HEDGING DEVICES IN CONVERSATIONS IN THE VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS VERSUS THOSE IN THE NEW INTERCHANGE SERIES

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG THỦY HEDGING DEVICES IN CONVERSATIONS IN THE VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS VERSUS THOSE IN THE NEW INTERCHANGE SERIES FIELD: English Linguistics CODE: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TAO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG THỦY PHƯƠNG TIỆN RÀO ĐÓN TRONG ĐÀM THOẠI GIỮA SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG VIỆT NAM VÀ NEW INTERCHANGE Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh Mã số: 8.22.02.01 Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the master‟s thesis submitted entitled: HEDGING DEVICES IN CONVERSATIONS IN THE VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS VERSUS THOSE IN THE NEW INTERCHANGE SERIES for the degree of Master of Arts, is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree at any other institutions To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the reference is made in the thesis itself Bình Định, 2019 LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG THỦY ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people for their support and contributions to the realization of this thesis First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn, whose brilliant ideas, unconditional support and encouragement from the very early day to the final steps have enabled me to develop a better understanding of the subject and to embrace the challenges in every step of the thesis I am greatly indebted for his invaluable contributions and substantial feedback Without him, this study would not have been accomplished I am indebted to the lecturers of Quy Nhon University who have wholeheartedly guided me through each part of the thesis I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the Master‟s Thesis Examiners for their valuable feedback, constructive detailed comments and tremendously helpful suggestions for my thesis I am grateful to the leaders of An Nhon High School for their support and valuable help they have provided me during the course Finally and most importantly, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my family, for their unconditional love, infinite patience and enormous emotional support and care throughout this process iii ABSTRACT The study examines conversations in Vietnamese high school English textbooks (VHSET) versus the New Interchange series (NIS) The aim is to analyze hedge forms and functions under Hyland‟s (1998) framework to find the similarities and differences in using hedges in the two series It also suggests some implications for teaching and learning hedges in conversations in the textbooks In order to achieve the aims and objectives, a contrastive analysis of data is conducted on both qualitative and quantitative approaches The findings of the study show the ways that both native and non-native speakers of English use hedge forms and functions in conversations As a whole, they use similar words or expressions to hedge their propositional content Lexical hedges are more commonly used than non-lexical ones In addition, speakers prefer some forms (modal verbs, lexical verbs and personal attribution) and functions (reliability-oriented and writer-oriented hedges) to others Moreover, speakers tend to employ more than one hedging device in a sentence or an utterance However, the study also points out some differences in using hedges both semantically and functionally Some forms of hedges occur densely in the New Interchange series but rarely in Vietnamese high school English textbooks or vice versa Similarly, the ranking positions of reader-oriented and attributeoriented hedges are interchanged in the two series iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 DIFFERENT VIEWS OF HEDGES 2.2.1 From Fuzzy logic view 2.2.2 From Semantic view 2.2.3 From Pragmatic view 2.2 HEDGES AND POLITENESS 11 2.3 HEDGES AND MODALITY 15 v 2.4 TAXONOMY OF HEDGES 16 2.4.1 According to Forms 16 2.4.1.1 Lexical Hedges 18 2.4.1.2 Non-lexical Hedges 19 2.4.2 According to Functions 20 2.4.2.1 Salager-Mayer‟s model 20 2.4.2.2 Hyland‟s model 21 2.5 PREVIOUS STUDIES ON HEDGES 26 CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 29 3.1 RESEARCH METHODS 29 3.2 SAMPLING 30 3.3 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 30 3.3.1 Data Sources 30 3.3.2 Criteria for Data Collection 31 3.3 RESEARCH PROCEDURES 31 3.4 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY 33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 FORMS OF HEDGES 34 4.1.1 Lexical Hedges 35 4.1.2 Non-lexical Hedges 36 4.2 FUNCTIONS OF HEDGES 37 4.2.1 Attribute-oriented Hedges 38 4.2.1.1 Downtoners 39 4.2.1.2 Style disjuncts 41 4.2.2 Reliability-oriented Hedges 42 4.2.2.1 Modal Verbs 43 4.2.2.2 