A study of indirect speech acts in “12 year a slave”

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

HỒ THỊ THANH THÚY

A STUDY OF INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

IN “12 YEARS A SLAVE”

Field: English linguistics

Code: 8 22 02 01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Văn Long

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

HỒ THỊ THANH THUÝ

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ HÀNH VI NGÔN NGỮ GIÁN

TIẾP TRONG PHIM “12 YEARS A SLAVE”

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS. Nguyễn Văn Long

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

The thesis “A study of indirect speech acts in “12 years a slave”” is

conducted by myself, and no other person‟s work has been used without

acknowledgement in the research. Moreover, this research has not been

submitted for any other degree or diploma at any university.

Quy Nhon, 2021

HO THI THANH THUY

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my

supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Long, who provides me with his

endless patience, thoughtful guidance and critical suggestions so that I can

complete this thesis in time.

Secondly, I am so grateful to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign

Languages for providing me with precious materials and experience during

the process of writing the thesis.

Last but not least, I would like to give my special thanks to my beloved

family, friends, and colleagues who encourage me and give me the motivation

to accomplish this thesis.

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ABSTRACT

Due to the significant contributions of indirect speech acts to

comprehending language and the success of communication in daily life, the

researcher decided to research with the aim of applying speech act theory into

the analysis of indirectness in English discourse. This thesis aims to conduct

the linguistic features of indirect speech acts collected from conversations in

“12 years a slave”. Indirect speech act structures and indirect speech act

functions are investigated with the help of quantitative and qualitative

approaches as well as a combination of analytic, synthetic, descriptive and

contrastive methods. Some noticeable findings were presented in this thesis.

There are 116 samples of indirect speech acts selected in the conversations of

slaves in this movie. In terms of structure, the surface form matches the

interactional function, but the literal meaning and intended meaning are

different attains the most predominant frequency type in the total of structures

of indirect speech acts realized in this film. As regards function, there are 26

indirect speech act functions examined in the chosen conversations of the

movie. Some functions are used popularly, namely to refuse, to convince, to

defend, to order, to protest, to insist, to promise, to express one’s anger and

so on. These findings are expected to contribute significantly to the better

understanding of indirect speech acts uttered by slaves as well as the success

of communication in “12 years a slave”.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. ii

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ iv

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale.................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aim and Objectives of the Study .............................................................. 3

1.2.1.Aim...................................................................................................... 3

1.2.2.Objectives............................................................................................ 3

1.3. Research Questions................................................................................... 3

1.4. Scope of the Study..................................................................................... 3

1.5. Significance of the Study .......................................................................... 4

1.6. Organization of the Thesis ........................................................................ 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................... 6

2.1. An overview of the Speech Acts Theory .................................................. 6

2.1.1.Definition of Speech Acts ................................................................... 6

2.1.2.Level of Speech Acts........................................................................... 7

2.1.3.Classification of Speech Acts.............................................................. 9

2.1.4.Direct and Indirect Speech Acts........................................................ 10

2.1.5.The role of context in studying Speech Acts...................................... 13

2.2. An overview of Indirect Speech Acts...................................................... 14

2.2.1.Definition of Indirect Speech Acts..................................................... 14

2.2.2.Characteristics of Indirect Speech Acts.............................................. 14

2.3. Sentence Structures ................................................................................. 16

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2.4. A Review of Previous Relevant Studies ................................................. 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND PROCEDURES......................................... 22

3.1. Research design....................................................................................... 22

3.2. Research methods.................................................................................... 22

3.3. Research procedures................................................................................ 23

3.4. Data Collection........................................................................................ 23

3.5. Data Analysis .......................................................................................... 24

3.5.1.Analytical Framework ........................................................................... 24

3.5.2.Analytical methods................................................................................ 26

3.4 Reliability and validity ............................................................................ 26

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION............................................ 27

4.1.Structural features of indirect speech acts uttered by Solomon Northup

and other slaves in “12 years a slave” .................................................... 27

4.1.1.Declaratives....................................................................................... 29

4.1.1.1.A declarative structure for a question........................................ 29

4.1.1.2.A declarative for a command/request........................................ 30

4.1.1.3.A declarative structure for an exclamation................................ 31

4.1.2.Interrogatives.................................................................................... 32

