A study of politeness strategies in request by the characters in the novel harry potter and the chamber of secrets

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES    NGUYEN THI THUY LINH A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUEST BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS” M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN-2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES    NGUYEN THI THUY LINH A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUEST BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS” M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh THAI NGUYEN-2021 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ    NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH NGHIÊN CỨU CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG LỜI THỈNH CẦU CỦA CÁC NHÂN VẬT TRONG PHẦN TRUYỆN “HARRY POTTER VÀ PHỊNG CHỨA BÍ MẬT” LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ (Định hướng ứng dụng) Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Cán hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Thu Hạnh THÁI NGUYÊN-2021 DECLARATION I hereby certify that my thesis entitled A study of Politeness strategies in requests by the characters in the novel “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” is the result of my own work and the substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions Thai Nguyen, June 2021 Approved by Supervisor Student Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study cannot be completed without the help of many people Therefore, I would like to show my great thanks to those who have given guidance, support, and encouragement to me during the whole period of this thesis First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh for her valuable assistance, sincere advice and great encouragement that she provided to me during the time this research conducted Besides, I would like to express my gratitude to all my lecturers and staff at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University Thanks to their support and consideration, I can pursue and finish the course Furthermore, I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all classmates in class K3A for their support and encouragement Last but not least, I owe a big thank to my parents and close friends who have always encouraged me to complete this study and taken care of me all the time ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABBREVIATION .v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Objectives of the study .3 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Methods of the study 1.8 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The speech act theory .5 2.2 The speech act of requests 2.2.1 Definitions of requests .7 2.2.2 A request sequence 2.2.1.1 The head act 2.2.1.2 The alerter 2.2.1.3 Supportive moves 2.2.3 Types of requests .9 2.2.3.1 Direct Requests 2.2.3.2 Indirect Requests 2.2.4 Request strategies 11 2.2.4.1 Direct requests 11 2.2.4.2 Conventionally indirect requests .12 2.2.4.3 Unconventionally indirect requests 12 2.2.5 Modification in performing a request 13 2.2.5.1 Internal modification 13 2.2.5.2 External modification 15 iii 2.3 Politeness 16 2.3.1 Politeness theory 16 2.3.2 Politeness and indirectness 20 2.3.3 Politeness and indirectness in performing requests 21 2.4 Previous studies on politeness strategies in requests .22 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Research Design .24 3.2 Analytical framework .24 3.3 Data source: “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” 26 3.4 Data collection procedure 27 3.5 Data analysis procedure 27 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 28 The utilization of request strategies by the characters in “HPCS” 29 4.1.1 Differences in frequency of request strategies used in “HPCS” .29 4.1.2 Analysing politeness strategies in requests used in “HPCS” 30 4.2 The utilization of modifications by the characters in “HPCS” 33 4.2.1 The use of internal modifications 33 4.2.2 The use of external modifications or supportive moves 36 4.3 Discussions on request strategies in “HPCS” from S-H relationships .37 4.3.1 On the choice of strategies 37 4.3.2 On the use of internal and external modifications 42 4.3.2.1 The use of internal modifications 42 4.3.2.2 The use of external modifications or supportive moves .44 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 47 5.1 Major findings and concluding remarks 47 5.2 Implications 48 5.3 Suggestions for further research .49 REFERENCES 50 APPENDICES 54 iv ABBREVIATION “HPCS” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” FTA Face-Threatening Act H The Hearer S The Speaker (…) Omitted words, phrases, or sentences n Number of Appearance DR Direct (Strategy) CI Conventionally Indirect (Strategy) UCI Unconventionally Indirect (Strategy) SD Syntactic Downgrader LPD Lexical/Phrasal Downgrader UD Upgrader D Distance P Relative Power R Absolute ranking of imposition v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table The categories