Hedging expressions in ted talks in english diễn đạt rào đón trong các bài diễn thuyết ted bằng tiếng anh

HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES TON NU HIEU THUAN HEDGING EXPRESSIONS IN TED TALKS IN ENGLISH MA THESIS ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8220201 SUPERVISOR: DR PHAM HONG ANH THUA THIEN HUE, 2022 ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TƠN NỮ HIẾU THUẬN DIỄN ĐẠT RÀO ĐĨN TRONG CÁC BÀI DIỄN THUYẾT TED BẰNG TIẾNG ANH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ NGÔN NGỮ ANH MÃ SỐ: 8220201 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS PHẠM HỒNG ANH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ, 2022 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Signed: Date: 30/9/2022 ABSTRACT This study aims to discover the hedging expressions in TED talks in English, particularly those expressed at the lexical and syntactic level, and the relationship between hedging and TED talk discourse Hedges are utilized to illustrate that the speaker or writer has carefully considered the propositional contents, the audience, and the needs of the audience members, boosting the credibility of the propositions The speakers at TED talks use hedges in their statements to maintain their credibility and the consideration of the audience The researcher decided to take a qualitative and a quantitative approach The qualitative technique is to determine the type of hedging and explore the connection between hedging and TED talk discourse With the quantitative technique, the researcher counted the number of times hedging occurred This method is used to discover how hedging expressions are conveyed at the lexical and syntactic levels The findings of this study showed that TED English speakers employed lexical elements more frequently than syntactic units Modal and semi-modal verbs (42%), Quantifiers and Determiners (34%), Frequency adverbs (8%), Copular/ Epistemic verbs (except for to be) (6%), Introductory/ Lexical/ Cognitive verbs (4%) and Probability/ Epistemic/ Modal adverbs (3%), Probability/ Epistemic/ Modal adjectives (2%), Epistemic/ Modal nouns (1%) Besides, hypothetical formulations are more common than impersonal language 97% of hypotheses and 3% of impersonal language were employed Functionally, approximators outnumbered shields; approximators were 83% of the total, whereas shields were 17% Adaptors occurred about ten times more often than rounders; approximators were 91%, and rounders were 9% Plausibility shields are 19 times more common than attribution shields In contrast, plausibility shields appear 95% of the time The results of this study raise a few issues about the theoretical classification of hedging for a better clear-cut boundary between lexical items and syntactic units The findings offered some critical pedagogical implications that can be used when teaching English to students ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Pham Hong Anh, for her support, patience, and encouragement throughout this project Her technical and editorial advice was essential to completing this paper and has taught me innumerable lessons and insights into the workings of academic research Besides, thanks are due to my family and my friends - their dedication and support during my thesis study provided the foundation for this work Con cảm ơn gia đình ln bên cạnh, ủng hộ, động viên hoàn tất luận văn List of Tables Table The Classifications of Hedges based on Different Taxonomies Table The classifications of Hedges based on Linguistic Categories Table Hedging Expressions Categorized in 22 TED Talks Table The Appearance of Modal and Semi-Modal Verbs in 22 Ted Talks Table The Appearance of Adverbs of Frequency in 22 TED Talks Table The Appearance of Copular/ Epistemic Verbs (except for to be) in 22 TED Talks Table The Appearance of Introductory/ Lexical/ Cognitive Verbs, Probability/ Epistemic/ Modal Adverbs, and Probability/ Epistemic/ Modal Adjectives in 22 TED Talks Table The Appearance of Epistemic/ Modal Nouns in 22 TED Talks Table The Appearance of Impersonal Language in 22 TED Talks Table 10 Hedging Expressions Categorized by Function in 22 TED Talks Table 11 The Appearance of Adaptors Table 12 The Appearance of Rounders Table 13 The Appearance of Plausibility Shields Table 14 The Appearance of Attribution Shields List of Figures Figure The Taxonomy of Hyland's Category Figure The Taxonomy of Salager-Meyer's Category Figure The Taxonomy of Prince et al.'s Category Figure The Linguistic Classification Figure The Functional Level Classification Figure Percentage of Lexical Items and Syntactic Units Figure Percentage of Hedges in Lexical Items Figure Percentage of Hedges in Syntactic Units Figure Percentage of Approximators and Shields Figure 