Epistemic Adjectives 48 vi 4.2.2.3 Content disjuncts 49 4.2.2.4 Limited Knowledge 51 4.2.3 Writer-oriented Hedges 52 4.2.3.1 Epistemic Lexical Verbs 53 4.2.3.2 Agentless passive constructions 57 4.2.3.3 Empty Subjects with Lexical Verbs 58 4.2.3.4 Attribution to the Source 59 4.2.4 Reader-oriented Hedges 61 4.2.4.1 Personal Attribution 62 4.2.4.2 Hypothetical Conditionals 63 4.2.4.3 Questions 64 4.2.4.4 Claim as one possibility among many 65 4.3 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES 66 4.3.1 The Similarities 66 4.3.2 The Differences 68 4.4 SUMMARY 68 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 71 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 71 5.2 IMPLICATIONS 73 5.3 LIMITATIONS 73 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER STUDY 74 REFERENCES 75 vii ABBREVIATIONS CEFR : Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CP : Cooperative Principle Freq : Frequency HD (s) : Hedging Device (s) NIS : New Interchange Series Per : Percentage RAs : Research Articles VHSET : Vietnamese High School English Textbooks viii LIST OF TABLES No Table name Page Table 2.1 Types of hedges according the four maxims 15 Table 2.2 Varttala‟s (2001) Classification of hedging forms 17 Table 3.1 Interchange 4th edition and the CEFR 31 Table 4.1 The distributions of hedge forms 34 Table 4.2 The frequency of lexical hedges 35 Table 4.3 The frequency of non-lexical hedges 36 Table 4.4 The frequency of hedge functions 37 Table 4.5 The frequency of attribute-oriented hedges 38 Table 4.6 The frequency of adjuncts 40 Table 4.7 The frequency of reliability-oriented hedges 42 Table 4.8 The frequency of modal verbs 44 Table 4.9 The frequency of epistemic adjectives 48 Table 4.10 The frequency of content disjuncts 51 Table 4.11 The frequency of writer-oriented hedges 53 Table 4.12 The frequency of epistemic lexical verbs 53 Table 4.13 The frequency of judgmental verbs 54 Table 4.14 The frequency of evidential verbs 56 Table 4.15 The frequency of reader-oriented hedges 61 Table 4.16 Detailed distributions of hedge functions 69 66 [83] It’s probably one of my all-time favorite movies.(E2-U13) [84] I think we should start with the definition of urbanization and perhaps mention some of its causes, such as lack of resources in rural areas and better work opportunities in urban areas.(V12-U2) [85] The computer is definitely one of the greatest inventions in the world (V10-U5) By using this strategy, the speakers don‟t mention directly to the things they want to refer but offer the alternatives to lower their voice and avoid directness 4.3 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES The data analysis shows not only the similarities but also the differences between NIS and VHSET data in using hedges in conversations The similarities and the differences are discussed as follows to help us find out effective use of hedges to obtain successful goals in conversations 4.3.1 The Similarities The results of the study show some similarities not only in forms but also in functions of hedges in conversations in NIS and VHSET First, the data analysis shows that the same or similar forms of hedges are found in both NIS and VHSET data Most of the hedging forms which appear in NIS are also identified in VHSET Second, the pragmatic analysis reveals that the frequency of using hedges according to four functions is quite similar in the two sources of data The ranking orders of Reliability-oriented hedges and Writer-oriented hedges remain unchanged in both NIS and VHSET with the most and the least commonly used rate It is established that the speakers of English in NIS and VHSET have a 67 greater tendency to use hedges related to accuracy of messages (Attributeoriented and reliability-oriented) than those associated with writer-oriented and reader-oriented messages The frequency of occurrence for reader-oriented hedges in NIS (n=68) is quite similar to those in VHSET (n=67) Third, in both NIS and VHSET data, the distribution of lexical hedges outnumbers that of non-lexical hedges This may be explained by the preponderant number of lexical hedge‟s sub-categories compared with that of non-lexical one Semantically, modal auxiliaries occur with the most frequency while epistemic adjectives rank the last in the two sets of data It can be said that modal auxiliaries become the most commonly used hedges, but also an important type of hedge in conversations in NIS and VHSET In addition, no Epistemic Nouns are found in the two series Strategically, “personal attribution” and “agentless passive constructions” are preferred in both sets of data, whereas, “claim as one possibility among many” and “attribution to the source” are the least commonly used hedging strategies Fourth, more than one hedge form has been identified in a sentence or an utterance In many samples, two or more hedging expressions are found [83] and [83] are