of Alerters .8 Table Types and strategies of requests 25 Table The differences in the figures for request strategies in “HPCS” 29 Table Polite request strategies by types in “HPCS” .30 Table The use of DR, CI and UCI strategies in “HPCS” seen from S-H relationship 37 Table The use of internal modifications in “HPCS” seen from S-H relationship 42 Table The use of supportive moves in “HPCS” seen from S-H relationship .44 Figure Brown and Levinson’s (1987) five politeness strategies 19 Figure Directness level in the head acts of requests .21 Figure Internal modification in the head acts of requests .26 Figure External modification in the head acts of requests 26 Figure The use of internal modifications in “HPCS” 34 Figure The use of external modifications in “HPCS” 36 vi ABSTRACT The speech act of request is a face-threatening act in human’s communication because it threatens the face of both the speaker and the hearer The study was done to find out how politeness strategies in requests are employed by the characters in the novel “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J K Rowling All the requests carrying the illocutionary force of getting somebody to an act were collected for analysis The coding system was based on Blum-Kulka et al (1989)’s coding manual The results indicate that the characters in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” primarily chose the Direct Strategies to form their requests, in which the Mood Derivable was the most well-liked strategy In terms of Internal Modifications, the speakers in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” used a wide range of mitigating devices to reduce the requestive force, mostly the Modal form, Interrogative form and Repetition of request With respect to External Modifications, the speakers overwhelmingly opted for Grounders to give reasons for their requests The findings also showed that the relationships between the characters had an impact on the choice of request strategies and mitigating devices used in the novel Keywords: Politeness strategies, Request, Modification, Speech Act vii devices in making their requests However, the social distance (D) was found to be the most significant, and whenever D is high, the cost of the request is also high It can be summarized that various politeness strategies can be employed in different contexts and relationships to perform requests in English DR requests are considered acceptable in English culture, especially in extreme cases and low distance contexts Furthermore, requests might be made less imposing, more tentative, and convincing by a wide range of mitigating devices Finally, the three social variables P, D, R have certain influences on the weightiness of a request with different levels, and thus it is necessary to make an appropriate choice of request strategies as well as mitigating devices 5.2 Implications Speakers from different cultures have distinct assumptions and norms of their own cultures when communicating with others, which can cause miscommunication, confusion and cultural conflicts Although language learners may have good understanding of grammatical rules and a wide range of vocabulary, they seem to lack awareness of using them appropriately in specific contexts Hence, in language teaching, apart from linguistic competence, pragmatic competence should be taken into account Firstly, teachers should help students to be more conscious of cross-cultural differences in the use of politeness strategies Precisely, teachers should highlight and distinguish which politeness strategies are appropriate in certain situations since some linguistic performances seen as polite and acceptable in one culture can be impolite and unacceptable in another As a result, students can get to know them clearly and use them effectively in daily conversations without causing misunderstanding or unintentional rudeness in communication Second, it is necessary for the teachers to ask the learners to pay much attention to when, how and to whom it is appropriate to use a linguistic form in communication That will help to improve their communicative performance in English as well as boost their confidence when communicating with native speakers 48 The study also suggests that English learners should be made aware of the rules of making a request in English There are various ways that they can employ to reduce the requestive force, including the choice of strategies, internal and external modifications In addition, it is necessary for teachers to remind their students that direct strategies are not always considered impolite and imposing because in some situations, especially in urgent ones, they need to be used to get the hearers to take action promptly Finally, it is advisable for teachers to provide students with communicative activities They can design activities like role-play or presentation and encourage their students to take part in these activities to practise the use of politeness strategies in request This helps stimulate student’s excitement, enthusiasm