Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study
Literary works are considered as a device to reflect real world Through masterpieces in each previous, the latter generations can fill in historical atmosphere, which draw a cultural picture and previous lifestyles expressed by how they communicate or their conversation ways Although precise plays an important role in impart information speakers, sometimes, wish to imitate their utterances by the use of hedges
There is no doubt that the definition of hedges is controversial The concept of hedges was firstly put forward by American linguistic George Lakoff (1972: 485) In his paper, hedge was defined as “words whose job is to make things fuzzier and less fuzzy” However, there are some scholars who favor the use of hedging in communication (e.g Hyland, 1998; 1995) Drawing inxspiration from classical rhetoric, they operate on the assumption that conversations are not only content- oriented and informative but also aim at convincing and influencing their listeners
Many researchers recently have paid attention on the use of hedging in academic writing, which highlights the functions of hedges to persuading audiences However, merely discourse writing does not reflect pragmatic functions of hedging totally because there is no interaction in this kind of text Therefore, I investigate the use hedges in conversations in a present story – Harry Potter and the Scorer’s stone by J.K
Rowling which partly devotes to research pragmatic functions in real conversations which recorded in written forms
The study is conducted by finding out the meanings of hedge devices related to the literary works, in this case story, which presents the analysis of hedges used by the main characters in a novel namely Harry Potter and the Scorer‟s stone
Significance of the study
Theoretically, due to investigating how hedges are used in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone, this can be a theoretical foundation for the latter studies hedges in other genres The outcome of this study raises the interest and enthusiasm of other researchers to deal with the hedges articles in their own institutions, or conduct similar, follow- up and parallel studies to strengthen or prove the outcome of this present research
Practically, by dint of finding out the use of hedges in real conversations through the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone, the author hopes to draw and raise the speakers’ attention to this spoken devices which partly cements their communication skills.
Aim, objectives and scope of study
Aim of study
To soften daily conversations, we unconsciously use hedges as a speaking habit By dint of being aware of the appearance of hedge in speaking, the author desire to explore the meanings of hedge devices used in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone.
Objectives of study
The main objectives of this analysis aims to show that hedging is regularly used in daily conversations; especially provide in insight in types, frequency and meanings of hedges in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
To achieve the above mentioned aims, the following objectives are acutely set for exploration:
+ Find out the types of hedges used in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
+ Measure the frequency of hedges used in conversations in Harry Potter and the
+ Explain the use of hedges device in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
This study deals with determining the forms and functions of various hedges devices in conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
The study is used both quantitative and qualitative method through content or corpus analysis These articles were gathered from conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone.
Research questions
- What are the most common types of hedge devices in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone?
- How often does each device occur in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone?
- How are the hedge devices used in the story explained?
Organization of study
This thesis consists of three parts, namely introduction, development and conclusion
Part A is introduction which provides an overview of the study including the rationale,the aims, methods, the scope, the significance and the design of the study
Part B, Development, includes three distinguishable chapters
Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews theoretical background on which the whole study is based concluding terminological definitions and taxonomies of hedge
Chapter 2, Methodology, briefly presents the methodological framework of the study It covers methods to carry the research
Chapter 3, findings and discussion, presents findings and discusses how hedge devices used in conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
Part C, Conclusion, provides a summary of the study; summarizes significant findings in terms of types, frequency and meanings of the hedges used in the story
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone; suggests some implications for the use of hedges; points out some limitations of the study; and states some suggestions for further studies
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Review on hedge
According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, hedge and hedging can be defined as a barrier, limit, defence, or the act, or means of protection or defense In the literature, hedge refer terms like stancemarker (Atkinson, 1999), understatement (Hubler, 1983), downtoners (Quirk, 1985), and downgraders (House and Kasper,