typical instances In [83], the speaker uses a lexical item (an epistemic adverb probably) and a strategic hedge (“claims as one possibility among many”) to hedge the propositional content Also, it is interesting to note that four hedging expressions are identified in [84] including personal attribution (I think), a modal verb (should), an epistemic adverb (perhaps) and a strategic hedge (“claims as one possibility among many”) 68 4.3.2 The Differences The distribution of the hedging forms and functions used in NIS and VHSET data shows that the two series have different rhetorical preferences With regard to lexical categories, Epistemic adverbs have the second highest frequency in NIS (34.3%), but rank third in VHET (15.7%) Epistemic adverbs in NIS (n=124) is greatly predominant in comparison with that in VHSET (n=60) in spite of the larger number of words in VHSET data Epistemic Lexical Verbs are the second commonly used category in VHSET (28.1%) but take the third place in NIS (26.5%) VHSET speakers use more modal verbs (n=197) than NIS speakers (n=130) It is quite surprising that unlike many other sub-type of lexical hedges, downtoners are less commonly used in VHSET (n=50) than in NIS (n=89) As for non-lexical categories, speakers in NIS tend to use more “Personal Attribution” (n=40) and “Empty Subjects with Lexical Verbs” (n=14) strategies to hedge their propositional content than VHSET speakers (n=25 and n=9) On the contrary, “Agentless passive constructions” (n=23) and “Hypothetical Conditionals” (n=20) strategies are identified more common in VHSET than those in NIS (n=14 and n=10) With reference to hedge functions, reliability-oriented and writer-oriented hedges in VHSET comprise the higher frequency than those in NIS Meanwhile, speakers in VHSET use Attribute-oriented and Reader-oriented hedges less frequently than NIS speakers 4.4 SUMMARY Findings of current study reveal the considerable variability of hedging expressions used in conversations in NIS and VHSET 69 Table 4.16 Detailed distributions of hedge functions No Functions of hedges NIS VHSET Freq Per Freq Per Total Freq Per I Reliability-oriented 187 39.5% 230 45.7% 417 42.7% Modal verbs 130 27.5% 197 39.2% 327 33.5% Modal adjectives 12 2.5% 13 2.6% 25 2.6% Content disjuncts 35 7.4% 1.6% 43 4.4% Limited knowledge 10 2.1% 12 2.4% 22 2.3% Writer-oriented 129 27.3% 154 30.6% 283 29.0% Lexical verbs 96 20.3% 113 22.5% 209 21.4% Agentless passive constructions 14 3.0% 23 4.6% 37 3.8% Empty subjects with lexical verbs 14 3.0% 1.8% 23 2.4% Attribution to the source 1.1% 1.8% 14 1.4% 89 18.8% 52 II III Attribute-oriented 10.3% 141 14.4% Downtoners 89 18.8% 50 9.9% 139 14.2% Style disjuncts 0.0% 0.4% 0.2% Reader-oriented 68 14.4% 67 Personal attribution 40 8.5% 25 5.0% 65 6.7% Hypothetical conditionals 10 2.1% 20 4.0% 30 3.1% Questions 10 2.1% 15 3.0% 25 2.6% Claim as one possibility among many 1.7% 1.4% 15 1.5% 473 100% 503 100% IV Total 13.3% 135 976 13.8% 100% According to the data, the lexical hedges comprise modal verbs, adverbs, lexical verbs, and adjectives Concerning the non-lexical hedges, apart from the use of agentless passive constructions, hypothetical conditionals, empty subjects with lexical verbs and questions, there are other forms of discourse-based strategies including limited knowledge, attribute to the source, personal 70 attribution and claim as one possibility among many Among these forms, modal verbs tend to receive a great amount of attention of speakers in the two series as they have done in the literature They are used to indicate qualification The strategies and devices identified here are a principal means of conferring less certainty on statements Functionally, the given forms are grouped according to categories under Hyland‟s (1998) modal They are reliability-oriented hedges, writer-oriented hedges, attribute-oriented hedges and reader-oriented hedges Out of the four functions, reliability-oriented hedges are the most frequently used in conversations, followed by writer-oriented hedges and attribute-oriented hedges Reader-oriented hedges are the least common category 71 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 CONCLUSIONS It is commonly accepted that hedges play an important role in everyday conversations Generally, this study has carried out on the basis of the contemporary theories about the related concepts including: hedges, politeness and modality It analyses and compares the forms and functions of hedging devices used in conversations in the two textbook series: one compiled by native speakers (NIS) and one by Vietnamese (VHSET) A contrastive analysis has been done with both qualitative and quantitative approaches To set up a theoretical base for the study, a review of some key terms has been presented in the second part of the study such as: Fuzzy logic, Hedged performative, Lexical hedges, Non-lexical