a discourse analysis of opening and closing speeches by masters of ceremonyon reality television showsin american english versus vietnames

a discourse analysis of opening and closing speeches by masters of ceremonyon reality television showsin american english versus vietnames

i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole, or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Danang, 2013 Lê Thị Trung Dung ii ABSTRACT The study is an attempt to find out the discourse features of opening and closing speeches delivered by the masters of ceremonies in American and Vietnamese reality television (TV) shows. The data for analysis in this thesis are 160 examples of opening and closing speeches in American English and Vietnamese including 40 examples of each American opening speeches (AOSs), Vietnamese opening speeches (VOSs), American closing speeches (ACSs) and (VCSs) Vietnamese closing speeches in some popular American and Vietnamese reality TV shows. The research is carried out based on the combination of a variety of methods namely qualitative, quantitative, statistics, descriptive, analytic, synthetic, comparative, contrastive and inductive. The study focuses on finding out the similarities and differences between those speeches in terms of their layout, discourse features, syntactic features, lexical features and cohesive devices. It also makes a comparison to discover the similarities and differences of these features between the two languages.The findings will be drawn after analyzing, comparing and contrasting the layout, lexical choice, syntactic features and cohesive devices in AOSs versus VOSs and ACSs versus VCSs. The results marked the significant influence of culture on the discourse features of both Vietnamese and American languages. They can hopefully be beneficial not only for people working as masters of ceremonies (MCs) but also for students, teachers, users of American English and Vietnamese as well as interpreters. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT . ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . vi LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. RATIONALE . 1 1.2.1. Aims 2 1.2.2. Objectives 2 1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3 1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3 1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY . 4 1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND . 6 2.1. THE PREVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH . 6 2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND . 7 2.2.1. The Concept of Text . 7 2.2.2. The Concept of Discourse . 8 2.2.3. The Concept of Discourse Analysis 9 2.2.4. Spoken Discourse and Written Discourse 10 2.2.5. Formal and Informal Discourse 11 2.2.6. Cohesion and Coherence . 12 2.2.7 General View of Reality Television Shows, Master of Ceremonies, Opening and Closing Speeches . 17 iv CHAPTER 3: METHOD AND PROCEDURE . 20 3.1. RESEARCH METHODS 20 3.2. SAMPLING AND DATA COLLECTION . 21 3.3. DATA ANALYSIS 21 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24 4.1. THE GENERAL LAYOUT OF AOSS AND VOSS 24 4.1.1. Greetings and Introductions 24 4.1.2. The Body . 26 4.1.3. Transition 30 4.2. LEXICAL CHOICE IN AOSS AND VOSS . 32 4.2.1. The Use of Adjectives Expressing Extreme Meaning 32 4.2.2. Reality TV Show Technical Terms 36 4.2.3. The Use of Informal Language in AOSs and VOSs . 40 4.3. SYNTACTIC FEATURES IN AOSS AND VOSS 42 4.3.1. Phrase Types . 43 4.3.2. Sentence Types . 52 4.3.3. The Use of Vocatives in AOSs and VOSs 60 4.4. COHESIVE DEVICES IN AOSS AND VOSS 62 4.4.1. Lexical Cohesion . 63 4.4.2. Grammatical Cohesion 69 4.5. THE GENERAL OUTLINE OF ACSS AND VCSS 87 4.5.1. Transition 87 4.5.2. The Body . 89 4.5.3. Departing . 91 4.6. THE LEXICAL CHOICE IN ACSS AND VCSS . 92 4.6.1. The Use of Adjectives Expressing Extreme Meaning 92 4.6.2. Reality Television Show Technical Terms . 93 v 4.6.3. The Use of Informal Language in ACSs and VCSs . 94 4.7. SYNTACTIC FEATURES IN ACSS AND VCSS . 95 4.7.1. Phrase Types . 95 4.7.2. Sentence Types . 98 4.8. COHESIVE DEVICES IN ACSS AND VCSS . 101 4.8.1. Lexical Cohesion . 101 4.8.2. Grammatical Cohesion 104 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 112 5.1. CONCLUSION 112 5.1.1. The Layout of the AOSs, VOSs, ACSs and VCSs . 