1981) Other terms that some researchers employ in some allied fields to refer to hedging are mitigation (Stubbs, 1983; Labov and Fanshel, 1977), indirectedness (HIkel, 1997; Lakoff, 1990; Tannen; 1982), tentativeness (Holmes, 1983), and vagueness (Myer, 1996; Chanel, 1994)
Lakoff who was considered as the pioneer experiencing principals of hedging drew attention to the problem of relating natural phenomenon to natural language concepts In his studies, Lakoff claims that natural language (concepts) have “vague boundaries and fuzzy edges” (1973, 458) Instead of stating: Men are animals, we add hedge “more and less” to this sentence Men are more and less animals It is obvious that by adding hedge, the form of the original sentence becomes softer as well as fuzzier about the sentence meaning
The forms of hedges have later been defined by Brown and Levinson (1978:145) as “a particle, word or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or a noun phrase in a set; it says of that membership that it is partial or true only in certain respects, or that it is more true and complete than perhaps may be expected” This definition is interesting in that it includes in hedges both detensifiers and indetensifiers
As to the motivation for the use of hedges, a lot of discussion has concentrated on their use in spoken discourse and the most frequently mentioned motivating factor is politeness, as defined by Brown/ Levinson (1987) In their view, hedges are mainly used for negative politeness in face- saving, in which they are put to elaborate use In positive politeness they figure only in expression of extreme, which is typical of this form of politeness, “safe vague” because they leave it to the addressee to figure out how to interpret them In negative politeness strategies hedges are usedto hedge on the illocutionary force of an utterance
In conclusion, there are many views of using hedge which first included some disadvantages of using hedging in various discourses and disciplines such as medicine, chemistry, economics, psychology as well as politics; however, the understanding of what a hedge is has also been changed since the first definition “fuzzy” to the definition of “politeness” As a result, there are number of various definitions on the phenomenon of hedging
In recent studies deal with hedging, interpersonal aspect has been raised prominent
According to Zuck and Zuck (1985, 172) defined that using hedge in news writing could reduce the strength of what he is writing, in some cases, the information reported turns out incorrect In another cross- linguistic study of hedges in philosophical texts, Markanen and Schroler (1978, 48) emerged hedging as a strategy of saying less than what one means
Honestly speaking, in this case, hedge is presented as a strategy used to modify writers’ responsibility for the truthfulness of an utterance, to modify the definiteness of an utterance, and to modify the attitude of the author to the propositions put forth in the text or even to hide the attitude Crismore and Vaude Kopple (1988; 185) also determined hedges as items that signal a tentative or cautious assessment of the truth of referential, which allow senders to reduce their responsibility toward information presented All of these assertions above undoubtedly capture some essential discourse function of hedging However, to explore the communication situation and the relationships between discourse participants as well, we need to carry out the issue of linguistic politeness
The notion of linguistic politeness first received attention in Grice’s studies on conversational maxims where he suggested that, in order to account for language use in context, a politeness maxim should perhaps be added to the well- known maxims he had established within his cooperative principle (i.e maxims of quality, quantity, relations, and manner) In Robin Lakoff’s elaboration of Gricean maxims, she demonstrates that underlying our behavior during linguistic interactions are two basic areas of linguistic competence, one area being realized by adhering to the principle of clarity and the other by observing the principle of politeness In Leech theory (1983), politeness may be realized by weighing one’s linguistic behavior against a group of maxims whereby speakers can minimize hearer cost and maximize hearer benefit (tact maxim), minimize their own benefit and maximize that of hearer (generosity maxim), minimize hearer dispraise and maximize hearer praise (approbation maxim), minimize seft-praise and maximize seft- dispraise (modesty maxim), minimize disagreement and maximize agreement between oneseft and others (agreement maxim), and minimize antipathy and maximize sympathy between oneseft and others (sympathy maxim)
In contrast to Lakoff and Leech, Brown and Levison (1987/1978) developed a seemingly different approach to the study of linguistic politeness While Robin Lakoff and Leech had been interested in politeness as a part of a system of conversational principles, Brown and Levinson looked at politeness as a systemic feature of linguistic interaction
Hedging as a rhetorical artefact writing is an interesting topic to many generations of linguistic through a number of studies For example, “The hedging in academic writing: A Pragmatic analysis of English and chemistry” by Adamu Musa,
“Hedging in Journalistic articles” by Aquino Those authors focus on the frequent forms of hedges in writing texts whose implications does not aim to improve speaking skill This apparently offers a gap for the linguistic researchers to conduct a study on hedging used in speaking