10 Percentage of Adaptors and Rounders Figure 11 Percentage of Plausibility Shields and Attribution Shields List of Abbreviations L1 The first language EFL English as a foreign language ESP English for specific purposes LSP Language for specific purposes TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables v List of Figures vi List of Abbreviations vii Table of contents vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research Background and Rationale of the Study 1.2 Research Objectives and Research Questions 1.3 Significance of the Study 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Structure of the Thesis 1.6 Summary of the Chapter Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Definition of Hedging Expressions 2.2 Classification of Hedges 2.2.1 Classification based on the Linguistic Level 2.2.2 Classification based on the Functional Level 11 2.3 TED Talks as a Type of Discourse 14 2.4 Previous Studies in Hedging and Different Discourses 17 2.5 The Research Gap 20 2.6 Summary of the Chapter 20 Chapter 3: Methodology 22 conversation." You know, a lot of my male mentors make comments and posts about box office numbers and salaries and titles and those dollar dollar bills So I thought, I'm going to chime in here I learned very quickly that whenever I spoke of money, people got a little uncomfortable Like the time I pointed out the gender gap in the Forbes list for online creators, a list I'd previously been on I remember wanting to start a critical conversation because I saw this article and I was heartbroken You know, the digital space had always been a place that I thought was without gatekeepers And here it was looking just like old Hollywood Well, let me tell you, the internet was not interested I don't know how it's possible, but it literally felt as if Twitter leaped through my screen and body slammed me onto my desk The message was clear: you can be on this list, but don't try to start any conversations about the inequality on this list 06:06 I have thousands and thousands of videos One of my most disliked videos is why I’m not in a relationship Yeah A lot of the men at the table did not like me telling them why I didn't need a boyfriend I quickly learned that there’s an invisible gatekeeper called culture, and the table is smack dab in the middle of it 06:30 Now, in 2019, I made history with my late-night show, “A Little Late with Lilly Singh.” Thank you, thank you (Applause) There I was, Lilly, the baby born a brown girl, rubbing elbows, or at least time slots, with comedy royalty And I got to give a huge shout out to NBC for boldly trying to break late-night tradition I remember when the show came out, I remember all the articles because they looked practically identical "Bisexual Woman of Color Gets Late-Night Show." I almost legally changed my name to "bisexual woman of color" because that's what people called me so often And you know, as strange as that sentiment was, I thought, OK, the silver lining is that we'll finally get a different perspective in late-night A little bit of melanin, a dash of queer, a different take on things Let's this! And I remember thinking, "Now, oh, now I've been invited to the big table And now things will be different." So I took my seat 07:37 Now, unfortunately, the budget wasn't based on the importance or significance or historic nature of the show It was based on the 1:30am time-slot that we had So to say the budget was small, the writing staff even smaller, and to the first season, I had to shoot 96 episodes of late-night television in three months 07:58 Audience: Whoo 07:59 LS: Whoo is right To put that into perspective, that is shooting two to three episodes a day versus the network standard of one a day, maybe two on Thursday We did it all with a writing staff of about half a dozen writers versus the network standard that's about double that Words cannot explain to you how exhausting, emotionally and spiritually challenging that was And I started to feel like, "Hm, I think this chair's a little wobbly." 08:31 Now, I think we can all agree that the beauty and magic of late-night is its timeliness You know that no matter what's happening in the world, you can turn on late-night television and hear all about it But when you shoot 96 episodes in three months, you kind of lose that magic I was the only show talking about hooking up, partying, cuddling, traveling, in front of a live audience during a literal global pandemic Now, still, I thought, if the budget doesn't celebrate the historicness of the show, then the creative can I can bring some much needed spice to latenight And sometimes I was successful But other times, I would receive notes like, "Don't be so loud." "Don't be so big." "Don't be so angry, smile more." And my all