Politeness strategies in Requests in the Movie series “Harry Potter”

Politeness strategies in Requests in the Movie series “Harry Potter” Abstract: The study presents an investigation in how politeness strategies are employed in requests in the movie se

Politeness strategies in Requests in the Movie

series “Harry Potter”

Abstract: The study presents an investigation in how politeness strategies are

employed in requests in the movie series Harry Potter with the two main chapters In chapter 1, some reviews on Speech Acts, Speech Act of Requesting, Politeness, Politeness strategies by Brown and Levinson (1987) are taken into careful consideration to serve as a good foundation for the data analysis and findings in the next chapter Chapter 2 based on Brown and Levinson’s framework studies the politeness strategies in requests used by the characters in the movie series Harry Potter and points out how S-H relationship affects their choices of politeness strategies in making requests The results show that the characters in the movies are more in favor

of negative politeness strategies than positive ones in order to minimize the imposition

on the hearers when making requests Moreover, there is a variation of the proportion between positive and negative politeness strategies depending on the specific cases of social relationship The study may serve as a good start for further study on politeness

in general and politeness strategies in particular

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Hội thoại; Ngôn ngữ

stop and actually offers me many interests, which inspires me to carry out a research on such issue However, to achieve politeness in communication, it is necessary to give out suitable politeness strategies for each certain context Thus, the study on politeness as well as politeness strategies is of great importance and essential to enhance the effectiveness of our daily communication

Moreover, what are the other reasons why I would like to investigate politeness strategies in requests in the movie series Harry Potter? Firstly, according to many scholars not only is requesting one of the most popular activities in human daily communication but also is the most threatening act to the human face Thus, choosing appropriate politeness strategies when making requests need to be taken into due consideration, which actually brings me good opportunities to do research on politeness strategies often used in daily requests Secondly, I choose the requests in the movie series Harry Potter as the data for my study because watching movies is one of my biggest hobbies and offers me much interest Especially, the movie series recently have been the best ones produced by Warner Bros - a very famous movie producer in the United States, so I believe that the reliability of the content quality is much relevant to my study

Finally, I would expect the result of my research: Politeness Strategies in Requests in

the Movie Series “Harry Potter” will have a great meaning to teaching and learning as well

as using politeness strategies in requests appropriately and effectively In addition, it will be much easier for people to choose and employ politeness strategies, which actually offers effectiveness in daily communication

2 Aims of the study

1 To study the performance of positive and negative politeness strategies in the requests

by the characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter

2 To study the effects of S-H relationship on the choices of politeness strategies in the requests of the characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter

3 Research questions

1 What are the positive and negative politeness strategies in the requests by the

characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter?

2 How does S-H relationship affect the choices of positive and negative politeness

strategies in making requests of the characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the time and limitation of a minor thesis, it is impossible for me to investigate politeness strategies in requests in all their aspects So, I would like to focus on verbal communication, but other important factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression, gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic factors such as intonation, pause, speed of speech, etc are not taken into consideration in my study Moreover, positive and negative politeness strategies based on the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson (1987) are under the

investigation of all the requests in three episodes: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince of the

movie Harry Potter

5 Methods of the study

This study employs the Quantitative method which focuses much more on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistics Counting and measuring are common forms of quantitative methods The result of the research is a number or series of number presented in tables and charts

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

This part of the thesis presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, method and design of the study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

This is the nuclear part of the thesis containing two chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

This chapter establishes an overview of the theories on Speech Acts, Speech act of Request and Politeness theory which are the basis for the following analysis in the next chapter

Chapter 2: Politeness strategies in requests in the series of movies Harry Potter

This chapter studies how the characters in the movie series use the politeness strategies in their requests and how S-H relationship affects their choices of politeness strategies when making requests

PART 3: CONCLUSION

In this part, the author recapitulates the study, offers implication, limitations and suggestions for further research

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Speech Acts

1.1.1 Speech act theory

Many actions are carried out by using languages during human communication Although they are expressed variously, they are all called speech acts Speech act is one of the most issues that interests researchers most It has been investigated seriously by different theorists such as Austin (1962), Grice (1957, 1975), Hymes (1964), Searle (1969), Levinson (1983), Brown and Yule (1983), Yule (1996), etc so that human communication can be carried out in the most effective way

 Austin’s theory

Speech act theory is originally developed by Austin in his famous book entitled “How

to do things with words” He presented a new picture of analyzing meaning in relationship

among linguistics conventions correlated with words/ sentences, the situation where the

Austin (1962) defines speech acts as the actions performed in saying something Actions performed through utterance production are called speech acts such as requesting, apologizing, complaining, promising, etc Speech acts consist of three related acts, namely

locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act

Austin also focuses on illocutionary acts where we might find the force of the statement and demonstrate its performative nature He classified illocutionary acts into 5

categories based on performative verbs: Verdictives, Exercitives, Commissives, Behabitives,