As regard Vietnam’s ELT context, the researchers have the same interest in hedge device used in academic writing The most recent research by Ngo (2014) demonstrated on quantifiers as hedge used in these by MA student of English Besides, the former researches in hedges devices in verbal communication is gradually carried out in 2012 with “A Contrastive Analysis of Mitigating Criticism: The Use of Disjuncts as Mitigating Hedges in Verbal Communication” by Hoang To achieve the desired aims of the study, survey questionnaire was designed and delivered to both Vietnamese and English speakers who asked to give specific utterance to criticize
Most recently, Nguyen (2014) did the research on the use of hedge devices in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The goal of the research is find out the frequency forms and functions of hedging in Gone with the Wind Also, Nguyen’s study has left gaps for the present research to continue exploring the meaning of hedge devices in communications in different relationships in order to find out the use of hedge devices in verbal communications
The majority of linguists emphasize the fact that a comprehensive list does not exist yet Therefore, the table below is a synthesis of several taxonomies that were provided by several linguists, such as: Salager- Meyer (1997), Clemen (2002), Hinkel
(2002, 2004), and Hyland (1996, 2005) in order to build up a detailed picture of what is considered to be hedge Their taxonomies are not radically different but rather supplementing each other
Meyer Clemen Hinkel Hyland Others
Adj, Adv and nominal modal phrases
Modal auxiliary verbs with lexical verbs
Lexical verb with Adjectives or Adverbs
As can be seen from the table above, most of hedges are classified according to their part of speech Conventional hedges, are considered as hedge by several linguists- Clemen (2002),
Salager- Meyer (1997), Hinkel (2004), Hyland (1996) and Vold (2006) Salager- Meyer
(1997, 109-110) divided them into modal auxiliary verbs, modal lexical verbs and adjectival, adverb and nominal modal phrases:
THE STUDY
Data
The corpus of this study is the first novel in Harry Potter series, namely Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone by Rowling, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury
The novel won most of the British book awards that were polled by children and other awards in the US The book reached the top of the New York Times list of the best – selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed the near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000 It has been translated into several other languages including Vietnam and made into a length film with the same name By dint of the first edition, the writer Rowling emerged totally her power of writing, which attracted the readers to fill in the following sections decidedly The story is to tell the time Harry Potter learned and lived the first year in Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry after living as an orphanage in his aunt’s house Only after meeting the giant man named Hagrid and receiving the letter from Hogwarts, a 11-year boy is explained his history, the reason of his parents’ death and the real world where he totally belongs to
The story fills the reader into the magic world where people can be seized upon extraordinary power, strengthening the readers’ imagination of their surrounding world Being a fiction novel for teenager, the language used is really modern and understandable for the young
The research focuses on conversations of main characters in Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer‟s stone: Harry Potter, the close friends of Harry Potter – Ron and Hermione,
Professor Minena Mcgonagall, Dr Dumbledore, the guardian – Hagrid The story is surrounded relationships: friends, colleague, teacher and student, with enemy, which indicates in which relationship hedges used most and how it used.
The data collection criteria
This research is based on a set of English conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s stone delivered by sevens main characters including conversations among Harry Potter and his teachers Professor Minena Mc Gonagall, Dr Dumble Dore Head Master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his close friends – Ron and Hermione, the guardian Mr Hagrid The total number of dialogues in conversations is 636 As a result, 386 linguistic devices functioning as hedges were subjected to the analysis
The choice of dialogues is based on one criterion which involved in main characters, especially focusing on relationship between Harry Potter and his close friends- Ron and Hermione , his relatives – Dudley family, the guardian – Mr Hagri, his teachers- Professor Minena Mc Gonagall, Dr Dumble Dore- Head Master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Its aim is to compare the change in the usage of hedges in different relationships
The conversations were analyzed according to the chosen types only The methods and produces used for analyzing the data are discussed in the next sections.
Research methods
The research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods
This study use quantitative method to find out which hedge is the most popular and which one is the least popular within the hedge classification
Quantitative method is applied to find out what hedge is the most popular and what hedge is the least common among the hedging device provided in Table 2, Chapter 2
Qualitative method is used to analyze meanings of using hedges in conversations by the main characters in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone Document analysis is valuable for collecting qualitative data Firstly, it is used to count the frequency of hedges in the corpus to identify which one is the most popular (word frequency) Then, in- depth studies are conducted in the real context of the text to identify the purpose in using hedges in conversations (meaning analysis).