and engagement in language classes 5.3 Suggestions for further research Although politeness strategies in request have been investigated so far in the thesis, it can not cover all the aspects of the topic As a result, further researches can be carried out to find more about this topic Here are some suggestions: Firstly, future research is suggested to uncover the politeness strategies in requests used in the whole series of Harry Potter Secondly, the same data can be further used to identify the variations in employing request strategies in terms of gender, alerters or other issues which have not been presented in this study Thirdly, the findings of this research could serve as an useful source for studying the politeness strategies in other kinds of FTAs employed in the Harry Potter series; for example, the speech act of criticizing, complaining or responding to requests Finally, the study may serve as the background for comparing and contrasting the use of politeness strategies in requests in English and Vietnamese literary works 49 REFERENCES Abdul Majeed A U (2004) Request strategies as used by advanced Arab learners of English as a Foreign Language Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational & Social Sciences & Humanities, 16, 42-87 Ariel, M (2010) Defining pragmatics 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Oxford University Press 53 APPENDICES 54 APPENDIX A: CODING SYSTEM Strategies Items Mood derivable Explicit performative Hedge performative Obligation statement Syntactic Lexical/Phrasal Upgraders downgraders downgraders Supportive moves Interrogative form Politeness marker Intensifiers Preparator Modal form Hedges Expletives Negation preparatory Downtoner Repetition of request Getting precommitment Grounder Subjunctive Understaters Time intensifiers Disarmer Want statement Aspect Subjectivizers X Promise of reward Suggestory formulae Past tense Cajolers X Imposition minimizer Query preparatory Conditional clause Appealers X X Strong hints X X X X Mild hints X X X X I APPENDIX B THE USE OF INTERNAL MODIFICATIONS BY TYPES IN “HPCS” Categories Modifications Number of appearance (n) Percentage (%) Interrogative form 28 Modal form 60 30.2 1.5 Negation Syntactic preparatory downgraders Subjunctive 0.5 Aspect 1 Past tense 3.5 Conditional clause 10 Politeness marker 20 10.1 Hedges 0 Downtoner 19 9.5 Understaters 2.5 Subjectivizers 2.5 Cajolers 2.5 Appealers Intensifiers Expletives 0 Repitition of request 22 11.1 Time intensifiers 2.5 Lexical/ Phrasal downgraders Upgraders II APPENDIX C THE USE OF EXTERNAL MODIFICATIONS BY TYPES IN “HPCS” Modifications Number of appearance (n) Percentage (%) Preparator 0 Getting precommitment 1.1 Grounder 64 69.6 Disarmer 7.6 Promise of reward 16 17.4 Imposition minimizer 4.3 III APPENDIX D: FIGURES Figure A: Significant difference in the frequency of request strategies used in “HPCS” Figure B: Polite request strategies by types in “HPCS” IV Figure C: The use of Politeness request strategies in “HPCS” seen from S-H relationship Figure D: The use of internal modifications in “HPCS” seen from S-H relationship LEGEND P/S: = Professors/Students Strang = Strangers Enem.= Enemies DR = Direct UCI= Non-Conventional Indirect Fam.= Family members Frie.= Friends Acq = Acquaintainces CI= Conventional Indirect V APPENDIX E: POLITE REQUEST STRATEGIES BY GROUPS OF SPEAKERS IN “HPCS” Family Categories Strategies members Friends Colleagues Professors/ students Aquaintances Enemies Strangers n % n % n % n % n % n % n % Mood derivable 26 61.9 127 66.1 46.2 49 51.6 40 65.6 21 72.4 30 73.2 Explicit performative 2.4 2 15.4 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 0 0 0 Obligation statement 14.3 20 10.4 15.4 13 13.7 14.8 17.2 17.1 Want statement 2.4 0 3.2 3.3 0 0 Suggestory formulae 2.4 23 12 0 13 13.7 6.6 3.4 4.9 Indirect Query preparatory 4.8 14 7.3 15.4 9.5 3.3 3.4 2.4 Unconventionally Indirect Strong hints 11.9 0 2.1 3.3 3.4 0 Mild hints 0 1 7.7 1.1 3.3 0 2.4 42 100 233 100 13 100 95 100 71 100 29 100 41 100 Direct Conventionally Total Hedge performative VI APPENDIX F USE OF INTERNAL MODIFICATIONS IN REQUESTS BY GROUPS OF SPEAKERS IN “HPCS” Categories Syntactic downgraders Lexical/ Phrasal downgraders Upgraders Total Modifications Interrogative form Modal form Negation preparator Subjunctive Aspect Past tense Conditional clause Politeness marker Hedges Downtoner Understaters Subjectivizers Cajolers Appealers Intensifiers Expletives Repetition of request Time intensifiers Family members n 0 0 1 19 Friends % n % 5.2 15 25.8 36.8 16 27.5 0 0 0 0 5.2 0 10.5 7 0 5.2 5.2 10.5 0 10 5.2 0 0 21 5.1 0 100 58 100 Colleagues Professors / Students n 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 12 n 16 0 2 57 VII % 25 25 0 8 25 0 0 0 0 100 % 14 28.1 0 1.8 5.3 10.5 14 3.5 1.8 3.5 3.5 8.8 3.5 100 Aquaintances n 11 0 1 1 1 2 26 % 3.8 42.3 0 3.8 3.8 3.8 3.8 7.7 3.8 3.8 11.5 7.7 7.7 100 Enemies n 0 0 0 0 0 14 % 28.6 0 0 7.1 14.3 7.1 0 0 0 28.6 100 Strangers n 3 0 1 0 0 0 18 % 16.7 16.7 0 5.6 5.6 22.2 11.1 0 0 0 22.2 100 VIII