112 5.1.2. The Influence of Culture on the Discourse of AOSs and VOSs, ACSs and VCSs 113 5.2. IMPLICATIONS 117 5.3. LIMITATIONS 119 5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 120 REFERENCES 121 QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (Bản sao) APPENDIX vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACSs American closing speeches AOSs American opening speeches MC Master of ceremonies MCs Masters of ceremonies TV Television VOSs Vietnamese opening speeches VCSs Vietnamese closing speeches vii LIST OF TABLES Number Name of Tables Page Table 4.1 Formal and Informal Greetings Used in Opening Speeches 25 Table 4.2 The Opening Speech Body’s Contents in AOSs and VOSs 26 Table 4.3 The Use of Adjectives Expressing Extreme Meaning 32 Table 4.4 Extreme Adjectives Used in AOSs 35 Table 4.5 Reality TV Show Technical Terms in AOSs and Their Vietnamese Equivalent 40 Table 4.6 Informal Language in AOSs 41 Table 4.7 Phrase Types in AOSs and VOSs 47 Table 4.8 Sentence Types in AOSs and VOSs 56 Table 4.9 Vocatives in AOSs and VOSs 66 Table 4.10 Reiteration of Lexican Items in AOSs and VOSs 67 Table 4.11 Grammatical Cohesion in AOSs and VOSs 70 Table 4.12 Reference in AOSs and VOSs 71 Table 4.13 Conjunctions in AOSs and VOS 81 Table 4.14 Substitution in AOSs and VOS 82 Table 4.15 Parallelism in AOSs and VOSs 88 Table 4.16 Cohesion Devices in AOSs and VOSs 90 Table 4.17 The Closing Speech Body’s Contents in ACSs and VCSs 93 Table 4.18 The Use of Adjectives Expressing Extreme Meaning in ACSs and VCSs 92 Table 4.19 Phrase Types in ACSs and VCSs 100 Table 4.20 Sentence Types in ACSs and VCSs 98 viii Table 4.21 Reiteration in ACSs and VCSs 101 Table 4.22 Grammatical Cohesion in ACSs and VCSs 104 Table 4.23 Reference in ACSs and VCSs 105 Table 4.24 Substitution in ACSs and VCSs 107 Table 4.25 Conjunctions in ACSs and VCSs 108 Table 4.26 Paralellism in ACSs and VCSs 110 Table 4.27 Cohesion Devices in AOSs and VOSs 110 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. RATIONALE According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” Jerry Seinfeld Public speaking is considered the greatest fear a person can have. That fear can be much greater than the phobia of snake, traveling by air or even death. The quote by Jerry Seinfeld explains this very well in a humorous way. Many people who are asked to give a speech in front of many people, some of them refuse to do it, others prepare it beforehand and read it publicly which won’t give the audience a good impression. Estimated 75% of all speakers experience some degree of anxiety or nervousness when public speaking [20] What are the causes of this fear? Aristotle said, “In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third, the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.” [62] It is obvious that language is one of the important elements deciding the success of making a public speech. People can’t make a good speech before the audience if their language is not good enough. In fact, this is even true for those working as the masters of ceremonies in general and of the reality events on television shows in particular. In order to have proper opening and closing speeches in American English and Vietnamese, the MCs must have a good impromptu speaking skill before the audience. In an effort to help the people especially those of the 2 reality event TV shows improve their professional public speaking skills and the Vietnamese learners of English who are scared of public speaking confidently perform their public speaking as well as better their presentation skills for their future job, the discourse analysis of speeches given by masters of ceremonies was chosen as the subject matter of my master thesis. The research is intended to cover the layout, lexical features, syntactic features and cohesive devices in American English and Vietnamese opening and closing speeches as well as to make a contrastive analysis between them in order to find out their similarities and differences in American versus Vietnamese language. It is carried out with the hope that the research result would be useful not only for the MCs in the reality TV shows but also for students and users of American English and Vietnamese who want to have good public speaking skills as well as for the interpreter of both languages. 1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.2.1. Aims This study aims at carrying out the discourse analysis of the speeches opening and closing the events delivered by the masters of ceremonies in reality TV shows in American English versus Vietnamese. The similarities and differences between master of ceremonies (MC) speeches in both languages will be also examined in an effort to help Vietnamese learners and users of American English as well as American learners and users of Vietnamese give a good and professional speech in both languages. 1.2.2. Objectives This study is intended: - To identify and describe the discourse features in terms of the layout, lexical choice, syntactic structures, and cohesive devices of MC opening speeches in American English versus Vietnamese language.