Data collection procedure
This study is conducted mainly on the primary data collected from the story
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s stone
In order to collect appropriate data, we will manipulate the following steps:
+ First, we will identify and gather the hedges used by main characters, especially conversations between Harry Potter and his teachers Professor Minena Mcgonagall, Dr Dumbledore, his friends Ron and Hermione, the school guardian Mr
Hagrid and his relatives Dursleys
+ Then we investigate the frequent types of these found hedges
+ Last, we investigate meanings of hedge devices in conversations used in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone
In 86 conversations, or 10,168 words, 124 hedges in the forms of modal verbs were found From Figure 2, where the raw data is presented (see Figure 2) It is not difficult to see that 7 kinds of modals verb is all used when core character Harry Potter creates conversations with his teachers Mc Gonagall and Dr Dumble Dore It is also obviously the modal will was used most frequently Will occurs 27 times, which is considered to reach the highest percentage of modal verbs as hedges However, would is used as past form of will which is only used 16 times being the fifth popular modal verbs It is obvious that can is used with the second commonly modal verb with 44 times in the story By contrast, it appears merely 2 times in the conversations with his relatives, 7 and 13 times in conversations with the older and his friends, respectively
May, in the other hand, was the one used least frequently when is only used in conversations with his teachers Should appears with a low occurrence 13 times, is used in all conversations with 5 times, 4 times and 2 times in conversations among Harry and his friends, the guardians, his teachers, and his relatives as well
Figure 1: The use of modal verbs as hedge devices
Figure 1 above presents the raw data only, therefore, it was normalized in order to compare the results properly as the number of words in conversations between Harry Potter with the order, his teachers, his friends and his relatives was significantly different (2,589 words in conversations with the guardian Mr Hagrid, 2,231 words with his teachers, 3,671 words with his friend and 1,577 words with his relatives), respectively Figure 2 presents normalized data, i.e the occurrence of hedges in the form of modals per 1000 words (see Figure 2):
Figure 2: The occurrence of modal verbs as hedges per 1,000 words
It is obvious that hedges devices are used more variously in formal context with his teacher Furthermore, the normalized data shows that will, which, according to
Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, will is “used for talking about or predicting the future”, was used most often in conversations and reached the highest point at 9.8 cases in conversations with Harry Potter’s teachers in comparison those with his friends 3.5 cases, with the guardian Hagrid 2.7 cases and with his relatives only 1.2 cases in total
For the first year students, they will be punished when using broomstick without teachers’ allowance In the first flying lessons, no sooner does Professor McGonagall express her disagreement of Harry’s free flying than she partly predicts his ability of taking part in Quidditch team which needs to be encouraged:
(1) Professor McGonagall: “I will speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can‟t bend the first – year rule Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year…”
After supposing Harry to take part in the Quidditch team, she hopes his hard- working training:
(2) “I want to hear you‟re training hard, Potter, or I will change my mind of punishing you.”
Moreover, she predicts Harry’s talent heritage from his father:
(3) “Your father will be proud of you,” she said“He was an excellent Quidditch player himseft.”
As mentioned before that hedging devices express different degree of probability; therefore, will in Professor McGonagall offer Harry’ brilliant future if he trains hard
As for the other hedges in the form of modal verbs, can took the second place Can is used in all conversations, namely with his teachers, the guardian Hagrid, his friend and his relatives According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, can is “used to say that it is possible for sb/ sth to do sth, or for sth to happen” The most number of modal can is indicated in conversations with the older- Hagrid and with his friends (3 cases) in comparison with those in conversations with his relatives (only 1,2 case) The popularity of can can be explained its meaning: possibility In the beginning dialogues can partly builds a formal atmosphere which bridges them to more friendly relationships at the first meeting:
(4) Harry offered Hermione a help “ Can we help you with something?”
Can, in some cases, aims to request something formally:
(5) Ron said “ Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa- thanks-“when need more frog cadies to get more picture cards
For Hagrid who knows about Potters family apparently first met orphanage boy, using can to decrease partly Harry’s misery:
(6) Harry said “Well, it‟s best you know as much as I can tell you- mind, I can’t tell you everything, it‟s a great mystery, parts of it…”
As when Harry desired to know the name of the killer Voldermort who everyone in the magic world avoid referring his true name Mr Hagrid, in this case, used can hedge with the same purpose:
(7) Hagrid said “It begins, I suppose, with- with a person called – but it‟s incredible you don‟t know his name, everyone in our world knows”
(9) Hagrid answered “Well- I don‟t like saying the name if I can help it No one does”
(10) Hagrid seemed to being afraid of writing down Voldermort’s name: “I can‟t spell it.”