Expositives

 Searle’s theory

According to Searle (1969:24), language is a part of theory of action and speech acts such as promising, threatening, requesting, etc are often performed during human

communication There are three different types of speech acts: Utterance acts, Propositional

acts, Illocutionary acts

He also classified illocutionary acts into five clear and useful categories: Representatives,

Directives, Commissives, Expressives, Declarations

1 1.2 The Speech act of Requesting

According to Searle (1969: 66), a request is defined as “a directive speech act which

counts as an attempt to get H (the hearer) to do an act which S (the speaker) wants H to do, and which S believes that H is able to do; and which it is not obvious that H will do in the normal course of events or of H’s own accord.” From this point, it is very clear that the

speech act of request consists of three basic elements: the speaker (S), the hearer (H) and the Act itself Thus, in order to make a successful request, it is believed that the hearer is able and willing to do the act intended by the speaker

Searle (1975: 71) continued to develop Austin’s notion of felicity condition that holds

for a successful speech act by proposing the conditions for requesting as follows: Preparatory

condition, Sincerity condition, Propositional condition, Essential condition

In the view of Blum- Kulka et.al (1989), the realization of request can be seen from four aspects: Hearer dominance, Speaker dominance, Speaker and Hearer dominance,

Impersonal or the use of unspecific agent

Although a request is realized in any perspectives, it possesses similar basic

characteristics Firstly, it gives us an idea about the expectations of the S and the H with

regard to verbal or non-verbal action (Blum-Kulka et al 1989: 11) Secondly, like other speech acts such as refusal, apology, requesting is inherently face-threatening in that it allows the Hs to interpret it as an intrusive act towards their freedom of action (Brown and Levinson 1978) Thirdly, it indicates the power of the interlocutors: the superior tends to produce more direct requests while the inferior tends to produce more indirect requests Finally, Brown and Levinson 1987 also pointed out that the conventionalized realizations of requests, as well as its frequency, are vivid indicators of whether a society is a positively or negatively oriented

society “A positive society” is a society in which speakers’ need for approval and belonging (in groupness) are emphasized whereas showing of deference and keeping distance are emphasized in “negatively-oriented society”

1.2 Issues of Politeness

1.2.1 Definition of Politeness

Politeness is one of the most noticeable issues in the research of intercultural communication and cross-cultural communication of human beings According to the

foreword of Gumperz (cited in Brown and Levinson, 1987: xiii), “politeness is basic to the

production of social order, and a precondition of human cooperation, so that any theory which provides an understanding of this phenomenon at the same time goes to the foundations

of human social life.”

During the vast development of linguistics, many researchers have been interested in the field of politeness with various points of view and from different aspects However, according to Nguyen Quang (2004: 10), three main important approaches to politeness are mentioned:

 Set the ideal standard for polite acts to refer such as Grice

communication as in Brown and Levinson, 1987 The most influential theory of politeness was originated by Brown and Levinson (1978 and revised in 1987) The significant point of their theory of politeness is the concept of

“face” The term “face” in the sense of “reputation”, or “good name” was developed from Goffman’s concept of “face” (1955) to explain the use of politeness phenomena

According to Brown and Levinson (1987:66), face refers to the public self-image that

every member (of a society) wants to claim for himself consisting of two related aspects: Negative face, Positive face

Concerned with “positive face” and “negative face”, the concepts of positive and negative politeness are developed

According to Yule (1996:69), negative politeness is a face saving act which oriented

to the person’s negative face will tend to show deference, emphasize the importance of the other’s time or concerns, and even include an apology for the imposition or interruption

Brown and Levinson state that “negative politeness is redressive action address to the

addressee’s negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and his

attention unimpeded” (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 129) Thus, negative politeness focuses on

individualism and avoids intruding others’ privacy It is also the most preferred in English culture

Unlike negative politeness, positive politeness a face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face will tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both Ss and Hs want the same thing, and that they have a common goal (Yule, 1996:69)

According to Brown and Levinson (1987:101), positive politeness is redress directed

to the addressee’s positive face, his perennial desire that his wants should be thought of as desirable

They also mentioned four kinds of Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) so that people could respect others’ face, feelings and avoid FTAs

1 Acts threatening to the hearer’s negative face by indicating that the speaker does

not intend to avoid impeding the hearer’s freedom of action E.g.: ordering,

suggesting, threatening, requesting, promising, etc

2 Acts threatening to the hearer’s positive face by indicating that the speaker does

not care about the addressee’s feelings and wants E.g.: disapproving, contempting,

complaining, criticizing, disagreeing

3 Acts threatening to the speaker’s negative face E.g accepting an offer, excusing, promising unwillingly

4 Acts threatening to the speaker’s positive face E.g.: apologizing, confessing

Brown and Levinson also point out five macrostrategies that speakers can seek to avoid these above Face Threatening Acts

Circumstance determining choice of strategy

1.2.2 Social factors affecting politeness strategies

Brown and Levinson (1987:15) propose that three sociological factors are crucial in

determining the level of politeness which a speaker (S) will use to an addressee (H); they are

relative power (P) of H over S, the social distance (D) between S and H, and the ranking of

the imposition (R) involving in doing the face- threatening act (FTA)