time favorite, "Don't overindex on the South Asian stuff." After all, everyone else at the table who's been sitting there for years, people are used to them I might be a little jarring to audiences 09:36 Now, during season two of my show, I remember I went into overdrive I found all the loopholes, I did all the necessary jobs to try to make the show more timely And I was excited to And I felt compelled to because for the first time in history, we had a woman, not to mention half South Asian woman, become vice president of the United States Now we witnessed one of the greatest protests in human history with the farmer protests in India And I was excited to finally give my take on these things But my take was almost never included in topical media news coverage round-ups You know, we still got the same voices, the same perspectives, even though someone and something different was literally in the next time slot 10:22 I kept trying to pull up my seat I kept trying to join the dinner conversation I kept trying to ask for a more supportive seat But every time I would be told that I should be grateful to have a seat in the first place After all, everyone else that looks like me is still waiting outside the restaurant in the cold You know, the strange thing about having a wobbly seat is that you spend so much time trying to keep it upright that you can never bring your full self to the table 10:51 So now, why am I telling you all this? Well, because my therapist costs 200 dollars an hour and this is way cheaper 11:00 (Laughter) 11:01 But also because I just experienced one of the most notorious boys' clubs ever in late-night television And I'm here to offer solutions I don't always follow up a venting session with solutions, but when I do, it’s a TED Talk 11:16 (Laughter) 11:18 That's right 11:19 (Applause) 11:23 You see, my goal was always a seat at the table It's what women are conditioned to believe success is And when the chair doesn't fit, when it doesn't reach the table, when it's wobbly, when it's full of splinters, we don't have the luxury of fixing it or finding another one But we try anyways We take on that responsibility, and we shoulder that burden 11:47 Now, I've been fortunate enough to sit at a few seats, at a few different tables And what I've learned is, when you get the seat, trying to fix the seat won't fix the problem Why? Because the table was never built for us in the first place The solution? Build better tables 12:06 (Applause) 12:10 So, allow me to be your very own IKEA manual I would like to present to you a set of guidelines I very eloquently call: “How to Build a Table that Doesn’t Suck” 12:22 (Laughter) I've been told I'm very literal 12:26 Now, right off the bat, let me tell you, this assembly is going to take more than one person or group of people It's going to take everyone Are you ready? Should we dive in? Let's it 12:36 Up first, don't weaponize gratitude Now, don't get me wrong, gratitude is a great word It's nice, it's fluffy, a solid 11 points in Scrabble However, let's be clear Although gratitude feels warm and fuzzy, it's not a form of currency Women are assigned 10 percent more work and spend more time on unrewarded, unrecognized and non-promotable tasks Basically, what this means is all the things men don't want to are being handed to women, and a lot of those things largely include things that advance inclusivity, equity and diversity in the workplace So hear me when I say, a woman shouldn't be grateful to sit at a table She should be paid to sit at a table 13:22 (Applause) 13:25 Especially ones she largely helped build And a woman's seat shouldn't be threatened if she doesn't seem "grateful" enough In other words, corporations, this step involves a woman doing a job and being paid in money, opportunity and promotion, not just gratitude And women -yeah, go ahead, live it up, live your life 13:48 (Applause) 13:51 And women, a moment of real talk, trust me, I've been there and I know it's so tough, but we have to understand and remember that being grateful and being treated fairly are not mutually exclusive I can be grateful but still know exactly what I deserve And that's the way to it 14:09 (Applause) 14:13 Up next, invest in potential When investing in women, don’t invest in the 1:30am time slot Invest in empowering something different Invest in a new voice Give them the support they actually need Cultural change takes time and money Heck, it took my grandfather 25 years to see that I was worthy of more So a true investment is one that values potential over proof Because so often that proof doesn't exist for women Not because we aren't qualified, but because we haven't been given the opportunity In other words, if you're trying to be inclusive, don't give someone