖ 272 ―You don‘t have to build up your courage,‖ Jules said teasingly ―I have champagne waiting in our suite.‖ ―I‘m the doctor,‖ Jules said ―Tonight‘s the big night Do you realize I‘ll be the first surgeon in medical history who tried out the results of his ‗medical first‘ operation? You know, the Before and After CIV ―Are you sure it‘s OK so soon?‖ Lucy asked She smiled down at him ―If you‘re not satisfied tonight, I can really say it‘s your fault,‖ she said I‘m going to enjoy writing it up for the journals Let‘s see, ‗while the Before was distinctly pleasurable for psychological she whispered back, reasons and the ―Oh, yes, you do; yes, sophistication of the you do.‖ surgeon-instructor, the post-operative coitus was extremely rewarding strictly for its neurological‖ ―I guarantee my work I planned it even though I just let old Kellner the manual labor,‖ Jules said ―Now let‘s just rest up, we have a long night of research ahead.‖ ―That shows you how much confidence I have in my work,‖ Jules said ―Now let‘s see you earn it.‖ Jules whispered, ―I good work,‖ 23 30 357 Policeman- criminal Neri ordered Baines, ―Drop your knife, you‘re under arrest.‖ CV Baines laughed ―Man, you gottause your gun to arrest me.‖He held his knife up ―Or maybe you want this.‖ ... AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG HEDGES SHOWING POWER DISTANCE IN THE GODFATHER FROM PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE (Các phương tiện rào đón thể khoảng cách. .. hedges Therefore, both the father and the son use hedges to show their power distance 4.2.1.2 Hedges showing power distance between the older and the younger One more point is the length of the. .. hedging devices used in the novel The Godfather from the pragmatic perspective The power distance is rich in effects between age, gender and social status groups To investigate hedging from pragmatic