As for the other hedges in the form of modal verbs, would took the third place
However, this kind of hedge is not used in the conversations with Harry’s relatives with 0 case Could, especially, is used with the same rate – 2.7 case in the conversations with the older- Hagrid and teachers Obviously, due to its meaning, i.e possibility, would dominated in conversations with Hagrid- predicted Harry’s parents in the past and teachers who can predict Harry’s future talent For example:
In conversations with Dr Dumbledore, the head wanted to predict the ability of protecting Harry of his father which no revenge can prevent:
(11) “Funny, the way people‟s minds work, isn‟t it? Professor Snape couldn’t bear being in your father the‟s debt I do believe he worked so hard to protect youthis year because he felt that would make him and your father even Then he could go back to hating your father‟s memory in peace…”
Could can be used when Mr, Hagrid refer possibilities when Harry struggled to find out the Sorcerer’s stone:
(12) “We were wondering if you could tell us what guarding the Sorcerer‟s stone apart from Fluffy.”
(13) Or “Well, I don‟t suppose it could to tell you that…let‟s see…he borrowed Fluffy from me…then some of the teacher did enchantment …”
The modal should and might are used in all conversations, should, however, used more frequently Should, somehow, carries different meanings: possibility/ probability, speculation, respectively In conversations with Harry’s friends- Ron and Hermione, should has the same meaning with will:
(14)“Should call Filch, I should if somethinga- creeping around unseen”
In conversations with Dr Dumbledore, should seems to be speculation which become better to happen:
(15)“We must have crossed in midair No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left I arrived in time to pull Quirrell off you”
Finally, a careful analysis of the result showed that modal verbs that express possibility or probability prevailed over the ones expressing prediction or speculation
The modals verb emerged the most frequently in conversations with teachers by modal verb will which can account for teacher’s hope for Harry’s unconquerable talent in the future
There are 37 lexical verbs found in 866 dialogues Figure 3 presents the most frequent modals lexical verbs found in 866 dialogues By dint of daily conversations in nonfiction story, the number of verbs used is limited such as seem, think, believe and suggest Apparently, think was the one used most often in all conversations According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, think expresses “a particular idea or opinion about smt/ smb” In other words, this modal lexical verb helps the speaker to express his/her attitude towards the prepositional information as an opinion rather than as a fact in order to ensure that he/ she is familiar with alternative views on the subject
Figure 3: Raw Data of Modal Lexical Verbs
Surprisingly, both modal lexical verbs seem and believe appeared 7 times in the story While believe is employed in conversations with the guardian, with teachers and with friends with an equal frequency (2, 2, and 3 times respectively), seem is used merely in conversations with friends and with the guardian with 5 and 2 times As can be seen from Figure 3, suggest is the least common modal lexical verbs as hedges with
2 times Conversations with relatives witness a lack of modal lexical verbs as hedges with 0 time
Figure 4: Modal Lexical Verbs per 1,000 words
Normalized data in Figure 4 above shows that think was used as a hedge most often out all modal verbs: 0.8 cases in conversations with Harry’s friends, 0.6 cases in these with the older – Hagrid, 0.3 cases in those with the teaches and only 0.2cases in those with his relatives By dint of meaning sharing the thinking, think is used more in friendly closely relatives, for example relatives with friends and the older
Ron- Harry friend used think to introduce to Harry about wizard world secrets:
(16) “… My dad says it must‟ve been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringtts, but
I don‟t think they took anything, that‟s what‟s odd.”