new a seat made of straw until they prove they deserve a better one Don't hold something called a "prove it again" bias, which requires less privileged people to constantly keep proving themselves, even though white men tend to get by on just their potential Give them a seat that they can thrive in, that they can the job you hired them to in Allow them to contribute to the table, and they will make it better 15:19 Up next, this is my favorite one My favorite one, it's quite common sense, actually Make space for us You know, for every three men at a table, there's only one place setting for a woman People are so used to more men showing up that they plan for it There's an extra seat in the corner, there's a steak under the heat lamp When more men show up, the table gets longer But when that extra RSVP is a woman, more often than not she's encouraged to compete against the only other woman that was invited to the table Instead, we need to build multiple seats for multiple women, not just one or two, so that women are not sitting on top of each other's laps, fighting for one meal We already know that more diverse teams perform better A recent study shows that corporations that have more gender diversity on their executive teams, were 25 percent more likely to experience above average profitability And more racially diverse companies had 36 percent more profit So really, no matter how you look at it, it's time to build longer tables and more seats 16:28 And I want to say something, and I want to admit something, I want to be vulnerable for a second Because I've fallen victim to this so many times, and women, let me know if you've experienced this We have to get rid of the scarcity mindset and champion each other, you know, because I've learned what's the better win? Me sitting at a table or us sitting at a table? Don't be convinced to fight for one spot Instead fight for multiple spots 16:57 (Applause) 17:00 And let me lead by example right now and say, I know there’s many other women that are going to come on this stage, and I hope they all nail it, and I will be cheering you all on because we can all win And I'm going to be your biggest cheerleader when you're up here 17:14 (Applause) 17:16 Last, it's time to upgrade the table talk Now, I believe stories make the world go around You thought it had something to the solar system? Joke's on you, it's stories 17:28 (Laughs) 17:29 Stories are how we understand ourselves, how we understand others and how we understand the world And arguably the most important stories are those we see in the media Because we’ve seen time and time that they control the narrative and impact culture Now, when it comes to genre, you can argue that certain genres have certain target demographics When it comes to the world news, the target demographic is the world, and we know half of the world is female Yet women and girls make up only a quarter of the people interviewed or that the news is even about in the first place Instead, when it comes to issues that impact women, we not only need to be included in the coverage, we need to be driving those stories and dimensionalizing our own experience Inviting everyone in on the table talk isn't just a nice gesture It makes for better, more productive, smarter conversation with more than one point of view And that's how you get better 18:27 So this all sounds like a lot of work And it is But I'm going to tell you why it's necessary and worth it To be honest, this is about so much more than just women in the workplace In fact, I could probably come up with many more guidelines across many other industries This is about creating a world where half of the population can thrive You see, because the work we today can create a world where future generations of girls can have equitable access and opportunity 18:58 And here's the best part Are you ready for it? Everyone listening today, all the men, the women, everyone in between, the big companies, the small ones, the media outlets, the people that snuck into the back, all of you, you can help create this future A future where we have longer tables and more seats that actually work instead of fighting for a seat at the old ones that don't A future where everyone is seated at the table equally And a future where being assigned female at birth is not a disappointment or a disadvantage, because girls are encouraged, empowered and expected to great things And I can't wait to make that a reality 19:42 Thank you so much 22 My secret to creating real magic 00:01 My very first food memory was when I was three or four It was a warm day, and my mom had just picked me and my sister up from school, buckled us into the back of her dusty blue Ford Taurus She was halfway out of the school parking lot when she