A study of politeness strategies in requests in the course book ''streamline english departures and connections'' by b hartley & p viney

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT NGUYEN THI MAI HOA A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE COURSE BOOK “STREAMLINE ENGLISH DEPARTURES & CONNECTIONS BY B.HARTLEY & P.VINEY” (c¸c chiÕn lîc lÞch sù trong lêi nãi thØnh cÇu trong s¸ch gi¸o tr×nh “streamline English DEPARTURES & CONNECTIONS ” VIÕT BëI B.HARTLEY & P.VINEY) Graduation thesis FIELD: LINGUISTIC Vinh - 2010 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE COURSE BOOK STREAMLINE ENGLISH DEPARTURES AND CONNECTIONS BY B.HARTLEY & P.VINEY (các chiến lợc lịch sự trong lời nói thỉnh cầu trong sách giáo trình streamline English DEPARTURES V CONNECTIONS VIếT BởI B.HARTLEY & P.VINEY) Graduation thesis FIELD: LINGUISTICS Supervisor: Cao Thị Phơng, M.A Student : Nguyễn Thị Mai Hoa Class : 47A1 - English VINH - 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Cao ThÞ Ph¬ng, M.A for her helpful advice, comments and support throughout this study. I am also grateful for the valuable support of Lª ThÞ Thuý Hµ, M.A for her valuable suggestions which have been useful for the accomplishment of the thesis. Finally, I wish to thank my friends and my beloved family those who gave me a lot of encouragement to complete the study. Vinh, May, 2010 Student NguyÔn ThÞ Mai Hoa ABBREVIATIONS S.E.D: Streamline English Departures S.E.C: Streamline English Connections E.g.: For example FTA: Face Threatening Act S: Speaker H: Hearer LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLE 1.1: The five general functions of speech acts (J.Searle, 1979) 6 TABLE 3.1: Politeness strategies in requests in the Course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” .39 TABLE 3.2: The frequency of occurrence of Politeness strategies in requests seen from S-H relationship in the Course book 41 FIGURE 1: Possible strategies for doing FTA (Brown and Levinson, 1987:69) 15 CHART 3.1: Bald on-record strategies in requests in the course book .35 CHART 3.2: Positive politeness strategies in requests in the course book .36 CHART 3.3: Negative politeness strategies in requests in the course book .38 CHART 3.4: Off-record strategies in requests in the course book .39 PIE-CHART 3.1: Politeness strategies in requests in the course book seen from S-H relationship 43 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i ABBRIVIATIONS .ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study .2 4. Methods of the study .2 5. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT .4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 1.1. Speech acts .4 1.1.1. Definitions of Speech acts 4 1.1.2. Classification of Speech acts .4 1.1.3. Direct and Indirect Speech acts .6 1.2. Speech act of Request 8 1.3. Politeness 10 1.3.1. What is politeness? 10 1.3.2. Lakoff’s theory of politeness 11 1.3.3. Leech’s theory of politeness 12 1.3.4. Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness 13 1.3.4.1. Face 13 1.3.4.2. Face threatening act 14 1.3.4.3. Politeness strategies .15 1.3.2. Politeness in Request .18 1.4. Streamline Departures & Connections by B.Hartley & P.Viney 19 Chapter II: A realization of politeness strategies in requests in the course book “Streamline English DEPARTURES & CONNECTIONS” .20 2.1. Politeness strategies in Requests in the Course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” .20 2.1.1. Bald-on record .20 2.1.2. Positive politeness .22 2.1.3. Negative politeness .27 2.1.4. Off record 30 2.2. Some factors affect the politeness in Requests 33 Chapter III: Major findings in politeness strategies in requests in the course book “streamline English DEPARTURES & CONNECTIONS” .35 3.1. Data analysis 35 3.2. Politeness strategies in requests in the course book seen from S-H relationship 40 3.3. Major findings 44 3.4. Suggested activities 46 PART C: CONCLUSION .48 1. Review of the study .48 2. Application of the study 49 2. Suggestion for further studies .49 REFERENCES APPENDIX PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Language is a specially social symptom and plays an important role in our life. Language is considered as a mean of communication. Human beings use it to transfer information, represent what they think, their attitudes, feelings, etc. Request is an act that people trend to use much in their daily interaction. Depending on the different situations, whom they are requesting, what they are wanting to requests, people will use the suitable ways to express their wants. That is a very important thing that make the request efficient. Therefore, politeness in requests will help it to maintain the good relationship between the speaker and the listener, especially have the listener willingly done what the speaker wants. For example: A: Can you show me the way to Vinh Market? B: Of course. […] There has been a problem that in English, the expression of request is various and which request we should use to express and make it polite. For Vietnamese learners, it is more necessary for them to understand and use the request with the appropriate politeness strategy not only in writing form but also in speaking and communicating. In this study, we focus on the politeness strategies that are often used in requests in daily interaction. Moreover, the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” by B.Hartley & P.Viney is a main one in teaching and learning English with daily conversations, so we decide to choose the course book to study and classify the requests in different politeness strategies. Thus, we can apply them in fact effectively. Some suggested activities in teaching and learning to use the politeness strategies in request are given, too. 2. Aims of the study The aims of this study are: - To provide an overview of politeness strategies. - To study and identify the politeness strategies in requests in the course book and in communication. - To suggest some suggested activities in teaching and learning politeness strategies in requests; and applying them in our daily interaction. The research questions of the study are: - What kind of politeness strategies are used in requests in the course book? - Which politeness strategies are used more in requests in the course book? 3. Scope of the study The study focuses on the politeness strategies in requests in the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” by B.Hartley & P.Viney. We only study the politeness strategies of requests contained in the SED and SEC, so some of politeness strategies are not mentioned in this thesis. Basing on Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness (1987), we concentrate on classifying the requests in four types of politeness strategies, in which the positive and negative politeness strategies or requests are classified more detailedly. 4. Methods of the study The study is carried out by using the quantitative method with collecting, analyzing and classifying the politeness strategies of requests in the course book. We also review the theories related to speech acts and politeness by collecting books and finding information from Websites containing the theories of Speech acts and politeness. Then, we use analysis method to analyze the collected data. 5. Designs of the study The thesis consists of three parts: Part I: Introduction discusses the reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, its scope, methods and the design of the study. Part II: Development consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical background states the theoretical background of speech acts, politeness theory and politeness strategies in requests in the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections”. Chapter 2: A realization of politeness strategies in requests in the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections”. Chapter 3: Major findings of politeness strategies in requests in the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections”. Part III: Conclusion summarizes the main points of the study and suggests some directions for further study. . interaction. Moreover, the course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” by B. Hartley & P. Viney is a main one in teaching and learning English. course book “Streamline English Departures & Connections” by B. Hartley & P. Viney. We only study the politeness strategies of requests contained in the