As it can be seen obviously, all three dimensions P, D, and R have a great contribution

to the seriousness of the FTA which will determine the appropriate type of strategy to be used

1.2.3 Politeness and Indirectness

The notions of indirectness and politeness play an important role in the negotiation of

face during the realization of speech acts In fact, there are many studies on the relationship

between politeness and indirectness such as Leech (1983), Brown and Levinson (1987),

Blum- Kulka (1987), LoCastro (2003)

Brown and Levinson show that there is a close relationship between the use of indirect

speech acts and politeness The degree of indirectness relates to the degree of face

threatening Moreover, negative politeness is more polite than positive politeness because the

speaker puts more effort in face- preserving work of the hearer in the use of more indirect

speech acts

LoCastro (2003) points out the link between indirectness and politeness further

supported by Searle’s observation that “politeness is the most prominent motivation for

indirectness in requests, and certain forms tend to become the conventionally polite ways of

making indirect requests” (cited in Dung, 2008)

However, Blum- Kulka (1987) has a different view on the relationship between

politeness and indirectness when studying perception of politeness and indirectness in

requests in Hebrew and English She shows that indirectness does not necessarily imply

politeness She also argues that too much indirectness may be perceived as lack of clarity

which is a marker of impoliteness

Although there may be different views on the relationship between politeness and

indirectness in different cultures, in this study I believe there exists a positive correlation

between politeness and indirectness

1.2.4 Politeness strategies

Brown and Levinson propose 15 strategies for achieving positive politeness and 10 for

negative strategies:

1.1.1.1 Positive Politeness Strategies

breakfast How about some lunch?

Positive

Politeness

Strategies

tonight

9 Assert or presuppose people’s knowledge and concern for H’s wants

I know you can’t bear parties, but this one will really be good- do come!

your typewriter

12 Include both S and H in the activity

Let’s have a cookie, then

1.1.1.2 Negative Politeness Strategies

Negative

Politeness

Strategies

paper

Johnny

10 Go on record as incurring a debt

or off record as indebting H

I’ll never be able to repay you if you…

(Brown and Levinson, 1987 pp 101-135)

1.3 Previous studies on request and politeness strategy

According to Chieko Takezawa in her M.A thesis at the University of British

Columbia, Vancouver, Canada “Politeness and the speech act of Requesting in Japanese as a

second language” she studied how native Japanese speakers and native English speaking

learners of Japanese approached and attained their requests goals while maintaining the face

of both requester and requestee She used oral role play to collect data The results showed that there was not much difference in the use of honorific language between the Japanese and learners of Japanese But different linguistic devices were used for sentence endings, especially request speech act endings, between the native Japanese and the learners of Japanese

Thảo (2010) also studied how politeness strategies manifested in requests in the novel

“The Thorn Birds” by following the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson 1987 in her minor M.A thesis at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University The results show that characters in the novel use positive politeness strategies in their requests at a little higher frequency than negative politeness and the variation of the proportion between positive and negative politeness strategies depending on social relationship

According to Hòa (2010), she investigated politeness strategies in cross- cultural communication with respect to conversations found in the coursebook Inside Out (Pre-Intermediate) The data analysis was conducted mainly in the light of the politeness theories

by Brown & Levinson and Nguyen Quang The results revealed that the frequency of positive and negative politeness strategies depended largely on the relationships between the speaker and the hearer In addition, some suggestions were offered and sample exercises were given for better and more effective teaching and learning of positive and negative politeness strategies

CHAPTER 2:

POLITNESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE

MOVIE SERIES “HARRY POTTER”

2.1 Politeness strategies in Requests in the movie series “Harry Potter”

This chapter investigates how the characters in the series of movies Harry Potter make their requests politely by the frequency of using politeness strategies in their requests as well

as how S-H relation affects their choice of politeness strategies Brown and Levinson framework of politeness strategies is employed in this study with 15 positive politeness strategies and 10 negative politeness strategies

2.2 The frequency of politeness strategies in requests employed in the movie series

“Harry Potter”

2.2.1 Sampling process

The process of collecting data consists of three steps Firstly, all the request utterances

in the conversations of the characters in three movies series Harry Potter and the Prisoner of

Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince

are picked up and classified by the author through her careful movie watching with the useful support of the English subtitles 313 requests found in three episodes of the movie Harry Potter belong to three categories of politeness strategies employed: positive, negative and sometimes mixed politeness strategies Secondly, all contexts with S-H relationships are considered in order to see how S-H relationship affects the choice of politeness strategies in requesting by the characters in the movies Finally, all the statistics needed for the study are calculated carefully and presented in the following tables as well as charts

2.2.2 The frequency of politeness strategies in requests employed in the movie series

“Harry Potter”

Positive politeness

strategies

Negative politeness strategies

Mixed politeness strategies

Table 1: The statistic of positive, negative and mixed politeness strategies

The statistics can be converted into Pie-chart 1 as follows:

33.55%

58.78%

7.67%

Positive politeness strategies Negative politness strategies Mixed politness strategies

Pie- chart 1: The frequency of positive, negative and mixed politeness strategies