pulled over to the side She strangely reached for her purse that was resting on the dashboard, started fishing around for something until she found it Then she twisted around to us, and she tore open a yellow paper bag of slightly melted Sugar Babies 00:34 (Audience murmurs) 00:36 She poured a few of the pellets into each of our tiny hands Now, I want to be clear, this was not a normal mom thing This was breaking several rules It was after lunch but before dinner, we were in the car, 00:49 (Laughs) 00:51 we hadn't done anything spectacular to be celebrated And Sugar Babies are, well, pure sugar I was so confused But I was a kid, so I took the candy, and I started chewing God, I felt like I had just been inducted into the coolest club possible The one that eats candy on a random Wednesday 01:13 (Laughs) 01:14 And then the world, it slowed down Everything faded And then everything sharpened There is only one word for what I felt in that moment Magic Real magic 01:32 Now, most people think that’s kind of crazy, three or four years old I don't remember anything about my childhood for years after that, but I remember that day, I remember those Sugar Babies, and I remember that feeling 01:47 Now, most people think of magic as a trick, right? Abracadabra This seemingly impossible act, put on purely for entertainment But I'd like to challenge that Magic, real magic is not an illusion Real magic is the feeling when life transforms from the ordinary into the extraordinary And not only is it real It is the very thing that connects us to this world, to one another, to our entire existence 02:24 It's the spark of a moment It's the feeling of believing, of belonging, of getting, of being gotten It is the crack that opens up our hearts and reminds us to let light in 02:44 Now I own Milk Bar, this quirky American-style bakery that I'll tell you a little bit about later And I have found that magic is often created by breaking some sort of rule Like the "no sweets before dinner" rule Or wearing overalls to a corporate board meeting Or simply daring to defy the expectations of the people around us Now, as a kid, breaking the rules usually only got us in trouble, right? But as adults, it's a different story Breaking the rules, pushing boundaries, challenging the norm, asking why, why not? It does something to us It shakes us from sleepwalking And it makes space for magic to sneak in 03:40 Now I was raised by matriarchs, fierce heroic grandmas who loved to bake in their free time And they knew good and well that food was for nutrition and sustenance, but they didn't care 03:54 (Laughs) 03:56 They'd baked as their way of breaking the rules They'd make batches of lemon bars instead of casseroles or one-pot wonders And they put those baked goods in baggies and hand them out, hand that magic out to the most unassuming people The newcomer to the neighborhood, the mail carrier or my personal favorite, the receptionist at the dentist office 04:21 (Laughs) 04:23 Now I knew what the receiving end of magic felt like from that Sugar Baby moment But witnessing what the giving part of real magic did It moved these people It was awe-inspiring And so I decided that baking would be my way of making magic in the world, creating a moment and then giving it away A magic pyramid scheme, basically, that I wanted, needed more of 04:58 Only my mom and my grandmas thought that baking was just a hobby But I knew it could be more than that So I moved to New York City to become a professional pastry chef I went to culinary school; I climbed the ladder of fancy restaurants, making fancy desserts to become the very best of the best Only I never found magic in those beautiful, delicate plated desserts I could only find my magic in a cookie or a slice of cake or a gooey underbaked pie And so when I opened Milk Bar, that bakery that I was telling you about, I decided I wasn't going to frost the sides of a cake like the textbooks taught me 05:49 (Laughter) 05:52 I decided I was going to load cookie dough with marshmallows or pretzels and potato chips and butterscotch chips and coffee, tossing convention out the window I wanted people to eat birthday cake, not just on their birthday, but any day they wanted 06:10 I knew that my magic came in the form of these simple baked goods, but I also knew that simple, approachable, accessible, nostalgic flavors were my best jumping-off place to create new desserts Almost as though fancy were the enemy of delicious I’d go to county fairs to nosh I'd go to the diner and order slices of pie from that revolving display case I'd take french fries and dip them in chocolate milkshake and dream And then I'd go into the kitchen and tie on my apron and start mixing up a new creation rooted in something known and safe and loved