With conversations with Hagrid, think is used to share Hagrid’s experiences in Hogward which can be useful to Harry:
(17) “Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I think I‟ll be in Slyerin, all our family have been there-“
Major findings of the research
Basing on analyzed data, it can be found that hedges as mitigating devices are often employed because the tentative nature of daily conversations does not allow conversation participants to state their opinion conclusively Following conclusion can be made:
First of all, the usage of modal verbs as hedges outnumbers another group of verbs that also functions as hedging devices The data amassed from this research shows that conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone were hedged over 1.4 times more often with modal verbs than with approximators
Apparently, hedges that express different degrees of probability, i.e modal, are of greater help in conversations by dint of a wider range of meanings (doubt, evaluation, etc.) Moreover, both modal verbs and approximators which are considered as speculation of spoken form prevailed in conversations with friends; consequently, probability and fuzziness tend to be a feature of conversations with friends rather than those with others
The research also approved that conditionals are a feature of conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone The data of this research indicates that conversations are heavily hedged with conditionals Characters tend to use them due to their hypothetical nature that allows speculation It is obvious that conditionals are a feature of conversations with friends which are prevailed by type 1 Evidently, by dint of being hedged by this kind of conditionals, conversation participants usually refer to hypothetical situations in the future
Modal lexical verbs are showed to become a feature of conversations in the story
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone With the function of expressing sb’s opinion, modal lexical verbs such as believe, think, suggest, modal lexical verbs carry various meanings- subjectivity, speculation, prediction, etc and aims to share minds and hope which only appears in close relationships It can be seen from the data that modal lexical verbs especially think is a feature of conversations among Harry Potter and his friends
Adjectival, adverbial and nominal phrases as well as introductory phrases are not a feature of analyzed conversations The data shows that these hedge devices were rarely Apparently, characters do not pay attention to the manner of an action and the quality of an entity and emerge personal doubt or direct involvement
Finally, the most important conclusion is that hedge devices employed most frequently in conversations among Harry Potter and his friends – Ron and Hermione
Through at the surface level it seems that Harry Potter and his friends while creating conversations are friendly, opened minded, self confident to bridge with others in the first days of student life The possible reasons for the heavy use of hedges in close relationship such as Harry Potter with friends, with teachers and with the guardian Hagrid is to reduce or avoid the riskiness and to build great willing and cultivate belief in the beginning phase of relationship; also, hedge mitigate what might seem too forceful, i.e with the teachers Dr Dumble Dore, allow being opened-minded, tentative Conversations with relatives, on other hand, contained less hedges devices compared with those with friends, teachers and the guardian- Hagrid which causes by the relationship among Harry and the aunt Vernon family As introduced above, the relationship between Harry Potter and the aunt Vernon is not friendly and opened- minded which leads to conversation involvement do not need to cement good willing and avoid riskiness Moreover, hedges also show close connection to the phenomenon of politeness; therefore, characters aim to save their own face, take care of their public imagine before students, especially Dr Dumble Dore, Mc, Gonnaga and Mr Hagrid.
Implications of the study
On the whole, the research is of considerable help for both speakers and researchers working on the related issues Regarding of searching on hedge device used in daily conversations, the study explores the frequent forms of hedges students using in close relations such as with friends, with other teachers, with relatives and with the older Thus, the study firstly would raise speaker’s awareness of using hedges in daily conversations which can partly create their conversation’s fuzziness and softness Secondly, the present study partly contributed to analyze the use of hedge devices in relationships surrounding school, for example teachers and students, students and the guardian of school and among friends, and relationships in family such as nephew and aunts which is foundations to further the usage of hedges in others relations For English teachers, the findings of the research not only supply the use of hedge devices around school for teachers and learners but also an useful aid for them to bridge learners to English culture and improve speaking skills to learners as well
To some extent, the research has described an overall picture of the usage of hedges in conversations among the main characters in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone Nevertheless, there still exist some shortcomings Firstly, the length of time of the research may not allow for comparing the usage of hedges in the same relations in Vietnam which can partly shows the differences and similarities in the use hedges between Vietnamese and English Secondly, this study only provided the use of hedge devices in the first series of Harry Potter series namely Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone, it, somehow, can change in the following series when relations become closer and closer The researcher expects to research the usage of hedges in more series over longer period of time so that the findings could be of greater validity and reliability and can be generalized.