hedges, Reliability-oriented hedges, Writer-oriented hedges, Attribute-oriented hedges and Reader-oriented hedges They are well defined with classification and examples Besides, some comparisons have been made to clarify the reason why speakers employ hedging devices in such different ways With the findings and analysis, the study has found the clearest answers to the research questions Based on the data, the hedging devices are used commonly for politeness aims, indirectness, probability and lack of commitment and to show speaker‟s uncertainty or confidence In addition, in order to meet the aims and objectives mentioned in the Chapter and for the analysis to be convincible, statistics are shown in forms of tables and charts As a result, hedging devices have been described clearly, carefully and systematically Then, 72 the author has discussed the findings of the analysis The discussion has been done on the frequencies of occurrence of hedging forms and functions and has come to some conclusions: Both NIS and VHSET speakers tend to use the same or similar forms and functions of hedges in conversations The frequencies of occurrence of most forms and functions of hedges are quite similar The most preferred hedges occurring in both series are modal verbs which express the degree of confidence of the truth of the proposition Speakers prefer Reliability-oriented hedges and Writer-oriented hedges in conversations while Attribute-oriented and reader-oriented hedges are less common in both NIS and VHSET In both sets of data, lexical hedges outnumber those of non-lexical hedges and modal verbs are not only the most commonly used hedges, but also an important type of hedge in conversations in NIS and VHSET Speakers use very few Epistemic Adjectives and no Epistemic Nouns as hedging devices in NIS and VHSET The frequency of reader-oriented hedges in NIS is quite similar to those in VHSET Speakers in NIS tend to use more “Personal Attribution” and “Empty Subjects with Lexical Verbs” strategies to hedge their propositional content than VHSET speakers On the contrary, “Agentless passive constructions” and “Hypothetical Conditionals” strategies are identified more common in VHSET than those in NIS Reliability-oriented and Writer-oriented hedges in VHSET comprise the higher frequency than those in NIS Meanwhile, speakers in VHSET use 73 Attribute-oriented and Reader-oriented hedges less frequently than NIS speakers 5.2 IMPLICATIONS The results of the study may be beneficial to learners and teachers of both languages The contrastive analysis has offered them a clearer insight into the use of hedging forms and functions in conversations This thesis may help teachers with deeper knowledge of the contrastive analysis of hedging devices The study provides teachers with the additional reference source that may be helpful in their teaching As for students, the thesis may be used as a material or reference book in their study It may help them to use hedges correctly and successfully in everyday situations As the whole, teachers can encourage their students to master English through practicing hedging devices that represent higher skills in English learning Similarities and differences found in Chapter will help students consider what hedging expression to be used in their daily conversations 5.3 LIMITATIONS The paper is carried out on the basis of the limited data source due to the limit of time and difficulty in approaching sources and references for the study Moreover, with limited ability and inexperience in conducting a research, some weaknesses and limitations are inevitable I would be very grateful to those who take interest in this study with comments, advice, and adjustment The sincere, useful ideas are very valuable to make this paper more fulfilled, clearer, and more perfect 74 Classifying hedging devices lexically and functionally is not without its problems Some words or phrases can be categorized into different types of hedges Additionally, the incidences of a lexical items and non-lexical one may coincide 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER STUDY This study has been 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G., & Zuck, L V (1986) Hedging in newswriting Beads or Bracelets, 172-180 ... have difficulty in using hedges in their conversations The study ? ?Hedging Devices in Conversations in the Vietnamese High School English Textbooks versus those in the New Interchange Series? ?? is carried... of hedging devices in the conversations in the Vietnamese high school English textbooks and those in the New Interchange series - Comparing and contrasting the forms and functions of hedging devices. .. the New Interchange series 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study of ? ?Hedging Devices in Conversations in the Vietnamese High School English Textbooks versus those in the New Interchange Series? ??