4.1.2.1.Interrogative structure for a statement....................................... 33

4.1.2.2.Interrogative structure for a command/ request......................... 34

4.1.2.3.Interrogative structure for an exclamation................................. 35

4.1.4.Exclamatives...................................................................................... 37

4.1.5.Others ................................................................................................ 37

4.2. Similarities and differences in structures of the examined indirect

speech acts uttered by Solomon Northup and other slaves .................... 39

4.3. Functional features of indirect speech acts uttered by Solomon

Northup and other slaves in “12 years a slave”...................................... 40

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4.3.1.To refuse............................................................................................ 41

4.3.2.To convince ....................................................................................... 43

4.3.3.To defend........................................................................................... 44

4.3.4.To order/ Command/ Request ........................................................... 46

4.3.5.To warn.............................................................................................. 47

4.3.6.To protest........................................................................................... 48

4.3.7.To insist ............................................................................................. 49

4.3.8.To promise......................................................................................... 50

4.3.9.To apologize ...................................................................................... 52

4.3.10.To deny............................................................................................ 52

4.3.11.To beg.............................................................................................. 53

4.3.12.To agree ........................................................................................... 55

4.3.13.To thank........................................................................................... 56

4.3.14.To express one‟s sadness................................................................. 57

4.3.15.To desire .......................................................................................... 58

4.3.16.To accuse ......................................................................................... 59

4.3.17.To complain..................................................................................... 59

4.3.18.To explain........................................................................................ 61

4.3.19.To ask for permission ....................................................................... 61

4.3.20.To hesitate ........................................................................................ 62

4.3.21.To advise .......................................................................................... 63

4.3.22.To disagree ....................................................................................... 63

4.3.23.To express one‟s anger ..................................................................... 64

4.3.24.To joke.............................................................................................. 65

4.3.25.To predict.......................................................................................... 66

4.3.26. To suggest........................................................................................ 67

4.4. Similarities and differences in functions of the examined indirect

vii

speech acts uttered by Solomon Northup and other slaves .................... 68

4.5. Summary ................................................................................................. 69

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.............................. 70

5.1. Conclusions............................................................................................. 70

5.1. Conclusions relating to indirect speech act structures............................. 70

5.1.2. Conclusions relating to indirect speech act functions....................... 71

5.1.3. Conclusions relating to main similarities and differences................ 72

5.2. Implications of the study ......................................................................... 74

5.3. Limitations of the Study.......................................................................... 75

5.4. Suggestions for Further Research............................................................ 75

REFERENCES............................................................................................... 76

APPENDIXES

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table

number

Title Page

2.1

Comparisons of speech acts classification by Austin and

Searle

9

2.2

The relationship between the structural form and its

communicative function

18

2.3 Table 2.3: The framework for analyzing the indirectness

of speech acts

19

4.1

Distribution of structural features of indirect speech acts

uttered by Solomon Northup and other slaves in “12 years

a slave”

28

4.2

Distribution of functional feature of indirect speech acts

uttered by Solomon Northup and other slaves in “12 years

a slave”

40

1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides all the preliminaries of the research. It starts with the

rationale, aims and objectives of the study. After that, it presents research

questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the research, and the

thesis's organization.

1.1.Rationale

Speech acts have been receiving a great deal of attention from linguists

across the globe due to their essential role in studying language, especially in

terms of pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Additionally, speech acts are the

solid foundation for the analysis of some pragmatics topics such as the

principle of politeness, presuppositions, etc. For this reason, there have been

numerous researches into speech acts. Some studies focus on the functions of

speech acts like complaints, refusals, promises, etc. In contrast, others

concentrate on some sub-types of speech acts, namely directives, direct

speech acts and indirect speech acts in comedy films, animated television

series, etc. However, there has been a lack of research emphasizing indirect

speech acts produced by slaves in historical drama films.

During the process of studying indirect speech acts, the researcher tried to

find a film not only containing indirect speech acts but also inspiring a

meaningful message to the viewers. “12 years a slave” is chosen as the main

source of data. There are two reasons why the researcher pays more attention

to this film.

The first one is that it won the Academy Award for Best Picture in March

2014. This astonishing achievement opens the opportunities for the British

film director, Mc Queen, to become the first black producer to win the