but reaching far beyond what anyone thought accessible Or approachable Or doable 07:08 Breaking the banking rules became my daily ritual I mean, who says a layer cake can't taste like salty malty sweet pretzels? I mean, my culinary instructors for one 07:21 (Laughs) 07:23 "Watch me," I'd think And I'd take pretzels, toast them in the oven to deepen their flavor, then grind them into a powder-like consistency and substitute some of the cake flour in a recipe for that pretzel powder It's pretty good 07:39 When I was opening Milk Bar, I knew I wanted to serve ice cream A rebellious kind of ice cream No surprise, right? So I decided to buy a soft serve machine, which for the record, was very rebellious at the time I had to decide what flavor to make I mean, why we only accept chocolate and vanilla as ice cream flavors? I needed to come up with something better, different Push that boundary I knew I had to come up with a flavor of milk that was different Milk is, like, the base of any great ice cream So I sat out inspiration at my 24-hour bodega Favorite place to go Because that's where we all shop, that's where our simple taste buds are formed, it's the flavors we know Up and down the aisles till I hit it My favorite section of the grocery store as a kid, the cereal aisle Now as a kid, my mom and I had an agreement I was a pretty picky eater, and we agreed that I could have as much cereal as I wanted as long as I drank all the calcium-rich milk at the bottom of the bowl I mean, I thought it was highway robbery Does she not understand how good that sugary sweet milk was at the bottom? That's interesting That's a really delicious flavor of milk It moved me It made sense to me, but would it make sense to other people? Figured I'd give it a try So I went back to the kitchen and made the equivalent of a giant bowl of cereal I strained out all that delicious milk, and I spun it into ice cream Put it on the menu And I've got to tell you, even now, people stop me on the street to tell me about their cereal-milk ice cream moment "So good." "Seemingly a little naughty." I mean, how did I know that was their flavor? That's the flavor they eat when they're wearing pajamas, when no one's looking The flavor of their childhood These people will tell me about every detail of the day They will tell me about the weather, the company they kept, the way that an ordinary moment was transformed into something magical with a simple bite 10:03 I built my business with the same "challenge the norm" mentality Rather than measure my business's success by the profit or loss sheet, by the average order value, the other metrics that businesses use to know if they're doing well, I decided we'd measure our impact by the twinkle in people's eyes By the "Oh, I can't put that down" feeling that they had when they ate one of our desserts I chose to put women at the helm of my organization Because when I looked around the hospitality industry, people running operations, folks holding CEO titles, they were all men I mean, why? I was raised by these fierce matriarchs who handled business, and I wanted my organization to look like that I want to show the world what women were capable of and what a "bakery" could be Push back on that cute little box people like to put us in 11:06 And in turn, the rules broke for us The magic, our magic, got out Word spread without us spending a dollar on marketing Rare in our industry, we grew our business without diluting the business I mean, we won awards no tiny East Village bakery has any business winning 11:28 (Laughs) 11:29 It's pretty incredible Even today I get to witness that feeling, that same one that my grandmas conjured up in my childhood We ship cakes all across the country, we keep our doors open from early in the morning until late at night It's insane for a bakery to But we it because we're obsessed with it We're obsessed with what we We teach classes, we share recipes despite any concerns of copycats or intellectual property infringements, because that's what you when you benefit from what came before you and you plan on passing it along long after you Thank you 12:14 (Applause) 12:17 When you know you're here to give, not take, and leave this place better than you found it See, mom, you can bake for a living Pretty cool, if you ask me 12:31 Now I don't have the full equation cracked, but I know that it starts with the decision to act My mom, she could have driven that car home routinely, but she decided that that day would not be like the others She threw out that rule book for just a second I carry this lesson with me, that every day has within it hundreds, thousands of opportunities to create real magic Only, they disappear Unless you reach out and grab them 13:08 Thank you 13:09 (Applause)