Suggestions for further studies
The findings of present study suggest a number of various studies for future First of all, this study was only conducted to find out the use of hedge devices in the first series of Harry Potter stories so the scale can be applied the use of hedge devices to different series of Harry Potter Secondly, this investigation was limited to exploit the use of hedge in an English current story which can be a foundation to compare with the use of hedge in a Vietnamese story with the same corpus so as to compare and find out the differences of two cultures Because of some limitations above, the further studies can focus on only one hedge device and deeply find out its meanings and functions in real communication which creates real benefits for second language learners
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APPENDIX Conversations between Harry Potter and Dursley family containing hedge devices:
(1) His aunt rapped on the door again “Up!” she screeched
(2) “Are you up yet?” she demanded
(4) “Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon And don’t you let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy’s birthday.”
(5) “In the car crash when your parents died.” She had said “And don’t ask questions.”
(6) “And we’ll buy you another two presents when we are out tonight How’s that, poking? Two more presents Is that all right?”
(7) Dudley thought for a moment It looked like hard work Finally he said slowly,
“So I’ll have thirty…thirt3y.”
(8) “I’m not going to do anything.” said Harry, “Honestly’
(9) “I know,” Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn’t sure the snake could hear him “It must be really annoying.”
(10) “Dudley! Mr Dursley! Come and look at the snake! You won’t believe what’s it doing.”
(11) Harry could see Uncle Vernon’s shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen “No,” he said finally “No, we’ll ignore it If they don’t get an answer…Yes, that’s best…we don’t do anything…”
(12) “No one, it was addressed to you by mistake.” Said Uncle Vernon shortly “I’ve burned it”
(13) “I’ll take them.” Said Uncle Vernon
(14) “I am not paying for some crackpot old fool to teach him magic trick.” yelled Uncle Vernon.
(15) "Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."
(16) "Well, there you are, boy Platform nine platform ten Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"
Conversations between Harry Potter and the guardian Mr Hgrid containing hedge devices:
(1) “But what happened to Vol- , sorry –I mean, You- Know-Who?” Harry asked
(2) “Good question, Harry Disappeared Vanished Same night he tried to killed you Make you even more famous That’s biggest mystery, see…he was getting more and more powerful –why’d he go?”
(3) “Some say he died Codswallop, in my opinion Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die Some say he’s still out there, bidin’s his time, like, but I don’t believe it People who was on his side come back to ours Some of them come out to kind of trance Don- reckon they could’ve done if he coming back.”
(4) “Hagrid” he said quietly, “I think you must have made a mistake I don’t think I can be a wizard.”
(5) "See?" said Hagrid "Harry Potter, not a wizard you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
(6) "Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish spell books and wands and "
(7) "If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad
His name's been down ever since he was born He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world Seven years there and he won't know himself He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled "
(8) "Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left to do." Hagrid said.
(9) "Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said "I'm er not supposed to do magic, strictly speakin' I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job He cast a sideways look at Harry under his brushy eyebows.
(10) "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
(11) "Oh, well I was at Hogwarts meself but I er got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth In me third year They snapped me wand in half an' everything But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper Great man, Dumbledore." "Why were you expelled?"
(12) "It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
(13) "You can kip under that," he said "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets." Hagrid said.
(14) "Yeah but we'll go back in this Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
(15) "Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks "If I was ter er speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"
(16) “Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.
(17) "But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"
(18) "Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."
(19) "Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.
(20) "If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.
(21) "I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.
(22) "This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron It's a famous place."
(23) "Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.
(24) "Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.
Conversations between Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione containing hedge devices:
(1) "Oh -well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron "And have you really got you know "
(2) "So that's where You-Know-Who” Ron stared
(3) "Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."
(4) "Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."
(5) "Well I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."
(6) "Er Yes, I think so," said Ron "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
(7) "Five," said Ron For some reason, he was looking gloomy "I'm the six in our family to go to Hogwarts You could say I've got a lot to live up to Bill and Charlie have already left Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch Now Percy's a prefect Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first You never get anything new, either, with five brothers I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."
(8) "His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
(9) " and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about be ing a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort"
(10) "You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed "I'd have thought you, of all people "
(11) "I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, I just never knew you shouldn't See what I mean? I've got loads to learn I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
(12) "You won't be There's loads of people who come from Muggle families andthey learn quick enough."
(13) "Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron
"He'll be back No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her do you want it? You can start collecting."
(14) "You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and mar- malade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe George reckons he had a booger flavored one once."
(15) "Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
(16) "He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work I'll show you, look "